Riots and pancreatic cancer

Wow, so London's been pretty mental eh? It seemed a bit inappropriate to be posting here about my exciting travels whilst everyone back home suffered that onslaught of rage, but now that it's all calmed down a bit I can get right back to my self-involved narcissism. You guys are fine, right? If not then man up; it's only a bit of petrol. For God's sake.

Anyway, life here is still lovely. There is hardly any fighting and nothing is on fire, apart from the odd pile of rubbish and some of the taxis. Someone did try to rob me today, but luckily they were very bad at it and failed utterly. Everyone here is very interested in the goings on in London, and people keep asking me about the reasons behind it. These sound pretty pathetic when compared to what happened here in January, and I can see their respect for the UK slowly slipping away as I talk. Talking to people about the revolution is really fascinating, and I've heard a lot of different views expressed. Here are a few of them:

• No-one really knows what to do with regard to Ramadan this year. There was previously a well-defined set of laws that governed behaviour, but people are not sure if they are still in force.
• Despite this, Islam in Tunisia is on the up. The mosques are more crowded than ever before, and strongly religious parties look to do well in the upcoming elections.
• People are intensely proud of what they achieved with the uprising.
• Driving has become significantly more difficult, as well as dangerous. Previously traffic police were everywhere, and would stop you for every minor offence in order to extort some cash. Now people will not stand for corruption, so the police don't bother, and everything is chaos. Take from this what you will.

Of note this week has been a trip to Carthage, the old Phoenician settlement on the outskirts of Tunis. I'm not normally one for ruins - a lump of old stone is a lump of old stone if you ask me. However this place was actually very impressive - you could really get a feel for how it used to be back in the day. The baths were especially good - a huge site, with many of the original pillars and stuff still standing. It must have been quite a sight in its heyday.

We also went to the beach at Bizerte which was great. Huge waves in which to throw oneself about. Almost drowned and smashed my leg up on some rocks. Lovely.

On the medical side, things continue to be pretty quiet on my ward, so I've been casting myself around the wider hospital looking for some action. No-one seems to mind or even notice if you just wander into a ward and start reading patients' notes, and doctors are generally happy to talk to you. It gives them something to do. I ended up in the emergency room on a night shift, working with my new friend Sobhi, which was quite an experience. It's pretty crazy at night - huge rooms full of moaning/screaming/crying people; not enough space for everyone to fit; guards with machine guns maintaining order - and still the doctors spend a lot of time just sitting around chatting! Sobhi's job was basically triage - we had to check new admissions to see if there were likely to die imminently. If yes then we sent them off for treatment; if no then we ordered tests and sent them off to get them done themselves. It's all pretty DIY, in that the patient is given a piece of paper with, say, "Needs a chest X-ray" written on it; they then have to head out into the rest of the hospital to look for the radiology department (no mean feat!) or if they want, to a private clinic that can do it faster; then they come back to the emergency room with the film for the doctor to interpret. 

One poor guy was there with his dad, who has pancreatic cancer. He wanted to speak to the doctor about it, but the doctor was busy so he spoke to me instead. He kept asking me to have a look at the X-ray his dad had just had, which I of course couldn't do as I'm not qualified. Then he wanted me to give my opinion on what his dad's chances were, and how long I thought he might live. Pancreatic cancer's a really nasty one, and in this case it had already spread to the liver and lungs, so he probably has a few months at best; there's no possibility of recovery. However again, I couldn't tell him any of this as I'm not qualified, so I just had to reassure him as best I could that he'd be able to speak to someone about it soon, and that the doctors would do everything they could. He just needed someone to talk to him properly, in the right setting, with their full attention, and give him the information he needs so he and his father can start to prepare for the end. Sadly everyone is too busy to do this; and not always with work.

Another guy had a three inch gash in his head from a fight he'd been in earlier. He needed some stitches and so we headed down to the treatment room. It was like a theatre - amazing! On the way we picked up some more doctors, a few students, some friends and relatives, a couple of security guards and quite a few complete strangers. There must have been thirty of us by the time we got there, all crowded round the patient as he sat in the middle of the room with his head over a dustbin to catch the blood. The doctors decided there was no need for anaesthetic (!) and started sewing, eliciting sharp intakes of breath from the gathered crowd with each pass of the needle. Poor guy. He didn't seem to mind though, and was still and silent throughout. Crazy.

Back at the ranch it's been fun and games every night. Yesterday was traditional Tunisian dinner, served at the end of fasting hours at 7.30 pm. We were encouraged to have a crack at Ramadan just for a day, and not drink or eat anything from 3.30 am. I did pretty well, and only had a peach and some water. It certainly makes the food taste much better! We've continued the "national dishes" theme for dinner on the nights when we have nothing else organised, and have been through Portuguese and Czech since my English offerings last Friday. Nothing's come close to the peanut and coriander swordfish if you ask me. Tonight we're having a cross-cultural offering, with myself, Tall Tomas (Czech republic) and Non-tall Tomas (Slovenia) joining forces. Turkey and potatoes will be the mainstay, and we'll see what else we can rustle up on the side.

Tomorrow morning we're heading off to Sousse and Monastir for the weekend, which I'm sure will be lovely. I'll let you know how it was on Sunday.

Much love to all.  xxx