Farming Group

Break Time for a Farmer

Monastery Abandoned During War

No Room for Errors

I got really excited yesterday when the temperature dropped to 25º in the shade.  Winter is approaching and all the locals are wearing jackets, if they can afford them, and protecting themselves from the cold.  The downside was it was too wet to go out.  Everywhere was flooded, there was no transport, boats were required, and all the shops were shut.

Some of my students have gone to Wau teaching hospital for their clinical placements.  I have been going there in the mornings to teach them in the wards.  The wards only run at 30% capacity for a number of reasons.  No one would ever criticise the Edinburgh Royal after seeing this place. Everything you do and teach has to be adapted for the environment and limited resources.  Malawi had so much compared to here.  Goats and dogs wander round the hospital and sometimes go into the wards.  Water is pumped in the yard for the wards, patients sit under the trees with their families when they are able to mobilise, and some of the buildings are derelict.  If you can’t pay for drugs you don’t get them.  Staff and visitors sometimes have a whip round to pay for drugs or catheters etc for patients.  A few months ago a patient died after surgery so a relative went there and shot and killed the surgeon. So I’m hoping I don’t make any mistakes.  I think someone should consider an effective complaints procedure.

In the afternoons I’ve been returning to college and teaching there.  No matter what I’m teaching I finish each class by asking them to work out a drug dose and a drip rate. I realised, to my horror, that many of them lack basic maths skills, or sums to you and me.  Everyday I tell them that there are 1000 mgs in a gram and 1000 mls in a litre and they continue to make the same errors.  As far as they are concerned there is anything between 50 -5000 mls in a litre. They are not so extravagant with mgs and grams but make huge errors including 100 grams in 1 mg.  I’ve given them a formula to work out drug doses and drip rates.  Sometimes there is a glimmer of hope then it fades away the next day. 

Most of the students are lovely people, some have been soldiers since they were kids, many of them were refugees, and some are supporting families.  They have to study by candle light; some of them never saw a text book until they started nursing college.  They have learned by rote and have never had to understand anything or work anything out.  They just remember things.  Trying to get them to think critically or see the bigger picture is daunting task.

The students have started calling me sister; they used to call me teacher.  Sister means lots of things here.  There are the nuns and they know I’m not one of them.  Sisters on the wards they tend to call “the in charge” but mostly sister means friend.  It’s a term of acceptance as being one of them.  The street boys call me sister too.  If they call you mother that is showing respect and if they call you grandmother that shows the greatest respect but there is no warmth in these names or acceptance.  So it’s good to be sister.

If anyone wants to email me John can give you my new email address but messages are still forwarded from my lineone address.  I hope all is well and you are enjoying the cooler weather.

Hilda Ogden Head Gear

I’ll have been away from home for 8 weeks on Wednesday, time has been passing so quickly.  I’m getting used to the slower pace of life and the environment.  We have the most amazing electrical storms, it floods so quickly and you get soaked through in seconds.  The dust storms are incredible, you get sandblasted and an excellent exfoliation. However, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the heat and it’s still to get a lot hotter. It is rarely less than 30° in my room when I go to bed. When I’m at home, still in the guest house, I wear a wet head scarf tied round my head like the one that Hilda Ogden wore with her curlers, most unattractive.  The local women have it sussed with their clothes that protect them from the sun and flow really elegantly.  Most people here are from the Dinka tribe and are very tall, some of the women are around 6 feet and most weight less than my left leg. Unfortunately when I try to wear their robes I look like I’m going to fancy dress party as Casper and if I just try the head dress I look like I’ve tried to strangle myself.  So Hilda Ogden it will have to be. 

 

The wildlife has been more prolific in the last couple of weeks.  There are bats the size of large magpies that fly about during the day, I think they sense when a storm is coming and know that there will be loads of insects.  I’ve never seen such big bats.  A few nights ago I realised that I had a visitor in my room.  I could hear things being gently banged into then eventually being knocked over.  I didn’t know if it was something that had slithered in under the door or was something with sharp teeth and a long tail.  Thankfully it turned out to be a frog, I had to chase it out only to find its friend waiting for it outside.  The donkey disappeared, the puppy died and the kitten has still never been seen again. 

 

The president visited Wau, we got 2 public holidays which is not as good as it sounds because there was a lot of security, the officials had taken over River Lodge so we couldn’t go there and we couldn’t get to the other lodge because there were road blocks.  Like Malawi the holidays were announced by loud speaker the night before in Arabic so it meant nothing to me.  I pitched up at work both days only to be told to go home. 

 

Work has been busy and there have been problems with the generator which runs in the mornings.  Someone filled it with oil and it took them a couple of days to identify the problem.  We now have other problems with it so nothing is kept cold in the fridges but we continue to give the drugs even though they are probably inactive due to the heat.  Some of the students were meant to go on placement a few hours drive from here but the roads were so bad they have had to stay in Wau so we have more students around than we should have.  There may be some developments in the college soon but in Africa plans change and developments are delayed so I’ll wait and see.  In the meantime its get on with work and the Hilda Ogden head scarf.

 

I hope everyone is well at home and enjoying the healthy cold climate which I’m really missing.

 

Lazy Sunday

 

4 weeks in Wau and still staying in the guest house.  I was offered a room in a house with other VSOs but for a number of reasons I didn’t find it suitable.  I’m working on the third time lucky belief and hope the next offer will be what I want where I want. 

 

I’m enjoying work, the students are showing a lot more interest in anything I teach and ask really relevant questions which is great knowing that some of them actually listen.  My Arabic is coming on.  I speak more Arabic after a few weeks in the country than I spoke Chichewa after 2 years in Malawi.  I make a lot of mistakes but at least I entertain people by trying.  The students help me and I’m trying to arrange lessons with some other volunteers.  I’ll drop out of the classes if I feel I’m keeping the others back.  I usually need remedial classes for languages.

 

I found a 4 week old kitten and decided if was still around the next day I would keep it.  I’ve not seen it again so its either being looked after or it has been killed by the feral dogs.  We have just adopted a very young puppy at work it was on deaths door. It is now doing well after a lot of antibiotics, milk and care.  One of the local donkeys looks like it’s about to foal any day so we’re looking forward to that.  I’ve befriended the local street children and feed them as much as I can.  I gave them 20 rounds of flat breads and a jar of jam this morning, it is really humbling to see how happy it makes them.  I’m trying to get some of them to come to the clinic, they have the most horrible infected wounds, I had to check if one was dead or alive outside the gate today people just walk past them and don’t care.

 

Life in Wau is at a leisurely pace because of the heat.  I meet up with friends on Saturdays we go to the market for anything we need and to soak up the culture then go for lunch and a beer or two.  The markets are open on other days but we don’t have time to go.  I sometimes meet friends for a meal and or a beer during the week then if I’m not preparing a lecture I watch a film in the evenings and read.  I catch up with world news from the BBC every morning on my radio.  My kindle, radio and my laptop are my best mates during the week.  Sundays I chill out, listen to music, do my washing, any sewing that needs done and give myself a pedicure.  If it wasn't for the heat I'd be really chilled out.

I hope everyone is well.  Keep the comments coming on the blog.

 

2 Weeks in Wau

 

Just getting to know the town, which is not very pretty, and stretches out over quite a distance.  Vultures circle overhead all day and swoop down to the rubbish left at the roadside.  There are 3 markets all selling the same stuff which mainly comes from China and India.  The fresh food is  limited, apples cost about 80 pence each, goat meat is readily available and there are loads of pulses and rice.   There is no power other than private generators and no water or sewerage system.  The water is delivered by a donkey drawn cart, stray dogs wander in packs on the streets and rejected children live on the streets.

 

There is a good bunch of volunteers here who meet up regularly and it’s great having Liz around.  I’m still staying in the guest house which I think will be preferable to staying at the college but I don’t know if VSO will agree to me staying.  I don’t think the nuns are ready for me and I’m sure I’m not ready for them.  Life in the college house would be very restricted with little privacy, no radios, music, beers in the fridge or friends round.  Not for me.

 

Work will be very challenging.  My job needs sorted out as far as the college are concerned I’m a pair of hands which is not the job I agreed to.  I’ve been teaching in the health clinic in the mornings and lecturing in the afternoons.  I’ve been trying to get the students to wash their hands between patients, it seams like an alien concept to them.  The fact that the water is contaminated and the towel, which is not changed all week, is dirty is another matter.  Most of the patients have malaria or typhoid, sometimes both, with a bit of syphilis thrown in, tropical ulcers and pneumonia, a bit different from home.  Oh I forgot about the TB which is made worse by people spitting everywhere, even the nurses in the clinic.

 

Its rainy season and the roads turn to rivers in minutes and it’s really difficult to cross them.  You don’t know what’s in the water and its flows really fast.  The storms are fabulous as long as you’re inside.  The transport is by motor bike taxis or rickshaws which are good fun.  I hope to do a bit more exploring next week and wander round the markets a bit more.  Luxuries take on a whole new meaning here, nutella and olives are top of the list.  I didn’t even eat nutella at home but I’m getting through it here.

 

If anyone is on the orange network, it might be EE network now, you can contact me by text, John can give you the number, I can also be contacted by email but the connecting is unreliable so it may take a day or 2 for me to reply.