Final Exam

We were sad to tell Angela's parents goodbye today...especially Isaac.  However, we had a great 3 weeks with them and they did a lot to help us, not just at home, but also at the hospital.  Thanks and we can't wait to see you guys again soon.

Mike rounded on the men's ward while he was here.  That involved seeing about 30 admitted patients with the residents each morning and teaching them in the process.  He saw and treated patients with TB, malaria, cryptococcal meningitis, prostate cancer, chylous ascites, toxoplasmosis, HIV, strokes, and even a young man that presented with a blood pressure of 270/140!  This picture shows him in action with one of the nurse practitioner students.

 Betty stayed busy with Isaac most days, but did make it to pediatric rounds with Angela one morning.  This shows her with Angela and Estelle.  Estelle is a house officer completing her one year internship with us before she goes to work as a general practitioner at another location in Cameroon.  Angela enjoyed showing her mom what it was like in the hospital.

Mike also helped us by being one of the formal external examiners for our final exams for the 2 graduating residents.  Our residents are here for 4 years training in internal medicine and pediatrics and they took a 2 day exam involving written, oral, and practical components.  The picture shows Mike with George Reisz, Jam Divine, Kouya Francine, and Dennis Palmer.  George Reisz is the chair of medicine at the University of Missouri - Kansas City and Dennis Palmer is the director of the residency program here at Mbingo.  Congrats to Jam and Francine on passing the exam!

We also had time to get out into the surrounding country some with Angela's parents.  We took a trip to the Ndwara Tea Estate and as you can see from the picture, the road was bumpy.  This shows Mike and Betty supporting Isaac's head as we get tossed around on the rocky dirt road.

 The tea estate is quite nice and smelled great, even from the front door.

 We were able to take a tour and see how the tea is processed from the leaf to the tea bag.

We also went out into the fields and took in the beautiful views.  The estate is about 1500 feet higher than where we are at Mbingo with many mountains around.  It was amazingly green.

One of the many things that is different about this tea estate in Cameroon is that they also have chimps nearby.  The owner of the estate has chimps, monkeys, ostriches, peacocks, and pythons for visitors to see. We all took turns holding the chimps.  Nobody held the pythons.

Two funny things happened in the process.  This chimp tried to put his hand in Chuck's mouth, which of course Chuck was not too happy about.  After we put the chimps down, one jumped up and grabbed Isaac's shoe off of his foot and was playing with it.  We got it back and even a week later, Isaac still talks about the monkey taking his shoe!

Thanks again Nana and Papa for coming to visit.  We will miss you.  They are actually getting on the plane now, so we will be praying for safe travels back to the US.