Day 134, I’m sitting at Durban airport waiting to go India, where I will see my family and attend my friends’ wedding. The PA system is playing seasonal music but nothing here has felt like Christmas over the last few weeks.
The heat has probably been my greatest challenge, especially recently where it has reached close to 40oC by mid morning. By the time I make it from my room to the hospital I can already feel beads of sweat trickle from my forehead down my nose. Having to exam patients, write in notes and do sterile procedures with dripping sweat is less than pleasant. But I suppose as my South African colleague says, it isn’t Christmas unless there is a fat man in a Santa suit drenched in sweat.
Another on call where I failed to resuscitate a baby from the effects of traditional medicines being administered and a 19 year old with a blocked spinal fluid shunt returning from the neurosurgeons completely blind was again not in keeping with my idea of the festive season. To top it off, as harbinger of doom I had to tell another patient he had an aggressive lymphoma that we wouldn’t be able to cure, no Christmas miracles here.
Everyone still tries to make an effort, there was a hospital carolling service in Zulu. I couldn’t follow the passages being read but the spontaneous and unchoreographed choral singing and dancing was amazing. A little bit of Ladysmith Black Mambazo in Mseleni. People are wishing each other merry Christmas and talking about the braais they are going to prepare. Even little bits of shredded tinsel can be seen sporadically.
My friend’s homemade mince pies were a nostalgic pleasure but was tempered by the fact that two of them are leaving when I return, much in the pattern of things here it is a recurrent cycle of gaining and losing those that you become close to.
As I think about all my exploits in the previous four months I know I wouldn’t trade it for a better Christmas. And at least with such a non-Christmas I don’t mind spending most of the 25th in the air. Bah Humbug!
Merry Cross-time-zone Crimbo!
ReplyDeleteHope your 2011 is as fruitful as your 2010 (Oh... and that you can complete your Safari Bingo before you leave).
Now... I have to get back to the festival of meat...