Heading home

Well, I can hardly believe it but this 2 month stint has gone by, and in a couple hours I'll be headed to the airport. I've nearly finished the task for fitting my life back into suitcases. Again. As I was packing I was cognisent of the fact that i have way too many warm weather clothes here - I hadn't realised that not only is it cold here, but there is no heating in most places. Brrr! So I only wore the warmest clothes I brought, other than the few days in Uganda. Ah well, live and learn.

Take care & I'll be in touch again soon.

Mbekweni & Fairyland

I spent the day today working with the home health workers from Drakenstein Hospice, doing home visits into the townships and informal settlements of Mbewkeni and Fairyland (a cute name for a dismal looking place), as well as to a farm (to visit the farmworkers).

The home health worker, Myrtle (wearing the vest, right), was really amazing. She used to have a better paying job in a private hospital and gave it up to work for hospice - she is amazingly dedicated to the families she works with. She brings food to them every visit out of her own pocket - little things of yoghurt, or a sandwhich. She sometimes pays for gas out of her own pocket to bring kids to the hospital in town when they need to go. Here, we are measuring and weighing one of our little patients.

The thing is - I think they're all like that. Doing amazing work with few resources, just a lot of caring and love.

Some of the mothers / grandmothers / aunties we talked about in rounds have been really amazing, taking in other orphans and looking after their own and other kids. Others struggle.

One family (a grandmother, her son and her 6 or 8 grandkids) had been doing really well, with a small meat selling business in a container. (containers, like shipping containers, are often used here as little shops). About 2 weeks ago, during the xenophobic attacks, her shop & home were attacked, her husband shot, and all her furniture, fridges & freezers stolen. So now they have no income, no food, nothing. (Incidentally, they are not foreigners!).

It was a day when the inequities of life here were so blatant. The photos are taken beside some shacks, just 25 m from a train track. We visited a daycare - basically a one room shack liket he ones you see in the photo, with 9 or 10 preschool kids wandering around. These two little kids on the left were not in the daycare - they came to see the commotion and watched as we gave out little things of yoghurt, so I had to give them some as well. The big brother could hardly carry the little brother strapped on his back.

It was an exhausting but illuminating day.

Hermanus

Last weekend I visited our landlords cottage in Hermanus, a whale watching town about 2 hours drive from Cape Town. What a beautiful area! With mountains on one side and the ocean on the other, we had lovely walks along the beach. One of the highlights was seeing some early Southern Right whales breaching and playing in the waves. Usually they're not around for another month!

There seems to be some lovely restaurants and shops in the town as well, although we ran out of time to do any poking around in the town.

Its really lovely to do some exploring of the region.

Pediatrics Ward

I spent yesterday with the pediatricians in Paarl Hospital, the secondary level hospital that provides care to the children in the Drakenstein Valley. Its actually split over two sites, one depicted above, the TC Newman / Paarl East Hospital, and the main hospital. I spent the morning on rounds with the house doctors (residents / registrars / locums) in neonatology, the main children's ward and the gastro ward.

The hospitals look a little run down but they have MUCH more available than in other places I've worked. One chronic problem they have is a shortage of doctors, including consultant pediatricians. The ones they have work SO hard! They were really friendly & welcoming, and enthusiastic about our study.

The big problems there? Acute respiratory infection, gastroenteritis, malnutrition. Prematurity and low birth weight as well. They do have access to the usual tests and antibiotics and some of the high end ones - there were 3 kids on Vancomycin & Meropenem (the really big guns).

The day provided a real boost for my spirits, to remember what it is I am doing here.