Pharmacy Slavery and Lent Failure

Well, continuing with the theme of epic fails...




I had been planning on sticking to the family tradition of giving up dessert for Lent which started last Wednesday. When did I find out that this Lent had started? Err, Tuesday night. Great, just perfect. I am now back on track, but it is so so hard here, especially when we don't have that much else to do in the evening except eat (okay that's a lie, but the fridge is in the middle of the living room so it’s tempting). I am combating the need to eat in a number of ways including staying at work for as long as possible and not actually buying any food that would break the Lent rules. I have to admit I did take one day off this weekend, but you can find out about that in a later post...



Monday was really not worth typing about – Jabulani meeting, work, Frisbee. Tuesday however was another stunning clinic day at Ngcwanguba. Not as many patients as last time (thankfully) and Nokuthula the counsellor had really sorted the system out so I think we may be able to leave the work to her after a few more visits. It's really great when you find people here who are motivated and efficient and it will be a relief to hand over to the clinic in the near future. On the way back to Zithulele we had a full car once again because we were taking a mother and child to see the doctors at the hospital and bringing one of the other counsellors back, saving both a considerable sum of money for a taxi or a very long walk. People are very generous in picking up strangers, and most people are happy even just to sit in the back of a pickup – it's not uncommon to see eight or nine kids crammed into the back of a 4 x 4 speeding along the dirt road.



Back at work, we were pretty busy so I got on with some dispensing. An update on my Xhosa is that I can now say almost all the combinations of 'Take one/two/three pills one/two/three times a day' and my personal favourite 'Tata aff a teaspoon ngemini' which is 'Take half a teaspoon per day'. I always feel so stupid saying it :D We shut the window at half five, but the patients here are pretty persistent and were rattling the bars over the door so I made the mistake of going out to see one of them and ended up being accosted from all sides with patients speaking rapidly in Xhosa. Eventually I managed to clear them all away and Sally came and saved me from another crowd and dragged me out of the hospital.



Sam had made a great dinner as usual, tonight's was spaghetti carbonara. After dinner we went to the monthly Jabulani general meeting where they talk about important stuff like money and donations and NGO status and employment and financial year and I sit and understand none of it and drink my glass of water very slowly and concentrate on nodding in the right place. (Ok, well it wasn't THAT confusing, but you get the message) Two and a half hours later, we were out of there and it was time for bed.