COTC Teaching

I spent an hour this afternoon teaching the third year COTC (Clinical Officer's Training College) students. Lindi has a COTC which awards its graduates a certificate to become an 'Assistant Medical Officer'. The College is a 3 year program with approximately 130 total students. There are 43 students in the third year class and I think all were present today for my lecture on "pelvic masses". The semester will end in January and the students will graduate in July.
For now, the COTC principal has selected 7 ob/gyn topics for me to teach the students during the remainder of this semester.

Compared to my last class of nursing students, teaching at Lindi's COTC is much nicer because the students have a better fund of knowledge and clinical understanding. In addition, the students are much more capable of understanding my lecture in English! No translator is needed....

The students rotate in the hospital and are always hanging around the maternity department - in the wards and in the OPD. Some students are good, some are not so good just like back home in US medical schools. The other day I sat with one of the students in the OPD. The first patient came with a history of post menopausal bleeding. The student asked me 'what are the causes of post menopausal bleeding'? I told him to read and give me the answer by tomorrow. He told me he doesn't have a book. There was a moment of silence because I didn't have a justifiable response, so I gave in and just gave him a brief rundown on the causes. I wonder though, how much are the students really retaining by learning from lectures and handouts without textbooks? I don't think all students are lacking books, but I think the majority do not have the resources to buy textbooks. This is a problem and I'm not sure how I'm going to go about finding a solution because its difficult to find donations to purchase new textbooks! In the meantime, I'm resorting to repetition through handouts and the old-fashion chalkboard....which isn't necessarily a bad thing!