quiet but relaxing weekend

It was a nice, though quiet weekend. We had a meeting at a nearby restaurant - its a lovely spot, under a thatched roof with a swimming pool and lots of tropical plants. And pretty good pizza. I did some knitting, finished another novel (a fun mystery novel called "Charm City" set in Baltimore... the descriptions of Baltimore and its places are great), had naps. I didn't get as much work done as hoped.

As a resident, when there are endless patients to be seen, and your pager is going off, and you're running from one thing to the next you manage to keep going (though it often stalls when you sit down)... here, if I'm really tired, I find it suprisingly hard to force myself to work. Today I had a particularly long day (started at 0730, and its 8:30pm now) and I'm still supposed to be working.... but am really struggling to force myself to do it. even though the sooner I get to it, the sooner I can go to sleep.

I was pleasantly suprised to meet the pharmacists - they are really friendly and seem like they will be supportive to our efforts. I'm preparing for my Ouaga meetings - forecasted patient loads, medication and lab needs. Plus I have a bunch of questions to address with respect to the national norms and protocols. However, I think I'm not going to work any later than 9:30... enough is enough.

Its crazy, the Ministry of Health people swear up and down that there is enough cotrimoxazole for all who need it - HIV exposed infants and HIV infected kids. The pharmacists and Dr. Nacro say that the gvmt doesn't even provide enough cotrim for the HIV infected kids who need it... somehow between the two is an immense gap that I don't begin to understand. However, I'm getting better at asking everyone I can think of about the problem, and its starting to become very slightly less murky... at least the pharmacists are game to work together!

Have a good week. I'll write again when I return from Ouaga again.
Laura