So what are the patients of Madwaleni like? Well they are certainly very poor, the employment rate is less than 5%, apart from the hospital a few shops and a few schools it is not obvious where job opportunities would come from. There are government handouts to women with children under 14 and those with disabilities (including HIV) but there is not much money floating around. It can cost R20 to make a round trip to the hospital which is a big ask for many people so you have to think carefully about when and how often to follow up patients (although we can offer some financial help to some people for transport).
As there is generally not that much to do for people around here things move slowly! Patients seem fairly happy to be admitted for fairly long periods partly because it is warm and they are well fed when they are here. Food scarcity is definately a problem for some people and children are regularly admitted with malnutrition.
Most of the patients live in huts made from home-made bricks. Very few have electricity or running water so they collect rain water or drink river water. For some reason there is not culture of digging latrines so there are basically no toilets in many of the villages- apparently the dogs and pigs do the clearing up!
That's all for now- but basically I'm having a great time so far and I will post again soon about what I've been getting up to.
Tom
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I am a British doctor fulfilling the long-term ambition of working in a hospital in a rural part of Africa. I find myself in the Transkei, a former black homeland of South Africa, which in many ways has been left behind by the economic advances of the post Aparteid era.
2 comments:
Hey there Tom
So good to hear you're safe and well and doing good things. It's so funny to think of you so far away and in such a different environment than us. I admire you. It's great to be able to check up on you through the blog - keep it up! BTW where are you living and what's it like? Loads of questions to ask but I promise I will only ask one per blog comment!!!
Loads and loads of love
Jude
Great to know that someone is reading this! Thanks very much. I will put more on the blog but the reality is that living conditions are pretty decent. there are problems with hot water supply and blocked toilets etc. but I live in a nice house with a good kitchen and at weekends we can drive to a city and buy anything we like so we have good coffee, good wine and good food. So can't complain at all- we can also drive to the beach after work- all of which might make it very hard to leave. Take care and love to you all. Tom xx
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