Okay, so it’s the end of my first week in Zithulele and Friday here is our 1pm finish (wahooooo ) !!! Earlier in the week Linnea (one of the short term volunteers from Sweden) managed to sort us out a “cultural tour” so at 2pm today, myself, Cara, Linnea and Shane (a medical elective student from New Zealand) met our guide called Prince. We walked and walked through the amazing hills and valleys of Zithulele and we came to a Shabeen, which is a biiit of a dodgy SA pub, were we were served beer out of cartons, and came out looking like slightly off milk, but with ‘When in Africa…’ in mind we all braved it, and it lived up to our fairly low expectations. There were many, elderly, Xhosa men dancing around loving the attention!! From there, we moved on to a celebratory ceremony in a local Clan/Tribe which is in place to worship their ancestors. We were welcomed with open arms and given a lot of meat from one of the 3 cows they had sacrificed for the ceremony, which is an amazing contribution considering cattle is the currency of buying wives over here (and a male with a good wife is seen as a very powerful man). We had to rush inside as the Transkei gales picked up, and believe me they were strong winds! The Chief and his wife were inside which was an amazing experience in itself until the ‘mama’ tried to buy myself and Linnea to marry her sons, things escalated when the son she had paired with Linnea in her head walked in and all of the other women started cheering as she practically forced them to stand hand in hand, it was so funny and did end in laughs and jokes as he seemed to be just as embarrassed as Linnea. All in a truly amazing South African Experience. So I suppose I should tell you a little bit more about Zithulele and my role so far, well firstly, this place is amazing, everyone is so welcoming, I am on the ultimate Frisbee team! Which is genuinely the most hilarious hobby EVER. As for my role it is pretty varied, mainly I work in the pharmacy prepacking ARV medication for patients with AIDS and HIV , however I do actually go to the clinics and help out in consultations, I am going to get involved each week in the preschool we run and as we get into the swing of things get really quite involved in the maternity section here which completely fascinates me! On Friday’s we go on ward rounds with the doctors where they can present cases they find interesting or particularly complicated, which is followed by “grand tea” which is always a bonus!! I’ll write again soon guys, thanks for all the support you have all given me to get here, I can’t express my gratitude enough. xxxxxxx
