Spice Mas Carnival 2K10

It's the Wednesday after Carnival today so things are getting back to normal after the 48 hour street-party. Thought I'd share a couple of photos from the event. 2 are from the Soca Monarch Finals at the national cricket stadium on the Friday night last week and one is of some of the parade, passing the judges (on the balcony) on the Tuesday afternoon. I didn't have my camera for much of the event but Gordon B's got alot more photos to come.... I'm pretty sure that nearly everyone in Grenada turned out in St Georges over the past couple of days and we were there for pretty much the whole event (not much time for sleeping!). The main road routes through the capital are closed off for the whole event and the streets just become rammed with people following trucks blasting soca music as loud as you can imagine for 2 days straight, it's kinda hard to describe. Monday and Tuesday were both public holidays so no time for the hospital! I was expecting the wards to be swamped today after Carnival but actually things were relatively calm! The highlight of the carnival had to be getting up at 4AM and heading into St. Georges for J'Ouvert (the official start of Carnival on the Monday monring) with just some cash and old clothes, then getting covered in red paint and drinking rum till mid-day! Gordon B and I are now down to our last week in Grenada (can't believe it's gone so fast) so we're hoping to make the most of the last week on d'island!

Carriacou and Mid-Way Point

As far as the elective goes, this is the start of my 4th week so I'm half way through and it's flying by. Monday was a public holiday so had the day off. To make the most of it, a group of us went to Carriacou (Granada's little known sister island) in the Grenadines. It happened to be the weekend of the annual sailing regatta on the island so there was lots going on and a real buzz around the small island. We stayed in a great guest house called the green roof inn. The 1st photo is of sandy island where we spent a full afternoon on the saturday and the picture of us getting on the boat is actually the 'water-taxi' which took us from the mainland beach to Sandy Island. We only spent one night in Carriacou because Gordon and I were keen to get back to Grenada for more wreck diving on the Monday. We dove on the ship 'Bianca C', also known as 'The Titanic of the Caribbean' because she sunk on her maiden voyage. Whilst anchored in St. Georges, the capital of Grenada in 1961, an explosion in the boiler room caused her to catch fire. Everyone managed to get off safely and she was towed out to where she's currently resting in about 50 meters of water.

Back to the elective I've reached the mid-way point so starting to feel pretty familiar with the daily routines here and the way things work on the female and medical wards. I've got some company too now, a couple of elective students from Southampton have arrived (Jamie and Anthony) who are on the wards as well. I've started collecting data for an audit project I'm going to do on antibiotic prescribing and am looking for a couple of interesting cases to write up for my elective report. I want to write about sickle cell anaemia for one case because the disease is so prevalent here and the history that the first ever documented case of the condition was recorded here on this island. Also there's a large number of cases of Dengue Fever, otherwise known as 'Break-Bone' Fever on the wards at the moment which could be worth writing about.

If you're reading this I hope you're well and enjoying the summer. Please feel free to leave any comments below good or bad ones!!