Things to do before I leave (I)

In the car on the way back from Mthatha the other day, Lisa and I made up a big list of things to do before Sam and I leave [and subsequently Sam and I had the same conversation] and we're trying to do them all in the next 20 [!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] days....








I – Sundowners on the water tower







In the hospital we have two giant water towers which somehow [not really sure exactly] collect water and distribute it to the various buildings and for ages we have been talking about climbing the ladder that leads to the top and watching the sun go down over Zithulele. So today, after a great day at work that miraculously ended at five, I texted Sam and we decided that today was to be the day we finally did it.







Sam brought some cider from the house and the two of us met at the bottom of the ladder, suddenly realising a) how high the tower actually was and b) how dodgy the ladder looked. Given our previous experiences in places far above the ground, my brain had already started with the 'this is stupid, don't do it, you're going to die'. Turns out I hadn't learnt anything from the death-on-a-cliff-incident and I started the long long climb to the top anyway.

A traumatised Sammy reaches the top

After about ten rungs I was shaking, after twenty I was contemplating the likelihood that gravity might switch itself off in the event I fell and after thirty I don't remember because I was focussing so hard on not dying. Finally the ladder ran out and I found myself on the top of the tower all in one piece:) GOOD TIMES. It's reassuring to know that the plan for me doesn't including falling off a giant metal tower...





Soon [well, actually not that soon] I was joined by a panic stricken Sam who had her shaky cliff voice on and told me that this was without doubt the stupidest thing we'd ever done. JT valiantly attempted the climb but gave up about half way, probably because her heart was actually on the Frisbee court instead [at least that's her excuse ;)]. Lisa tried once and climbed down again, only to repeat the exercise and join us on the top, alive but in desperate need of some cider. The three of us had just about got over our nervous breakdowns and had actually looked at the stunning landscape around us when we saw a tiny figure below us that turned out to be Liziwe, who sped up the ladder in about three seconds and casually wandered around on the top. Now that our Zithulele family was all present and correct, we sat around and watched a bit of an epic sunset fail [there were trees in the way], took pictures, ate chocolate and had sundowners, all the while looking over out this tiny village that we call home :)

Zithulele Village

Only nineteen days left. I think I'm going to need serious counselling.







x

One Month Left

[An account of 19th - 23rd July]






On Monday morning I went into work to find it a changed place – no longer was it filled with drugs arranged in a system devoid of any logical order, or cluttered with boxes to climb over or buried under heaps of paperwork, but Ian [our new pharmacist who I'm very pleased to say is still here and does not appear to be leaving anytime soon] had spent the entire weekend clearing it out, removing boxes and boxes of expired stock, introducing a revolutionary new system called alphabetisation [ha] and generally straightening everything out and making it look more like a real pharmacy. It was so cool to actually walk down the aisles without clambering over cardboard boxes and to know where things are without having to dig around all over the place! And on top of that, in a MIRACULOUS turn of events, all three of the pharmacy staff turned up for work so for once there was the possibility of having a productive day and actually finishing by 5pm...[Sadly, a possibility was all it turned out to be]

Order is finally restored to the pharmacy

Sadly for Sam and I, our water had been off for the previous five days which we were thoroughly enjoying [brushing your teeth outside and spitting in the compost heap is just GREAT, as is running across to the hospital to use the toilet :)] We hadn't been able to wash dishes so by Monday night had about one plate and one fork between us so ended up having cheese on toast for dinner served on plates that we deemed to be cleaner than the others. Not sure either of us has felt so trampy in our entire life!







Tuesday night we all went out for pizza in Coffee Bay and once again commanded about half of the four tables in the place. When we got back, Annelou, Chane [another student], Charlene [her mum who is volunteering], Sam and I decided to get vengeance on the chickens who have been keeping us up at all hours of the night. There are two roosters, about eight hens and countless chicks of various sizes and at night they all fly [yes, these weird chickens can FLY] up into the trees outside our rondavels and sit the whole night and make THE most annoying noise. They also have the talent of timing it so precisely that you have just forgotten how angry you are and are drifting back to sleep when, oh, there they go again! So we decided we would take some revenge and jumped on the branches, causing the chickens to almost fall out of the tree, and then proceeded to unsuccessfully throw sticks at them but sadly only managed to anger them more so they made a screaming sound and made noise the entire night. I ended up getting up at five to hit the rooster with a stick, but he didn't even flinch. It was a top night.







Wednesday was a fun day at work [not] because we had 146 patients in ARV clinic. I can't remember if I wrote previously about this, but I was recently thrown out for a few days because apparently I don't speak good enough Xhosa [which is true, but sometimes there isn't anyone else to do my job when attending work is cancelled due to lack of interest]. After about 2 weeks of feeling very annoyed, I was somehow let back in [apparently there was some miscommunication, how ironic] so Wednesday was my first day back in. It was a loooooong day and we didn't finish until half six, but it's not the latest ever so it wasn't all bad!

Abenathi, the CUTEST child in the world

Someone had come to fix our water so the toilet was back in use [yay!] but the shower was less than effective and the hot tap was no longer connected to the wall, but I guess we can't really be picky. Then to make life just that little bit more brilliant, the power cut out, so with a defrosting fridge and freezer and surrounded by pitch darkness Sammy and I sat in the middle of the living room floor next to our solitary candle, heating up some food on a gas stove and chatting until midnight...does it get any better?







Thursday morning came and went without any improvement in the situation so I decided enough was enough, took my phone charger and a towel and went to make use of the running water and power at Liz and Lisa's :)







Thursday night was Annelou's leaving braai where we all had steak because she had bought 15 steaks with her, expecting to eat them all over the course of her month long elective [and not surprisingly didn't! We then spent an enjoyable eating listening to her endless supply of 'tips' about how to live life and watching as she epically failed at blowing on the fire to make it burn better, only succeeding in blowing it out. Then Karl showed up with marshmallows so we all toasted them :) GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD TIMES.







Friday was a hard day at work because Monday had taken its toll and we were back down to one member of staff plus Ian and I in the pharmacy. Then the delivery guys showed up with an order of one zillion boxes, took one look at me and asked 'Are you the only manpower?' and proceeded to be the least helpful people I have ever met for the next forty minutes as they unloaded their truck. First of all, they decided that it was a great idea just to chuck these boxes that weighed about twelve kilos at me, which would have been fine if they were actually throwing them accurately and the boxes weren't pointy! Then when we moved onto using trolleys to move the boxes, they loaded about 100 kilos of stock onto them, then shoved them through the door and let go, at which point they careered into all the little kids waiting in OPD. When I shot them a horrified look, they just acted as if I was the one trying to kill the patients! Needless to say, I was very glad when they left. Ian then showed why it is better to work in a rural hospital where there are less rules when he turned up in his running clothes so that he could shift all the tonnes of boxes up to the store room, don't think you'd seen many first world pharmacists running around in shorts, a vest and a white coat!







I gave up on work at around half one, resolving to come back around three to finish all the ward orders. Four hours later, after having a leftover steak sandwich and watching Prince Caspian with Lisa, I eventually returned to finish up...At home I hopefully switched on the shower, only to watch a few solitary drips of cold water come out so once again picked up my stuff and went to the Plaza, where an crazy dance party was taking place [Zithulele is a bit insane at times]. The evening was spent at, yes, another braai, this time hosted by the legendary Le Rouxs :) We had such a nice meal together, then had milkshakes and coffee and then an epically long eighties dance party until late in the night, culminating in the final seven of us dancing round the table to the Bangles 'Walk like and Egyptian', another classic moment :)







Do I really have to go home?







x

Umtata Miracle

10th July






Last Saturday was a miraculous occasion: for the first time in Zithulele history, two people [namely Lisa and I] had a successful shopping trip to Mthatha. Usually you arrive in that wonderful city, drive around all day trying to buy things that are out of stock, battling with crowds, traffic, unhelpful shop assistants and broken ATMs...it's just not fun. So we got up early, expecting one of those kinds of days and made our way along the steadily improving strip of potholes that lead to Mthatha.







The first stop was the post office which admittedly was not so promising when they informed us they didn't sell padded envelopes or air mail stamps and only had a measly six international land mail stamps [and I'm convinced they are the other half of the sheet I bought way back in February]. We bought out their entire stock anyway, resolving to do the usual and 'make a plan' which is the standard Zithulele response to any situation from someone's car breaking down to the entire hospital running out of gloves and syringes...







Then we went to PEP which is a cheap shop that sells everything and I finally bought some a new pair of flip flops [exactly the same as the old pair:)]. My old ones were literally, and I'm not exaggerating, a few millimetres thick in places and had various holes in them from where I've stood on sharp stones so I was in desperate need of the replacements!

A before and after shot of my flip flops

First stop in Umtata itself was the car wash as Lisa's car was in somewhat of a state with mud crusted all over the bottom of it and dust everywhere else. We were in the queue and Lisa got out to buy a coffee, leaving me with the keys and instructions just to move the car forward when the time came. The first time I moved the car it was fine, but the second time I couldn't seem to get the clutch in the right place so when I pressed the accelerator the car shot forward. I slammed the brake on, but it didn't seem to do anything so for some RIDICULOUS reason, I shoved my foot back on the accelerator and the car rocketed forward and smashed straight into the wall. Lucky I was only moving at a high speed of about 2mph so there wasn't too much damage apart from some scratches. I was so shell shocked at what I had just done that I scrambled out the car to look, expecting people to run up shouting at me for being so stupid, but no, no one even moved, and Lisa casually walked over to examine the damage [something I am eternally grateful for, most other people would have gone mental at me!]. With Lisa safely back in the driver's seat we went into the car wash where the attendants looked the car up and down in disbelief at how dirty it was and emerged about fifteen minutes later in what looked like a completely different car.







Next up was the Plaza [Umtata's shopping centre thing] where we spent the rest of the day. Everywhere was World Cup crazy and all the shops were cashing in on it, and as it was one day before the final, it was all on sale. In all the clothes shops you could buy a huge variety of team shirts and jumpers, t-shirts with flags etc – Lisa and I spent over an hour in the one shop looking at it all. We also spent an age in Ackerman’s looking for baby clothes for one of Lisa's friends, and ages in Game [different from the British one] trying to find cockroach killer and looking at DVDs.







We went to Mr Price [kind of like Primark] to buy me some new shorts as I have had one pair stolen and have got holes/rips in another three. While we were there, Lisa asked if she could bring a top she had bought back for a refund. The woman said yes and just took it so we assumed that the money came off the receipt, however when we checked it later, there was so sign of it. So we went back and Lisa asked about it, so they asked if she had a receipt from the original purchase but she didn't. The manager then phoned someone else to ask, and they decided they could give a refund anyway, but only for the discounted price that it was on sale for now. Lisa asked why they couldn't just give the whole sum, and after a lot of chat between the staff, they decided they could give a voucher for the original value. The only thing they need is the date that Lisa bought it, so Lisa says that she doesn't know. The staff told her she could just make it up so she said it was probably about March time. Turns out that they only refund up to 30 days, so instead of saying that she couldn't take it back, they asked for a date that they could use instead! And that was how Lisa accidentally defrauded Mr Price...







By the end of the day the two of us had bought lots of random things between us [and some not so random ones] and we considerably less rich than when we started but it was so cool to have had a successful shopping day in Umtata!







x

Durban: bright lights, late nights and lots and lots of football

After the trauma that was The Saga of Sam's Phone bill, we had to rearrange our holiday plans a bit, eventually deciding on a long weekend in Durban and two weeks on the Port St John’s-Coffee Bay hiking trail. Somehow we ended up spending a week um-ing and err-ing as to whether to go to Cape Town instead but didn't and eventually [can't remember how] we signed on for a week in Durban.







And so it came to be that Liz, Sam and I were on the road to East London where we would pick up Liz's friend also named Sam, spend the night and then embark upon the long road trip up to Durbs. It was a mildly traumatic road trip because Liz's car was imminently about to fall apart after she had an epic crash whilst returning from the leave [thankfully only the car was harmed:)] but aside from some interesting noises there was no trouble. There were a large number of people who took it upon themselves to point out the large sheet of metal hanging off of the front of the car [as if we didn't know] so I'm sure if things had got worse and the car had broken into a few pieces, one of those many good Samaritans would have stopped to help. [Or would have stolen the car parts, you never know with the Transkei.]







We subjected Liz to some of our highly entertaining car games until we finally arrived in East London at her friend Lara's house [turns out we had actually met before] where we were going to stay for the night. We went all went out for a Chinese which was good times, especially when they got out the jasmine tea and for some reason we ended up having some rather questionable conversations :)







The next morning we got up early and got on the road to start the 7+ hour drive to Durban which I won't bore you with details with. About nine hours later [2nd longest road trip of my life I think] we were there in the BIG city – it was very strange to see skyscrapers again after months and months of rondavels. The first task was finding out where our backpackers was which is somewhat of a mission as the powers that be [in their infinite, no wait, non-existent, wisdom] have changed all the street names in the city without producing any updated maps and with the only stipulation being that the new name has at least 15 unpronounceable syllables. We were looking for the corner of Prince Alfred and Pine Street which is now known as Monty Naiker and Florence Nzama [okay, so those two are reasonably pronounceable] so after a few wrong turns and sitting in some traffic for a while, Sam and Liz dropped us off and we were alone in Durban.







From the outside, Banana backpackers looked, shall we say, unpromising. We didn't have any other choice as I'd spent an evening the previous week phoning every place in the Coast to Coast and this was the only one with space available [probably should have been a sign]. It was quite a bizarre place – some kind of converted block of flats with a central courtyard and a random blow up paddling pool in the middle with some algae floating ceremoniously in the middle. To be honest it was fine for what we needed but did not have the same vibes as Mdumbi/Bulungula etc :)







Contrary to Liz's single piece of advice which was not to walk around after dark w spent the first evening exploring and wandering around the massive FIFA fan park that had been built for the world cup. We did consult with this random old English guy in the backpackers who assured us that it was safe so decided we would risk it and it actually turned out fine because there were so many other tourists in town for the football. When we eventually returned to Banana backpackers we realised that we had some absolutely stunning neighbours on the ground floor in a rather dodgy looking 'massage parlour' that was definitely selling more than massages... It was going to be a good week!

The FIFA Fan Park

I won't bore you with a day by day run down of what we did all week but there were some memorable moments:



We went on an EXTREMELY cool tour of Durban on a tour bus with all the German tourists and older couples which mainly consisted of an eccentric tour guide reading the road signs to us. I think the best bit was when we went past an Indian restaurant and she read out its advertising board to us.



Watching the South Africa vs. France game in the fan park was amazing – it was completely packed out, must have been around 10000 people there. Bafana Bafana were playing so well and when they scored the place exploded and everyone was cheering, waving South Africa flags, jumping up and down, just going crazy. For a moment I think everyone believed that we would make it through against all the odds but in the end it wasn't meant to be and the host nation got kicked out of the tournament :(

During Bafana's 2-1 defeat of France

Continuing our cinema tradition, we went to see three movies: Letters to Juliet, Death at a Funeral and Schuks Tshabalala's Survival Guide to South Africa. The first two were pretty mediocre [especially Letters to Juliet which bordered on creepy with quotes like 'the greatest pleasure in life is having someone else brush your hair] but the Survival Guide to South Africa was BRILLIANT. It was like a less controversial version of Borat set in South Africa: the guy went round the country setting people up in various ways with some hilarious results that we could actually properly appreciate having lived here an experienced the culture. The best bit was probably when they had a stand at a football stadium and were 'testing' the vuvuzelas to see if they made too much noise. They then cut the vuvuzelas in half so they make a stupid noise and the people went SO mad and got angry and started hitting the 'tester' – shows how crazy some people are! I think you have to see it to appreciate it, but it’s by far the best film I've seen in the cinema here :)



On the Tuesday night we saw a sign up in the backpackers offering tickets for one of the Durban matches so the next day we enquired and ended up getting Nigeria vs. Korea tickets worth $160 for only R300. We were so excited for the match [despite the rather obscure nature of the teams involved] and went to get out faces painted with the country flags. Lots of people were backing Nigeria because the general feeling after South Africa went out was to support any of the African teams left in the competition and I ended up with a Nigeria flag on my face in what I'm sure was actually just wall paint... Anyway, we walked the couple of miles to the stadium which is an absolutely stunning building and made our way inside in record time [the organising of the whole thing was surprisingly efficient!]. As you walk up into the stadium you get this amazing view of the pitch and all the stands and it was so bright and loud that you couldn't help but be impressed. Everyone was so hyped up for the match and you could barely hear anything for the sound of the vuvuzelas echoing in the air. We briefly met up with Liz, Sam and Liz's sister Helen before heading to our seats which were amazing [but then for $160 you should expect that I guess!]. The atmosphere was absolutely electric once you were in the stands and continued throughout the game. The match itself was one of the better ones I'd seen in the world cup with plenty of goals and drama on the pitch. At one point one of the players had to be epically stretchered off writhing in pain but then two seconds later was sprinting around the pitch which is a testament to how dramatic some of these players are! In the end it was a draw, with Korea going through on goal difference. I'd say it was one of the best experiences of our trip so far :)

Sam and I at the match

There are two ice cream places on the beach front, Milky Lane and Waffle Express. After going to Milky Lane for the first few days we decided we would try out the other one to see how it compared. The weird thing was that the menu was the EXACT same as for Milky Lane [which was next door] but had a different logo at the top. Sam ordered a fruit smoothie and I ordered a chocolate milkshake which [as you'd expect] were depicted in the menu as a bright coloured fruit drink and a light brown milky drink. However, when our waiter [who we reckon didn't even actually work there] went to make it he decided to take two ice cream sundae glasses, fill them both with ice cream and then pour fruit sauce on one and chocolate sauce on the other, and then to top it off, mixed it around at the top with his finger! So we were rather unimpressed when he turned up with two large glasses of vanilla ice cream with finger marks in the top. We pointedly looked from the picture in the menu to the hideous creation in front of us trying to work out the correlation but he ran away before we could protest. Deciding to just go along with it, we tried them, only to find that they tasted like cold milk with dust in it [or, as the day went on and the story got exaggerated more, we decided it was like atomic bomb dust with weed killer in it...]. They were really horrible, and given that usually the two of us will eat anything, we decided we'd tell our suspicious looking waiter that there was something wrong cue this conversation:



Sam: Excuse me, there's something wrong with our order.



Waiter: What is wrong?



Sam: Well it's just that it tastes like dust.



Waiter: Dust? What?



Sam: Taste it! It's like dust, it's horrible.



Waiter: *sticks his finger in [again] then decides against tasting it* I'll make you another one.



And at this point Sam and I ran away back to Milky Lane...



We went to Ushaka Marine World for the day which has a giant aquarium, dolphin shows, Zulu dancing etc. It was a good day: watching some crayfish have a fight, seeing the most bizarre dolphin show ever which had a random cross-dressing man creeping around in the background, spending a long time in a weird shop that sold novelty phones...the usual. At the end of the day we went to this restaurant which looked really nice but was quite full so they had to squeeze us in a random table at the back. The waitress then bought us a giant wine list made of metal [which should have been a clue] and the menus only for us to discover that if we were to eat there on our budget we would be having a slice of garlic bread and a glass of water between us. Not wanting to face the waitress and confess our mistake, we tried to think of an excuse but ended up grabbing all our things and running out the back door, not stopping until we had completely left Ushaka Marine World and were halfway along the beach. Does it get any classier?



Sam and I were sitting on the balcony outside our room watching the world go by [and by the world, we mean a whole load of dodgy people who were frequenting the 'massage' parlour below]. This one woman was wandering up and down trying to pick people up in their cars and we found it so surreal to be watching this that we started laughing. Unfortunately for us, the woman must have heard and started yelling abuse up at us in broken English, telling us to mind our own business and I'm sure other things that were less polite. We genuinely thought she was going to come up and kill us but eventually she gave up and went away down a backstreet...how stunning.



We went to Victoria Market which is full of shops selling traditional 'African' things and loads of Indian shops selling spices, all brightly coloured and piled up in giant bowls. The first shop we went in was one of the spice shops and before we even set foot in it we were accosted by a tiny Indian woman who turned out to be one of the world's greatest [and most persistent] saleswomen. She was chatting away to us about the spices and how English people usually like such and such and how this one is spicy so you can give it to your mother in law etc and as we started to back away in a bewildered manner picked up a pot of curry powder and started explaining its benefits. When she finished with all its culinary uses, she started on about '...and it's in a tough plastic pot which is useful for transporting it around so it won't break' and at about that time we made our excuses and left before we ended up buying random things out of fear that she would kill us. The next guy we went to, however, also had a brilliant selling technique as when we asked what something was he let us try it, and when we said we wanted three of something he just threw about ten in the bag and didn't let us argue. Gooooood times!



I went to the post office and on the way there was accosted by two young guys who said they wanted to marry me and would play 83 cows for the privilege [which is an ENORMOUS amount]. When I refused that, he said he owned a giant fleet of taxis in Jo'burg and Durban and would build me a beautiful house in St Lucia and I was just starting to think I might go along with it when he asked if I supported Brazil or Portugal. When I said Portugal, then ran off as fast as they could so that was the end of that...







So after a week of fun and games, running out of two restaurants and watching almost every single football game on the giant fan park screen, we were all Durbaned out. Liz came and picked us up and took us back to her home in Hilton and we stayed there for the night :) We spent the night watching Ghana's epic win over the USA and then were introduced to the legendary Glee [which we are now hooked on] before heading off the next day on the long long long drive home.







After seven more hours on the road during which Liz, Sam and I came up with 101 uses for Watchtower magazine [it was a long trip okay?] we arrived back home in the Transkei. Lisa had driven out from Zithulele to meet us part way along the road so we did a car swap and after a traumatic final 20kms [including Lisa successfully rally driving through the mud and Liz informing us that we couldn't actually return to our own house for another two weeks as someone else had moved in] we were finally back home.







So I guess all that remains is a MASSIVE thank you to Sam for driving us all that way and to Liz for letting us come and letting us sleep at her house and also to Lisa for coming to pick us up [and not driving off a cliff in the process ;)]







xxxxx

Farewell Asive

Farewell Asive

Asive

Just thought I'd post about one of our long term inpatients who recently passed away. Asive was a thirteen year old girl who originally came in with severe burns on her leg. There wasn't really anyone to look after her at home and she had some level of intellectual impairment so she ended up staying for a long time. She really became a part of the furniture of the hospital and would wander around everywhere, turning up in the pharmacy, in ARV clinic, wandering through OPD, even in and out of labour ward while women were giving birth. She sometimes followed us on grand rounds and would sit and watch as the doctors gave their presentations. It was interesting to see her develop over her 4-5 months with us [and I didn't even see her very often] – just spending so much time with people made her infinitely better at interacting with people socially and by the end I'd often see her sitting with other patients who would share their food with her and chat to her even though she didn't really chat back, a far stretch from the start when she would try and escape the hospital and walk around screaming at people!







So it was a sad day when we returned from Durban and Jo told us the news that she had died after having an epileptic fit that she never woke up from. Even though I had no real personal experience with Asive [except for one or two occasions when I caught her trying to escape and took her back to the ward] she was still a familiar face around the hospital and it was weird to think that we wouldn't be seeing her around anymore. I guess it’s yet another example of how transient life can be, particularly here in Zithulele.







Rest in peace







X

A Temporary Escape from the Transkei

A Temporary Escape from the Transkei




[June 4/5/6]



So after Mum left, I was left alone in Umtata [scary thought huh?] and watched TV in the B&B for approximately 7 hours, [the low point of which was an episode of Hannah Montana, how can Miley Cyrus actually take herself seriously if she watches that back?] until I was picked up by two members of my other 'family' also known as Sam and Lisa. We were going on an epic road trip to East London so that Lisa could go to a speech therapy course on the Saturday, and as you are well are, Sam and I will go anywhere if good times are involved!



It was a rather wonderful road trip :) In the Transkei tradition, Lisa's car is without a CD player so we had to play car games the whole way there – never has there been so much hilarity over I-Spy, but I think you had to be there to appreciate how funny it was. We also played the game where you have to name ten things in certain categories which provided amusement for about 150kms including these classic lines:



*trying to guess types of currencies* 'Africa money! Canada money! Indian money!

*trying to guess the German currency* 'Hitler! Deutschenschplau! Adolfenschplau?

*trying to name Katy Perry songs* 'That one, you know, it's about opposites.'

*trying to guess something...* 'Was it a man? 'No.' #pause# 'Oh, a woman.'



[As I said, you had to be there.]



Eventually we arrived at Sugarshack [after experiencing the grimness of Buffalo backpackers and the less than welcoming cat lady that ran Niki-Nana's backpackers we decided we'd try something else!] which was actually pretty cool, except for the fact that my bed was about 3mm away from the roof so I had multiple brain traumas by the time the night was up.



We decided to go out to the cinema for some civilised evening entertainment, ending up in Hemingways [no surprises there] which packed with about 1 zillion people who obviously had the same idea. At the entrance to the cinema part of the shopping centre there was a sign [I sadly didn't think to take a picture] that said: 'No trolleys or firearms past this point.' which I found rather interesting...



We watched Killers with Aston Kutcher and Katherine Heigl which was er, not brilliant, but having witnessed the travesty that was Bounty Hunter on our previous Hemingways trip, it was decent enough to watch. [But don't bother buying the DVD.] After that it was back to the Sugarshack where I spent the night listening to the roar of the sea and giving myself brain damage.



The next day Lisa was up early for her course so Sam and I checked out a bit later and waited for our faithful taxi driver friend Charlie to come and pick us up. You may remember that in my previous post about East London in April that I described him as 'a bit crazy'. I'd like to update and correct that analysis of him to 'slightly dangerous and inappropriate'. That's not to say that we didn't enjoy our ride in his taxi, or that it was inefficient or expensive – he was very helpful and charged us an excellent price – it's the added extras that he throws in that were less than desirable. First of all, he phoned me 5 minutes before he was meant to turn up and told me he had forgotten where to pick us up because when we had made the booking he had had a few shots and was drunk. Then he decided he would take us on a tour of all the places in East London where you could find a brothel which was most wonderful [or, NOT] and then proceeded to tell us all of the stories that he had told us on our previous drive with him. But I'll give him his due, he drove us around for about forty minutes and found all the places that we gave him a vague description of and only charged us R100.



Sam and I had decided we would really go wild and do something different in East London and therefore went to, er, Hemingways AGAIN. This time we went to Mugg and Bean for breakfast, earning a grin from the waitress who remembered us from the previous time. We desperately tried to do some actual shopping but had no desire for it and went to the cinema yet again [the fifth film we've seen in that place]. We were actually pretty excited to see Sex and the City 2 because for once it was a film we'd heard of but it was also rather atrocious. As Sam put it, it's about some sad aging women who put on ridiculous clothes and have scandalous conversations...I think we've been in the Transkei too long because all I could think about was how unneccessary it was for them to wear six billion different outfits each day and to wear a full length dress to go riding on a camel etc etc etc....



After the film we met up with Lisa and went food shopping then headed to Cinsta and Buccaneer's backpackers for another night of good times. Cintsa is just outside of East London and the backpackers was pretty empty so we had a whole giant dorm to ourselves. We had a 'traditional Xhosa meal' which turned out to be a mixture of Cape Malay and Afrikaans cuisine then collapsed into bed because we were so tired from our hard day of exertion – because doing nothing is SO hard.

The stunning view over the beach at Buccaneer's, Cinsta

The next day it was completely stunning weather so we wandered down to the beach and made use of the free canoes. We went along the river for a while as the sun rose which was so peaceful and relaxing that I didn't actually want to get back on the road to Zithulele but I guess we had to in the end :)



Thanks Lisa for taking us on an awesome weekend away!



xxxx

Zithulele Family Reunion

It's taken me a while to get around to writing this blog post but here goes. On May 28th I woke up to find that text from Bonga saying she had bumped Zithulele and after a hectic day at work in the aftermath of that, I set off from Umtata with Taryn and the Gauntlets. They were heading towards Durban for so Ben and Taryn could attend a TB conference [TB is somewhat of an issue here...as in, it's EVERYWHERE]. We picked up Ben from Umtata airport, smallest airport in the world, then drove to the backpackers where I was meant to be staying. However, when we got there, they wouldn't open the gate or answer the phone so I was in a bit of trouble as Mthatha doesn't really have another option, mainly because no one in their right mind would actually stay there except out of necessity! [Turns out the entire city had a power cut so nothing was working...]



In the end, Ben and Taryn took me with them to their friends house where they were staying and I had a lovely evening with the Gaunts, Barry, Louise and their kids. It was properly nice of them to let a complete random stay with them, especially as the next morning they let me stay even after the Gaunts had left for Durban and then drove me to the airport! I'm so grateful to them and am not exactly sure what I would have done otherwise [except walk there...].



Anyway, the point is that I was going to meet Mum who was coming to visit me and see my life here in Zithulele :) After our initial reunion [it's the longest time we've been separated since, er, my birth] we went out into the big wide world that is the Umtata, managing to successfully navigate the lack of traffic lights and general randomness of the city. Then we were on our way to Coffee Bay and Mum got a taste of the Transkei when navigating the pothole ridden strip of tar that serves as a road here. [Just as a measure of how bad it is, they are now carting in tonnes of earth to turn the tar road BACK into a dirt road in certain places. You have got to love progress.] Eventually we arrived in the metropolis that is Coffee Bay and checked into Coffee Shack. After introducing Mum to the resident bead sellers and drug dealers we went for sundowners on the hill then to Papazela's so she could taste the legendary pizza that I am always going on about...

Mum comes to the Transkei

Sunday was spent in the beautiful/a tad run down area around Coffee Shack. We had a walk along the beach in the morning sun and sat on the sand then spent some time chilling in the Shack with the legendary Joe and Silas. We went for dinner at White Clay which proved to be rather stressful as there was extreme doubt as too the capability of our miniscule rented Hyundai of getting up the vertical hill that the restaurant sits at the bottom of!



On Monday we braved the never ending steepness and potholes on the road that leads you to the best place in South Africa [aka Zithulele] so Mum could be the first [and only] person from hope to truly appreciate what it is like here and what I'm actually spending all my time doing. [Contrary to popular belief, I don't just eat, sleep and go to the beach!] After a long and tiring journey which I think is summed up by Mum's comment 'I feel like I'm driving in a Playstation game!' we arrived. It was weird to come back here with Mum, I felt like I was seeing everything for the first time again. I'd forgotten how bizarre it is that people come to hospital on their horse and tie it up outside the gate and how people in the UK don't rountinely carry their posessions on their head...



We had a brief tour of our house and I introduced Mum to Sam and all the other people who make up my everyday life here. I showed her the hospital and the pharmacy which has really become my entire world over the last 6 months before going for coffee with Sally :) It was great to finally have someone from home realise what a different world it is in Zithulele; there's definitely something about this place that you can't grasp unless you are actually here.



On Tuesday we went on a hike to Hole in the Wall - the reverse of the famous walk that Sam and I never completed due to our unfortunate detour onto a cliff face. It was an absolutely stunning day and despite most of the hike being conducted on precarious cliff ledges [OH, the flashbacks were bad] it was an enjoyable day – we even saw some dolphins swimming off the coast. When we arrived at the Hole we had a toastie and a swim in the sea, a perfect end to the day.

The cliff! (from afar)

On Wednesday we went back to Zithulele to pick up Sam so she could share in the good times that take place in the Coffee Shack. When we got back, Jo, one of the staff who had rather taken to Mum and I and kept coming over and sitting with us, said everyone was going for sundowners at 'the most beautiful place in Coffee Bay'. However, there were too many people for that so we went to another place which was apparently better...something tells me he makes it up as he goes along. Anyway, it was a bit of an epic fail as far as sundowners are concerned. You see, the point of sundowners is to have a nice drink and watch the sun go down. We, however, were sitting on a cliff ledge on the opposite side of the hill to where the sun was setting, so not only did we miss the sunset, but we faced imminent death while we did. But I guess it's part of the Coffee Bay experience and afterwards we had a lovely meal together and spent the night chatting to various people who were staying in the backpackers.



On Thursday we took a rather tired out Sammy back to Zithulele and started the long road trip back to Umtata, and it seemed Mum's visit had lasted a grand total of about 5 seconds. There was so many more parts of my life in Zithulele that I had wanted us to see but I guess there's never enough time :( We checked into our hotel then went to the Country Club for a slightly more sophisticated dinner than those at Coffee Shack. On the way home we had extra good times at the petrol station: it was deserted so all the attendants were fighting over who got to serve us, so at one point there were nine guys all washing the car with watering cans and then drying it with toilet roll, all of them scrambling over who actually got to put the petrol in. We only had a single note to give them as a tip so chucked it out the window in the hurry and watched them all jump on the guy who received it and try to share out the one note in a somewhat aggressive manner...you can't help but love the Transkei!



And that was it! It was brilliant to have Mum and visit and finally share what I've been experiencing here for the last 6 months with someone else. Better prepare yourself for all the stories when I get home in, would you belive it, 38 days!



Xxxxxx

Why I Love Zithulele: Reason #38347

I love that I can be working in the pharmacy one minute, then walk down to the lab to get results, and on the way back end up playing with some local kids and then continue on with my day as usual. Being allowed to come and go as you please is definitely a major plus of being a volunteer :) And it's random things like that which I'll miss the most x

Youth Day [or some random public holiday]

The 16th of June was yet another public holiday [good times all round] so we had Wednesday off, yay! Sadly, Sam and I had to work as we were taking the next week off so we both headed into the pharmacy to get everything done as soon as possible. Even though the hospital was technically closed like at the weekends, there seemed to be a never ending array of patients and I ended up not helping Sam and at all as I spent my whole morning running the pharmacy like a normal day.


Sam and I went down to see Liz and Angela [a doctor who regularly makes the epic road trip to Zithulele to escape life in {Sc}Umtata] had come down for the day so we had an entertaining afternoon relaxing at home :) The highlight was probably a very serious game of Pass The Pigs, the basic principle of which is that you throw tiny plastic pigs in the air and get points depending on how they land. As you can tell, it requires an extreme level of skill and brain power so was perfect for the high level of intellect of the players....Either way, it got rather heated when the crucial final point appeared to be a 'Making Bacon' [or some other cheesy name for the way the pigs landed that meant you lost all your points] which resulted in Liz lying on the ground to examine the exact position of a tiny plastic pig...

<>

Liz judging the final point

Aaaanyway, then we watched Life is Beautiful, a film about the Holocaust which actually manages to be quite cheery (except at the end). A group of people from a church in Cape Town had come up to Zithulele on some kind of mission trip so we had a giant congregation of people at cell group and crowded out the entire living room at the Gaunts. However, we had to stick to a strict time schedule in order to go and watch the football [so the World Cup is having an impact in more ways than one!]. Sam and I went up to watch England's opening game in OPD but it wasn't as exciting as the Bafana game without everyone going so crazy for it. Plus, we didn't play so well so it was not promising for the rest of the tournament!



And that was the end of Youth Day and yet another highly exciting blog post [not:)]



xxxx

FEEL IT! IT IS HERE!

AYOBA! The World Cup has well and truly kicked off [don't even excuse that awful pun] in South Africa! It's so cool to be out here during the World Cup, especially since it's the first time the tournament has been hosted on the African continent. [Just for some people's [i.e. the football commentator's] information, Africa is NOT in fact a single country...;)] Everyone is so psyched up for it and you really get the sense of the nation coming together, everyone is so so proud to be South African right now. I kind of wish I could pretend I am, but I guess being British will have to do me...[just kidding!].


For weeks now, people across the country have been wearing football shirts to work on a Friday in support for Bafana Bafana, the national football team. You even see news reporters on TV in football tops and a scarf, pretty weird when they are giving all the latest on the war in Afganistan etc etc! All the members of the South African government go to their version of the House of Commons in their Bafana shirts which I think is pretty cool, can't see ever that happening in the UK. Then there is the vuvuzela, which for those of you living in the dark ages, is a kind of horn thing that is a huge part of the football culture here – all the fans take them to matches and they make SO much noise. Even a single vuvuzela is loud, especially when someone is blasting one outside your bedroom window at 5am...Needless to say, Sam and I are not the biggest fans of them. Either way, in recent times, the sound of someone playing a vuvuzela has become as much a part of the background noise in Zithulele as the crickets, Rambo's morning tunes and the barking of the Transkei dogs!



There are also two catchphrases that people just take it upon themselves to drop into conversation [or yell at you from the side of the road]: 'Ayoba!' and 'Feel it! It is here!', both of which have some ambiguous meaning to do with the awesome World Cup vibe that is going about. Thabo [who works with me in the pharmacy] feels it is necessary to shout 'AYOBA' any time he hears a vuvuzela...so that's all the time then!



The build up has been impressive and has continued for a pretty long period of time – I remember when the countdown on the TV was well over 100 days – so you can imagine how crazy it was here on June 11th, the first day of the World Cup 2010. It's a real testament to the spirit of the thing that it's penetrated even the deepest and darkest parts of rural South Africa [or a testament to the power of modern day advertising, depends how cynical you are]. Zithulele was a changed place that morning, such a buzz was going around that it was hard not to get involved in the excitement. It was vuvuzelas galore as we ventured into the hospital, oh how the sicker patients must be dreading the coming month...



OPD was a sight to behold: as we've rigged up a TV in the waiting area, everyone had come along to get seats for the opening ceremony later on so it was packed, meaning morning prayers were insanely loud, and on top of it, Sandile [a rather outgoing male nurse] was dancing up and down the front entrance playing a giant vuvuzela in time accompanying the singing – it was great to see everyone having SO much fun :) Somehow we struggled through a working day to the soundtrack of a community gone wild on the World Cup – I must have been told 'Feel it! It is here!' at least ince every two minutes by various staff members, patients and even a crazy woman dressed in a Bafana shirt on a far away hill marching up and down with a vuvuzela, repeating 'FIFA World Cup 2010! Feel it! It is here! Ayoba! Bafana Bafana!' over and over again alllllllllllllllll morning!



For the opening match, Sam and I decided we would stay in OPD and experience the inevitable chaos and excitement that went on there. The place was packed out: all the waiting benches were full and a crowd was crammed into the space at the back and all the patients who were waiting overnight for treatment were sleeping on the floor at the front [I doubt they got much sleep!]. As the match got underway there was an enormous roar and lots of shouting at the screen. As soon as the South Africans got the ball everyone would start cheering and yelling in Xhosa and even if they passed the half way line, you'd think they'd scored from the outburst of noise that came from the crowd. If the goalkeeper saved a shot or there was a piece of good defending [or if the Mexican team made a mistake] there was a huge round of applause. And of course, whatever was happening, there was the constant blast of numerous vuvuzelas...

The crowd assembles in the OPD waiting area

When the time came that Tshabalala made that stunning shot and scored Bafana Bafana's opening goal, the place exploded – I've never seen anything like it. There was complete chaos. The uproar was deafening, screaming, yelling, cheering, clapping, singing and somehow the trumpet of the vuvuzela even managed to double, actually no, triple in volume. Everyone was hugging and dancing, jumping up and down, waving their arms and some people got so carried away that they bolted down the corridor of OPD in complete hysteria because they were SO excited. It was hilarious, crazy, ridiculous, brilliant....so much fun to be a part of it and let yourself get carried away with the patriotism.

The OPD crowd, still cheering 10 minutes after the goal!

The match went on and on like this and everyone got more and more worked up – the nursing sisters were coming in and out whenever they could [the theatre sister was even in her scrub cap] and the hospital managers [a group of four rather feisty women] were celebrating for a large proportion of the time by waving a blanket in the air, fun times all round! Even though it ended as a draw, everyone was so proud of their team and left in high spirits, it was such a brilliant start to the World Cup and the beginning of a month of football madness in Zithulele :)

When It's Hard To Breathe

[Here’s an explanation for that picture...]




I was in the pharmacy the other day with Olaf, a student from Princeton who was here for a week doing some research into HIV and religion, when Liz came in to say there was a Caesar going on if we wanted to watch. Naturally, we ended up throwing on scrubs and in theatre for the start of a very hectic morning.







The baby was in some considerable distress, so Karl [who is somewhat of an expert in maternity related matters] was there to resuscitate it if necessary. Everything seemed to be going fine and Karl and Liz were chatting about the upcoming World Cup, I think Karl may even have been texting someone, when they made the incision into the womb and suddenly an enormous fountain of amniotic fluid started pouring out everywhere! It literally spurted out all over the place, soaking Liz and Sister Gebe who was assisting [she even had to have a new pair of shoes brought in...eugh] – it seemed like it wasn't going to stop. Luckily for all involved it did [and the rest of the surgery was conducted in a particularly splendid puddle...]







The baby was eventually delivered, but wasn't particularly lively and had stiff lungs so was having trouble breathing on his own. Karl intubated him and he became stable so he tried removing the tube, only for him to immediately start to crash. Ben was called to give his opinion on the situation, followed by Taryn [so half of our doctors were there by this point] and it was decided that the baby needed to be transferred to an ICU where they could ventilate him. We don't have a ventilator and neither do any of the Umtata hospitals because some genius there decided to fix them all at the same time and surprise, surprise, hasn't actually done it, so the next option was East London. Karl called the hospital there and asked for them to send the helicopter to pick the newborn baby up.







The helicopter takes 40 minutes to get here [and this is the Transkei, so that can mean really anything] which meant that someone needed to ventilate the baby manually until then. It didn't make much sense for the one of the doctors to sit and do it when we had no definite timescale on the chopper’s arrival and the patients were piling up in OPD as ever, so I ended up doing it. Ben showed me the technique which always looks so easy when they do it on TV, but there's quite a delicate art to it, especially on when the set of lungs involved is so tiny. After some initial trouble getting the timing and synchronising with the boy's own breathing and feeling the correct pressure, I managed to get it right and the others left me alone with the baby and continued with their working day.







So there I sat in theatre, just me, the baby and the bleeping of the monitor. I had to make sure that the pulse rate and oxygen saturation were normal and had strict instructions to call someone if anything went wrong [people did keep checking up on me just in case though :)]. It was actually surprising therapeutic to sit and concentrate on something so simple and when I looked up at the clock to see two whole hours had gone past I was surprised! I continued on, watching the rise and fall of his tiny ribcage and hoping that the baby who was gripping my finger so tightly would survive and become strong enough to breathe on his own. I wondered what the mother must have been feeling, knowing that her baby was going to be flown away to a strange place without her, never having even seen it, let alone hold it in her arms.

Manually ventilating the baby in theatre

The ventilating became automatic and I was completely mesmerised by the vitals monitor, but then the oxygen saturation started dropping below 100% in rather rapid fashion. I started panicking and shouted to the sisters in the other room, but they couldn't hear me, so I tried dialling my phone only to hear the dreaded message telling me I had 'insufficient credit'. The pulse had dropped down to 60-70 beats [low for a newborn] and oxygen sats. were below 85% and I was starting to worry that I was going to cause the baby to die when finally Sister Gebe came in and called Ben for me.







Ben came running to check and quickly discovered the root of the problem: the monitor had fallen off of the baby's foot, so the machine wasn't getting a proper trace...so not a real medical emergency after all! [All that adrenalin rush for nothing, what an epic fail – but that's not the point.] After he had clipped it back on, everything went back to normal and I resumed my role as the ventilator for another hour or so with no further hiccups.







I heard a commotion in the corridor and then the paramedic arrived...then disappeared for about 40 minutes under the guise of 'looking for oxygen'. Pretty sure he went outside and distilled it from the air from scratch, but anyway. When he came back, the baby was put in Sister Gebe's arms and with Liz holding the oxygen cylinder and me ventilating we managed to awkwardly shuffle through OPD and out to our overgrown basketball court where to the helicopter was waiting for us. We handed him over to the paramedics and soon enough they flew off into the distance leaving everyone on the ground in high spirits knowing we'd done everything we could for the baby.







But this story does not have a happy ending. The baby died a matter of days later from some kind of congenital pneumonia [at least that's the expert opinion]. He died without a name, without ever feeling his own mother holding him in her arms. The mother never even saw the child she had carried for nine months except for the pictures that we took while I was ventilating. I held that baby's hand for three hours straight, yet the one person who should have been doing that was denied the chance to do so. Once again it hit me how raw life can be out here – a place where the reality isn't concerned with the petty problems we obsess over in the first world, a place where the reality is devastating, brutal and unforgiving. It's a cliché to go on a gap year to the third world and come back with stories of the poverty you've witnessed, but I will never forget the things I've seen here. I've always known that life in the UK is an endless privilege, and it's times like this that reaffirm that knowledge.

You Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone

[Life in Zithulele, 7th June-13th June]








You may remember my post about how excited we all were at the arrival of our new pharmacist Bonga? Things were finally looking up for us – the 5pm finish at work was looking like it may become a possibility, stock was arriving, good times were being had by all. Sadly, on the 28th of May, I woke up to the following text:







'Hi I'm gone, have left keys with security, please give 7 rand to the nurse who sells scones'







And that was how I found out that Bonga had resigned! So we're back to the status quo - long, hectic working days in the pharmacy :)







I did go on holiday with Mum [see blog post] for the week immediately following her resignation so probably missed out on the craziness that ensued, but if this week has been anything to go by it can't have been easy!

Wilo Clinic support group room - pretty sobering huh?

On Tuesday I went to Wilo clinic to oversee the ARV clinic date there for the last time. It's great to have watched it grow from strength to strength over the last three months and from now on I'll just be sending the packs there and letting the counsellors dispense the drugs. Faniswa, the main counsellor there, is a complete legend, so efficient and helpful :) After we were done with Wilo, we drove up to Mthatha for a variety of purposes including picking up some stock from the medical depot. I finally discovered why the depot is in such a state when we went into their staff offices to find a few stressed out pharmacists hiding under heaps of unfiled paperwork. We were there for around half an hour, during which time our boxes of stock were swapped around two or three times and I ended up signing a load of random forms but in the end we left with the drugs we came for. Epic win.

Umtata depot main office/scrap heap

Wednesday was a very very long day. We started with the perinatal mortality and morbidity meeting during which one of our senior nursing staff remarked that it was 'news to her' that babies didn't breathe while in the womb...and it didn't ever really look up from there. I sat in my chair in ARV dispensary between half eight in the morning and six at night with no breaks. The problem was that one month previously we had had no ARV supplies whatsoever so had recalled all 146 of the patients from that day, plus everyone else who had been given that date in previous months. At one point I got up to stretch my legs but got such a look of disdain from the mobs of patients lining the corridor that I just sat straight back down again. By the time the day was over, the dispensing room had turned into complete chaos, with three doctors and the three of us from the pharmacy all dispensing from a variety of surfaces including cardboard boxes, the fridge and the window sill [pretty hectic]. When the last patient had gone, I just gave up and shut the door on the bombsite that the place had become and wandered home.







Or rather, I ended up at Liz and Lisa's with the giantest hot chocolate and rusks having a conversation about our favourite things about South Africa – won't come as any surprise that most of them were foods...So after I had been cheered up there, we headed to cell group in the pouring rain. It's only about a 400m walk to the Gaunts but I was so drenched when I got there that I had to borrow a spare pair of trousers, pretty much felt like I was back home enjoying the Scottish summer!

The best welcome home from work, ever!

Thursday was another day at work that blends in with all the rest – I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing that chat so I won't even start [but Liz and I were up all night AGAIN doing paperwork so I had to resume my tramp status on their living room floor].







Well, that was a highly exciting blog! Winter has definitely set in: jumpers are a necessity most days, the flip flops have been sidelined and all social events are conducted under the cover of blankets due to the severe lack of central heating in these parts. Not long to go now until I'm back to the sunnier [!] climes of Haddy.







Until then xxx