12th - Pharmacy

I had more sleep than usual last night, so why am I so shattered? First time doing the pharmacy placement today. I was the only volunteer there, because the facility is so small. A front counter, a drug store room and a treatment room out the back.

I was helping Evans, a great clinical officer with aspirations of going to uni in England to study nursing, coming back to Kenya and starting a local humanitarian organisation.

Regulations are lax in Kenyan medicine, as a result, Evans offered me the chance to inject a patient. I declined, at least until I've seen him do a few more, as they are directly into the vein with a turnicut and everything.

We didn't have many patients today, so we did a lot of talking, mostly about the UK, our culture, our political systems. He was very curious and I guess he wanted to be prepared for when he goes there.

Afterwards, I met up with the other volunteers in the Makuru slums for lunch in a diner that hadn't paid their electricity bill. Not sure it's a good idea to eat the food there, but I was hungry.

I still feel awkward here with all the girls. I'm not really fitting in as well as I'd like, feeling a little excluded most of the time. I'm trying my best to bond with the two girls I share a cottage with, Carly and Christine, but I don't really feel accepted by anyone. I'm having difficulty coming out of my shell as they don't seem as welcoming as I would like. I'm starting to miss all the familiar faces.