The South African Experience

JJJJJJAAAAAAANNNNNNUUUUUUUAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY!

2012-01-29T13:25:00.001-08:00

January; After a once in a life time New Years in Cape Town, stories of which I’m sure I’ll be retelling every New Year for the rest of my life, “this one time on my Gap Yah…” I can feel it coming. Coming back to work from Cape Town was such a struggle, everything was so, so, so hectic, as we’re the only people that do our job, when we go away, we need to prepack for the days we are away, and then when we return we need to back date all of our work. To make life trickier, we now have no Pharmacist; since Pieter left early December, and Ian left over New Year to go and do his PhD. Everyone is under a fair bit of pressure in all things pharmacy related. On the upside, we have moved up into our own little officey-room-type-thing. This basically means we can keep ourselves organised (whiteboard inclusive) and make more vitally needed space in the Pharmacy. We’re now based in the ARV Clinic so we can get tighter liaison with the ARV team which is also vital to the smooth running of the project.

With January brings a mass influx on newbies! We have a bunch of new comserve staff (in SA all health professionals have to do a year of community service post-graduation.) So we have, a physio, OT, speech therapist, radiographer and dietician. They are all absolutely lovely! We also got a new Dentist to replace Stevie he is also a really cool guy, apparently there is another new physio on his way, so I’ll let you know what happens there. It’s so exciting having all of these new people around, we are no longer being called the “new girls” only 5 months later. People have also stopped calling me Katy (one of the girls who was here before us) so all things seem to be on the up, people learning my actual name half way through and all that jazz! It’s quite funny, because apparently, we all look pretty much exactly the same to black people, how bizarre?! The New Year has also brought an influx of certain creature we’re not too fond of, yes…the dreaded snake! Lucky we’re all being a lot more vigilant since Becky (a doctor from UK) got bitten by a Knight Adder! There was also a HUGE one found just next to the ARV waiting room. But not to worry, now we’re all aware of it, we actually watch where we walk now.

Being on the wrong side of the world didn’t stop us celebrating Burn’s Night! We gathered everyone together in the Community Centre for a huge Ceilidh and haggis! It was soooo much fun and even Ceilidh first timers loved it, Sal and Karl had a particular talent…..not. Being all hot a sweaty afterwards, only one thing was on the cards, BEACH! Yeah, it was late and VERY dark, but oh my, what a laugh?! We stumbled down the incredibly uneven dunes in the pitch black and ran into the sea, which was surprisingly very warm. The moonlight reflecting on the water was simply beautiful, then we dried off gazing at a full sky of stars, it was simply amazing, I can’t think of a single time in my life I’ve seen so many stars shining so brightly….WOW. Anyway, that’s about it for January, eagerly awaiting February, for the half-way point and my birthday!! AHHH reaching the ripe old age of 19, the last of my teenage years, how quickly time flies ay? Lots of love to you all, and a special congrats to Beth and Matty on the birth of the beautiful Ellie Louise xxxx

DECEMBER!!!!

2012-01-29T13:24:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and everything in between! I hope you all had a lovely festive time back in chilly Blighty! My Christmas day consisted of a little boat trip out to the beautiful Robben Island, dolphins, turtles and seals inclusive, followed by a braai with my 30 strong South Africa family, or fellow PTers as they are also known. It was lovely to have Christmas all together catching up, and meeting the Swaziland and Botswana volunteers, and hearing all of their stories. After a lot of good food, good drink, good cheer and very good company, we all shuffled ourselves to Camps Bay, (google it) with a bottle of champers to watch the sunset, well it was awesome in a nutshell. Perfect end to a perfect day. It was great for us all to do something totally different to back home and to do it together kept us all smiles. This was a pleasant surprise to the load of homesickness we were all experiencing. Although we all wish we could’ve had our families around us on such a special day, not many people (Brits at least) can say they sat on a beach watching the sun set on Christmas Day?!

So the Cape Town trip as a whole? Well we arrived in 34 degree heat on Christmas Eve, then didn’t see a cloud or a temperature gauge below 30 until we were on the bus on 2^nd Jan heading home. Are you ready for a bold statement? I had the best moment of my life in Cape Town. New Years Eve, on the top of Table Mountain, truly the most beautiful view EVER. I feel like I’ve grown up in the sense that I was almost brought to tears by a landscape, but Oh. My. Word! It was amazing, we made our New Years Resolutions looking over Cape Town with a Champagne picnic, check the photos. So, so, so incredible! Add it to the bucket list if you haven’t been already. Back to reality with a bump ready to start a new year, Janurary’s update shouldn’t be too long :D

November's Update...(delayed)

2012-01-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry for such a delay, my Dad only just told me I hadn't uploaded anything...much to my surprise...and then I found it sat waiting to be pasted in a word document! Epic Fail...so here goes

Well, well, well! It’s been a long time since I’ve updated this, so I’ve been here 3 months, now that is simply beyond crazy! We leave for Cape Town in about 4 weeks for Christmas and New Year, I’m sooooo excited to see all of the other PT girls (and boy) for a good old catch up. But with good times comes sad times, and during December we have to say goodbye to two wonderful people that have made our first few months in the world of Zithulele so easy for us to settle in. So THANK YOU to Pieter and Stephen and we wish you both the best of luck in your new jobs! You’ll be missed big time!!

The 10 clinics we have here are getting crazier and busier, which is by NO means a bad thing! Recently the SA government has increased the ARV start CD4 count to 350 which means patients are starting treatment when they are still relatively quite well, which in the long run, helps the treatment be as effective as possible. This has meant a rather steep increase in the number of patients we have starting at the clinics, which means we have a lot more to do, but this has been made a lot easier for us with DWF supplying us with a pre-pack assistant, honestly, it’s made us think where on earth did we find the time to do all of the other admin work? Zidindi, which is one of the newer clinics has grown to such a size we’ve had to make clinic days there every 2 weeks, rather than every 4. Everything with the project is getting very exciting and incredibly fascinating as I learn more and more about people living with HIV. Hopefully, in the New Year we will start side projects in the pre-school which will allow us to have a change of scenery from the hectic running of the clinics.

As always, we’re still having lots of fun!! A few weeks ago was Laura’s (one of the physiotherapist’s) Birthday Party. It was a pink themed party so everyone got with the spirit and dressed up…(or under dressed in some cases)…some of the guys sporting some incredibly flattering swimwear and hot pants, a possibility of some photos to follow. We have also had a BEAUTIFUL weekend break in Umdumbi, my word, the beach there is utterly stunning! (ask M&D for the picture or see facebook). On the evening we had a fabulous meal, drinks, lots of successful, and in the same respects, runsuccessful pool tournaments, and wonderful chitchats with wonderful people. A lazy morning followed, then a trip to the beach in true African sunshine and as a plea to stick to the ‘British tourist’ stereotype I somehow managed to burn ridiculously through MANY layers of factor 50 on my shins- of all places. Although I wasn’t the only one, the following days resulted in many cruel games of ‘slap the sunburn’ owwwwwch! All in all, another amazing month has passed, I cannot wait to see that the coming one’s hold! My next post may well be from Cape Town, if not I’ll update as soon as I get back. So to all of you, a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ENJOY!! Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS…I have experienced my first dose of every traveller’s nightmare…FOOD POISONING. In fact I think it’s the first time I’ve had it in my life (thanks Dad for cooking my food properly for the last 18 years!!!) And I can safely say it is something I NEVER want to experience again!!! New Year’s Resolution…Check and double check food before eating it!!!

October's update!

2011-10-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

So, 6 weeks down, many more to go and I absolutely love it. The community here is incredible, so close knit. We have Frisbee matches twice every week and we all went down to Lubanzi Beach for a big match last weekend, although I’m currently on the injury bench. My time here has been full of new experiences… bran muffins and cheese for instance?! Surprisingly nice would you believe. I’ve also seen my first c-section, probably one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Things have been really busy in the pharmacy recently so I haven’t had a great deal of time to get out and do some shadowing and ward work, but as we get used to the work and things settle down it will become a bigger part of my time here. We have also been asked to take up a role in the preschool teaching the children arts and crafts, which will be a challenge as most of the kids speak no English, only Xhosa, but a challenge I can’t wait to embrace.

Last weekend we went to Coffee Bay for a short break, it was amazing, waking up in the morning and seeing dolphins leaping in the bay. Then for our evening meal we had a T-Bone Steak with all the trimmings done on this massive communal braai with an Apple Crumble dessert for only R45…£4.50 to the Brits! CRAZY! During the days we relaxed on the beach, dabbled in a bit of surfing and experimented in cliff jumping. A well earning break that we took full advantage of.

We have been ‘house sitting’ for some doctors this week, which has been amazing!as it did involve a 52inch TV!! So we’ve had a week of being able to watch films on a proper screen rather than a bunch of us crowded around a tiny laptop screen, it’s also made us very popular with the rugby fans of Zithulele who have been watching the RWC religiously! Saddened to say England have just been knocked out as I’m writing this although 6am tomorrow morning will be THE match here, SA vs AUS…should be a fun game to watch…and I don’t mean watch the rugby I mean watch the rather exciteavble fans screaming at the TV. This morning Stephen nearly deafened us, and that was just ENG-FRA!!

We will be having another braai at some point in the next few days which is something to look forward to! If you’re reading this send my love to everyone at home, and a huge congratulations from Africa to Mark and Elaine of the birth of baby Benjamin John big hugs and kisses to you all! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

One week down!!

2011-09-02T09:48:00.001-07:00

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

Training!! 37days to go :-)

2011-07-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

SA Team!!

So, I had my training course last week! It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life, so much intense emotion, yet still having the most amazing time ever! I met my whole country group, 20-something girls and one boy, poor fella. I also met my partner, Cara, we get on really well so that's another worry off the list. On the last day we got our flight itinerary, then it really hit home and everyone's emotions peaked yet again for the 3987394430 time that week. So, I leave Heathrow on Thursday 25th August, at 20.40, from terminal three! ....not that I'm excited or anything.... Ahhhhhhhhhhh! We fly to Dubai, then off to Jo'burg where we chill for a few days, freshen up, meet our country reps and have a little tour of the city; Then we say another round of farewells and it's off to our projects and time to grow up and be working adults....SCARY. I'll try and write again before I leave, if not see you in Africa Babbbbby! Much Love xxx

This is me and my partner Cara.

I now know where I'm going!! Along with other good news!

2011-05-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well!
I am DELIGHTED to share with you that I will be spending next year, starting in August, working as a volunteer for the Jabulani Rural Health Foundation, in Zithulele Village!! It now feels so incredibly real, I know that sounds stupid, but it does, it's like "Oh crap, I'm actually going!!!" My 'project profile' says that I will be mainly based in the hospital, but with opportunities to dip in and out of the pre-school etc! The other good news is that I HAVE FINISHED MY FUNDRAISING! The biggest sense of relief EVER! So now all that's left to do, is my visa and the rest of my jabs. I'm all booked up for training in July, when I will eventually meet my parter, I literally can not wait =D. Just over 3 months left (and counting......)
Au'revoir for now xxxxxxx