Sanibonani!
Kunjani? Right that's enough Zulu...i don't understand it during the day so i'm not going to pretend to you that i am fluent! Now that i'm getting used to the 'clicks' and 'tuts' and am learning some slang its not that hard.....yeah right!
Speaking and understanding some Zulu is pretty crucial as i am very very rural here at Nkandla in KwaZulu Natal. Imagine a ramshackle village, surrounded by mud huts, with a hospital, post office, bank and football stadium and that is Nkandla. I'll post some pictures when i have replaced the camera that some baggage-handler nicked out of my bag!! The scenery is stunning and the hills in Zululand are immense, yet everyone walks....and the poverty is mindboggling. It is already reminding me how lucky i have been to grow up in the UK!
Yet the people seem happy. I am constantly laughing with colleagues and even people who i don't know, i think it must be a survival strategy to try and remain positive when life contains so little. I am finding it hard already though to see so many patients with Tuberculosis and HIV, the numbers are staggering and we had a case of XDR-TB (extremely drug resistant-TB) here this week which basically kills you in 1 month!
Outside work - i have signed for the local football team called the 'Blue Stars'. On my debut i sustained a black eye from a loose elbow - a welcome from the locals! But i must have done alright as i was picked for the next round and then scored in a Penalty shoot-out in the SemiFinal. The wolfwhistling was pretty intimidating when you know you are such an outsider to this world and most of the crowd was drunk! Now i know what Cyrille Regis had to put up with!
Thanks for reading, i'll post again soon....
5 comments:
Rob! Great to hear from you mate. It sounds like a real slug out there but equally rewarding.
We're all missing you back in Blighty. My fellow SW4/Carnival revellers and I were commenting that last weekend's madness was not quite the same in your absence... (suffice it to say, Norman Jay rocked).
Keep up the great effort, mate - in both treating the ill and penalty shootouts.
Talk to you soon.
Dan
Good to hear from you Rob. I'm glad you made it out, what with the passport and now your camera.
Might send some of my patients out to visit you, sounds like the stuff out there puts things into perspective.
Take care and write again soon.
George
easy geezer!
what a legend you are on so many levels!
I also feel a small sense of achievement moving us down to Brighton... me reading the map and Sam driving the massive van full of our (my) shit...England seems a friendly place, I think i might like it here... write again soon love Em xxx
Hi Rob,
Really good to hear from you - glad you made it over there ok (minus a camera!). Sounds like an amasing life changing experience. Keep the posts coming, it's great to read about what you're upto.
Life here is ticking over - some mountian biking and house hunting and that's about it
Take care and write soon!
Love,
Amanda x
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