The Doctor Is In.

Well Abasi started work as a qualified doctor in early January.

The hospital put him up in a hotel for 2 weeks while he got sorted out and found a place to rent. Here’s some extracts from his latest email.

“As soon as I arrived at Mwanza, I was well received by the Baylor staff and orientation followed. When orientation was done, I was provided with systems clearance, organization email and later introduced to the system.

The first few days was shadowing different doctors in the morning and spending entire afternoons discussing different clinical management as well as lectures on paediatric HIV according to Baylor. Later on each day I spent my days hunting for houses with different Dalali (Middle men).

The routine was much like that for entire week and I would usually be back at the hotel at 9-10PM daily without success till yesterday when I finally got a house that was a good standard for living.

I am waiting for the house owner to finish up with minor repairs and painting before I can move in. As soon as I get my first salary, will be traveling to Mbeya to pick my items.

I am looking forward to settling as soon my things arrive here, so a couple of weeks to go.

I am loving my working conditions so much and I am already assigned to work with Adolescent, Research, Outreach and Reproductive Health teams. The clinical director told me that I have potential in Readership and Finance so she might have me trained in those areas too.

Currently there are three Paediatricians, two from USA and one from Tanzania, who is also a clinical director, and three Medical Officers including me. We have 4 nurses, 2 social workers, nutritionists, counsellors, and other departments.

We attend 100 to 110 paediatric patients of different age groups each day from 8:00 am to 5pm (From 7:30 we need to be at work). We serve 8 lake zone regions.

Today I was given my own office and also started to see patients on my own but had to discuss how I managed each of the 3 I managed with the Doctor Of The Day (paediatrician)
The working Environment is totally Western and everyone is so nice to work with.”

It seems so long ago this all started and here we are. Abasi has achieved his goal of becoming a doctor. But he is not finished yet. He will want to become the best doctor he can. I look forward to watching his progress…