The Vegetable Garden

As mentioned in our previous post, we have started a veggie garden. Before we talk about this, we thought it might be make sense for to post a picture of our house.



We are the unit on the left. Each unit has two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen that opens onto a lounge – it is very spacious and we are very happy here (especially considering the accommodation nightmares that some of our colleagues have had to ensure – more of which will be discussed in a later post).

Just to the left of the tyre in the picture above is an area that previous doctors fenced off to create a vegetable garden. We have been allocated some space, and inherited the patch below.



After much work by Tom (Jo was conspicuously absent during the manual labour needed to get the patch in shape) as evidenced in the picture below…



… we created a compost heap and planted fennel, basil, potatoes, tomatoes, mixed lettuce, carrots, baby cabbage and leeks. Whether all or any of these will succeed in our garden remains to be seen – on one hand, we are cautiously optimistic given that the land here is so fertile but other the other, refuse to get our hopes up given that we are absolute novices at this game. Either way, watch this space!

A Shaky Start

In our previously post, we mentioned quite nonchalantly that Jo was feeling a bit sick. “A bit sick” was an understatement of note! Shortly after posting our entry, Jo started throwing up, following which things got progressively worse as she developed a temperature, fever and gastro, and lost 4 kg in 3 days! By the Thursday (we had arrived on the previous Saturday) she had developed a rash, and it seemed she had measles. We went through to East London to have her admitted to hospital there (where it was confirmed that she did indeed have measles) and where she was put on IV antibiotics. She spent four days in hospital and then three days recovering in East London before we drove back to Zithulele. Subsequently, things have improved dramatically and we are really starting to settle in – we have started a veggie garden, had quite a few braais, been down to our nearest beach a few times and generally started to adapt to life in the Transkei.

To give you an idea of just how sick Jo was, we have attached a picture of her after being admitted to hospital.



Not a happy chappie, and indeed not nearly as happy as the jo in the picture below as she embarked on her first day of “proper” work (due to being sick, she had previously only completed a grand total of one two hour ward round before crawling back into bed). Her sickness earned her a mention (by reference, not by name) on the front page of the Daily Dispatch where, in an article discussing the measles outbreak, it referred to a “doctor from Zithulele had been admitted to St Dominic’s”.



Jo’s first day was a busy but fulfilling one. First day back and first day on call (in maternity ward)! One of her first patients had a cord prolapse –that’s when the umbilical cord connected to the mother and baby prolapses out of vagina before the head has come out, causing the baby to potentially have a serious lack of oxygen. The bottom line it’s hectic and involves someone (luckily an elective student was available) to stick their hand up the vagina and keep it lodged there to prevent the baby’s head from coming down further and pushing the cord up. The mother has to be put onto a stretcher and the nominated health professional has to run with hand up vagina to theatre for a Caesar.

Tom (due to being such a dedicated and supportive husband!) had also not properly commenced work until yesterday, although he had had numerous meetings with various stakeholders as he attempted to more clearly define his role within the foundation. Being a young foundation with very little in terms of existing structures, his role will be a malleable one that will undoubtedly evolve as the year progresses; but even at this early stage he is extremely excited about the prospects ahead.

On 1 January we left this:



In this:



And, on 2 January, arrived not far from this:



The drive on Friday was long, especially considering that we had packed all our CD's bar one in the depths of the trailer! But the drive was broken up by stopping off and seeing Tom's folks (in Heidelberg), Adi and Sav (in Plett), Jo's cousins (in Nature's Valley) and Jo's brother, Ken (in Port Alfred). All these stops meant that we arrived in East London later than we had initially hoped but, after dodging a black cow in the middle of the N2 at 120km / hour, we arrived safely. Saturday was spent doing a last minute shop in East London (which, for the duration of this year, will be considered our oasis of civilisation and a place associated with luxuries such as Woolworths) before the final leg of our journey to Zithulele. This journey comprised of 180 km of a decent road (the N2 between East London and Mthatha) before negoiating 50 km of "the worst tar road in South Africa" and 20 km of fairly average gravel road. They say paradise, by definition, is hard to get to. At least buying the Hardbody had now been justified.

Our first few days have been spent with Tom unpacking and Jo being sick, meaning that she missed her first two days of work. Tom's work only officially starts on 11 January, but in the meantime he has swum in the ocean (twice), gone for a mountain bike ride (what a pleasure dealing with sheep and friendly children as opposed to irate Cape Town drivers) and tried (mostly unsuccessfully) paddling an Eskimo.

It is early days, but we are both so excited to be here, and the year ahead does look like a promising one. Going forward, we plan for our posts to follow one of three themes: (1) general news, (2) intersting medical stories (Jo's work) and (3) developmental economics - a snazzy phrase for doing things like selling chickens (Tom's work). Comments are welcomed and encouraged!!

Finally, we thought it might be nice to end all our posts with one or two Xhosa phrases:
"Molo sisi / bhuti, uyaphila" (Morning brother / sister, how are you today)
"Ndiyaphila enkosi, kodwa kushushu namhlanje" (I am well, but it is hot today)