Leaving the UK, I had no idea what to expect of what my medical elective and time at Chitokoloki was to hold. Before this, I had never travelled further than Europe and I could not imagine what it would be like. I was nervous but mainly excited about this adventure and the prospect of being able to become part of the team at Chitokoloki Mission Hospital during my stay there. We were met at Lusaka airport after our long journey and driven to the “small plane”, which would take us to Chitokoloki. The small plane was indeed a very small plane, and it was incredible scenery flying over Zambia and being able to see the hospital from the air. We were welcomed by lots of the missionaries and locals, all waving as we landed.

Chitokoloki is a Mission Hospital in the North Western Province of Zambia and lies just next to the Zambezi River (the best sunsets I have ever seen!). The hospital has 180 beds, and the week is split up into clinic and theatre days. Some mornings before the ward round, the hospital staff would meet to sing and worship the Lord, and I found this a lovely way to start the day and very encouraging to worship with the team. The thing that struck me most was before each surgery, we would pray with the patient, reminding everyone that it is in the Lords hands and praying for his blessing. It showed a lot of humility and faith in God, and I am sure this will have stuck out to the patients as much as it stuck out to me. The motto of the hospital is “We treat and Jesus heals” and this was very much the attitude at Chitokoloki. I really saw the Lord’s work being done through the missionaries servant hearts. They worked incredibly hard and so selflessly for all these patients- there is no such thing as a day off at Chitokoloki!

I was privileged enough to be able to go out with Dorothy (one of the nurses), on her trip through all the local villages and partake in her literacy class that she taught. Dorothy has very long days, driving over 100km on what I am not sure I can even call roads, and we were out for about twelve hours! We stopped off for lunch in one of the locals houses for nshima, a local Zambian dish. It was such a blessing to be welcomed into their house and be served lunch and certainly not an experience I will forget! I loved seeing the simplicity of life in the Zambian bush and it made me realise how complicated we can make life for ourselves. It also put into perspective everything we take for granted and assume we have a right to have access to.

I attended the Church, joined in on bible studies at the girls boarding school and helped at the children’s Sunday school. The singing was my absolute favourite thing, particularly Amazing Grace, and we tried our best to sing along with the ones in the local languages (Lunda and Luvale). The church services were partially in English and partially in the local languages. Hearing the sermon in a different language, seeing the emphasis and spirit in the translator as they would retell the sermon was very special to witness and provided a different perspective on passages that I have heard repeatedly throughout my life. It provided a fresh perspective as though hearing it in a different language was like hearing the passage for the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the patients, especially the children. Due to patients travelling so far (for example from Angola and DRC), many patients lived at the hospital for many months. This meant you really got to know some of them and the children would form little friendship groups and they loved to play with you. One in particular loved to use our stethoscopes to listen to his heart and lungs and found it hilarious the sound it made when he coughed and wanted allhis friends to hear too!

At Chitokoloki, clinical reasoning and decision making is crucial because the story from the patient never stays the same or is necessarily the truth. This became very apparent when a six year old boy came in seizing, and we were told it was because he had fallen out of a mango tree. As time went on it transpired that no one had witnessed the fall, and this was just assumed because he had been confused for the last few days. We could not see any sign of a head trauma and the little boy had a high fever, which was why the doctors began to question the story. It turned out he had cerebral malaria, which sadly was discovered too late to effectively treat. This really highlighted to me the importance of using your own clinical judgement and the symptoms of the patient. It also showed me the importance of stepping back to look at the bigger picture and see if anything else could be causing the patients presentation, which is something I will strive to do in my clinical practice.

It was a very refreshing experience to be working as part of the team, rather than being the “student on placement”. Having my own list of jobs and things to follow up, growing a relationship with the staff and being able to help was a really rewarding experience. I am so grateful for this opportunity and it is certainly one I will never forget!