Day 24, I knew there would be adjustments I have to make, coming out to a such a foreign land to where I live, but certain things don’t really change that much. One still has to travel to work. My commute for the last two years involved hopping in my Golf and driving up the M4, the concrete glory of cars nuzzled bumper to bumper, with XFM blaring through my radio. I would pass by the shiny new Audi garage, the iconic Lucozade sign in Brentford and the reflective behemoth that is the GSK building; sometimes it would even be a pleasant drive.
Seeing as I live on site my commute is now on foot, a 3 minute trudge up a steep hill which reminds me everyday how physically unfit I actually am. However in order to reach some of the poorest people in the region we travel out to clinics during weekdays. My clinic day is Friday and I am presently assigned to Nibela and Mabibi, two towns at opposite ends with poor condition roads connecting them. The only way to logistically reach them on the same day is to take the aerial route.
I had heard about the plane even before I arrived. Zumat, is a charter company that flies doctors for charity so that people in remote parts of the region can get some form of local access to healthcare. For the last few Fridays I had psyched myself up only to find out the that the strike had meant clinics were cancelled or that the plane was out of service. But today was my day.
I heard a buzzing noise in the distance and was told that was plane landing on the “airstrip” behind our homes. The airstrip consisted of a patch of land where the grass was not as long as it was anywhere else. As I walked towards it I was unable to see it. It was only when I walked past a row of trees that it came into view, a single propeller, 4 seater light aircraft. The captain came up to greet myself and the two med students accompanying me and we huddled in.
I was sitting up front next to the captain, being a bearded brown man probably the closest I will ever get to a cockpit. We shot of down the runway bumping along the uneven surface and soon we were airborne. My immediate thought was, wow. As we flew over Lake Sibaya, South Africa’s largest fresh water lake, I was simply stunned. As we were landing after the short 10 minute flight I noticed that the village children were waving to us. We managed to deliver some antiretroviral drugs but unfortunately no patients had turned up as they thought it would be a problem due to the strikes.
We took off for Nibela and flew over a pod of hippos and a crocodile. The pilot kindly whooshed down over the lake so that we could get a better view of the animals as we flew past. He then took the coastal route to fly along. Bathed in the midday sunshine we cruised over the clear water of the Indian Ocean. We could see whales in the distance and a giant whale shark beneath, he again obliged and took us for a low fly past to get a better view. This flight was considerably longer at almost 30 minutes and the turbulence was palpable, this meant slight nausea set in.
After a busy clinic at Nibela we got back on the plane and flew over the countryside back to the hospital. En route I could see all the various bush fires that were burning, some controlled burns, others not so much. Coming in for our landing back at Mseleni there were kids playing football on the airstrip. Our pilot swooped down did a low fly past over the field as the kids scampered in fear. He was then able to come up and land once again on the bumpy surface.
I’m going to be enjoying the Friday commutes.
GSK building! Wooooo!
ReplyDeleteSure beats the tube on a monday morning!
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