The Pangolin Diary

The Pangolin Diary offers reflections and insights by an Australian male midwife working in remote, rural Zimbabwe in the early 1990s, as AIDS and TB spread their shadow across the continent. Some stories are funny, many are sad, but they offer a range of perspectives on midwifery, health care and life in Zimbabwe. Says author David Stanley: "The book addresses my first year as a midwife and midwifery tutor in Africa and tells the story of my arrival at Murambinda Mission Hospital and transition to life away from my friends and family. The Pangolin Diary also deals with issues of grief and loneliness, the building of friendships and the medical and social issues faced by Zimbabwean women as they grapple with the impact of HIV/AIDS and other medical and midwifery conditions." Read along as the author struggles to understand and adjust to the strange or unusual customs, while facing the challenges, isolation, and dangers of working in a medically confronting, resource poor, and overburdened health service. David Stanley was born in Liverpool, England. At the age of six, he moved to Whyalla, South Australia. He trained as a nurse and midwife at the Whyalla and District Hospital, and has travelled and worked as a nurse and midwife in Africa, Singapore, Australia, and England. He now lives in Perth, and works as an associate professor teaching nursing at the University of Western Australia. He wrote the children's books When Emus Dream and A Lovely Day for Knitting, and a general poetry book Rhymes with Reason. His academic books include Clinical Leadership: Innovation into Action and A Preceptor in My Pocket.