Saying Goodbye

Last week was another amazing experience at Lewanika Hospital. We celebrated valentines day with all the kids on the children ward, covered in stickers, smiles all around from everyone. Wednesday we taught at the nursing school, it was a learning experience for both us Canadian nursing students and the Zambian students. Friday I spent an amazing day scrubbing in into the Operating Theater. In Canada we have all had a chance to see a surgery, but to actually be apart of it and be in there covered in blood handing tools to the Doctor is such an adrenaline rush.  Especially in a sense of urgency as the patient is having a seizure and needs an emergency c section. The next surgery we perform without power, running off the back up battery. However mid-surgery the back up generator fails and we are stuck performing surgery under a lamp someone is holding up over the doctors heads. Only in a third world country would this ever happen and I loved every minute of it. Not knowing when the power is going to turn back on, sweating in a 50 degree OR, it was a perfect way to end my experience in Zambia. I feel like I have experienced it all; maternity, pediatrics, female/male wards, code situations, community life in the safari villages, Operating theater and unfortunately death. However it is safe to say that I have grown from this experience immensely and I feel like a stronger person. I am sad to say goodbye to Mongu, but I know it won't be the last time I will see this place. It feels that we just hopped off the plane in Africa, but now we are saying our goodbyes to the friends we have made, and saying goodbye to the place that has been our home for so long. Thank you Mongu, for an amazing experience and the wonderful people that I will never forget.

-Sam