Todays highlight was moving this little chap from phase one to phase two of our nutrition project. His medical problems are sorted now and we can start to aggressively correct  his malnutrition.

It was quite lovely to sit with him and his Mum in a quiet corner of the Feeding centre and let him try the peanut based Plumpy Nut paste. He loved it. At first he was a little hesitant and just licked it. Then, when he realised it was sweet and tasty he started to eat. You can see how thin and malnourished he is, I anticipate a nice change over the next week or two.

I did my first on call yesterday – I have to be honest I am dying slowly. I worked the day till 1730 and then took the call keys. I had to get up and go to the hospital every 2 hours through the night.  There was a wide range of reasons for my needing to go. Medications required by our In Patient Dept, a child with pneumonia whose temperature spiked, a snake bite ! – don’t see too many of those in Harrogate, a Hypothermic child and a new Malaria case. Variation is of course the spice of life.

I left the hospital at 0700, came back to the compound, had a shower, breakfast and then went to work for my normal day !

Sadly, the Father of the child with Pneumonia decided he wanted to take the child out of the hospital and to a traditional healer. This is a massive problem here. We were having to work very hard to get them to even accept Oxygen therapy and intravenous fluids. Many people associate  these interventions with death here and despite the very best of diplomatic and logical arguments we cannot stop the parents removing their children from the MSF Hospital if they insist. Sadly, I know that this will remove the small chance this baby had of surviving her illness. I suspect that she is already dead as I write this blog.

These are the highs and lows of working in this setting. I have to say however that the highs are very high and worth every moment. I look forward to another day tomorrow. For now – Bed – at 1930hrs – Rock n Roll baby !

Ps the lad y with the snake bite was fine.