Margot and Zara: April Diary Writing

African Sunset

Zara’s April Writing:

Wednesday 7 April

Goodnis Acke!

I’m looking at a giraaf for goodnis acke.

I saw an elephant for goodnis acke.

I saw a warthog for goodnis acke!

I saw a lion for goodnis acke!

I saw a kudu for goodnis acke!

I saw a squirrel for goodnis acke!

I saw a suni for goodnis acke!

I saw a nyala for goodnis acke!

I saw an impala for goodnis acke!

Bug collection

Monday 13 April

Hamster!

Thang cue very motsh for the hamsters. Hamsters are good runners. My hamster bit my finger. The cage is blue. I hav a little bottle for the water. I qute (put) som saw dust inside. Thay love ther running wheel. My hamster is cald Bibi.

Zara

Monday 19 April

Simmon (the cat) and Ruf (the dog) were fiting (fighting).

Roxy (the bunny) toled (told) them to stop.

They stoped. Simmon saw Roxy. She ran after her.

“Watsh (watch) out Roxy, I’ll catch her!” said Ruf.

Simmon cort (caught) her prey. She was still allive (alive) so she askaped (escaped).

Zara

Wednesday 28 April

I went to Ithala. It was fun because we went on the 4x4 track. We camped there and saw rhino and elephant.

Zara's art

Margot’s April Writing:

7/04/10

Ndumo

On Sunday we left Cindy (our kitten) on her own and went to Ndumo Game Reserve. It took us about one and a half hours but it was worth the while!

As we arrived, two big male giraffes came prancing out of the bush. We went a little further on the windy and rocky dirt road. There, we saw a few others but they were girls giraffes. There were also one or two baby giraffes. The funny thing about those specific giraffes was that they didn’t have normal patches; Their patches looked more like Canadian maple leaves! We thought it was so beautiful we actually stayed a night there. Supper was delicious; Voos and stir-fry on the skottle. When we woke up the next morning, dad told us his story about vomiting in the night. We were surprised to hear this but we suspected it was the chicken mum cooked that we think was raw. Other than that, Ndumo was awesome!

12/04/10

Hamster

Last week-end (the holidays), we went to Impangeni to stay with friends. There was a girl of my age there called Emma. She is very nice except we didn’t play much; we only watched TV. Apart from that, we did do some painting. I did a big pink flower.

Before we left, Emma showed us some baby hamsters! She said that she needed to give them away so me and Zara pleaded mum to get one.

We were very happy when mum said yes. It took a long time for me to choose one. When me and Zara eventually picked one, we set off to get a cage.

On the way, we were all trying to make-up names for them and in the end, I settled with Nibbles and Zara Biby. I love our new hamsters!

Margot's art

14/04/10

Toto

Toto was our oldest chicken in NZ. Our tenants were looking after her. We also had four other chickens: Juju, Siena, Weetbix and Cornflakes. Siena and Weetbix were my chickens. We think Toto was about 10 when the most horrible thing happened; our tenants sent us a letter and at the bottom, it said that Toto was dead. I remembered when I used to call Toto in for dinner every day and how easy it was to catch her. Our tenants sent another letter that said that they had invited Mag, our neighbour, to burry her. I am sad for Toto.

19/4/10

Lala Nek

Yesterday, Gerda (a lady from the hospital grounds) offered us to come with them to Lala Nek. Wentzel (my friend) wouldn’t be coming because he wanted to play at a friend’s house. The problem was that Gerda didn’t have a 4x4 so instead, we took our 4x4 and all 7 of us (Gerda, Annalou, Uju, Lize, Zara, Mum, another friend called Jade and me) piled in. It wasn’t that squishy because our car has 7 seats but apart from that, lize’s car seat was taking up all the room in the second row of the car (there are 3 rows of seats in the car). When we eventually arrived at Lala Nek , we quickly got changed. I slipped into my rock shoes and sprinted to the sea. We had to be careful because there was a sign saying: “BEWARE OF SHARKS!”. So we had to stay in the shallows. We found lots of little tunnels that would go under a big chunk of rock attached to both sides. It was also a snorkeling paradise! Just to look at the corals was amazing! I saw a fish that looked like the South African flag called a trigger fish and I also saw a mustard coloured stingray with blue fluorescent spots on it. There weren’t much other animals; a few birds but lots of sea urchins! We had a lovely day.

22/04/10

Sports Day

Yesterday, we went to Sodwana bay school to do sports. We started by doing a 1km run to the soccer field. At the soccer field, we could choose out of karate, soccer or netball.

I chose Junior soccer which I didn’t enjoy much. All we did was kicking the ball to each other in a group. I would have liked doing netball much more than soccer.

Zara was doing soccer too but she would have been good at karate.

After, we went for a swim at Sodwana beach. The waves were perfect for boogie boarding. There were millions of baby crabs everywhere on the beach. I had a lot of fun!

29/04/10

Granny!

On Thursday last week, I took a day off school to go to Durban to pick-up Granny. It was a long 2 hours drive but it was worth it. We (me and mum) saw some people selling honey comb on the side of the road, but we thought it would melt so we didn’t buy it.

The next day we went to camp at a place called Ithala Game Reserve. We saw lots of game there!

The next day was even better. At Mkuze Game Reserve, we saw a white rhino just next to our car!

The last day of our holidays was far the best! We stayed at a luxury resort at Rocktail. Mum collected lots of junk from the beach and we made a collage with it.

Rocktail Beach Art

Comrades for Children

Mseleni Children’s Home and the Comrades Marathon 2010




On the 30th June I will be joining about 20 thousand runners taking part in the 89km Comrades marathon from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. I am presently working at Mseleni Hospital in the far north of KZ-Natal and in the corner of the hospital grounds is the Mseleni Children’s Home. Every time I pass the home I hear laughter and singing and it seems to be a positive and happy place. I am very keen to put my Comrades effort to a good cause and as such would like to raise some money for this wonderful Home. I ask you please to consider donating a few rands (or dollars/euros!) to this wonderful cause. Anything from 1 to 10 rand/dollars per kilometer would be very much appreciated. Below please find some information about the Home and some of the things that money would be used for. Also included are the bank details if you are able to help. Please use “comrades” as your reference so we can keep track. Thank-you so much.
Sandy Inglis






‘The Children’s Home, the only one in the area, was started by AEF missionaries in the 1950’s. It is registered with the Department of Social Development to care for 40 children from birth to 18 (or 21 if still in school.) The Department subsidizes the care of these children, most of who have been abandoned or abused, and it gives an opportunity to share the love of Christ with these vulnerable children. A small number are also physically or mentally challenged, and some are known to be HIV+. In addition to these children placed through social services, there are also three children who are physically handicapped who go home to their own families in the holidays. They are with the Home because they are unable to get to school from their own homes because of their handicap.’

“Apart from that we are looking for funds for some major renovation and building work (extending the gate & fence out & re-electrifying the gate so we have better security for the children, and creating a parking area & improving the entrance, a gate house, an office & therapy room for the social worker, rebuilding the senior care worker’s house & adding some offices & store room, & adding two bedrooms on to the girl’s accommodation.) The quotation we have received for this is in the region of R2m.

Other needs we have are for a strimmer to keep the grass at bay in the grounds, a new kitchen stove, some TVs, toys for use in therapy (including anatomical dolls – the complete set costs about R5000) A climbing frame and new furniture ( small plastic tables & chairs, comfortable chairs, beds, mattresses.)



MSELENI CHILDREN’S HOME,
SIM, P.O. BOX 178, SIBHAYI, 3967
NPO Reg No: 000-338
SIM Project No: ZA 87330 & ZA 97398; VAT No: 4360132452;
PBO No: 18/11/13/1230
Tel: 035 574 1075 e-mail: rachel@mseleni.co.za Fax: 035 574 1075

BANKING DETAILS:

MSELENI CHILDREN’S HOME
Acc No: 50850044170
FNB Hluhluwe Branch 220530
Cheque Account
SWIFT Code: FIRNZAJJXXX

Septic Tanks, Singing and Sights...

It’s not always rosy out here at Mseleni. Last week our septic tank overflowed. A thick slimy offensive green sludge seeping slowly across the lawn. Added to this, a flush of the loo served only to circulate things, producing a faeculant float and some embarrasmant! Despite repeated calls to the hospital maintenance and a promise of repair, we are yet to see the “sewer sucker” and have placed part of the front lawn out of bounds! Then before that it was the washing machine. The spinner no longer works and this too is on some imaginary repair list. All laundry is now done next door in the Dietician’s machine. A few weeks before this it was the carpet. A strange smell prompted us to attempt to wash the carpets in our park home. This only served to stir up nasty and previously dormant odours and the pungent stench of urine dominated the house for some weeks. At some expense, Ilda got a carpet cleaner up from Empangeni, 2 hours away, but even this has failed to completely eradicate the house’s history. Then of course the air conditioner didn’t work but fortunately that is now not too serious as things have started to cool down a bit and we had a portable one which kept us sane. Then we had a burglar. A young, well known kleptomaniac from the community, who slipped into our home and helped himself to some DVD’s . Fortunately Ilda heard him and gave chase and our loss was minimal. He was caught by the hospital security at Ilda’s insistence but such is their incompetence, he was set free with little more than a scolding. And finally, in this paragraph of woes, our car broke down, which necessitated a 3 hour tow-truck ride to Empangeni for car and Ilda. She over-nighted there and then returned in a hire car the next day. Thank goodness that granny Rachel was with us to mind the girls and we had insurance to meet the bills.

Work continues unabated. The novelty of the ward work has worn a little thin and thankfully I will be spending more time in OPD/ED from this month and less on the wards. I think that I am to cover male surgical ward and then have two sessions in OPD rather than the mandatory one. There is so much to be done in OPD/ED that I look forward to being able to get my teeth into it. Oh to have enough gloves, soap, adequate suction and working oxygen sockets. The needs are basic but the challenges seem massive.

The pathology here is overwhelming in its enormity. Little is subtle and yet it is rare to have a clear cut diagnosis as diagnostics are limited and access to tertiary level tests and imaging almost impossible. I lose count of how many HIV + patients I have who are wasted, feverish, coughing and confused and to tease out which of the multitude of opportunistic infections they may have seems insurmountable. Why, in this high tech era, do we not have a simple test to diagnose TB and have to rely on patients coughing up sputum, which even then is only +ve in about 25% of PTB cases? Some of my patients are on no less than 15 different medications and 3 or 4 times per day painfully force handfuls of dry tablets down throats scorched with thrush into stomachs rebelling at even food, let alone tablets. They lie in bed sweating, pale and gaunt and gaze at us expectantly with orange sludge dribbling from their mouths hoping that today we can make them better. But the reality is that mostly we can’t and the grip of AIDS is so immense that we can only tinker before the grim reaper carries them away.

But it is not always this dire. There are frequently pleasant surprises and it is never dull. Like the Caesarian section in the middle of the night who, as my shiny scalpel peeled through skin and fat, the young expectant mum broke into song and the OR was filled with her exquisite chanting. And the weird and wonderful cases like the young woman at my rural clinic who couldn’t close her eyes and turned out to have bilateral 5^th and 7^th cranial nerve lesions and we await a CT scan to confirm (perhaps) pathology. Or the car crash I was called out to from my clinic, while grappling with what ARV’s to start for a 6 month pregnant mother with Hepatitis B and Syphilis who had previously defaulted on her treatment. The truck had rolled, narrowly missing our OT and had come to rest on its roof. After climbing through a thorn tree to get to the crushed cab, I was surprised to find it empty, only to hear that the occupants had done a runner! Their legs were intact.

And so it goes on. We continue to explore this beautiful land and revel in our w/e excursions to teeming game parks and golden warm beaches. Only last week we were again scuba diving, this time near Rock Tail Bay. The diving is spectacular and we were entertained by massive Potato Bass, Moray eels, Sting Rays and a Green Turtle.

L'ecole sous le manguier

Il est 6 heures et le soleil rouge se leve sur le Zululand. Les coqs s’egosillent et les oiseaux se reveillent. Sandy est parti courir a 5h pour se preparer a courir le Comrate Ultramarathon de 90km prevu fin Mai.

Je suis arrachee de mes reves par le bruit de la desherbeuse qui nous fait effet de reveil (plutot torture) tout les jours de la semaine a 6h30 precis. Et encore, j’ai la chance qu’il ne se trouve pas juste au dehors de ma chambre! Les parterres de l’enceinte de l’hopital sont entretenus par le personnel de maintenance. Oui, nous avons un “garden service”! C’est gratuit et ca fait parti du contract…meme le reveil-matin!

Nous petit-dejeunons sous le manguier arose par la belle lumiere du soleil matinal. J’aime se moment ou nous sommes tous les 4 a regarder la nature se reveiller.

7h30, Sandy part a pied travailler. L’hopital ne se trouve qu’a 2 minutes de marche.

8h00 l’heure de l’ecole!

Notre Mobile-Home derriere les barbeles. En fait, la securite de l'hopital laisse vraiment a desirer.

Un Huppu

Des pintades qui sortent de chez le coiffeur!

Zara: Miss bug!

On commence la journee par du sport: sauter a la corde, course de relais autour de la maison, tennis suivit parYoga avec relaxation et etirements.

Ceci est suivit par un exercice de memorisation: apprendre un poeme. Notre reference est le “Walkers book of poems” et le choix est libre. En function de la longueur du poeme, les filles ont entre 1 et 2 semaines pour apprendre le texte par coeur.

Cette activite est extra-curriculum et s’avoue etre une excellente methode pour “reveiller” le cerveau.

Nous faisons en suite des maths suivit par de l’ecriture, grammaire, lecture, parfois du francais, des travaux manuels, peinture, collages, dessins. Tout cela est integer dans un programme a theme avec des jeux.

Nous finissons generalement vers midi et se reservons le Vendredi pour les projets d’art, la recitation de poemes avec la famille Viljoens de 4 enfants (ages 2 ½ a 7 ans) qui se trouve a Mseleni.

Le mercredi après-midi, nous allons rejoindre les eleves de l’ecole de Sodwana bay School (a 45 min de route) pour faire du sport: Netball, Karate ou football. On fait un plongeon dans la mer ou a la piscine de Sodwana Lodge avant de revenir a Mseleni.

Le reste de la journee, les filles jouent entre elles ou avec les enfants Viljoens sur le trampoline. Nous n’avons pas de television ici donc il faut puiser dans l’imagination…et la il n’y a pas de limite de chaines disponibles!!!

Le danger #1 sur la route: Les vaches!

Le mois de Mai s’annonce calme compare a celui d’Avril qui a ete riche en evenements.

Sandy a ete de garde pendant 2 week-ends ce qui est toujours un peu tressant pour le reste de la famille.

Nous avons eu notre premier visiteur; la maman de Sandy qui habite a la ville du Cap. Nous sommes alles aux reserves d’animaux de Ithala et Mkuzi pour observer les gazelles et les rhinoceros. Nous avons fait un sejour a la mer a Rocktail Tented bay camp, un endroit de reve a 1 heure de chez nous. L’acces en 4x4 est incroyable le long du lac Sibhaya sur le bord duquel on peut observer des hippopotames. Sandy et moi en avons profite pour faire de la plongee: au rendez-vous; Tortue, Boris le Potatoe basse, Moray, poisson algue sans compter le corail multicolore.

Rhino blanc a Mkuze

Dans la serie des problemes;

- la fosse sceptique de la maison a debordee pendant 2 semaines…sans details!

- La moquette sent toujours le pipi meme après avoir payer une companie (situee a 2 heures de route d’ici) pour venir la nettoyer en integralite…le pipi etant impregne dans le bois sous la moquette…sans detail la aussi..on va faire avec!

- Notre 4x4 a due etre remorquee a 3 heures de route chez le garage Nissan “du coin” pour probleme de filtre d’huile. C’est la ou on voit les desavantages d’etre aussi isole. Ca devient galere!

- Zara est la premiere a avoir choppe une maladie des tropiques: des vers de sable qui se glissent sous la peau des pieds, des mains, des fesses et qui provoquent des demangeaisons abominables. Apres avoir pris les medicaments adequates, après 6 semaines, les vers sont maitrises. Il ne reste que les traces de leur parcours visible sous la peau…un vrai circuit de voiture!

Sinon, tout va bien. La temperature devient plus vivable avec 30 a 34 degreeC. La luminosite est magnifique et les levers et couchers de soleil fantastiques. Les jours se racoursissent et il fait noir a 6h .

Je suis privilegiee d’etre maman et institutrice pour mes deux filles. Je n’ai jamais eu autant de “Je t’aime maman” que maintenant. Etre le temoin quotidien de leurs progres, de l’etincelle qui brille dans leurs yeux, de leur joie de vivre et de leurs decouvertes est un honeur sans prix. Ces moments sont des instants de bonheur a l’etat pur. Je les savourent!

Si vous desirez nous contacter:

Notre adresse: Dr Sandy Inglis, PO Box 123, Sibhayi, 3967, KZN, Afrique du Sud

Notre telephone: 00 61 35 47 41 473 (demander “Extention 211” two one one)

Notre email: isinglis@gmail.com

Bises

Ilda