Sunday, July 22, 2007
Festival of Fun?
More snapshots from an interesting week.
Our local doctors finished up our 6 months of "small group learning" with a visit from the podiatrist. She talked about leg-length discrepancy. Turns out most of the population has one leg 1 cm longer than the other. My left leg is 2.5 cm longer, which probably explains why I've walked like a duck my whole life, and why I am always tripping with that left foot. The nice thing for the docs here is that by having an organized group they get 30 continuing education points from the RACGP. We focused on community resources this first 6 months. We'll take a break and then finish the year reviewing core topics like CHF and asthma.
Early in the week I started breaking out in a red rash on my wrists and ankles and itching at night. I told Vicki in our first month here that we would not get through the year without a visit from scabies sarcoptei. I am surprised it took this long. We lathered each other up with the permethrin cream and she washed all the laundry. We'll do a repeat this week. Die, bugs die!
Vicki's little 8 year old friend has been visiting a lot lately, as its school holidays now. Hannah has never heard of Harry Potter. Not a clue. And she is way behind U.S. kids at reading. It makes us sad. It also is another evidence of how Derby is the End of the Earth (or at least the last stop before Kandiwell, the True End!)
The library here has a very small kids section. And there are very few books with Aboriginal themes or anything culturally appealing. Vicki took Hannah to get books, because only adults with a proven local address (you have to bring in a bill showing you really live there) can have a library card. Kids aren't allowed to have their own card. Hannah took out a DVD on fairies and mermaids. Made in Australia, it features porcelain-white women dressed in pastel wings and glitter, singing songs about flowers and seashells. She loves it. But for a kid with Aboriginal heritage, I wonder what it does for her already confused identity?
I ordered books online from an Australian bookstore, only to get an email back that they were back ordered until the end of August. By the time the Post gets them here, I will be on my way home. I cancelled the order and re-ordered on Amazon.com, and will have my daughters bring them to me when they come next week. They have also promised to bring Harry Potter along.
Last Wednesday I flew out to Kuppingari (up the Gibb River Road) again and saw 17 patients in one day. That isn't much until one considers the flight time lost on each end, and that I do absolutely everything, including all the vital signs, drawing my own bloods, writing up all the slips, dispensing my own meds from the little pharmacy and instructing the patients in everything. I was exhausted when I got back and went right off to bed.
This weekend brought the end of the Boab Festival, which climaxed in a night of bands and drunken revelry, with loud hootin' and hollerin' until all hours of the mornings. The town has been full of locals and tourists, and we've seen the ambulance make a lot of runs. Many of the locals also light campfires in their front yards in the evening which makes the town smokey, and is a bit of a worry as a fire hazard.
Pictures from Boab Festival at Mowanjun, and Xavier & my trip birdwatching...
Our local doctors finished up our 6 months of "small group learning" with a visit from the podiatrist. She talked about leg-length discrepancy. Turns out most of the population has one leg 1 cm longer than the other. My left leg is 2.5 cm longer, which probably explains why I've walked like a duck my whole life, and why I am always tripping with that left foot. The nice thing for the docs here is that by having an organized group they get 30 continuing education points from the RACGP. We focused on community resources this first 6 months. We'll take a break and then finish the year reviewing core topics like CHF and asthma.
Early in the week I started breaking out in a red rash on my wrists and ankles and itching at night. I told Vicki in our first month here that we would not get through the year without a visit from scabies sarcoptei. I am surprised it took this long. We lathered each other up with the permethrin cream and she washed all the laundry. We'll do a repeat this week. Die, bugs die!
Vicki's little 8 year old friend has been visiting a lot lately, as its school holidays now. Hannah has never heard of Harry Potter. Not a clue. And she is way behind U.S. kids at reading. It makes us sad. It also is another evidence of how Derby is the End of the Earth (or at least the last stop before Kandiwell, the True End!)
The library here has a very small kids section. And there are very few books with Aboriginal themes or anything culturally appealing. Vicki took Hannah to get books, because only adults with a proven local address (you have to bring in a bill showing you really live there) can have a library card. Kids aren't allowed to have their own card. Hannah took out a DVD on fairies and mermaids. Made in Australia, it features porcelain-white women dressed in pastel wings and glitter, singing songs about flowers and seashells. She loves it. But for a kid with Aboriginal heritage, I wonder what it does for her already confused identity?
I ordered books online from an Australian bookstore, only to get an email back that they were back ordered until the end of August. By the time the Post gets them here, I will be on my way home. I cancelled the order and re-ordered on Amazon.com, and will have my daughters bring them to me when they come next week. They have also promised to bring Harry Potter along.
Last Wednesday I flew out to Kuppingari (up the Gibb River Road) again and saw 17 patients in one day. That isn't much until one considers the flight time lost on each end, and that I do absolutely everything, including all the vital signs, drawing my own bloods, writing up all the slips, dispensing my own meds from the little pharmacy and instructing the patients in everything. I was exhausted when I got back and went right off to bed.
This weekend brought the end of the Boab Festival, which climaxed in a night of bands and drunken revelry, with loud hootin' and hollerin' until all hours of the mornings. The town has been full of locals and tourists, and we've seen the ambulance make a lot of runs. Many of the locals also light campfires in their front yards in the evening which makes the town smokey, and is a bit of a worry as a fire hazard.
Pictures from Boab Festival at Mowanjun, and Xavier & my trip birdwatching...
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| Boab Festival Week |
