Skip to main content

Cow head

There is a bang on the door. It is 7:30am. I hop to the door, pulling on my trousers. It is Zanele. She accosted me in my first week here and offered her cleaning services for R80 a week. She cleans for several of the doctors here.

"Hi Zanele, come in!"

"Hello, doctor."

"How are you?"

"Ah – I am well. You are back!"

"Yes – I visited my family. Are you well?"

"Yes doctor." She pauses. "Doctor, may I have two weeks money this time?"

"Sure."

"I have to buy meat to sell."

She goes on to explain that each week she buys a cows head from the butcher and cooks it. She then chops it up and picks a spot near the petrol station in Hlabisa village centre to sell cuts of the meat to passers-by on Friday and Saturday – the days she does not clean. Zanele has six children. Three are her own and three belong to her late sister who died last year of an illness almost certainly related to HIV. Zanele must now earn enough money to pay for the education,
clothing and food for all six.

I tell her no problem, she can have two weeks money. She is very grateful – it will enable her to buy extra meat.

"And thank you doctor for the extra money," – whilst I was away I left her R100 a week rather than R80 as I did not have change – "I was able to buy extra bread for the children."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Otherwordly isolation

I lean across the reception desk and catch the attendant’s eye. “Sawubona,” I say, dusting off my rusty Zulu. I see you. “Sawubona, ninjani?” she replies. I see you, are you well? “Ngiyapela.” I’m fine. She grins at me. “You must be a doctor.” “I am! How did you know?” “It is only the doctors around here who use Zulu. Even if it is only the greetings.” She arches an eyebrow. “I used to work here, at Hlabisa hospital up the road. I have a few other Zulu words, you know like ‘Does it hurt?’ and ‘Take a deep breath’.” She laughs. And then launches into an excellent impression of an elderly Zulu lady rattling off a series of complaints, waddling across the reception area clutching her back in mock agony. She gets it exactly right. I have come up to KwaZulu-Natal for a few days. Tonight I am staying in the Hluhluwhe-iMfolozi game park, 20 minutes or so from where I used to work. Awarded my entry ticket, I drive into the park. The sun is low in the sky, the kills bathed in amber light. I ta...
3 comments
Read more

The first rule about run club

This is what death will be like. My heart is pounding, chest constricting, I can barely lift my foot from the ground. The sweat pours from me and my head pounds. It is Thursday run club. An hour ago Ibby was rounding us all up, exhorting us to get a move on, and allocating us to vehicles so we could lurch through Freetown’s commuter traffic to Lumley Beach on the west side of town. Half way there, the traffic solid and the heat stifling we hailed a street trader and we bought packets of drinking water (improbably branded “CLIMAX”) and biscuits (incongruously labelled “made in the UK for Aldi”). A King’s Sierra Leone Partnership tradition – started by Ibby some years ago – the whole team go beach running after work every Thursday. “The route’s fine” they tell me. “Flat, and you can 5k or 7.5k”. It started well enough but it’s 28 degrees and my pale body is unprepared. The route is straightforward but weaving in and out of other runners, stray dogs, unexpected ga...
Post a Comment
Read more

10 years on

The door flies open. Lele peers in. "You must come out here and see. They are doing a play!" I finish up my case file annotation and come to the doorway. The waiting area is in chaos. A gang of school children are manhandling a couple of marimba's to the space in front of the consulting rooms, a team of nurses and counsellors are creating a stage area. Patients look on mutely. Some with interest, others - presumably feeling proportionately less well - without. "What is going on?" I ask. "It is 10 years since the clinic started. 10 years since MSF first started the HIV treatment programme and proved that it could be done in Africa. So the staff are celebrating. They are doing a show or something." The sister in charge of the clinic has moved to the front of the crowd of patients. She calls for silence and then gives a short introduction. Lele translates for me. "She is saying that this is a very important day. 10 years ago people were dying. And 10...
3 comments
Read more