Hello!
I missed writing last week, so here I am with most likely even more of a novel of an email (I don’t know yet how much of a novel since I’m just starting it, but if the past is any indicator…. you're in for a doozy!)
It’s been another busy 2 weeks – hard to believe that it will be a month of being here on Saturday (!) – the whole time has just blown by. There’s been masses of new people, new faces, new names, new languages, new health care environments, new living arrangements, new weather conditions, and lots and lots of new things to learn. It seems bizarre that so much new stuff and new life really has been jam-packed into only 4 weeks, because it’s like having built a whole life in the same amount of time – that’s the fun part about wandering the world independently, I suppose … you really get to start from scratch no matter where you set step.
Last week, I had a lot of driver training time with Marinde in the VW Golf … it had its ups and downs of success, hah! One of the days of driving lessons was a massively rainy day, and living up in the hills as we are, it’s super misty/foggy – so conditions needless to say were not ideal. And then there’s me, Marinde and Rahel packed into this little car, trying to practice left-side driving and gear shifting on the mud-slide that has replaced the dirt road. Real Africa ! Haha! It was quite ridiculous – especially since we made the brilliant decision of attempting to practice uphill starts on a 70 degree grassy incline…. Oh man, we just had to laugh at ourselves – or at least I did, since the most trouble I had was wrestling with the hand-brake: I simply COULD NOT get it to unlock from its position, even using both hands! SO funny! It was so stubborn! It is a very fortunate thing that I have not wrecked anything important in that car yet…
Highlights from last week also include: surviving through the lack of water for 5 days with foraging for rain water (which we had plenty of) and being creative for a rain collection system including a drainpipe, awnings, and buckets. The second half of the week was dominated by massive sunshine, and accordingly, I sunburned to a crispier version of Heather than probably ever seen before. Luckily, this has turned into what I am calling a “protective” tan. We’ll see how protective it turns out to be.
Last Friday, I drove out into the community with Mirande and Priscilla, one of the Zulu workers who is a really plucky lady and one of the physically strongest people I have ever met (cultural side note: that’s quite common in Zulu culture to have the women as the stronger ones… they do all the heavy work, the men really don’t do much of anything). Anyways, the three of us were driving in the ‘bakkie’ (pick-up truck, pronounced ‘bucky’) to deliver building supplies and a seriously massive water collection tank to one of Rehoboth’s house mum’s homes in the shanty-town nearby. Rehoboth does quite a lot of work to improve living conditions for their workers, which I hadn’t known about before. This was my first time really out in the community. The house mum, Eunice, is a lovely woman and it was so pleasant to see her at her home. She has, comparatively, a nice place to live. Her house has a garden out front where she grows corn and herbs and flowers, and there are two trees that she hangs her clothesline between. The house is made up of 3 rooms: kitchen, living room, bedroom. There’s no running water, but there is a tv, stove, and furniture. You can tell she’s put a lot of care into making it a nice home for her family: very clean, and a lot of pride put into the maintenance of the old cupboards and pseudo-linoleum put over the concrete floor. She shares the bedroom with her two daughters and her granddaughter who is only just learning to walk. They have no toilet in their house either – there are community-shared outhouse buildings and water supply a 5-10 min walk away. This new water tank we brought will make a big difference, collecting rain water to keep it filled. It’s humbling to see how so many people live – not to pity, but to recognize that life is very very different for others.
This week has been the beginning of my solo working in the clinic since Marinde is now on holiday for the next 3 weeks - it's been busy, but so fun to get to run it! I love all the different things I get to do and enjoy the challenge of caring and managing the care of 55 kids all at once. Today we have a new little girl coming in, so to prepare I've been developing an assessment and admission tool for Rehoboth since there wasn't one - that's been a sweet project and makes me feel rather professional!
This weekend the roomies and I are going off to Tala (spelling may be something else) which is a big game reserve about 2 hours away, so I will hopefully have some big animal sightings! The coolest thing earlier this week was seeing 3 zebras galloping across the hill opposite my flat - sooo incredible. Probably one of the most amazing things of my life. Who gets to see wild zebra up close and personal? So awesome!
That's all for now,
Turrah folks!
Heather
Heather! I really love reading your posts, it is so interesting what you are doing there! Good job on developing a useful tool for them to have once you leave. How very professional of you indeed!
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line though, was "not to pity, but to recognize life is different". That is a very wise observation, as pity and sympathy may be our first reaction but that kind of insinuates pride on our end. Others live differently, and happily, I might add. Great to hear your stories!
Rachel N.