The motto of the Coat of Arms of South Africa is !Ke e:/xarra//ke, written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people. It means "Unity in Diversity" or, literally, diverse people unite. I guess it's really quite appropriate then that this country was chosen as the location for PointCare's annual training and development programme, and for the meeting of employees based all across the African continent. People with many different personalities, coming from different backgrounds and different countries and able to speak a host of different languages. Between the 16 of us that attended we [View Full Entry]

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Today I am pleased to announce a new addition to our project team - our driver, Harold Chaponda. Harold is from Chileka (just down the road from the hospital), has quite a few years of experience working as a driver and maintenance guy for a car hire company, has great English (bonus!) and lists chatting with friends and taking non-alcoholic drinks amongst his hobbies. Sitting in on the interviews was an interesting experience for me! I had some questions to ask but I left a lot of it in the hospital administrator’s capable hands (the lot of it would include much [View Full Entry]

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The first picture this week? That would be me on top of Mt Msololo, the highest mountain in the Dzalanyama range. I mentioned these mountains in my last entry. Back then, I was on outreach, seeing them in the distance. What can I say? I had to go there! I spent last weekend in Dzalanyama forest reserve with my two new housemates (Irish medical students). The scenery was absolutely stunning as I'm sure you will agree after looking at my photos. We had a nice, relaxing time when we were in the lodge, huddled around the fire in the evenings (I'm [View Full Entry]

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I guess Aubrey wasn't as there were quite a few comments made about his hair before we set off this morning. I felt bad because at first it was just the two of us waiting for our truck and he asked me if his hair was ok as he hadn't had time to comb it. To me it looked absolutely fine. There's hardly any of it after all. Hilda (matron) appeared and the first thing she said was "Aubrey - you didn't comb your hair this morning!!". Everyone found it highly amusing that I couldn't tell the difference between combed and [View Full Entry]

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“That Leopard is a Charm Sister” - this is what my colleague Aubrey said to me when I questioned the dead leopard that we passed. We were in a local market in Waliranji village, having just finished an outreach clinic there. This is just one of the many disturbing myths that people here seem to believe. Another example is that if you are HIV positive then sleeping with an albino will cure you. Oh - the “sister” part - Aubrey has taken to calling me this. He sometimes shortens it to “sisi” (pronounced CC). He is quite a character. Apparently he [View Full Entry]

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Cocopina, sweet tea, TV bars, specials, smells (the 'different' sweat smell in the hospital, the smell of shake-shake, the smell of roadside food - chips, donuts, fish - the smell of fresh produce - tomatoes, avocadoes, bananas, pineapple (unfortunately no mangos yet), the music (Lucius Banda has been blaring out of the local 'cinema'), the loud noises of insects at night and of birds in the morning,ladies with babies on their backs, men sitting under trees, crop fields (the maize has now been harvested but the cassava is growing) & red dust, absolutely everywhere. My friends who are reading [View Full Entry]

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Hi! For those of you who don't know me and weren't following my previous blog (www.travelblog.org/bloggers/into_east_africa), having recently returned from an incredible 9 months in Africa, performing voluntary work, I am happy to have found a job that is enabling me to return there, and continue in the line of work that motivates me. This Saturday I am off to Namitete, Malawi, where I will be working as the representative for a U.S. company - PointCare - on a project that they won a World Bank competition (and funding) for. The aim of the project is to provide community-based T-cel [View Full Entry]

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