A Zithulele weekend

I am spoiling you here by posting all these blogs at the same time! Sorry at the lack of pictures but as I am currently relying on the kindness of others to use the internet I can't use up all their data allowance :( My phone is currently not working so sorry I haven't texted anyone back.








So this weekend has been fun! On Fridays we finish at 1pm except that I didn't actually finish in the pharmacy until 3.30pm. Had some general chat with Liz, Karl, Sally (doctors here) and Roger (Jabulani manager) then went home for dinner. Sam is the most stunning cook and makes dinner almost every night, yes I know that makes me very lazy. We had beef stew which was excellent, then I made pancakes again :) We took the pancakes and some beer to Liz's house, since Liz has been left alone by Monique the pharmacist's departure. (I hope you are following this!) It was a proper good night, we played 30 seconds which is a South African version of Articulate where you have to describe a word without saying the word and it was absolutely hilarious. I won't put any examples of how ridiculous our descriptions and guesses were but I haven't laughed that much in a while! We had some hot chocolate with marshmallows (something I haven't actually had since Marjorie made it for me and Frido two Decembers ago :O) then went home around 10pm, which is late considering that in Zithulele, midnight refers to 9pm!







Saturday morning we got up late, pancakes for breakfast (comprehend the extent of this obsession yet?) then I did some washing up and washed my clothes. Washing by hand isn't really that bad except I can never be bothered with it and it takes about 5 years to get the soap out. We did some work on the garden, then went down to Lubanzi beach with Roger and Karen for the trials for a new Ecoventure Club that offered a mix of outdoor sports like surfing, hiking, climbing and activities like tree planting, community clean up etc etc. It was a Jabulani project which we hoped would be a big success but sadly no one turned up (epic fail) so we just wandered on the beach for a bit. Better luck next time.







In the evening we got a text from Liz asking us if we wanted to go to Hole in the Wall and Coffee Bay with her and some friends from East London so obviously we said yes. [Any question which asks if you want to do something outside of Zithulele or involves food must always be answered yes!] At Hole in the Wall, actually at the Hole itself this time we sat in gale force winds, drank cocktails that Liz had brought (what is actually in a Strawberry Dacquiri) and ate Nik Naks, which are something of a local tradition. It was really nice, the sun was going down and it’s a beautiful place so it didn't really matter that the wind was like something out of Twister!







Next stop was Coffee Bay for our third trip to Papazela's pizza place. This time Sam and I got different pizzas then traded half so I had half of a Mamazela (chicken, pepper, onion) and half of a Papazela (mince, pepper, onion). Man, those pizzas are good. As usual, I put a tonne of Nando's chilli sauce on and destroyed my mouth but oh well...







This morning the reggae from next door started at 6am, wonderful for a Sunday morning! I have been writing replies to the letters I received yesterday; I have never been so pleased to receive letters in my life! So far my tally is at four: two from Mum, one from Kirsty and one from Megan :D please keep them coming, I will reply to them all.







We got a lift down to the beach with the crew from last night and had a morning swim/beating from the waves which were epically big today, then had pancakes for lunch. Do you think we are going mad out here in the sticks?!







Just got back from a wonderful adventure – Anita, Etienne, Sam and I went to a local bottle store to stock up on some more beer. It was possibly the grimmest experience you can imagine. We went into a tiny hut which was packed full of people who looked a bit ill, including a woman who was drunk and spilling her beer all down herself (nice) then asked for our beers. While the man was getting them, the police walked in, and the police are very rarely in these parts. The police woman had a machine gun and was nonchalantly swinging it around and hitting it off the door but luckily once she had had a chat with dribbling drunken lady she went away. Good times! Don't worry about me; we will be going to the tavern which is much nicer in future!







Well that's all for now. Tonight we are going to a New Year's party because nothing happens until February here apparently (that's why we went to buy beer in case you were wondering).







Hope you are all well! Someone please send me a picture of the new Town House Fish Bar? And Hello to Mrs Elliott, I hear you have been reading :D







Salani Kakuhle xxxx

Saving Lives One Pack at a Time

Thought I better give you a run down of what I am actually doing here, don't want it to sound like all I do is go to the beach and eat food!

I work in the pharmacy at Zithulele hospital and probably the largest amount of what the pharmacy does is dispense ARVs, the drugs which HIV+ patients take to fight the virus and allow them to continue with a healthy and happy life. HIV is rife - I'm pretty sure S.A has a 20% HIV rate as a whole, and a poor rural area like here is bound to be higher.

On Wednesdays and Thursdays, all the local HIV patients come to pick up their meds from the clinic at Zithulele. Some of the patients walk for miles and miles to pick up their meds, such is the importance of them. ARVs must be taken at very precise time intervals, with only about 15 mins leighway (is that how you spell it) between it working effectively and not working. You have to have about 95% adherence or it doesn't really work. Last week I visited all the outreach clinics in the area that the patients go to for other things apart from ARVs and it threw into perspective how far the patients have to come. It took an hour IN THE CAR to get to some of the places, and people go further than that because they live off the beaten track – it's hard to know just how long that takes on foot. It is very expensive to take a taxi so the patients have a difficult time just getting the meds, let along remembering to take them, and then living with the horrible side effects e.g. peripheral neuropathy [check out that for a fancy word].

Wilo clinic - a possible future ARV site

To help the patients out, we are running a system where we prepack meds at the hospital and send them out to the outreach clinics so the patients can pick them up at a place that is convenient for them. This is called down-referral. At the moment there are two clinics we use, Ncwanguba and Mapuzi. I am responsible for getting all the medicine out to the clinics on time and packed correctly according to the prescriptions. There are about 80 Mapuzi patients and over 250 Ncwanguba patients and the numbers grow every week so I have my work cut out! I have to keep records on a computer system called iDart, track patients files, pack individual prescriptions that contain various ARV regimens, TB medication and other chronic meds and check that all the packages get picked up at the clinic.


I've learnt so much about pharmacy work in the last three weeks, thanks in no small part to Monique the pharmacist and the other pharmacy assistants, Fesiwe, Thabo and Zandile. I am pretty sure that there is no way a 17 year old with no qualifications would be given a role like this in the UK! It's an absolute mission to coordinate everything and on top of it all, Monique left on Wednesday so we are a bit lost without her! I am learning more and more about different drugs, prescribing meds and the ins and outs of HIV which is really interesting. Plus I am carrying on the Hanson family tradition of pharmacy! Hello to Grandma, Auntie Linda and Deborah Brown (ok you aren't a Hanson and you aren't called that anymore...) if you are reading!



On Tuesday, Monique, Tom (head of health programme at Jabulani) and I went out to Mapuzi to oversee the first clinic. It was absolute chaos. We were crammed into a tiny room with one table and one chair (luckily someone found another 3 chairs) and dispensed for 3 hours solid. There were six of us working including 3 lay counsellors from Mapuzi. Patients turned up for the clinic who weren't meant to so did not have a pack, but needed to pick up ARVs because they had none left, so it was a logistical nightmare to make a plan to get everyone sorted for medication. Patient records here are generally kept in exercise books that are completely battered and soggy from the rain, so everyone ends up with a mess of different reference numbers etc etc and it's such a far cry from the UK (and you think the NHS is a mess!?). But somehow, it all worked out. Monique and I worked until 8pm that night to make packages for the people who turned up unexpectedly ready to send with a courier the next day, which I think may be the first of many long days here – I already work from 8am to around 6pm as it is!

The next couple of weeks will be a learning curve as I oversee my first packing for Ncgwanguba clinic as well as working in the Zithulele clinic, prepacking in the pharmacy and all the other odd jobs that come my way. And don't forget that I work for Jabulani too! Maybe that will come under another post...
Either way, I'm having an incredible time working here and getting to take things on that I never could do at home. It's good to have a challenge and nice to know that what I'm doing matters, as Monique says, ARVs is about saving lives one pack at a time... :D
Sigqibila!

xxx

Escape to Orbi's

Last weekend we escaped from Zithulele for the day! On Sunday morning, Anita picked us up to go to Hole in the Wall which is a place about 40 minutes away, google it if you want the full story. Two of the occupational therapists, Jess and Shannon had rented this amazing house on the beach for the weekend (at about R110 = £11 per night we will probably rent it soon as well...) so we all went for a day of beach fun, food and good chat.

First of all, Orbi's house (btw, Orbi is the owner) is AMAZING. The basic facilities here at Zithulele do lose their rustic charm now and then so it was great to sit in a house that was nicely furnished and had a sofa for once! There is a garden that looks right out onto the beach and its about a 30 second walk down onto the sand. To top it all off, it was probably the hottest and most stunning day we've had since we got here so perfect for a beach day.

We went down for a swim about 11, well, when I say swim on in the sea here, its more like playing in enormous waves as its pretty rough! I really need to get hold of a bodyboard and start taking advantage – surfing is another option but I don't think I have the coordination...After we were all finished with the sea for the morning, we went to sit in a rockpool and drink some beer :D Which may sound odd, but it was nice and refreshing in the hot sun, and there wasn't any rank sea creatures a la North Berwick beach. At around lunch time, we went back to the house to avoid a roasting in the midday sun.

I read the entire of Breakfast at Tiffany's (see my previous post where I went to see the play) which took about an hour and a half, then Jess made pancakes for a lunchtime snack. I can't say I've had pancakes that many times, but these were the best pancakes EVER. Since then I have made pancakes twice, the first time I've ever made them in my life, and if I am still in a pancake loving mood when I come back, then maybe I will make some for you lucky people at home!



For proper lunch, we had a South African take on Sunday dinner: braaied chicken, potato and cheese bake, roasted sweet potato and vegetables. Etienne, Anita's husband (the hospital dentist) is an expert on the braai (BBQ) front so it was an excellent meal and it was also nice to have a sit down lunch with other people :D For pudding, Shannon had made icecream (anyone else get the feeling my entire blog is about foood? Haaa) which was stunnnnning and we all sat and ate it in the sun overlooking the beautiful Hole in the Wall beach. If you've googled it by now, I should probably point out we weren't actually at the Hole, we were in a different bay along the coast a bit.



After lunch and a rest, we went over to Hole in the Wall holiday resort where we met Karl and Sally, two doctors at Zithulele, and their kids, Emma and Johann, and Liz who is also a doctor. We had a swim in the pool, a bit of a chat, played with the cute kids etc etc before heading on back to Orbi's. Probably the coolest thing about the little outing to the swimming pool was the way we got there – Sam and I sat on the roof of Etienne's 4 x 4 which was pretty scary at first but turned out to be refreshing on a hot day and a much better to see the landscape around here :D Next time we do it I'll get some pictures!



So that was the end of the Hole in the Wall day, good times all round!

Life in the sun...

Molweni!
I've now lived for two whole weeks in Zithulele and it is AMAZING. Sam and I are staying in a renovated rondavel which is pretty well kitted out – we have all the essentials like cooker, fridge, toilet and a nice hot shower :D. There are plenty of bugs to keep us entertained and so far we have evicted three cockroaches, a giant moth and so many spiders we gave up on them. We also have a resident gecko and sheep, dogs and chickens that roam in the garden.

Zithulele hospital is a crazy place: there are only seven doctors and they run out patients, surgery, maternity and a paediatrics ward as well as an anti-retroviral programme for HIV+/AIDS patients. Needless to say that the doctors, nurses, therapists, dentist, pharmacists etc etc etc here are doing a brilliant job! Everyone here (locals and otherwise) is really friendly and you can't pass anyone without having a quick chat. The day starts early when the mechanics next door starts with the ridiculously loud reggae at 6am to wake me up, but everyone is in bed by about 10pm so it works out quite well.
I work in the pharmacy everyday which is good times all round! Getting to work takes about, oh, 3 seconds so I roll out of bed about 10 minutes before and pitch up around 9am to start. My role is to manage the ARV (HIV meds) which are going out to the local clinics, Mapuzi and Ncwanguba. I have to make up the prescriptions for the patients, register it all on the computer and then get it all sent out on timeso the patients can pick them up. I am also a pill counting slave and prepack thousands of pills into smaller packs which is less than glamourous but its a worthwhile job. Then there are other random pharmacy things which I'm sure will pile up when the current pharmacist Monique leaves on Wednesday, leaving Zithulele with no one to run the pharmacy!

I also work for the NGO The Jabulani Rural Health Foundation (which by the way, got a new patron this week – Desmond Tutu) which includes a whole host of things. We are teaching computer classes at a local school, organising community volunteer work and sorting out bits and pieces in the hospital. Sam is busy with Jabulani helping to run the preschool and working towards opening another ten and training new teachers in the next few months so has her work cut out too.

Aside from work, there has been a lot going on. We've had three braais – South African barbecues – where we have met all the staff at the hospital (pretty good chat I'd say :D). The local beach LuBanzi is only an hours walk away with some great waves so we have been there a few times. Last time Sam and I got nice and sunburnt despite wearing factor 50 so that wasn't so pleasant. It is an absolutely stunning beach so we may end up spending a fair amount of time there!

It was Sam's birthday on Tuesday so we went to Karl and Sally Le Roux's house for dinner which was a great night and included birthday cake, need I say more? They were very welcoming and we had fun so hopefully that will continue! We've also been to Coffee Bay which is a local resort twice for Papazela's pizza which has been excellent both times – loads of people from Zithulele go and we all sit at a long table, eat pizza, chat and have a nice drink (which is pretty cheap here...1L beer is only £1.70).

For the first week we had an American medical student Justin staying with us which was hilarious and we had a riot in the rondavel with him :D He got us introduced to everyone and left a tonne of food so we are very grateful to him for that! Students come and go to the rondavel next door so hopefully more will follow in his footsteps...

Yesterday we had no water or power which was, shall I say, the best time of my life ever. Except it wasn't, because I only realised we had no water when I came back from a run at 7am and discovered there was no way I could have a shower. Then at work the power went out so I had to come home which was just greaaaaaaat since I do actually like work :D When the water did come on it was brown and muddy, oh how we are living the dream here! Thankfully its all back to normal now but you do realise how lucky we are compared to the locals who have to use paraffin stoves and drink out of the dirty lakes.

Last week Sam and I saw possibly the cutest thing that exists on the planet when we got to hold one day old twins in the maternity ward. Will definitely be popping down there again if I ever need cheering up!
If you are wondering how I am coping without a constant supply of deep fried goodness from working at the chippy, Justin introduced us to amaguena or Fat Cakes which are basically deep fried doughballs that cost 15p and taste amazing if you put icing sugar on them...so I will probably return obese despite the fact that we are living on £56 per month.

So the plan for the next few days is a trip to Umtata tomorrow to pick up the food for the next few weeks, a birthday party for one of the doctor's little girls, a trip to Mapuzi clinic, dinner at the pastors, computer classes, sorting out some regular internet and just general good times in the African sun.
Thanks for all the text messages, I do get them but can't reply too often without running up a nice credit card bill at home. I will get round to writing to everyone eventually so sorry if I miss you in my first batch! If you feel like brightening up my day, please email me on kayleigh892@hotmail.co.uk
Good luck to anyone doing prelims! And Happy Birthday (belated) to Gregor and Tides! Thanks for reading, hope you are all having fun :)
Until next time...


Salani Kakuhle xxxxx

Zithulele: The first two weeks!

I'm here in the middle of nowhere at last! And I have written a massive blog but saved it on the wrong format for this computer so you'll have to wait until I get back on this computer to see it :( I will give you a brief run down though...

- weather = AMAZING
- mosquitoes = not amazing
- the beach here is stunning
- we do have a shower, toilet, freezer and a cooker, but sadly the fridge broke yesterday
- we have had 4 power cuts, two of them for over 12 hours
- we had a water cut, then it was brown for a day
- the other staff here are brilliant chat
- i work in the pharmacy and am responsible for all the HIV meds that go out to the clinics in the area
- me and Sam love eating\
- i have sat on the roof of a landrover while it was driving and it was cooooooool
- there is a pizza place nearby, and it is a top night

one week old twins...so cute!

our kitchen

our chicks that run round the garden!

dr justin, our room mate for week one

the view from papazela's pizza, coffee bay

preschool

some local kids

me and some cows on the beach

Anyway, off home now to have some fresh bread at Rogers, a clinic visit tomorrow then dinner at Liz and Moniques :D

see you all soon!

xxxx

WOOOOOOOO I HAVE ARRIVED!

I'm finally here! It took long enough but it's finally become a reality and I'm sitting in the hostel in Johannesburg just about to go to bed.

Today has been fun - after arriving and meeting our lovely host Ian, we got a taxi to the Ritz (no not the actual Ritz, the S.Africa backpackers Ritz!) which is a great hostel in a suburb called Dunkeld. We had some time to look around, stick our feet in the pool etc before a chat with Ian about the plans from now on and some basic knowledge for the trip.

After that Flo, Catherine, Sam and I embarked upon possibly the most epic part of the journey so far - to buy some food for ourselves and Katy who was staying in the room. It was undeniably an epic fail as we managed to come back with the most nutritious meal ever: one banana, a pot of olives, bread, dried mango, sugar snap peas and chocolate stones. MMMMMMMM. However, the olives leaked onto the bread and the chocolate stones tasted like baby sick (according to Catherine and Flo) so it wasn't so nice (i.e. Katy only ate the banana...)

After we had recovered from this excitement, we went out for dinner with Ian, thanks Projetc Trust for paying for that ha ha ha, at least I can see the money went somewhere good on that nice steak...
The meal was good chat and now we are all going to bed for an early start at 6am tomorrow. Plane to Mthata is at 8.20am FUN TIMES!

Hope the snow back home is fun xxxx

Last day in the UK!

Well, I'm leaving today! Yesterday was my last full day in the country for a while, and it was a bloody good one. I arrived in London on Tuesday night and went out for dinner to a Chinese restaurant boasting the best crispy duck in Chinatown - however having limited experience of the other restaurants in Chinatown I couldn't really judge...

After the meal, we went to the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square to see Sherlock Holmes. It's a pretty impressive cinema with the most enormous screen and it's VERY loud. The most unbelievable thing about this cinema though is the price - £11.95 each!!! Makes the £5.90 in Edinburgh seem cheap! Either way, it was great film.

So, onto the final day in the UK. First of all I went to the Apollo Victoria as planned to pick up our Wicked tickets for the evening. I thought I would wander up to Oxford Street to pick up some things I still needed, but on the way there got distracted and ended up buying a ticket to see Breakfast at Tiffany's at 2.30pm! (at £15 per ticket, it was a bargain compared to the cinema!)

A shopping spree took place in the time leading up until the show - here is a list of what I bought:

• hairbands
• a book about South Africa
• coloured pens
• postcards
• hot chocolate + muffin
• a poster
• face cleanser

So next up was my first show of the day, Breakfast at Tiffany's. I was sitting in the front row (YAS) and the exact middle (YAS) so I could see everything and was about 2 feet away from the cast. It was a brilliant show, and no I haven't seen the film or read the book so I don't really know what it was meant to be like, and Anna Friel was excellent. After the show, I saw her outside and got a picture:

Next up was my last meal in Britain, at Pizza Express and then the second show Wicked which I was BUZZING to see ;) And it didn't disappoint - the cast were on fire last night (much better than the first time I saw them), once again I was in the front row centre (YAS) and the whole thing was just amazing. Anyone fancy seeing it with me when I come back?

So that was it! My final day! Now I'm off to the airport to meet Sam and begin this adventure which has been pretty long in coming around....

See you all soon!

xxxxxx

Last Day In Haddington

My time in Haddytown is over! Today I woke up and walked down to work due to all that lovely snow. My last ever shift of washing the elderly folk of the town finished at 11am  - it's been good but I have seen (and smelled) some horrible things!

Then Mum made a square sausage sandwich for lunch (good times). After a bit of packing, it was time for a visit from Fiona Cleat, and we went epic sledging, or not so epic sledging as it turned out....but the photos were good:

After an long wait for the Gifford 123 bus which didn't turn up and some funny looks at the baking tray I was using as a sledge, we had to say goodbye, the first of a long day :(

Next up was a visit to Megan's/visit to Tesco to get passport photos and more goodbyes, first at the chippy where I earned the money to go (and ate chips and had good times) and then at the Family McCaffs house :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Then a stop at Katie, Gordon and Isla's (how CUTE is she) for yet another :(

For my final Haddy tea we had some fish pie and since tea time I have taken down all the pictures in my room (and if you've seen it you'll know that is a mission), packed hand luggage, wrapped birthday presents, unlocked my phone, photocopied everything in sight and all that's left is a few goodbye emails and updating my ancient rusty iPod for the trip  - thanks for the CDs Megan :D

So for now I'd like to say bye to all the Haddy crowd: Mum, Gregor, Megan, Fiona, Trips, John, Marje, Big Olds, Jennifer G, SAZZA, Hanza my Bring it on BUD, Kirst Ya Tides, Sly Al, Debbon and Anna Adv. Chemo Crew, everyone at the chippy: Si, Sara, Frankie, Anna, Anna-Maria, Tammi, Linda, Kerr, Callum,all the people at Housecall, running: Judith, Claire, Sandy, Joe, Brian, John, Ray, Foppy, Annette, Ruth, Julie, Ian, Eddie, Frank, George (i know there are others I forget!), all the cadets, some of the teachers ;), Lucy ooooft, Kelsie, Lee, the cadets, and all the other people I have badly missed out!

BYE BYE BYE!
XXXXXXXX

Packing Complete!

I've finally finished packing (although I still need hairbands, batteries and sunglasses) and it all fits in. I think it might even be within the 20kg weight limit as well! Here is the finished article:

Now that I've done that, all that's left is to do my hand luggage, sort out all my documents, pick up my rands, dismantle my room so it can get repainted while I'm away, sort out my Cambridge application, buy the rest of the stuff I need, write my Christmas thankyou letters, say bye to everyone and I've got a whole 42 hours to do it!

In other news, I came home today to find a card from our neighbours Paul and Margaret who have extremely generously given me a donation towards my trip! It was such a nice (and unexpected) gesture so I am very grateful to them. I'll try and find a good use for it when I'm away :D (And I'll try and work out how to turn that picture around too!)

Better get on with it all now...

xxxxx

Important Packing - DVD

Here's a list of the DVDs I'm taking...

• clueless
• the interpreter
• crouching tiger hidden dragon
• meet the fockers
• 30 rock season 1
• aladdin
• walk the line
• enchanted 
• pirates of the carribean
• the notebook
• music and lyrics
• about a boy
• not another teen movie
• enigma
• little miss sunshine
• drop dead gorgeous
• dodgeball
• the holiday
• just like heaven
• moulin rouge
• eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
• romeo + juliet

 

Happy New Year! xxx