I thought I’d got out of teaching anatomy on Monday, in Swansea at least. Prof. Menendez and the anatomy lecturer here in the Gambian School of Medicine have roped me into teaching the 3rd year students in a 1 and a half hour slot on Monday morning (at about the same time as I would have been teaching the Swansea students). That much teaching would normally take me weeks to prepare for, but I only have the weekend. I’m getting better at winging it these days.
Prof. Menendez (the leading professor in the school) is very enthusiastic about our involvement and it’s clear that he and his Cuban team put huge efforts into the training of new doctors here. Much of that training is dependent upon donations of materials and equipment from other countries, including Spain, Holland, Sweden, the UK and many others. Hopefully much of the elearning we’ve already been developing in Swansea will be directly applicable to the Gambian students (anatomy is anatomy, is anatomy) and we’ve identified many areas that we can help with.
They’ve got a better collection of microscopes than we do, but histology plays a more important part of the teaching here and classes are getting larger. There is only one histopathologist in the Gambia.
The histology lab. More microscopes and some decent kit in here. One of the main problems in the Medical School is space, with lecturers sharing offices and some tight space for teaching.
There are no arguments about blackboards vs whiteboards here, and there certainly isn’t a digital Blackboard for storing powerpoint lectures. I’ll have to practice my chalk skills.
Right, back to work.
P.S. As a side rant, you bastards sending me spam are a real pain in the arse when trying to send and receive email in West Africa! You’re slowing down the whole internet!
