The Tale of the Prodigal Cat

So I got a kitty... Meet Jess, affectionately known as Cat:

I tried explaining Postman Pat to my Zambian friends, they really didn't get it! 

My neighbour's cat had kittens that she didn't want so three of us took them in so they wouldn't go hungry. I've never had a cat before and was a bit skeptical about the whole thing. She's very needy and poos a lot (luckily in a make-shift litter tray) but makes up for it by being adorably cute and super affectionate. 

Last weekend she disappeared on Friday evening. By Monday she still hadn't turned up and I was getting worried. I was surprised how attached I'd got since I'd been a bit unsure about having her in the first place. I asked round the whole compound but whilst there were a few unreliable leads (mostly from alcoholics and children), no cat materialised. I was beginning to think she'd gone the same way as Martha and White Phiri (medicine James' kitten who'd gone missing a few weeks ago). Then on Tuesday I asked Benson and he told everyone he saw to look out for her. He knows EVERYONE so that was a lot of people! That afternoon some boys who play with my basketball knocked on the door with a rucksack saying they'd caught a cat. I was expecting them to have just picked up some random cat, but they opened the rucksack and there was Jess! 

Helping me study... All my notes have muddy paw prints on now!

I'm very pleased to have her home =)

An Interview with Alex: Benson

It's very easy in the UK, if you've not been here, to think of Africa as one big homogenous country, where everyone is living in poverty, based on the not always entirely helpful videos you see on Children in Need programs. Of course there is some poverty and injustice and there isn't the same access to healthcare and education, but the day-to-day reality is so different from that. There is so much life here. Also there really is a proper infrastructure and an economy, despite what those adverts would have you believe. Life here isn't so wildly different from back home. 

I thought it would be fun to interview some of my friends on life in Zambia to give a different perspective on things. I'm genuinely surprised anyone other than my mum is still reading this blog, but since you are, I expect you'd enjoy hearing from someone else. 

To start things off I have interviewed my good friend Benson. Benson is a gardener who lives in a village about a mile away the hospital and works in a lot of the consultants' gardens. He's extremely hard working and is one of the nicest people I've ever met. He also makes the BEST roasted groundnuts and frequently brings me some because he knows I love them.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the village (Kachipu). Now 1979, that’s when I left the village and was taken to Lusaka by one of my brothers to start school.

How did you find growing up in the village?

In the previous days life was a bit slow, but after staying 12 years in Lusaka, then coming back I found that things had really changed. Most of the time before education there was a very big belief about witch craft. You couldn’t dress well, the fear of the unknown… But through education and church services we came to learn that witch craft is not good. It’s the way you handle life, if many people admire you then you know things are changing bit by bit.

Tell me about your family

We are 6 of us. We lost our first born sister, then I am the last born in the family. There remain 2 brothers and 2 sisters. I think you saw one sister, the one who had a stroke. My mother, she was the first person to die, she passed in 1991, then my father came second.

I’m sorry, what happened?

In the case of my father, he was very cold. My mother, it was the same problem as my sister - stroke, she stayed 3 days in the ward, but she didn’t survive.

What do your siblings do for work?

My brother, the one in Lusaka, he’s retired, he was working for Barclay’s bank. Now he’s at his farm in Lusaka. My other brother, he’s just a farmer. My sister also does a bit of farming.

What have been the best and the worst things about living in the village?

The worst thing about living in the village is that people are a bit jealous. When they see someone doing a bit of work and then earning an income, they think that person seems to be boasting, when it’s not. You cannot all be staying in the village without doing any work. But some they appreciate that when you are doing a bit of work, if they’re in trouble they know they can approach you for some assistance. 

That’s the hardest thing staying in the village. They don’t want to see some people making a change. Most of the time, like for men they concentrate on drinking, and when they see that you are not drinking they say “this one is boasting, come and drink together”.

But village life is very fine because things are a bit cheaper. When you try to grow your own food, you can spend your money on other groceries - soap… It’s not very tough, you have enough to live on. The other thing is you can communicate with a lot of people, there are a lot of things on how you can live your own life. There’s more time to chat with elders and to chat with the little ones who have lost parents. From there you also learn a lot and you see that life should be led like this.

Are there many children without parents in the village?

Yah there are a lot of them. They live with relatives, most of the time it’s their grandma, if they’ve lost their grandfather. Other times you will find the grandmother will try to generate an income by crushing stones, then they sell the stones for constructing houses, so as to generate money for the grandchildren.

Do you believe in God? Can you tell me a bit about your experience with God?

Very much yes, truly. The truth is we are here because him created each and every one of us, because his good will that human beings will live on Earth and to look after whatever is on Earth. I truly trust that God is there and that he does exist. 

Is there any time that God has particularly helped you?

Yah truly. In terms of illness, like in the previous years I used to have a truly big problem with migraines. One year without doing any work, but I was still cared for, I was kept alive. I could see that a good number of friends, although not relatives, but because they were fellow church members they came to assist me, which means the love that God provides to each and everyone is being extended, to each and everyone - to members and non-members (of the church).

What is your proudest achievement?

From the simple skills that I have, I am able to be requested to perform work from other people and then generate a bit of an income for my family. The little I got from school, then I had additional practise on what I’d learnt, then bit by bit, at least achieving something.

Last question: what are your hopes for the future?

My hope for the future is truly to try and teach the youngsters to know on how much they can live on their own by having some life skills. Because if you have life skills you can do work at your home and you can be requested to perform work. At home you are able to do work and when you are hired you are able to do work. So my future is to try and train the youngsters and my children also to get involved. To see what I’m doing and then imitate. They see I’m benefiting and then they can benefit more too.

Thank you so much Benson, it’s been so kind of you!

I hope you all enjoyed hearing from Benson. I did take a video, but the file is HUGE it'll take up about 2 weeks allowance of data, so I wrote it out instead. If you guys have enjoyed this then I'll try and do some more.

Simple Pleasures

When I was home a lot of people asked what do I do when I'm not in work... I suppose the answer is not a lot! Life is much simpler here. We spend a lot of time chatting, cycling, baking, gardening and just pottering about. I read a lot more than I did back home and before the rains came we often watched films outdoors using the hospital projector. The highlight of the month is going to Chipata where we can go supermarket shopping, have ice cream at Steers and go in the swimming pool at Protea Hotel!

Life has a much slower pace. There's no hurry to do anything - you have time to smell the roses. The other day me, Tim, Benson and his son Chembuka spent the early evening going for a walk through the bush looking for some plants to transplant into Tim's garden...

Chembuka, Tim, Benson

For valentines day I made some gingerbread cookies. (I started writing the post a while ago...)

Only I didn't have any cookie cutters so I cut some hearts with a knife then got bored and made odd shapes...

Cycling on the 120kmph road #don'ttellmymum

Playing cards during a power cut

Nothing worth writing a blog about, but it's quite a pleasant life, really!

N'cwala Ceremony

Yesterday we went to the N'cwala Ceremony in the village of Mutenguleni a few miles outside of Chipata. This is a yearly celebration of the first harvests by the Ngoni people of the Eastern province.

It's a big deal - even President Edgar Lungu came, with an entourage of armed guards.

His picture is displayed in most shops/establishments so it was fun to see him in the flesh. He had the exact same expression!

The ceremony involved a lot of tribal dancing...

We managed to get into the main area because whilst we weren't technically invited, there were a number of representatives from Saint Francis invited and we blagged our way in...

Inside we got moved on a couple of times for being in the way, so sat behind the tribes waiting to dance, trying to blend in!

Lots of people wanted to take photos with us...

Becky and Nicola with a man called Abraham who was very upset that I couldn't print him a copy of the photo there and then

After the dancing there were a lot of speeches. It was really hot so we decided to make a move. This meant we missed the main event where the chief of the Ngoni people drinks the blood of a black bull... Which might have been interesting to watch, but instead we went to Protea to have a fancy Chipata lunch!

If you thought portaloos at festivals in the UK were bad...!

Thousands of people came from all over the whole province.

The Mystery of the Missing Eggs Revealed...

My chickens haven't been laying all week, or so I thought... Until today I heard a strange clucking noise from Alex's garden. When I went to investigate this is what I found!

They were not pleased when I moved them home!

How to Make Nshima - A Cooking Lesson from Alyda

Nshima is the staple carbohydrate in Zambia. It's so central to their diet that if you ask someone if they've eaten and they've had anything to eat other than nshima they'll say no. On Christmas day, as a 'special treat' instead of being given nshima and beans like they have twice a day, every other day, the doctors served the patients chicken and rice (I was meant to be serving on the paeds ward but couldn't because I had an emergency c-section just over lunch time). Unfortunately this did not have the desired effect, and caused a bit of an uproar with patients demanding where was the nshima!

So having seen how much Zambian's love this dish, it only seemed right to learn how to make it. So on Saturday my friend Alyda from the 'high cost' restaurant gave me a cooking lesson...

Ingredients:

- Mealie meal - Alyda recommends superfine breakfast mealie meal for a nice smooth nshima (ground corn)

- Water

- Your chosen accompaniment 

Method:

1) Prepare a nice hot fire

2) Boil your water

3) Take your mealie meal from the sack... (Yes, I'm really dragging this recipe out...)

4) When the water is boiling add about half a cup and let it simmer for ~15 minutes

5) Add the rest of the mealie meal - it seems about one big cup per person

6) Stir vigorously until it becomes a thick paste, then leave it to steam with the lid on for a few minutes

7) Spoon onto your dish in the traditional shell shaped lumps

8) Remember that the chickens are still alive and that you'll have to wait until tomorrow to have your favourite chicken and nshima...

9) Prepare your chicken with tomatoes and onions, because literally the only way to cook anything in Zambia is with tomatoes and onions

I go to high cost quite regularly, so often see my meal sat beside the restaurant alive the day before I eat it! I literally ate one of those chicken's legs today... which is a slightly strange thought, but really if you're going to eat meat it's a bit hypocritical to not be able to accept the realities of where it comes from. Having said that I would never eat my own chickens!

FAQs

For some reason I wrote this post back in November, and never got round to posting it... I reckon I might be interested to look back on it in years to come, so will publish it now!

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Over the weeks and month leading up to my trip I have talked to lots of people about my plans and they have had a lot of questions, so I thought I'd write a little FAQ blog in case anyone is interested. I'm also interested to see if my answers to this change over the time I'm away, so it's good to document what I think right at the start.

Why are you going to work in Zambia?
There are quite a few reasons. Firstly I strongly believe that every human being should have access to decent, affordable healthcare, as a basic human right. Sadly this isn't the case for huge numbers of people across the world so I would like to contribute towards doing something about that. I realise this this is a drop in the ocean, and not a long term sustainable investment, BUT if my last trip is anything to go by, there will be people who live because of this decision, who would have otherwise died, and I think that is enough of a long term investment to make it worth while.

Secondly I LOVE obs and gynae and this is an amazing opportunity to gain heaps of experience in a very different setting. Working in Zambia will undoubtedly expose me to a number of challenges and situations that I wouldn't experience back home, so it's a great opportunity to grow.

Thirdly I'm always up for an adventure and I love the idea of living in a different culture. A lot of my friends have taken a year out to live in Australia or New Zealand, which sounds fantastic and is something I'd definitely consider in the future, but I really wanted to experience something totally different from life back home. I'm also excited for what will hopefully be a much simpler life with less materialism and instant gratification.

How many doctors work there?
Staffing is very variable. There are approximately 20-25 doctors, a mix of Africans (Zambian + Congolese) and Europeans (mostly British and Dutch). It has ~370 inpatient beds, and also provides extensive outpatient care. Compared to the hospital I did my elective in in Ghana it is much better staffed, but compared to my old hospital in Exeter - that has 800 beds and I'd guess maybe ~200 doctors.

What kind of hospital is it?
Saint Francis hospital was originally a Catholic mission hospital, founded by a Cornish priest in 1947, the son of the Bishop of Crediton, Devon! It's now run by the Zambian government, but has strong ties and financial support from the Zambian Anglican council. 

What's healthcare like in general in Zambia? 
This is a really difficult question to answer... For Africa, Zambia has a fairly good healthcare system, and compared to its neighbours, relatively speaking it's doing reasonably well. But it's very difficult to make any meaningful comparison to the UK. I suppose maybe it's like how the UK was in the 1950s?

For anyone who's as geeky as me and likes stats, this is a fascinating website:

http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/health_workforce/PhysiciansDensity_Total/atlas.html

Apparently the UK has 16 times as many doctors per population than Zambia. According to the WHO website above, Zambia's neighbour Malawi has the second least doctors in the ENTIRE WORLD, above only Liberia. SFH is very near the border with Malawi and also Mozambique so quite a lot of patients cross over to be treated here.

Are you getting paid?
I get paid a grand total of £150/month and have free accommodation and one cooked meal a day.

Are you going with an organisation?
I've gone through an octogenarian couple! He's a retired doctor and she's a retired nurse (I think) and they were career missionaries here for 40 years. They're literally 85 and only left Zambia about 5 years ago. They have a fund that's contributed to by donations which pays our salaries, and then the hospital provides the meal and housing. There's some link between the octogenarian's fund and the Zambian Anglican Council but I don't think they're quite the same thing. In the respect that people are asking, no I'm not going with a big organisation like MSF.

How did you find out about SFH? Why there?
One of the consultants, Rob, from my hospital in Exeter worked there about 10 years ago and really recommended it. Over a few weeks when I was considering this I met a huge number of people who had either worked in this hospital or had friends who had or were about to, all recommending going there. 

I don't know if you can see the tiny advert for SFH under the heading Africa - this is in Rob's bathroom, the BMJ advert that sent him and his wife there!

Did you know anyone else there? 
A friend who worked in Exeter a couple of years ago, Alex, has been here since April for 12 months. He's a senior registrar in general surgery (that means about 6-8 years more experienced than me).

Will you be home for Christmas?
No, I'll celebrate Christmas in Zambia, which should be fun. I had a fake Christmas in the UK a month early with my family to make up for missing it last year as well (I was on nights).

Me, my sister-in-law Heather, my brother Martin and my cousin Sofia celebrating fake Christmas in November!

What does you mum think of this?! (Popular question!)
She seems pretty chilled about it all. She says she'll miss me but she's excited for me. She lived in India and Nepal for a year teaching English before I was born, so I've grown up hearing about her adventures - now it's time for mine!

What's your postal address?
Saint Francis Hospital
Katete
Eastern Province
Zambia

This again is a popular question, but while I appreciate the thought, I really wouldn't recommend you sending me anything now. I received today (21.2.17) a letter my mum sent me on 11.12.16 and friends here report packages have taken 6 months to arrive. So only send something if you don't mind the chance of my friends getting it a few months after I'm gone! (My 6 month contract finishes in the hospital end of May, then I leave the country mid-June)