Day 163, The Secret World

Day 163, Why is that exclusivity is often a prized quality? People pay more for exclusive holidays and sports channels, want exclusive rights, parents want to send their children to exclusive schools and here we get our exclusivity in the places we have access to.

By the very definition of exclusivity, one can infer that there are those that are being excluded from it. It seems astounding that as innately social beings we should get so much pleasure from having that which is denied to others. Sometimes this may be vindictively so, but at most times it is simply to have the feeling that an experience is special, private and unique. In the Umkhanyakude district, of which Mseleni is a part we are lucky to have exclusivity in the stretches of coastline we can access.

This doesn’t mean that anyone else is turned away but there are some areas of the coast which are difficult to access and only allow a handful of vehicles through every day. As part of the holiday weekend I went to another desolate part of the coast where we shared a magnificent bay with only three other vehicles while the rest of the country was cramming the well known haunts.

Warm waters lapping up against the reefs meant it was the perfect conditions to snorkel. Swimming in and through the shallow rocks I was lucky enough to find brightly coloured starfish, spiky sea urchins, camouflaged sting rays and octopuses hiding away. Not being a diver this was the closest i could get to so much sea life outside of Billingsgate Fish Market.

Of course the exclusivity doesn’t only extend to beaches but also in illegal (ish) markets. Just on the other side of the border fence to Mozambique is the bi-weekly Puza market. This is a traditional market where locals bring their wares and produce to be sold to South Africans who traverse a hole in the barbed wire fence past the machine gun wielding army patrol. There is no need to have a passport through this international border crossing and your rewards can be anything from the locally brewed palm wine to cell phone covers and ANC flags.

Restaurants are set up with wooden benches where freshly grilled chicken, deep fried fish and curries of different variety are served up. When one can get past the question of food hygiene the experience becomes quite pleasant, though the palm wine does have a distinctively regurgitant flavour to it.

Being a local here, like in every part of the world, means you get to experience parts that others would have no idea how to ever access. Though we don’t guard these secrets jealously, partaking in these experiences almost feels a privilege and a reward for taking the time to come and live here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyCP05ABbJE

Day 253, The L Word

Day 253, Suddenly everybody is finding it. I cant seem to go two days without hearing about someone else finding it. I don’t know why it seems so important, it’s never really bothered me before.

I think the media is significantly to blame. They are always hyping it up and make it seem as if not finding it makes you incomplete. Advertising certainly has a role to play, and their use of peer pressure enhances the idea that without it you are a failure.

I’m not sure I really expected to find it during my time in Africa. Of course I knew I would be in situations that may make it favourable but it seems that it is so often a matter of chance. Even if you have people who are trained to find it for you, there is no guarantee. You can spend all your effort and time in pursuit of it and then one day you’ll be walking along, and there it is in front of you, it had been there all along.

I have yet to decide if it really is something that I want to find or whether it is something I feel I ought to have found. It is hard to tease out the reality of the matter and it doesn’t help to see others so happy to have found it.

I suppose at the end of the day it will be simple twist of fate that will eventually, if ever, lead me to it. I can be happy in the knowledge that at least I have done my part and put sufficient effort. Perhaps it is the anticipation, the pursuit and the not knowing if I will ever find it that is the most enjoyable part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-M9PNupZKU

Day 243, Perfection

Day 243, I’d like to believe that every day we strive towards our own personal ideas of perfection, what that entails varies on one’s point of view. In medicine one such perfect moment is to “empty” a ward, today I was privileged enough to achieve this goal, but perfection didn’t taste as sweet as it was promised.

It is not unheard of for this to happen. One of my seniors back in the UK told me the wards were like a ghost town on the morning of 7/7 as all the hospitals were put on emergency standby. Indeed, when I arrived at Mseleni, many of the wards were empty, forced to be so due to the strike action stopping patients from entering the hospital. Whilst working in A+E in London we managed to empty the department on two occasions; both of which were at four in the morning and involved some tricky expediting of patients to other wards.

Every day on the paediatric ward the aim is to have no patients left because I have made them better enough for them to be at home. Up until today I have been unable to discharge them all because there were always ones that were too sick to go home. Sometimes the patients will empty a bed themselves, but that is not the preferred option.

A combination of an apparent lull in admissions over the last few days and plans for longer stay patients have conspired to result in this coveted state of affairs. But the lazy day without my daily ward round did not give me the satisfaction I had anticipated. It wasn’t that I was simply bored, there always other things with which to fill the work day and I managed to find work with other doctor’s patients and the OPD.

In fact it was more that having managed to achieve what I was striving for I found myself purposeless. The journey, the striving, the anticipation is what makes it interesting. It is one of life’s little foibles that once we’ve achieved a goal, the only thing to bring the thrill back is to start striving towards something else.

Nonetheless, however briefly, I was able to relish the moment. The empty beds, the smiling nurses and the silence on the ward was the very picture of serenity. A welcome start to a long weekend trip with family, and though I reminded my colleagues that it is only polite to return a ward in the state it was found, I am looking forward to plotting the next perfect moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wno3i5hIAI8

Day 240, Phinda and Cricket

Day 240, We are only a quarter of a way through 2011 and the world around us seems to be buzzing with activity. Floods have hit Australia, earthquakes have destroyed parts of New Zealand and Japan, we’ve almost had a nuclear meltdown and there has been a sea change in the Middle East and North Africa with popular uprisings. In Mseleni we often feel oblivious to the rest of the world and on Saturday I felt it more than ever.

This weekend I managed to take advantage of an opportunity to stay at the exclusive Phinda Game Lodge, a place renowned for leopards and normally a place easily out of my financial reach. Of course part of the deal meant that I would have no access to a television and limited net signal. Most weekends I would be okay with this in pursuit of the elusive cats but this weekend there was a major world event that I was going to be missing.

Over a billion Indians had their attention fixed on the pursuits of eleven men on a cricket field. Ever since I was taken as a child to Eden Gardens and felt the roar of a 100,000 home supporters I’ve been hooked as an Indian cricket fan. Reaching the finals of the world cup with a genuine chance to be part of a collective victory happens seldom, but then again my chances of finally seeing a leopard are dwindling with each week that passes. Being a Tottenham Hotspur supporter I approach sports with a certain healthy pessimism and as such I decided that I would sacrifice the cricket to see if I could find that leopard I have been craving.

We went on a drive in the morning and the night and found an array of stunning animals; cheetahs whiling away the morning, elephant herds munching through the bush and rhinos grazing in the plains. There were a whole host of magnificently coloured birds and giraffes, zebras and buffalo going about their business. The crowning glory of the day was a pair of lions cooling off in the middle of the road. Despite our best efforts the leopards remained hidden.

Arriving back at the camp the weak net signal allowed me to just find out the result that India were champions, and even though I was not able to share in the experience it still gave me a warm feeling inside. It probably wasn’t as emphatic a reaction as it could have been but the event was very distant to me.

The world has been passing me by as I have been immersed in the rollercoaster ride at Mseleni and when I return all these things will be relevant again. For now I will try not to forget about the rest of the world but it is hard to be concerned when there is so much to focus on here. Now if only I can figure out how to track a blasted leopard!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGLsAkeRd84