17^th May 2008

ANNE

Work:

Had big handover meeting of development plans on Sat. 3^rd May. Twice as many people turned up as for our first meeting in October. That included 12 women this time as opposed to 2 first time around. Having reached that day at last, I thought nothing else could go wrong. Big mistake – zip broke on new dress just as I was leaving house and two pastors arrived seeking fund-raising assistance for different schemes. Now we start the uphill struggle to find the money required to meet all the objectives for the first year. Horrible forms have to be filled in for NGOs and for committee members who are largely illiterate, this is daunting. They will need a lot of support from qualified staff and ourselves if they are not to give up. The unqualified teachers at one of the schools have been on strike for over a week as they have not been paid for 3 months. Only one class is functioning.

Home;

A frustrating couple of weeks at home with both cooker and fridge problems.  If the fridge stops working overnight, by the time morning comes, a lot of food has already been destroyed and it smells as if there is a dead body in it. Thomas burnt his arm trying to kick it into action again and the other Thomas set fire to the floor! Time to give up on it, I think. I told the hospital administrator that I had reached my bottom line – I am not prepared to live in one house, use an oven in another and a fridge in a third. No Safeway here, so we have been reduced to onions, mangoes, rice, pasta or eggs. We have no dairy produce and there are no tomatoes at the moment so ideas for sauces are limited. Our next trip into Maroua is almost a week away and there is one egg left. Hm. We have been promised a new cooker and fridge but goodness knows when they will arrive. The fridge will cost about £2,000 and will still be paraffin operated so we will still have problems with wicks and burners but at least is should be clean when it arrives, unlike its 6 predecessors. Tally so far: 2 houses, 3 cookers and 6 fridges in 8 months.

This week’s culinary delights: Mango Curry and Mango Salsa. Mangoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we are not sick of them yet.

Godam:

He has just had a wonderful idea: I can have part of his field, buy all the seeds, fertilisers, tools etc., he and his wife will do all the work, then we will sell the produce and all get rich quick! I don’t think so. I wish I could trust him. His wife was sick the other morning so I am wondering if they have caved in to parental pressure after all. Watch this space.

Zra:

Zra is head of service of Obs. and Gynae. although he is a nurse, not a doctor. Hamish has huge respect for his ability and judgement. I talked to him recently at the Fête du Travail. He told me how he had managed to become a nurse. He comes from a poor family (they all do) in Gadala, about an hour from here. His parents had 10 children, including one daughter. 4 sons survived. Zra wanted to carry on with school and had to resist much pressure from his parents to marry at an early age. He got himself a piece of land, grew things, sold them and put himself through school and nursing training. He did eventually marry someone of his parents’ choosing. They have 5 children and Zra is determined that they will be supported through school as far as possible.

Lydia: Her mother was very ill last week and had to be hospitalised for a few days. As L. is the only member of the family to have a proper job, she is expected to pay for the treatment. Today she will take her only sheep to market to be sold to cover the costs. When I asked what she would have done with the sheep otherwise, she said it would have been kept for Christmas in case they have no money for beef.

Random facts/thoughts:

When the fridge is working I keep my lipstick in it, otherwise I have to pour it on.

Wonderful exotic birds are appearing in the garden with the change in the weather.

When I showed a photo of my red haired grandsons to one of the head teachers, he asked me if they are Chinese!!

Apart from 2 medical journals and a post card ( thanks Fi and Hamish), we have had no mail since 15^th April.

Hamish’s news

Anne has mentioned the fridge problem. The sight of a paraffin burner lying in flames on the floor was quite alarming, especially as things like fire extinguishers are not readily available. Come to that, there’s no fire brigade either! Fortunately, the fire was easily extinguished by covering the flames with an old rag. As the floor is concrete, there really was no danger.

We now have a retired Cameroonian general physician, Dr Jemba, here for Anne P’s maternity leave. He seems very affable and is certainly experienced. We have also been told that two weekends a month will be covered by “vacataires” (locums) and I’ve also been told by the co-ordinator that if the going gets too much, I should be prepared to take myself off and leave the hospital uncovered! I think not – I would not be comfortable doing that.

This week the main power line to the extreme north was cut when two pylons toppled. The area was without electricity from Tuesday afternoon until late Friday evening. Back up systems have not been maintained, so emergency generators, for example, were not working. We were better off in Zidim where we rely on our generators for power anyway, so we were getting patients sent to us from other hospitals which had no back up power supply. Worse than that, some people were unable to access water and I understand there have been some deaths as a result.

The hospital has an isolation unit for TB patients, who spend 2 months there when they start treatment. For them, it must be like being in prison, but for us this is a group of patients we get to know quite well. One girl was admitted with her very young baby and they’ve been there for 6 weeks now. Many of the kids are really frightened of white people so it was a real treat to get big beaming smiles from this one. I’ve attached a photo of the baby, but she wouldn’t smile for the camera! The guy in the background is Jacques Nai, a very experienced and caring nurse. There is another young girl in the unit who is a real inspiration. She has active TB and is HIV positive, but she always has the cheeriest smile. When I asked how she could be so happy she said it’s because we’ve discovered what’s wrong with her and she’s going to get better, "with God’s will".

Now that we’ve had a few days of rain, there are big changes in the countryside with much more colour. We’ve also noticed a bigger variety of birds around. I’ve attached a photo of a very colourful tree in the hospital grounds (reminiscent of the cherry trees in Lamond Drive?) and an exotic bird that was perched outside one of the windows of our house.

Finally, this week we brought François back to Zidim, much to everybody’s delight. After more than three months in traction, followed by surgery, he has a long road ahead of him to get back to full fitness. When our daughter Shona arrives in a couple of weeks, her first task as a physiotherapist will be to work on his rehabilitation!