Student in Mendoza (part 2). A firsthand student blog by Aongola Ngenda

Monday, May 14th, 2012

Today is my first official day in Mendoza.  After a long flight, I arrived and settled into the house I will be sharing with other students.  All are medical students from different areas of the UK and parts of the world, so it´s been interesting listening to their experiences of their placements so far.  Some have been on the maternity unit and I have been assured that there will be plenty for me to observe as the unit, much like my training unit, is very busy.

After being taken on an impromptu tour of the city, we settled down and had dinner. followed by a much deserved good night´s sleep.

I have found that my days are very busy and because of siesta 1-5pm when most businesses close, I am not able to update my blog as frequently as I would like.  So I have taken up writing my experiences in a notebook and then post them on my blog when I am able.

I am usually an early riser, infact, I did wake up at 5.30am much too early and went back to sleep only to wake again to find that I had ten minutes to spare until my Spanish lesson…great first impression, but all was well!  I settled into a four hour session of not just Spanish but Argentinean Spanish.  Each county in South America has a different way of using the Spanish language.  I have been introduced to ´vos´ which is ´you´ when referring to someone one is familiar with, I am relived to find that I can also use the usual ´tu´ which I am used to as well.  The session was intensive but needed, particularly learning medical based words and questions.  Our homework for the week is to create a short paragraph presentation on a medical/midwifery condition.  I picked pre-eclampsia…good luck to me.

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Student in Mendoza (part 1). A firsthand student blog by Aongola Ngenda

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

During my last day pre departure, I wrote a few scribbles down for the blog aiming to update it on the actual day, but as usual before a big trip, things didn´t go exactly to plan.  Anyway, here´s the entry that should have been posted on 13th April….

Its the day before my flight.  I have done as much spanish revision as I can these past few months in between: placement, job applicaitons, essay submissions and practice project preparation…Cheers to time management.

One of the best things about this elective placement, is the one week Intensive Spanish Course, to bring out more of those spanish words locked in my long term memory and more importantly, to learn the medical spanish which I will need to fully appreciate my experience and ask plenty of questions.

After a goodbye dinner with friends tonight, I´ll double check my bags and then I´m ready to fly tomorrow evening.  I am nervous and excited about this trip, after all the planning and juggling of work load, it´s finally time.

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Mendoza voted best city in South America!

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
Mendoza blog pic 150x150 Mendoza voted best city in South America!

A view of the city of Mendoza - check out the back drop!

The prestigious New7Wonders Cities contest finalised its first stage in March and Mendoza was voted best city in South America! 900 cities worldwide were left behind and Mendoza is now shortlisted in a group of 300 cities for the next stage of the competition.

After the selection of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and the recently chosen Seven Wonders of Nature, the creators of New7Wonders went ahead with a new global competition: the search for the seven most wonderful cities in the world.

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The Weekly Question – which experiences would you recommend to Work the World students going on placement this year?

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Here we go with another Weekly Question blog including feedback from students on placement in Africa, Asia and South America right now!

Your overseas placement with Work the World will be an invaluable learning experience which develops your skills, confidence and knowledge in your chosen discipline, but it can’t be all work and no play! Doing your elective placement abroad should also be an amazing travel adventure you’ll never forget.

This week we asked students in each of our houses “which experiences would you suggest to Work the World students going on placement this year?”

wine tour mendoza1 150x150 The Weekly Question   which experiences would you recommend to Work the World students going on placement this year?

Enjoying some Malbec!

In Argentina one of the top suggestions was hiring a two person bike and doing a wine tour. Ewa, James and Aurore who’ve all been on placement in Mendoza for a few weeks now said they would recommend that anyone going to Mendoza hires a two person bike and cycles their way around the vineyards of the region. We couldn’t work out whether it was for the beautiful scenery or the yummy Malbec!

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Clothes party success! Written by Jenny Gough

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

At the moment I am planning my elective placement to Dar es salaam as part of my Midwifery course. I am so excited to have this amazing opportunity but nervous that I now have less than six months to fund the trip!

I decided that I would hold a clothes party. I had been to one before that a friend held where people take along clothes and then other people rummage around and go home with other people’s clothes.

580373 10150915638030968 774750967 12576470 2012669849 n 150x150 Clothes party success! Written by Jenny Gough

Dig out old clothes, shoes, handbags - anything you don't want to raise funds for your elective!

I thought this was fantastic so I emailed friends and spoke to family and asked them would they be willing to donate any unwanted clothes, bags, shoes etc and I would charge a pound an item for clothing and then a donation of their choice for the rest. It became such a huge event that friends of friends were ringing saying they had clothes for me and would they be able to come. This got me thinking that there was no way I could fit everyone into my home. So I asked the local bowling club if I could borrow there club house for the evening. It had a bar so we had a great night. As it was to raise money they let me have the venue for FREE!!! Fantastic start I thought.

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Preparing for my elective – fundraising, by Caroline Corcoran

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

I’m a student midwife at Staffordshire University, I’m off to Ghana in 6 months, and have started fundraising (help!). It’s tough fitting everything in at the moment! I’ve tried a few different angles on the fundraising, and they all take a bit of time. If I’m not working on an assignment, I’m writing a blog post, organising a fundraising activity, or writing a letter asking for sponsorship. It’s been overwhelming, and I’ve had times where I can’t see how I’m going to manage to do everything without compromising my studies.

IMG 06442 150x150 Preparing for my elective   fundraising, by Caroline Corcoran

Caroline and Jenny (and cakes!) raising money for their electives.

When I started to panic, I sat down and did a timeline, I put all the fundraising activities in different months, and put the steps needed to organise things into different days. I never get a day off, but I’m only doing one thing per day, whether it’s writing a couple of letters or a blog post, or a presentation. It makes it look manageable and I’ve promised myself never to think about the total amount I need to raise, but only to look at the amount I’ve raised so far!

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Why Ghana? Ops Manager Rob gives you his top 10 reasons!

Monday, March 26th, 2012
  1. Great rural healthcare placements – We have developed a brand new placement working with a mission hospital about 50 minutes from the house. There are 100 beds in total with 2 doctors, 12 nurses and around 90 outpatients a day, and the hospital can accommodate medical and nursing students. This is a unique opportunity to experience rural health issues, with the top ten cases including malaria, anameia, gynaecological conditions, joint pain, skin, vaginal discharge, hypertension, diabetes (and related illnesses) and gonorrhea. We can offer a 2-4 week placement in a range of departments including general wards, maternity, and surgical.
  2. Central Regional Hospital Cape Coast 43 150x150 Why Ghana? Ops Manager Rob gives you his top 10 reasons!

    HIV leaves many Ghanaian children orphaned

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Argentina’s Supreme Court rules for abortion

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

For many years women in Argentina have campaigned for the right to have an abortion, but as a predominantly Catholic country, doctors have only been legally able to perform the procedure on the mentally ill or where a woman’s health is at risk.

48624870946788879 KFX19Pov c 150x150 Argentinas Supreme Court rules for abortion

Campaigners for abortion rights

Today the Supreme Court decriminalised abortion for all rape victims. The unprecedented move is a huge step for socially conservative Argentina, but a necessary one. The country has uncommonly high levels of unsafe “backstreet” abortions – with over 500,000 illegal abortions carried out each year. They are blamed for causing one in five of maternal deaths and many Work the World students have witnessed the repercussions of a badly performed procedure when the patients are admitted to hospital.

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Mothers day realities – when becoming a mum can kill you.

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

Mothering Sunday is a day I have always associated with flowers, chocolates and homemade cards… it marks the day I became a mum and is a time for celebration. For many women though, having a baby is not a celebration at all – it’s a death sentence.

Abby 2009 4 150x150 Mothers day realities – when becoming a mum can kill you.

Maternity practices are very different

MSF reported today that Mothering Sunday would have seen 1000 women die of maternal complications, most of which were preventable. They have released a report, Maternal Death: The Avoidable Crisis, which shows that women are continuing to die needlessly because they do not have access to the care that they need. 1000 every single day.

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Work the World sends two Pampers winners on their elective

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

We’ve just found out some exciting news about the Pampers Student Vision Awards held at the start of the year…. Rachel and Aongola, the first and second place winners are both travelling with Work the World!

pampers student vision 150x150 Work the World sends two Pampers winners on their elective
RCM magazine – January

Rachel plans to go to Sri Lanka in August and told us “It was a lovely opportunity to go to the RCM awards and I was thrilled to have a won the pampers student award.  I’m really grateful to pampers and the RCM for supporting my trip, where I will gain many new and fantastic experiences whilst exploring a new culture and healthcare system.  I’m now really excited about planning the rest of my trip and will fly to Sri Lanka in late August.’

Aongola was just as excited. ““I was amazed, shocked and excited to come as runner up.  The award enabled me to fund my elective placement to Argentina to which I am really looking forward.  Elective placements abroad provide the opportunity to observe services in other countries framed by their culture.  I am excited to be able to observe the provision of midwifery services in Argentina and reflect on the contrasts with services in the UK.”

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