It’s week two now – it’s been a long day, so it’s lucky we had a restful Sunday. The end of last week was very productive, and on Saturday we decided that extra-curricular adventures should be had. Saturday morning we met Dr. Levine and Essa, a security advisor from RVTH, and ventured inland to Lamin Lodge. There we took a boat up-river to the mangroves, hoping to catch a glimpse of some of the hundreds of bird species found in the Gambian skies. Oysters are harvested by the local women from the roots of mangroves. Evidently, a delicacy, but we also discovered that the shells are used to make a variety of things – lyme, paint, to mix with cement, even chicken feed. The things you learn...

We visited Essa’s mother’s compound near Lamin, where we had domoda with bongo fish and plenty of mango. Mangoes are sold on every street corner and the trees are found in most gardens, and so you are always welcomed as a guest with a plate of sweet, fresh mango. Delicious. Here, you eat from a large shared bowl – your share is the slice of bowl nearest to you and you eat with your fingers (importantly, those of your right hand). Strangely, us toubabs (white people) are provided with spoons – they’ve probably noticed how much of a mess we make. Essa has been crucial to almost every visit to the hospital. He’s a good man, always looking out for us and getting us places that, without him, would be out-of-bounds for us. He’s made sure we’ve met the right people at the right time – and it’s only recently that Nia’s got used to hearing her name being called across the courtyard of a Gambian hospital... by Essa.

We attract children like there’s no tomorrow, and we can’t usually move for them. No school on Saturday, so both us and the children thoroughly enjoyed spending the afternoon outside the compound learning new names and generally giggling at how “Keith” turns into “Key” or “Cake”, Gambian-style. We’d brought pencils to share out before we left for Kachikali, where the crocodiles live...

At Kachikali there is a museum of Gambian culture and history... and a crocodile pool. Two things we wouldn’t have put together, but it worked! There, we stroked crocodiles while they basked in the sun and took care of not disturbing the “Big Mamas”, who were heavily pregnant and thus a danger. After scaring ourselves silly, we made our way home.

Today has been really positive. We spent some hours at a gynae outpatients clinic and a short time on Labour Ward with Dr. Juan, a Cuban gynaecologist. Each day is an eye-opener for us, especially today where we saw exactly how different the clinic set-up is here compared to the UK. We arrived faced with dozens of patients lined up on benches outside the outpatients department; some with babies, some recently post-partum, some elderly, some even as young as 7 or 8 years old. The rest of the day was spent at the market (looking for cool clothes and water – a running theme) and the labs. We are waiting for the all-clear to take clinical photos of patients at RVTH. Hopefully, we’ll hear from the placement administrators tomorrow morning before our first ward round. Fingers crossed.

Nia and Keith