Yet Another Hospital Trip

Written on 25/09/2012

So today was yet another hospital trip, however this time we were not taking the children.  It was Danni and I who needed medical attention.  Yesterday during the day I started to feel really run down and tired, so I asked if I could rest for the afternoon so I would be better for work the next day.  After sleeping for 6 hours from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon, I woke up feeling like I was on deaths doorstep (ok a little exaggerated but I felt so rough!).  Danni has also started to complain of pain in her neck, where a lump had appeared.  Hoping we would both feel better, we watched a film under our duvets and had an early night.  Us two invalids decided to top and tail in my room to save Lisa catching anything.

When I woke up I could barely move, it felt like someone had got a razor blade and started hacking at my throat and chest.  Bethany Home’s nurse came to see me; her husband was a doctor at the local private clinic, so when we arrived we got to skip the whole queue.  If looks could kill from the other patients waiting… they must have thought I was getting special treatment for being white.  I genuinely started to feel really guilty but I had no energy to even smile at them.  When I walked into the doctors room the first thing he said to me was “oh usisi (sister) you terrible.”  Thanks mate, not like I needed reminding how awful I looked, I did pretty much go in my PJs.  After an examination I was told I have a chest infection, but if I left it untreated any longer it could turn to pneumonia… awesome.  Danni was also examined and turns out she has mumps, what a pair we are ay!  I was ordered to go to see the nurse for an injection – this point I panicked, why an earth did I need an injection?! – but apparently it was the start of my antibiotic treatment.  I waited behind a little curtains for the nurse to arrive, when she walked in, she was holding what may have been the biggest needle I have ever seen.  My face must have been a picture because she started laughing at me.  I was already pale, but pretty sure I went even paler.  But I sucked it up like a man and took my arm out my sleeve.  At this point the nurse looked confused and pointed at her bum.  Momentarily I looked as confused as her, then realised she meant most people have the injection in their bum… There was no way I was getting an injection in my bum!!  I proceeded to have it in my arm (which was the worst pain I have ever experienced from an injection, I’m usually ok when I comes to these kind of things but I was nearly in tears).  She then handed me a cocktail of pills that I have to take.  All in all I have to take 17 tablets a day, and Danni 16 a day.  (We could be mistaken for drug dealers I swear!) So between us that’s 33 tablets in one day!! I feel sorry for Lisa, we’re going to be climbing the walls by the end of the treatment.  However it’s not all bad, Lisa has been great to us.  Like our Mummy who is going to nurse us back to health.  I get made endless amounts of tea and I now have an excuse not to get up for my 5:30am shift tomorrow… I’M GUTTED…

So the next 5 days till be spent lying in bed sleeping, popping pills every few hours and pretty much doing nothing.  As lovely as it might sound, I would much rather be working and not coughing up mucus every 10 minutes.  Safe to say I didn’t expect to be this ill within the first month.  Lets hope this will be it for a while.

Xxx 

First full week of work

After my first week of being on a scheduled working timetable, it is safe to say I am shattered.  It has been non-stop.  However it does feel like calm after the storm, when we first arrived it was all go, and everything happening at once, but this week has been a lot calmer and given all of us the chance to just settle in and get into a routine. 

On Saturday, Danni and I had a morning off so we went into town.  After doing some grocery shopping we were on our way back to the taxi rank when a group of men surrounded us, we tried to carry on walking but they wouldn’t let us past.  They weren’t trying to hurt us but they just wanted to know our names and talk to us.  Suddenly one man grabbed Danielle from behind and was hugging her, not letting her go.  At this point I nearly went mad, I was telling his friend to let her go and leave us alone.  After about a minute (which felt like 10) he let her go, I grabbed Danni and quickly walked away.  At this point I noticed that everyone in the street were just watching what has happened.  I was quite surprised that no one stepped in to help, but just stared.  I don’t know if it’s there culture but I don’t understand why a lot of men here think it’s ok to grab us just because we are white.  Although it was scary, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

After this eventful experience, when we got offered to accompany the kids to church we thought why not, highly unlikely people will notice us there.  Oh how wrong we were.  We arrived at an old disused warehouse and you could hear the gospel choir from miles away, it sounded beautiful.  I had always wanted to go to a gospel church for the experience.  We walked and immediately I felt the staring eyes again, which put me on edge slightly.  However I carried on walking in with the children, but people wanted to shake my hand, touch my hair and talk to me.  I saw where we were all sitting and headed for my seat, only to be stopped by the preacher who ushered Danni and I to two seats at the front on the stage.  At this point I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest.  After they finished singing the preacher turned to us, welcomed us and said something in Xhosa to which everyone cheered and screamed ‘HALLELUJAH’.  I genuinely thought we were about to be sacrificed.  The group of children from Bethany came up to the front and sung a song for the whole congregation, I was nearly in tears, I was so proud of them.  The fact that they were aged 4 – 6 and got up in front of 700 odd people and sang, I couldn’t do that and I’m 18!! After a 3-hour service of much cheering, people falling over and singing lots it was time for us to be escorted out.  Although I was a little uneasy at times, the whole experience was amazing and I couldn’t get over how amazing the combination of 700 gospel voices sounded together.

The girls and I have organised our first weekend off to which we will be travelling to Coffee Bay to lye on the beach, do some surfing and drink cocktails.  I can’t wait.  Will be good to relax and celebrate surviving our first month abroad.  We have also planned our Christmas holiday too, we’ve got from 23^rd December – 2^nd January off, so the plan is the backpack down to Cape Town for Christmas day, spend it on the beach with all the other Project Trust volunteers, have a Bri (BBQ) and do some surfing.  Then we are all going to hang around Cape Town till New Year and celebrate it there too.  Although the turkey and presents will be missed at Christmas, I can’t wait send Christmas on the beach with all the other volunteers.

Well that’s about it really.  Blogging may become less frequent because Internet is so expensive, but when I have the chance I will be sure to fill you in on everything J

xxx

Our first day off

So today was our first day off which was lovely.  We met up with the girls from Thembalihle and decided to explore Umtata a little more.  I have to say I have settled into Umtata life a lot quicker than I expected, although I bet in a few weeks I will be crying about something or other!

I woke up feeling quick sick today, hoping it would pass I still went out.  We discovered a little café off the beaten track called, Café Lang, it is amazing.  The views are spectacular and the surrounds are so quite, a far cry from the centre of Umtata.  It gave the 5 of us a chance to unwind and recover from ‘cabin fever’, which we are all experiencing from living in the children’s home.  It was the first time since I arrived on my ‘Gap Yah’ that I have had the chance to put my feet up and take everything in… I felt so relaxed, THEN I JUST CHUNDERED EVERYWARRRRRRRRRRRR!!! No really, I did.  I ran to the toilet and ‘spewed’ (as Danni would say).  I never get sick! When I emerged from the toilet, the cleaner was standing opposite me and giving me a look of disgust.  I could do nothing but say sorry and run away!  After these series of unfortunate events, being the genius I am, I thought it would be a good idea to go and eat the chocolate cake I had ordered.  Although it just ended with the same result.  We moved along from the café because I’m sure the cleaner was about to kick me out anyway.

The rest of the day we did some food shopping then came back to Bethany to relax.  Although I am still feeling awful and have a temperature, today has been a good day.  It has shown me that it is possible to relax in Umtata, something that I was quite worried about before.
p.s. my sleeping bag has been found and I know have everything returned to me :D 

My new home...

So this is my new room and what I will call home for a year.  I have decorated it with pictures and UK flags to feel home at home :) xx

Busy busy busy...

Day 2 & 3

The last two days seem to have moulded into one.  Day two I was very home sick and ended up crying for 2 hours straight in the evening, but the girls were great and comforted me so well.  Pretty sure I would still be crying if it were not for them!

Both days I spend in hospital and clinics. I should explain that because I have a drivers licence I will be Bethany’s main driver for the year.  This means taking the 8 school goers to school in the morning, then taking any children on hospital visits, collecting the groceries and any other errands that need to be done.  I am now driving a Toyota Avenva, which is a big difference to my nippy little Seat Ibiza that I am used to at home.  I now look like a soccer mum in my new car filled with children (but I have to say I am loving it)!

Today 4 children need to go to hospital to see the doctor: two 2 week old twins whose mother has passed away and they have been exposed to HIV at birth; one is very ill and rapidly loosing weight, another 4 month old child who was abandoned and came to Bethany who need to get the results from her HIV test and lastly a 2 year old who has been suffering from seizures and needed a CT scan.  When we arrived at the hospital I was carrying one of the twins while the other two girls had the other babies.  As we entered the waiting room I couldn’t help but notice everyone was staring at us.  At first this was very uncomfortable and quite isolating but I guess it’s not a normal sight for three white girls to be holding three black babies.  Many asked if we were their mothers (to be honest, with how super cute each of them are, I wouldn’t mind being their mother!!)  When it was our turn to see the Doctor, the three of us had been left alone so it was down to us to explain to the Doctor why each child was here and their backgrounds.  Thankfully most peoples English is very good, so communication wasn’t so bad.  But it was a weird feeling to be given so much responsibility, especially children who are so young and also it was only our 3^rd day.  I guess it goes to show how much Bethany needs us.  After 7 hours of waiting, and many nappy changes in the waiting room, the 2-week-old boy had to be admitted into hospital because an infection in his lungs and blood was discovered.  This was hard because it was out of my control and there was not much I could do for him.  However the good news is that the 4-month-old babies HIV test came back negative so we were all very pleased.

So after a hectic day, the three of us are very tired.  As I sit here writing this, I can hear all the children crying because they don’t want to go to bed and Danielle running around with the kettle and pans of boiling water to fill the bath (our hot water has decided to pack in again!)  We also had a power cut last night, so every night so far has brought us a surprise… Oh the adventures of living in rural Africa, I wonder what tomorrow brings…

Miss you all but I’m having an amazing time!

Lots of love,

Sally xxx

Umtata

Day 1

When stepping off the plane I was expecting the African sun to hit my like a ton of bricks and to be sweating buckets, however it was quite the opposite! I immediately put my jumper and hat on.

It has to be said, Umtata is a very small town.  A population of only 500,000 people.  So this meant the airport of very very small and basic, there wasn’t even passport control… I guess there is no threat of terrorism around here and people are trying to get out not in haha.  We were met by Pumza, our host for the year and director of Bethany Home.  She is lovely and was very excited to meet us all.  Whilst all of the other four girls collected their rucksacks, I was left standing until the last bag came out, and yet still no 90L Black and Red rucksack was to be seen.  My heart sank. I had got this far, travelled 5000 miles and they loose my bag NOW?!  After a few enquires I discovered by bag was in Zimbabwe… fat use it was to me there!! Oh well, I guess it added a bit more spice to the journey.  (I am happy to say I now have my bag back safely, however we are minus a sleeping bag.)

So what’s Umtata like? Well drive 10 minutes each side of town and you will be in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by rolling mountains.  However the centre of town could not be more different.  CRAZY drivers, if they are even allowed to be called drivers, pretty sure most don’t have a licence.  On the way back from the airport a lorry had to perform an emergency stop to prevent it ploughing into the side of us.  My life flashed before my eyes.

As we approached Bethany Home we were welcomed by the mamas who had just finished their shifts.  Although they were screaming things at us in Xhosa I knew how happy they were to see us, I couldn’t help but smile the whole conversation.  As we walked in we were shown our flat, which we will be living in for the year.  It is basic to say the least.  Two bedrooms, a bathroom and small kitchen, when I say small I mean you can touch both walls at one time.  Although we are without hot water and an oven I guess this is home now and we are slowly getting used to it J after putting our stuff down, Pumza wanted to show us around the home quickly.  The children were just being put to bed when we entered the dorms and we were greeted by 20 children all sitting on potties in a row.  They immediately shouted ‘JAYNEY’, the name of the previous volunteer who left a few weeks ago.  As we carried on the children who were already in bed jumped out as quickly as possible and run up to us.  They all wanted to be lifted up, hugged and shown attention.  It was overwhelming but so amazing.  A moment that I will never forget.  Danielle, Lisa and I were so shattered by this point we decided to retire to our flat and watch a film in bed.  We have a big collection of DVDs thanks to Jayney and Sarah (the previous Project Trust volunteers) leaving us a big box of goodies!  (If you are reading this girls, thanks very much, it is helping us settle in!!)  With ear plugs at the ready, as the children wake up at 5:30, I was ready to sleep… and sleep I did, like a baby!!!!

Arriving in Johannesburg

So I have arrived in South Africa after a long and tiring flight.  But being surrounded by 31 other volunteers really made the whole experience very exciting!  We were all so excited to start our new adventure together, although there were many tears at the airport and along the way. Erugh why does leaving home have to be so hard?!

After a long stop in Nairobi we started our last leg of the journey on a slightly smaller plane.  As a late arrival to the South African crew I was sat away from everyone and at the back.  Before I knew it I was surrounded by strangers, not going to lie, at this point I really wanted to get off the plane and go back to England!! But I stuck it out and even got proposed to by a Botswanan (if that’s how you say it) man who was offering me 5 cows for my hand in marriage.  I don’t think my mum would appreciate 5 cows turning up on her doorstep, however maybe she would, think of all those burgers!

When we arrived in Johannesburg we were met by Ian and Yvonne our country reps.  It has to be said I was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t met by a heard of Elephants and Giraffes, isn’t this meant to be Africa?!? We were shown to our place we were staying called: ‘The Ritz’ (unfortunately it was very far from the posh one in London).  In fact it was a basic backpackers with 10 of us in a bunk bed dorm and showers with glass doors (showering was a very brief experience).  I guess I’m going to have to get used to this travellers lifestyle…

After an early night, the next day we travelled to Soweto to visit a township and slum.  When we arrived I was surprised by what I saw.  You see tin houses on charity campaigns on the TV, but never right in front of you.  I guess I was shocked because it is so far from my reality at home.  I found it hard to comprehend how people live in those conditions.  However one thing that I noticed about the slums that is lacking back in the UK… the friendliness of the people!!! Everywhere we went they were waving and smiling at us.  Not sure if this was because we were white or they were just NICE people (mix of both I think).  But the fact that these people are next to nothing yet they can still manage to put a smile on their face… and I used to complain that our house didn’t have an HD TV!!!

Something totally off the topic of South Africa, I have discovered a Leeds University friend who is also studying Nursing with me!!! Lucy is part of the SA crew and doing Outward Bound, something I very nearly did.  When we found out, we were literally jumping up and down for out 10 minutes, so knowing I have a friend for the next 4 years has put me at ease!!

After an amazing 3 days in Johannesburg, it was time for us all to split off into our projects.  The 5 Umtata girls got the smallest plane known to man (seating 30) and flew to Umtata.  With these size planes the weight of the aircraft has to be evenly distributed to prevent capsizing… meaning the ‘fat passengers’ are moved around the plane… guess which fatty got moved!! That’s right… me!! I hope this African diet of rice and beans helps me shift a few pounds.  The walk of shame through the aircraft was enough for anyone to think twice about there weight!! Haha.

Anyway that’s it for my time in Johannesburg! So much more I could tell you but I don’t want to bore you.  I applaud you for reading this far, so thank you :) 

Lots of African love!!

Sally xxxx