First Day

2010-09-06 I was up late trying to rid my computer of a virus. Finally successful by midnight, after a few hours of sleep and then a light breakfast of toast, omelet and powdered Nescafe, we were off to Suntreso Hospital for our first day of teaching. After a slight delay as conference rooms were changed the red plastic chairs were set out, the projector was plugged in and Abeena with MCI and Ann made the introductions. A malfunction causing smoke to rise from the extension cord to one of the ultrasound machines was quickly taken care of and then Barbara introduced Siemens' Acuson Sequia ultrasound machine with all its bells and whistles. A pretest was given and the lectures launched: Alfred and Ann introduced First Trimester US discussing physiology and embryology correlating them with ultrasound findings. Alfred gave a lecture on ectopic pregnancies. Dario gave a detailed lecture on ultrasound in the Second Trimester after a pretest on the same. A live video scan of two obstetrical patients followed. Some of the students got a chance to practice and it was thrilling to see their enthusiasm and excitement. Then it was on to pretest in Gynecology. I spoke on ultrasound of the uterus and Ann finished with and extensive talk on ultrasound of the ovary. Somewhere in the there we had a lovely snack of meat pie and Fanta. Later lunch was delivered to the conference room consisting of fish, plantains, cold slaw and rice. We were scheduled to start at 8:30 AM and finish by 5 PM and I must say we did a good job staying on time despite the slight delay in the beginning! The students were extremely attentive, some never moving from their chairs except to participate in the live demo. I saw them nodding yes that they understood and when prodded responded to questions. 2 or 3 timidly asked questions but they are clearly interested and eager for this opportunity to learn a new skill!