Pie City

Another way in which medicine is practiced very differently in Botswana versus the United States is the approach to lunch time.

Back in the 'States, I do usually manage to grab lunch..."never miss a meal" is a motto I had learned from one of my favorite residents very early on...however, often times the meal is rushed and I find myself gulping down graham crackers and cranberry juice stored in the "Nutrition Room" for my afternoon meal, which is highly unsatisfactory. In contrast, it is expected that all the doctors leave from 1pm-2pm in order to enjoy a nice, leisurely lunch. As the hospital cafeteria at Princess Marina Hospital is currently under constrution, we instead walk the 15 minutes or so to the downtown mall area to eat. My favorite place thus far is "Pie City", which serves these awesome little pastries stuffed with various meats or veggies; the Seswaa Pie (beef) and Chili Russian (spicy sausage) varieties are quite popular. Perhaps most exciting, however, is the price: 3.50 pula (which translates into about 60cents).

Today being Friday we had "Grand Rounds", which I attended for the first time. The topic: an update on the state of Botswana's medical school program, which is still in the very early stages. Although the Botswana health care system is considered one of the better programs in Africa, only about 10% of doctors in Botswana are Botswana citizens. In order to change this, they are trying to encourage more and more university students to study medicine. The main problem with this is they do not as of yet have a true medical school. They have the students do their pre-clinical work here in Botswana, then get shipped off to medical schools in South Africa and Australia with whom they have formal agreements in place. Ideally they would like for this to change: to have a teaching hospital here in Botswana where students could train. One scenario has Princess Marina Hospital being converted to such an institution; another scenario calls for the building of an entirely new medical center. Another issue which has gotten a lot of attention is the inability of Botswana to retain their newly-trained medical graduates--it seems as if the best & brightest of the housestaff trained here are lured away to Europe or the U.S. because there aren't enough financial or professional incentives to keep them in their native Botswana.

Hearing this discussion about building an entire medical education from scratch made me realize how lucky we have it in the 'States. Although we certainly have our own problems with regards to medical malpractice, piles of paperwork, etc etc--at least as doctors we have the opportunity to make a decent living within our country.

That's it for now. This weekend: camping in the Kalahari! I'll try not to get into any arguments with any lions while I'm there...