Niger, round 2

We are back in Niger for our second visit, and able to stay almost a full 3 weeks this time. It has been fun seeing a lot of familiar faces, and also noticing differences in how the Beebout kids have grown and matured. The youngest, Ben, is now 4, so would have been 2.5 when we were here last. As expected, he has changed a lot. It is fun playing with him, as he knows our names and talks to us now. The girls are also maturing -- in fact, we arrived on Lydia's 15th birthday, and depart on the day she takes her PSAT test.

It is a busier time of year in the clinic, with more sick patients (more malaria), and we have done less formal teaching to the doctors and students of the clinic (compared to last time when we did several sessions on bedside ultrasound). We had one Friday morning session to introduce EKGs, and then Michael has worked one-on-one (or two) reviewing the interpretation of the EKG examples we printed for them. We did another resident medical english class, where we could break into small groups to get more individualized teaching for the residents. It was cardiology residents this time, and we had much more variable attendance. The 5 or 6 who came consistently have definitely shown progress over the 20 hrs of the course.

I am trying to be a little more helpful in the clinic. I've worked with another foreign doctor (Esther from Germany) and she communicates with the patient and I enter the details into the computer, and in that way hopefully we are more efficient. I have learned more about the typical names people have, more about the neighborhoods or "quartiers" in Niamey, and I've also been forced to not just recognize a diagnosis and treatment plan, but to actually know it better in order to document clearly the medicine and dose prescribed for malaria, for example. Similar to last time (but more of it because we are here longer), we help by seeing English speaking patients which includes a lot of the missionary community.

Thats the mile high view of our time here. We really enjoy spending time with Jeremy, Susan, and the kids. Now, if we just knew French... and maybe were comfortable navigating the city...

ps I tried a wet prep again and it was as frustrating as last time, and made me motion sick again :-P