Being busy!

At last, a blog update!!!  It’s been a long time and finally I have got myself into gear to update you on all our goings on here in Nam.  It feels strange to say this, but we’ve actually been quite busy here…all things are relative, it’s still rather quieter than life back at home, and it’s possibly because we have adjusted to the pace of life, however, things are definitely looking up!

One of the plans was that I should spend a week a month back in Okakarara.  This was to provide training and clinical support to the volunteer who is keeping the rehab department open, in addition to providing assessment and treatment to patients with more complex conditions.  All good in theory, but transport has been an issue due to the overspent fuel budget.  However, I have managed to get there to help allocate some wheelchairs that were donated to the local council, and to attend the presentation event in the town hall which is up a flight of 6 steps…very helpful for people using wheelchairs! 

I also went on a trip into the bush for a week, attending most of the secondary schools in the district to perform hearing screening on the grade 1 learners.  I have trained 2 nurses so that next time around there will be others who know how to press the buttons in the correct sequence and complete the screening – an important but rather laborious process!  It was an eye opener going into the schools and seeing the perception of teaching staff around students who had behavioural difficulties (some due to hearing or visual problems) and their approach to managing it – inclusive education has a long way to go!

All being well I am off to Okakarara again this week, this time to support our volunteer, Eben who is singlehandedly keeping the rehab department open with nothing but a free lunch and a pat on the back in return.  She’s doing a great job, it’s just a shame that currently she cannot get any other remuneration for her work.  Hopefully that may change though as we’re in the process of a national Ministry of Health restructuring and we have motivated for some significant changes in the rehabilitation structure so that it can function more effectively and be sustainable – otherwise there’s very little hope of Community-Based Rehabilitation ever working - fingers crossed.

We decided that as there is a lack of rehab staff across the country that a good way of increasing rehab skills in the workforce would be to try and influence the student nurse training programme.  The head of school thought this was a great idea and we were invited to deliver a week of lectures on the central and peripheral nervous system and special senses.   Neither of us has ever done any university lecturing before, and didn’t know what to expect from year 2 nursing students.  However, our preparation paid off, we received some positive feedback and have been invited back to deliver some more modules, including our own, designed specifically around disability awareness and rehabilitation.  

Final day quiz to test the nurses!

The main purpose of our work here is supposed to be to implement Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR).  Clearly this has been a huge challenge for a variety of reasons, not least because it relies on a network of highly motivated local volunteers who want to get more out of the role than the skills and standing within their community.  With 50% unemployment in Namibia and high levels of poverty, these people want to get paid – fair enough! However, there are some areas where CBR volunteers are motivated to work and generating their own income and are keen to learn new rehabilitation skills.  One of these areas is Osire, the refugee camp mainly consisting of refugees from Angola, DRC and Burundi.  The 4 CBR volunteers based here already provide a basic level of rehabilitation to their community but haven’t received any training since 2007.  We have agreed to visit Osire once a month for a few days and deliver some training and assist with any patients with complex problems.  Equipped with our tent, some food rations and a flipchart we made our first visit in March.  The 2 day training workshop went well and we even learnt some Portuguese in the process as everything had to be translated for the Angolan committee members!

Teaching the committee about muscles

Practical training session

This week we had the pleasure of attending a public service induction course – as exciting as it sounds.  We were pleasantly surprised by the trainers who were really interactive and tried to tackle the issue of ineffective 4 hour meetings (very much needed). However, it was shocking to see how many members of the regional management team were learning for the first time how many annual leave days they (and their staff) are entitled to, how to write a ‘to do’ list and the fact that driving a government vehicle under the influence is a major offence! 

Enough about work – we’ve continued to make the most of our time at weekends travelling around seeing the country.  The bat photos uploaded a few weeks ago were from a weekend away with a couple called James and Ursula, volunteers who we met during our UK VSO training course.  It was great to catch up with them and we went on a tour into Arnham cave, Namibia’s largest cave with 6 species of bat.  It was tricky making our way down into the cave without any rope or safety gear except for head torches as there were a few steep drops into bat poo hell!  The smell of the ammonia was incredible, but it was all worth it when we were ducking through low tunnels and bats were swooping past us, and then when we entered the large cavernous areas and there were thousand of bats flying around above our heads.  It definitely cured Ant’s phobia!

A couple of weeks ago we were down in the Namib Desert providing medical support for the Namib Desert Challenge.  Our friend, Mike, headed the medical team and we spent the week manning the checkpoints for the runners, pushing rehydration fluid, lancing blisters and treating some aches and pains.  The competitors complete 226km over 5 days, the longest day of which was 56km including climbing a huge sand dune at the end in up to 49 degree heat.  Absolute nutters.    It was great meeting some new people and hearing all the stories of why people choose to enter a race like this.   The Namib desert is an awesome place, unlike anywhere else we’ve ever been.  It is vast and the rust-coloured sand dunes seem to go on forever.  The Springbok and Oryx outlined in front of the dunes are iconic to Namibia and it’s definitely been added to our list of places to recommend to visitors.  Ant climbed Big Daddy, reputedly the largest dune in the world and reckons it’s the most amazing place he’s ever been (I was manning a checkpoint in ‘Deadvlei’ at the time, not just being lazy!).  

On top of Dune 45

Checkpoint 1, day 1

Across one of the pans in Sossusvlei

On top of Big Daddy/the world

We had a great time with all the staff and have been invited back next year and hopefully we’ll meet up with them in Cape Town before then too.  We had a celebratory night out in Windhoek with some of the guys from the challenge and had our first surreal experience in a totally Africana club.  The music was Africana pop mixed with old school rock like Status Quo and the dancing was based on ballroom with couples twirling each other around in a circle around the dance floor – all very weird!

Gary, the race manager also invited us to the Knysna Festival, a Champagne and Oyster festival in South Africa which combines with a whole range of outdoor activities and races which sounds great.  Ant’s entered the marathon and I’m hoping to be able to enter one of the trail runs depending on how training goes!

Weather wise things are starting to get a bit cooler here now.  There is still a lot of rain around and some areas in the north of the country have had to be evacuated because of flooding.  There hasn’t been this much rain in Namibia since records began and our clay house has sprung a few leaks so we’re hoping it won’t just collapse into a soggy heap.  There seems to be different insects appearing each week, and when they arrive, they come in large numbers.  One of the most recent is the armoured cricket which is about 6-8cm in length and looks like it belongs in a horror movie.  It’s apparently harmless, except it is a cannibal and will eat its friends – nice.  We have a family of these who keep trying to get into our house.

Armoured cricket sneaking into our house!

Dolly, our adopted cat, is about to have kittens.  Her last litter can only be about 6 months old so the poor dear seems to be a bit of a breeding machine.   She seems to have made herself at home here so I think we may be overrun in our little clay hut soon!

Our first visitors, Sarah and Adam, are coming out in less than 3 weeks time so we’ve been busy planning the trip.  I can’t wait, it’s going to be great seeing them and having a slice of home here in Namibia.

Well, that’s enough for now, I seem to have written a lot so I definitely won’t leave it as long next time!  Keep us posted with news from home.

Julia xx