Day 5- Investigations and First Trip to the LRH

So, this morning due to the big confusion regarding where I was meant to be- and no one being able to understand me- I was waiting around a bit, before being sent to investigations.

This was fun and I had a lot of good teaching and lots of reading to do when I get home (the list is increasing at an alarming rate everyday!)

I did a little bit of time in Endocrinology and then I was sent to Children's Government Hospital (Lady Ridgeway) to see the director to ask his permission to spend some unofficial time there.

Popped to the PGIM library (Post-graduate Institute of Medicine??)

• Lack of English there sooooo frustrating!
• Cant borrow books, but need card to get in- a bit useless dont know if Ill bother to get back or not yet- kicking myself for not thinking of bringing my Endo notes at least :(

The director was not in, and I decided to go down and get lunch and come back at the appropriate time.     I was too scared to buy anything- as having a case of food poisoning in a very hot country was seriously not on my list of priorities.  The hospital was away from my usual go-to food places, so I was a tad stuck.  However, I found lots of bookstores :D  Bought a ludicrously cheap version of a medical textbook I coveted and will most likely get some more (within reason- although I suspect my lack of money may hinder me more there) I tried to find a really good Sinhalese via English phrasebook and failed miserably- not very impressed. Nobody has the stores book supply on the computer system according to what I could understand.  Which means they would not have been able to check within the masses of books there anyway.

Additional Notes:

• Lots of bookstore Sri Lankan value education
• Got food from small short eats its(what little cafes selling hot snacks are called) bad idea
• Return to LRH still no director, time, doctor canteen- guy could not speak words of english, menu in sinhalese- food disappointing- could not order from the menu as it was all in Sinhalese- so I could only point at what I wanted to eat.  The local guys just found the entire situation hilarious
• +ve LRH is great did not meet expectation as I thought it would be in Sri Lanka

The Lady Ridgeway is a lovely paediatrics hospital.  It's a large hospital, and everything painted in pastel with cartoons and things all over the place.  It is clean.  It is very different to what I expected especially following some of the comments I'd read about it online.  I got there I believe after the rush hour- the front entrance where the outpatients is would usually be packed.

I've taken to use the stairs as much as possible- at least to go down. The majority of the hospitals have at least 5 floors up- so waiting for a lift can sometimes just be pointless.  This was a bad idea in this case- which I took some pictures- but the staircase at this section of the hospital, was basically used to dry clothes (patients'families??)  It had tons of stuff waiting to be unpacked.  I don't think it ever occured anyone that the stairs would actually be used by someone wishing to go up/down- except a foreigner like myself.  As always appearing inconspicuous has yet to be my forte.