How you know you are a general surgeon in Africa
#10 Your first case of the day is a prostatectomy
#9 Your second case is a hysterectomy
#8 Your third case is an open reduction & pinning of a wrist fracture
#7 Your fourth case is a tonsillectomy
#6 Your fifth case is a VP shunt
#5 You do the difficult OB ultrasounds because you’re the best radiologist
#4 You scrub out to donate your own blood to your patient because he’s bleeding
#3 An intra-abdominal ectopic viable pregnancy isn’t that exciting--you get one every couple years
#2 You scrub with dish soap and river water
#1 You are your own scrub nurse, at times circulating nurse and at times anesthetist.

Arrived at Bongolo

I've arrived! I left on the 15th from Philadelphia, had a short layover in Frankfurt and then flew to Libreville, Gabon. Thankfully, the plane touched down and I got my luggage before the power went out in the entire city. :) The power came on in time for dinner and to turn on the air-conditioning to get some sleep. The next day I caught an hour flight down to Huimba and then it was a 2 hour drive to Bongolo Hospital.

The area around the hospital is beautiful. There's a waterfall just below the hospital compound and the house I'm living in has a great view of the river.

I'll start work on Monday.