Well so much has happened since my last entry. We worked a week of night duty at the end of July, which involves 7 shifts of 14 hours (6pm to 8am). Whilst going through them it felt like they would never end but when we were finished it didn’t seem to bad. When all the patients were settled and sleeping we watched 6 feet under to get us through the hours usually of 11 till 4. At 4 then we made the porridge and medication rounds etc. Most nights one of the little babies spent the night in the clinical room in one of our arms whilst we giggled up and down to try and get her to sleep. She seemed to prefer to sleep in one of our arms then her bed. On the last night though she slept the whole night through without a peep.
So after our nights we had 7 days off. We headed down to Lusaka where I had my first latte in a month and we even ventured to the cinema to see the Dark Knight it was a treat. On the Monday we headed to South Luwanga National Park, which is in the eastern province of Zambia and rather then traveling the bumpy 2 day ride by bus we opted for the 1 hour plane journey. Equipped with tent, mats and sleeping bags we arrived at our campsite. We were staying in Flat dogs campsite, we put up our little tent and went explored it was well set up with bar, restaurant and swimming pool. We spent a lot of our week by the pool reading. We did go on a game drive, which started at the early hour of 6. As we drove sleepily through the camp we got to see elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, hyenas, buffalos and other birds and animals. Michelle went on an evening drive and got to see lions eat their supper of a Zebra. However one did not really need to go on a drive, as elephants, hippos and giraffes were regular visitors around the camp. It is amazing to see animals in the wild. We had a scary experience one night I woke up and realised that an elephant was out side our tent. I woke poor Michelle who was in dreamland and we both lay there with adrenaline running through our bodies as this elephant sniffed our little yellow tent thinking what if he decided to stand on our tent. He didn’t though. The next night I think it happened again but we didn’t pay much attention to it.
We were back to Kabwe on Friday and back to work on Saturday. This week the influx of Irish continues there are 6 medical students and two doctors and their children all visiting the Hospice (all Irish).
This week we had an issue around breastfeeding with one of the mums. Breast milk contains a high percentage of HIV viruses. In the west women are told not to breastfeed. Here in Africa that is impractical as sterilizing bottles and clean water are not always available and powder milk cost a lot of money. So women here are advised to breastfeed till the baby is 6 months and then stop totally. In the west mother to child transmission is as low as 1-2%. Here not every child contracts HIV from their mother but it is higher due to breastfeeding.
We are off today as we start nights again tomorrow. You may ask nights again so soon. It is because Donna arrives next Sunday and Michelle leaves in two weeks and wanted to go to see Livingstone and Vic falls before she goes. So rather then me going once with Michelle and once with Donna we are all going to go together next week.
This week the President of Zambia died in a Paris Hospital from complications of a stroke he had two months ago at the African Summit in Egypt. The country is now in 7 days of mourning. One of the things in the day of mourning is that there is now public music. Kabwe is so quite walking around everything is quite, as usually there is a house close by blaring out music at all times of the day! It is hard as this is the first former or past President ever to die in Zambia so it is all new. Next week his body is traveling around Zambia visiting every main town. In three months they will hold elections to elect the next president.
Michelle and I are on our last night duty. The porridge is cooked, the medication is given and the sun has raised. We are now waiting for the day staff to come on shift. It has been a good week with many stories but also a long week and I am ready to sleep. 98 hours of night duty!!!! One thing that I am always aware of in Zambia is how brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons all care for their relatives. On night though one really sees the extant of this care. As through out the night they spend the night with the patient helping their every need including getting up and down to toilet, washing them, dressing them, feeding them etc. It is an amazing thing to see the care and one that makes you realise the importance of family. It is the cultural thing to care for your family and sometimes it is sad as some patients do not have a bedsidder due to not having family or being stigmatised due to their HIV status.
One of the patients mum is in and she is 4 foot nothing and the funniest women I have ever met. We call her Bambau (grandmother). Every evening when we come on duty she checks our pockets for any goodies. She doesn’t speak English but talks away to us in bemba and usually we can get the drift that she is asking for our tops. She also usually has a feel of our breasts and puts her hand down our tops to feel our bra and proceeds to tell us that she wants our bras. If that happened at home we would have them up for assault but here we just laugh. Breast are nothing special here as women's breast are often out breastfeeding. So having your breast felt up by an little old lady here seems normal! TIA (This is Africa) She will usually have a little dance with you as well. I have added a photo of me and her we just took! Watch out for sleepy head Siobhan.
We now have a week off and we are heading to Lusaka on Sunday to pick up Donna (a good friend from our nursing class)who arrives from Kenya and is staying for two months to work in the hospice. Then the three of us head to Livingstone and Victora falls for few days rest. Then back up to Kabwe. Michelle then fly’s home on the 2nd of September! Very sad…….
