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…….
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…….
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