This week has been quiet in the hospital- we have had a lull in the number of patients- apparently this is the calm before the storm, as malaria season is about to start!
Despite having less patients we have still been challenged by many cases. I was particularly surprised after seeing a case of domestic violence, to discuss the issue with the nurses on the ward. They were very shocked to hear that this is not routine in the UK and that women can seek legal protection. They explained that many here see domestic violence as a way of showing love. A real eye opener.
We have also continued to be surprised by the number of poisonings here with organophosphates. We are taught about these in the UK, but rarely see cases, whereas here there are at least a couple a week. We are grateful for our welfare and legal state in the UK that seems to prevent these from happening.
This week we also met another visitor from the UK, an electrical engineer who tours various hospitals twice a year on holiday from the UK. He had a wealth of knowledge about Uganda and culture and it was a great encouragement to chat about how life here compares to the UK and reminisce about Imperial (he studied there many years ago!). It was a special privilege to share cake for his birthday, be made a cup of coffee, be introduced to a range of local fruit and vegetables from the market and have a conversation in ‘UK English’- without needing to concentrate to work through the accent!
This week’s #throwbackthursday is from exactly two years ago and features the Biological Records Centre 50th anniversary symposium.
Last weekend I was at a symposium in Bath celebrating 50 years of the Biological Records Centre (BRC). The BRC collates and manages species observation data, including supporting biological recording schemes in publishing atlases, developing and hosting online resources. I have a long interest in biological recording, as a child spending most of my weekends and school holidays recording wildlife in a local woodland, but it was always on my own. It has not been until the last few years I have become interested in ‘formal’ biological recording by joining schemes and societies, much of this has been helped by the emergence of the internet in allowing me to make contact with like-minded people. Many of the talks at the symposium were of interest to me not only as a biological recorder but had some relevance to my future PhD research as the species distribution data held by the BRC have been used to understand responses to environmental change. I had my usual anxiety about attending but was at least confident I would know some delegates already, even if just through the internet, with the useful icebreaker “I follow you on Twitter” at the ready. There was an additional challenge in that I forgot to book my accommodation at the venue so ended up staying in a hostel in the city. I had never stayed in a dormitory before and was very concerned at how I would cope, but thought of it as an ‘experience’ and reminded myself of my promise to ‘be scared but do it anyway’. In the event it was not too bad, although the noise and bright light of the surrounding bars made sleep difficult, but at least it was cheap!
Saturday morning in Bath
The symposium talks were on Friday afternoon and Saturday, and covered the range of ways biological recording data has been used to detect changes in species distribution, especially responses to climate change, and some of the problems involved in this. Biological data does not reflect constant effort, with bias in site and taxon selection etc. Data aggregation and selection, and computer modelling are some of the methods that can be used to detect the signals among the noise, all the talk of data and modelling got me very excited – I have definitely chosen the right PhD for me!
There were also thought-provoking lectures on citizen science, and on how technological developments have impacted and may impact on biological recording, including the use of molecular techniques in species identification and monitoring.
The cake was tasty too!
The highlight of the weekend was a Sunday fieldtrip to Salisbury Plain Defence Training Estate, a military site not open to the public. It is the largest area unimproved chalk downland in north west Europe, with 20,000 hectares of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) making it the largest designated site in the United Kingdom. Delegates with a wide range of interests in biological recording boarded two coaches for an escorted trip around the site, stopping at four areas to hunt for their favourite group(s), discuss hot topics or just admire the glorious habitat. I really enjoy trips with people who study different groups as it is a great way to discover new species. I did not go with the intention of collecting a group myself, since I knew I would not have time to process them at the moment, but contented myself observing the scenery and diversity. Observing the observers was also interesting, and fun to deduce which groups(s) they are looking for based on the techniques they use. Botanists often got down on their knees to examine plants, ornithologists and photographers were loaded with cameras and binoculars, and entomologists of various sorts had their assorted nets, pooters and tubes. Those turning over stones and grubbing about often turned out to be woodlice or centipede recorders; also in this category were several members of the Earthworm Society of Britain (ESB), because digging was not permitted due to the risk of unexploded ordinance – a sad restriction for an earthworm recorder. Despite this at least four species were recorded by rummaging in muddy puddles and turning over stones and other objects.
Keiron and Vicky from the ESB make do with turning over stones to find earthworms on Salisbury Plain
Vicky and I with the first earthworm of the day, probably Apporectodea longa, found under a rusty drum
Being a chalk download there were many woodlice and molluscs to be found under the stones, including the pill woodlouse Armadillidium vulgare, a species familiar to many for its defense of rolling up into a ball. Many of the specimens had babies, which develop from eggs in a special brood pouch on their underside.
Armadillidium vulgare with young on Salisbury Plain
Flowers and insects were everywhere, more than I have seen anywhere, and I get the feeling other chalk grasslands will never look so good again! Lepidoptera were everywhere, this thistle busy with Marbled Whites (Melanargia galathea), Burnet moths (Zygaena sp.) and assorted flies was typical. Other day-flying moths seen included the striking Forester (Adscita statices). I also saw some impressive flies including Cynomya mortuorum, my old favourite previously seen in Scotland, and the huge black parasitoid fly Tachina grossa.
Marbled Whites, Burnet moths and assorted flies nectaring on thistle
Forester on Greater Knapweed at Salisbury Plain
I met a number of new plants, including Dwarf Spurge (Euphorbia exigua), the rare Tuberous Thistle (Cirsium tuberosum) and probably my most exciting plant of the day, Knapweed Broomrape (Orobanche elatior), a plant parasitic on Greater Knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa).
Knapweed Broomrape (Orobanche elatior) on Salisbury Plain
My most exciting invertebrate of the day was neither a fly nor an earthworm however, it was the Fairy Shrimp (Chirocephalus diaphanus) which I have wanted to see since I first learnt about it when I was around 5 years old. These shrimp are found in temporary pools, their eggs lying dormant when the pools dry out ready to hatch on the next heavy rain. It is protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 but the trip organisers, who have a licence, had collected some in a jar for us to view.
BRC 50th delegates huddle around temporary pools created by military vehicle manoeuvres to look for the elusive Fairy Shrimp
Fairy Shrimp (Chirocephalus diaphanus)
The photograph through the container using my phone really does not do them justice. They were quite big, a couple of inches long with a translucent pinkish colour, swimming using beautiful undulating motions.
So in all it was a brilliant weekend, meeting new species (and people!) and giving me lots to think about for my own research. A big thanks to the organisers, and long may the BRC continue.
I can’t believe it’s been two years since my fieldtrip to Salisbury Plain! It’s still one of the most amazing places I have visited and sadly I have not managed to attend another trip there – maybe one day.
So, summer is here… Yes, London, 23ºC. Thank you, global warming.
And exams are over…
No more problem sheets, no more past papers, no more revision.
No more “do you think he will put absorption columns in it?”
No more “how many past papers have you done?”
No more “aaand pencils down!”
No more “what did you get for question 4?”
No more “ohh God I deserve it I just had a thermo exam” oreo milkshakes.
But the most important thing is of course the result. Our last exam was on the 6th June, but we had to wait until the 5th July – the Board of Examiners meeting – to find out the results. We got an email beforehand that we can expect a “Pass / Fail / Resit” email after 5pm on Tuesday. Ahh well…
At 16:05 I got a notification on my laptop. A small box in the top right corner just appeared suddenly. Subject: Results 2015/16.
OH MY GOD!!!
I took a deep breath and clicked on it.
Then screenshoted it, and sent it to all my friends.
I still can’t believe it. I did it. I passed the first year of MEng Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. Oh my God.
Again this weekend we feel ourselves lacking power! There was a heavy storm last night (even by British standards!) which we think took down some power lines. This is great news for Sam who is in charge of the candles.
This week has been better than last as we’ve started to settle into life here and get to know more staff. We were even told we have become ‘more Ugandan’ this morning at Church. They described this as being more at ease, but we think it’s that we seem to be late for everything however hard we try!
Medicine this week
Herbal medicines are used a lot here, compared to back home. We were surprised earlier this week when a car spent the day outside the hospital selling herbal remedies and announcing their benefits over a loudspeaker. It is very common for locals to take these, which claim to cure everything from syphillis to common colds. In maternity many women use herbs to bring on labour, which can present unique challenges to the midwives.
This week we saw our first paediatric deaths which was quite difficult. We were heavily involved in the care of one case, which was tough. Death here is more common in hospital than we are used to, especially among children. As a result it was a lot less of a shock to everyone else. There aren’t the usual debriefs for the medical team, counselling for the family, keepsake boxes, bereavement officers etc that occur in the UK, so it felt quite raw to us.
Life here
A little more about where we are staying: the hospital is in a compound which includes the guesthouse and mess hall (where we stay and eat), staff accommodation, the directors house, a nursing school and accommodation, the hospital, chapel and school for children of the staff. It’s nice to live closely with the other staff. There is a large sense of community as many attend chapel, have midmorning tea, eat meals and live closely to each other.
At any time there are usually two doctors working here. One is the director, who is like a consultant in the UK, overseeing everything with ward rounds twice a week. The junior doctor on the ground is one doctor covering the whole hospital day and night. They work solid for two weeks, then have two weeks away, in which they work somewhere else and see their family! The juniors here perform emergency operations (C-sections, appendectomies etc) with the help of nurses who assist, regardless of the time of night! Watching their work has put our new contracts in a different light…
The hospital is surrounded by smaller shops and houses, and it’s about a 20 minute walk into the centre of town. Most shops here are the same- they all seem to sell a variety of soft drinks, SIM cards, snacks, jerry cans, plastic bowls and bread. Interspersed with these are some clothes shops, hair salons and banks. This is quite a rural area so locals are not very used to getting visitors from the UK. As such every time we wander into town we have children waving, groups following us, cars stopping to offer us lifts and lots of hellos! We are also easily remembered- a patient we met remarked that we had bought a Coke from her shop and that she’d like the glass bottle back! This is taking a little to get used to!
This weekend marks the midpoint of our placement here. It has gone very quickly so far!
I was able to attend the Bristol Festival of Nature thanks to a grant from the British Ecological Society. I was fortunate to be the first beneficiary of the Regional Funding Scheme which provides support for researchers to undertake public engagement activities.
The Bristol Festival of Nature is the UK’s largest celebration of the natural world with two days of free interactive activities and entertainment across Bristol’s Harbourside. I had a stall in the Green Forum tent in Millenium Square and spent two days talking with the public about soil health and earthworms, with activities including handling and identifying live earthworms and a ‘count the number of earthworms in the wormery’ competition – with a prize for the winner. It was also a great opportunity promote my citizen science project Earthworm Watch, explain the survey methods and recruit citizen scientists to the project. Despite torrential rain, I spoke to 200 people over the weekend and also did my first ever radio interview for local natural history show Shepherds Way – see 22 June 2016 if you would like to listen.
Me at the Bristol Festival of Nature
I am very grateful to the British Ecological Society for making it possible to run this stall to raise awareness of the importance of earthworms and promote my project and would highly recommend ecologists interested in public engagement apply the scheme.
This weekend has been different, with no electricity. It has been great for avoiding doing the ironing, but not so good for technology and warm showers! We had put this power cut down to a storm, but were surprised to find out that it’s because nearby they need power for insect hunting. At night they set up very bright lights next to insect hills to tempt the insects out so they can catch them to eat and sell, so were diverting our power for their lights. Very different!
This week we have seen lots of infectious diseases again, including lots of malaria, pneumonia, TB and HIV. We were excited to also see some cases we are more familiar with, such as heart failure and diabetes.
One highlight on the paediatrics ward this week was treating an asthma case with a home-made spacer (see photo!). The hospital does have a nebuliser (like ours in the UK), but it has a European plug, rather than the British plug they use here. So treatment involved a makeshift spacer and inhaler, made from an empty water bottle and lots of masking tape… And later re-wiring the plug on the nebuliser for the next child.
Maternity ward has also been different: women here labour with absolutely no pain relief- no pethidine, gas and air or epidurals! This was a very different experience to my placement in London. We were also surprised in theatre (for a c-section) that female staff have green scrub dresses to wear, rather than tops and bottoms as the men! Surprisingly comfortable, but not that fashionable.
This week we have also enjoyed getting to know staff on the wards better. It was encouraging to see nurses working on the wards after having children (not as common in Uganda as in the UK). The children all go to crèche or school on the hospital site, and those breastfeeding are bought down onto the wards for their mums to feed when they are hungry!
Unfortunately we had another visitor this week, finding a live frog sat on my toothbrush… this has kept my husband amused for a long time and fortunately I now have a new toothbrush!
I have never been to an Imperial Open Day before. When I was applying, I lived in Hungary, so I couldn’t just turn up on a random Wednesday at London… But yesterday, I finally attended one of these, and it was a-ma-zing. So let’s start from the beginning…
I got an email a couple of weeks ago. Perks of being a student blogger: when there is a marketing work, you’re the first to be asked 🙂 So they asked me if I liked speaking in front of a lot of people, because there will be a talk on the Open Day where they need students (i.e. student bloggers) to present. Well, I obviously signed up within 2 seconds 😀 Then we needed to choose a topic. Course? Societies? Halls? Other? I did what I usually do in these kind of situations: I asked my sister… Incidentally, she was also attending the Open Day, so I basically did a non-representative audience poll… 😀
[Side-note: in case you’re wondering about the contradictions in my family history. My father moved to London 3 years ago, my sister and brother also moved here half a year later. I stayed in Hungary with my mother because I had some unbelievably awesome teachers in high school whom I didn’t want to leave, so I finished the school there and applied to uni in the UK. My sister finishes sixth form next year, so she is currently in the application stage, going to open days and checking uni websites all the time…]
Anyway. So I choose to talk about Woodward Hall because my sister said she is not interested in my course, and I don’t do any societies (yeah, I know, I am kind of boring…). I submitted the powerpoint and then prepared for the day (meaning I put aside my favourite Imperial sweatshirt so it would be wearable on the talk…).
On the tube to South Ken, we saw three boys, who looked like “uni applying” age. Me and my sister started to make bids on whether they’re also going there or not. Then they started to pass around a paper with the Imperial logo and a big barcode… Ahh well, if the great and wonderful Imperial College London has an Open Day, suddenly everyone is going to South Ken…
To those who have never been to an Open Day (like me before yesterday…) here is how you can imagine the whole thing. There is a main registration tent on Queen’s Lawn, and also that’s where the Accommodation Tours start from. Yes, they do tours to Beit, Southside, Eastside, even Wilson. No, they don’t do tours to Woodward 😀 Then there is the Queen’s Tower Rooms (that big thing under the Sherfield Building) where all the departments and other things like Horizons and the Union have separate stalls with flyers and free pens and nice people from the departments who are happy to tell you all the nice things about the courses… Then there are the departmental talks: the Admission Tutors talking about what it requires to get an offer from Imperial. And then there are other talks like the “This is Imperial” talk, in which I took part 😀
When we arrived there was an awfully long queue to the registration where we got our goodie bags (I got one, too! #happiness) and some leaflets about the day. They were handing out last year’s Accommodation Guide, which reminded me…
… I did an email interview a few weeks ago about my hall. (Yes, marketing stuff: student bloggers first.) They said they’re doing the new Accommodation Guide and they needed some quotes about the halls. Well, I wrote a page 😀 But I never heard back, so I didn’t know if any of what I said got printed. I wanted to check though, so I walked around and found the accommodation stall. I asked if I could get the latest and newest Guide (they looked at me like “what are you talking about” but then they pointed me to the one person who knew what I was talking about and he gave me the shiny “fresh out of printing” flyer). And I quickly scrolled through until I found this:
#lifegoals
Woooooooooooooowww I am in the official Imperial Accommodation Guide! This day couldn’t have started any better… After I sent the picture to my mother and posted it to Facebook, I showed my sister where her first open day talk was, and I went to my “second home”, ACEX building. Because it’s one thing to choose the topic for the talk and do the powerpoint presentation, but writing a speech is also useful… So I sat down on my favourite sofa outside LT1 and started to write the speech. Or at least I was trying to write the speech. But there were two departmental talks in ACEX (ChemEng and MechEng) and I just couldn’t sit there and watch all those lost souls walking around in despair trying to find LT1 (even though there were arrows and signs all over the place…). So I started to play the usual “Can I help you?” which I already mastered at the Imperial Festival…
(Question to those who were 40 minutes late to a 1-hour presentation: just why bother?…)
So after the presentation started and everyone found their lecture theatre, I started to work on my speech again. I wrote down a couple of jokes and tried to memorise them, but if there is one thing I am terrible at, it’s rehearsing for a presentation. I am more of a “standing up there and improvising” kind of person…
Once my sister finished her departmental talk, we had lunch then went to my talk at the Pippard Lecture Theatre. When I got there, the other bloggers said we have 3 minutes each. Well, if there is one another thing I am terrible at, it’s keeping the time limit for a presentation…
The first speaker was the Head of Student Recruitment and Outreach who talked about how awesome place Imperial is, and showed some numbers and some general information about the College. Then the next one was the Deputy President of the Union, who talked about how awesome the Union is, and showed some numbers and some general information about the Union. Then Franz was the next, who talked about how big London is compared to St Martin. Then I was the next… And Harry after me, who talked about how he built a hovercraft and joined the gaming society.
So my presentation was about Woodward Hall. My favourite hall <3 I was talking about how far it is, how great the community is, how quiet the cemetery is, how many pizzas they ordered and how good the view is from the kitchen. I think the audience liked it (they laughed a lot, that’s a good sign, right?).
After that, we looked around in the Library then went back to ACEX where the last of the three departmental talks was just about to start. I asked Dr Kogelbauer if I could just sit in without registration, because I have never been to an open day talk before and… I was curious, you know 😀
So me (who already finished the first year of ChemEng) and my sister (who wants to apply to AeroEng) went to a lecture for students who are thinking about applying to ChemEng. Logical, right? But even though it doesn’t make a lot of sense, I loved every bit of it… Dr Kogelbauer talked about what chemical engineering means, what the course involves, what the different options in the later years are, and most importantly, what the entry requirements are.
It was the kind of talk after which I was like “OMG I want to apply to ChemEng immediately” and then I realised I am already here… Ohh I love our Department so much 😀
One week down, seven to go. This week has been different to our usual placements and we have been challenged with our clinical knowledge, skills and our communication skills.
Suitably for studying medicine 5000 miles from home, the very first condition we encountered was a snakebite. Here, medical students are expected to know a lot about a variety of different bites, but as we only get 100 snakebites a year in the UK with few venomous snakes, our knowledge was sparse to say the least!
Other differences here include the lack of what we would consider basic investigations and critical emergency drugs in the UK- for example there is no ECG machine and imaging relies on ultrasound and X-rays. Being in an unfamiliar ward setting, being rusty on what are here core clinical subjects, and not being able to understand the local language (or Ugandan English even) has been difficult at times.
However, we have managed to get to know some of the clinical assistants, admin staff and nurses better, which has been a great encouragement.
One big surprise is the pace of life here – everything is a lot, lot slower than the UK, even the speed of walking. Nothing gets done in a hurry!
Everything also stops in the rain- ward rounds start late, chapel is delayed, people don’t turn up for clinic- which is very different. We have been imagining how your consultant in the UK would react if you arrived an hour late for ward round using the rain as your excuse!
We are grateful for encouragements this week such as food from the kitchen- we’ve had French toast twice and chips once this week- which was so special after every meal being the same traditional Ugandan set up. We also met some visitors from London today, who are visiting for a Church conference- it was a great break to meet them, chat about life back home and discuss our challenges.
Time flies really fast. I could still feel how nervous I was when composing the very first blog for Lorna & the student blog team’s selection. I have done many great things over this year and volunteering with Imperial Plus is definitely one of the highlights of my life. It started off when I attended the volunteering fair some time after the beginning of the year. I have done many different kinds of volunteering jobs ever since high school. When I first started to volunteer, it was purely to lighten up my CV to be honest. However, the more engagement I gave to that cause, the more satisfied I feel from the outcome. Therefore I went to that fair because I know I want to do more volunteering works to make my life more colorful. Link to Imperial plus
Teaching someone has always been my passion and an interest. Thus I’ve chosen to work as a Pimlico Tutor (With Pimlico Connections), a Imperial hub Tutor, and an educational mentor (With Salusbury World). As you can see, I’ve clearly taken too much for my own good. Eventually I stayed with Pimlico Connections till the very end (around April).
Pimlico connections has been working at Imperial with local London schools since 1975. A long history almost guarantees the rich experience condensed over a long time. Indeed, this service provided by the Imperial College Union is quite reputable and the sixth form faculties have been very cooperating and friendly to us. My job as a Pimlico tutor was to tutor Biology to a group of A-level students who have been ‘short-listed’. It was rather an unique experience as they were quite unlike the Chinese students I’ve known back home. They were less focused on the class itself but more about chatting with their friends all the time. It indeed posts a great obstacle to my teaching. After discussion with my fellow tutors (Joe and Iro), we’ve decided to change the way of tutoring and discussed this with the school faculties. This results in more students show-up in the sessions. We would give them questions sheets and go through them afterwards along with some relevant information being mentioned. Teaching them A-level Biology was also a great way of revising the stuff we’ve learnt several months ago. It also helped us with our current University course to some extent. It was a great experience after all despite some hick-ups with the student and staff about the student turnout rate. I would suggest you to give it a try. If you don’t enjoy it, just drop it. Remember you need to feel fulfilled and happy after the tutoring. If it can’t do that to you, then it would be meaningless to work at that place. It takes place every Wednesday afternoon for about 1 hour. Link to Pimlico Connections
Salusbury World provides you with the opportunity to tutor a student 1-to-1. This organisation endeavors to help students from the disadvantaged backgrounds. You might be tutoring a refugee child, or a recent migrant. I was paired up with a students at his AS level. The sessions were quite relaxing. We’d chat about University life and some tips about University application. He would give me some questions (e.g. maths) that he couldn’t solve and I will work through that question with him. You generally don’t need to prepare as much as you do for Pimlico connections. And the lady in charge of this program, Violeta, was very friendly and enthusiastic about the works that She does. I would suggest give it a try and reach out to her at the volunteering fair. I’m sure you won’t regret it. The only issue is the travelling bit as that school is a bit far away from the South Kensington campus. Make sure you planned your time wisely. Link to Salusbury World
Imperial plus does a good job at investing in the volunteers. By attending workshops, top-up volunteering hours and workshop summary write-up, you would receive a volunteering certificate of the hours you set. And this certificate is recognized by ASDAN as your personal ability training (Such as Personal effectiveness and organisation skills).
That would be all from me. Again, leave your questions in the comment box and I will reply ASAP. Summer ball tonight! 😀