Amoonguna Medical Centre

First day on the job. I was picked up at 8 AM by the clinic practice manager and driven 15kms out of town to the small community (pop. 300) of Amoonguna. Didn't know what to expect on the way in but was ready for anything. The clinic was less than a year old and looked pristinely new. It has two clinic nurses, a local receptionist and a couple of bus drivers who go and collect the patients and bring them in. The practice manager gave me a quick tour of the community which is essentially comprised of government houses which the occupants are meant to pay rent for - some do, some don't. There is variable care taken to the yards and plenty of overgrown, trash strewn lawns. The aged-care facility looks fairly basic, complete with an old white Ford out front on blocks. Today was predominantly an orientation day and I only saw a handful of patients. I think I'll be doing a lot of clean up for the next three weeks - meaning  - there are pathology reports, discharge summaries and a whole bunch more paperwork in need of catching up in addition to follow up health checks and an overwhelming amount of diabetes/chronic health management assessments to tackle. The clinic hasn't had a GP for 3 weeks so the nurses were almost desperate in showing me lists of patients with diabetes and their abysmal numbers indicating poor control. As I started into some of the results I immediately hit a roadblock with the first two patients requiring follow up for STDs I haven't treated since being in Australia.  TB exists and the incidence of Rheumatic Heart disease is apparently epidemic - it's like I've been transported back to India, Guyana or Guatemala with that same smell on patients - a sort of sweet and sour charcoal-like smell indicative of poor living environments. I'm fascinated by the naturally blonde or auburn hair though, commonly unkempt and frizzled - such a contrast to the incredibly dark skin tones.

While I was struggling to get my head around what my job will be for the next few weeks, Jen and the kids checked out the reptile museum, handling snakes and lizards and learning about the local fauna. The boys said they were the closest they'd ever been to a salty croc - a smiley creature on the other side of a thick plexi-glass window only a nose or finger tip away. Once home from work we headed out as a family to the Cultural Precinct centre complete with a massive playground for the kids to have a run around. Cole has wanted desperately to try out his new boomerang that he bought  in Coober Pedy and we finally found a space to do so. After a number of throws with variable success at returns but no self-induced injuries, he joined his brother and sister in the park. We're settling in to Alice - should be an interesting few weeks - still lots to see and do.