Welcome to Kalene

We have been at Kalene for nearly two weeks now! We are gradually acclimatising to life here – there is a lot to get used to! We have had a wonderful welcome both from mission staff and the local people.

We are enjoying living in our little flat. It is fairly modern – we have a sitting room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. There is no TV or radio but there are plenty of other activities to keep us occupied!



Chief

One of our first priorities was to visit the local chief who is responsible for Kalene and the surrounding area. We went to see him in his official hut and he greeted us and thanked us for coming to help the people of Kalene. On the way home, we picked up a mum who wanted to take her baby to the hospital – good job as it was hammering down with rain! I was happy as I got to cuddle him all the way home – need to be careful as I could easily end up kidnapping a few Zambian babies – they are all adorable!



Weather

Well, it is positively tropical! Most of the time it is boiling hot but we have also experienced a few storms and they are quite something to behold! I have never heard thunder like it; the lightening is awesome and the rain is torrential – I thought it was bad enough in Llanberis! These storms seem to be short lived. I know I am going to get caught out one day without my brolly and wellies!



Food

We are fortunate to be supplied with dairy and meat products from Hillwood Farm. They visit once a week so we can order milk, cream, butter, eggs and various cuts of meat, including zebra! I am pasturising the milk just now in fact! We bought some items in Lusaka and a lorry of supplies has arrived from Kitwe (the nearest large town 5 hours away) and brought us items such as pasta, rice, dried milk powder, flour (25kg!!!) and tins of things like tomatoes and tuna. We are also very excited by the produce that is available locally! This includes avocado, pineapple, potatoes, tomatoes, lemons, aubergine and probably a whole lot more, depending on the season.



Hospital

Work starts at 7.30am for me (8am for Christopher – slacker!) We have handover from the night staff followed by a short devotion and singing – a very uplifting way to start the day! I am currently on men’s ward with Sister Rebecca, learning the ropes as I will soon be Sister Emma on female ward! She is a good teacher but there is a lot for me to learn. Three times a week at 8am, we attend a hospital meeting where business and clinical issues are discussed. After this, we start our ward round.



The role of charge nurse or sister is quite involved – maybe a bit more like being a senior house officer. The doctors (Christopher and Dr John, the hospital director) will do a ward round twice a week so the rest of the time, the charge nurse admits, assesses, diagnoses, prescribes, reviews and discharges patients. As well as the ward patients, the outpatient department refers patients to us who wait on a bench outside sister’s office to be seen and at times it can get quite busy! Patients have all manor of conditions and injuries on our ward, ranging for general medical problems such as diabetes, stroke, hypertension and heart failure to surgical complaints to orthopaedic issues (we have three wee boys with fractured femurs at the moment) to tropical and infectious diseases that I am much less familiar with such as malaria, TB, HIV, sickle cell anaemia, various worms and parasites etc etc. Conditions in the hospital are nothing like the NHS! Probably the biggest thing for me to deal with is the poor hygiene. It is hard to describe but the ward is quite open, the floor concrete and there are no tiles so it is hard to maintain cleanliness. Also, the home situation of most patients is extremely poor so they present in a poor state of hygiene. Another difficulty is that there is only one sink for the whole ward. We lack many basic things here. We constantly have to think ‘is this test really necessary?’ or ‘can this patient do without this drug?’



On a more positive note, the things we can do are pretty amazing. Many patients are treated and go home well. Last week Christopher and Dr John did a large bowel operation (Hartmann’s procedure for sigmoid volvulus for those of you who are interested) who would have certainly died without such treatment.



I have also attended a few caesarean sections so I can help out the other midwife, Rachel. The plan is for me to look after female ward for a period and then rotate round to maternity.



Operations

Christopher has been involved in some interesting surgical cases. For those doctors amongst you, you may be interested to know of these - they include one Hartmann’s; 4 caesarean sections; 1 urethral dilation; 1 paediatric hernia; 1 pleural biopsy; 2 tubal ligations; 1 recurrent ovarian cancer; 2 EUAs; 2 split skin grafts; 2 debridements (osteomyelitis); 1 lymph node biopsy; 3 MUAs and 4 abcesses. Not bad for a week’s work!



Church

We have visited 2 churches. The first was out in a village and was helpfully translated for us. We really enjoy the singing – although there is usually no musical accompaniment, Africans voices make such a beautiful sound. After the service, we were treated to a traditional meal prepared for us by some of the ladies. This was my first experience of nshima. It can take different forms but here, it is made from kasava, a root vegetable. It is an acquired taste that we have yet to acquire! This was served with cabbage and some tiny fish. We have also visited the church at Kalene.



Friends

There is a lovely community established here amongst the missionaries. Everyone shares what they have with each other and we have been touched to come home to various gifts on our doorstep. We tend to eat with Rachel and Becs and take turns cooking and clearing up. We get together on a Sunday and Tuesday evening. I am hoping to be involved with the girl’s youth group on a Tuesday. Other activities include frisbee, football, swimming, cycling, running and climbing Kalene Hill – I haven’t opened my craft bag since arriving!



Petra

We now have an inside worker called Petra. It was amazing to come home last Wednesday to find the house sparkling, bed sheets and towels washed and bed made, bathroom cleaned, bins emptied, floors swept and mopped and best of all, 2 loaves of fresh bread, bread rolls AND oatmeal and raisin cookies. I have lost all concerns about having someone else clean my house already!!! It is nice to know we can help support a family this way.



Village

We were privileged to be invited for a meal at the home of Peter and Astride Kefwaku (see pictures). It was a very humbling experience for us. We loved playing with the children who are cheeky and affectionate in equal measure. Mama Kefwaku showed us how the traditional kasava is prepared – quite an involved process. They have 2 huts, one for cooking and one for sleeping. They also keep a few animals in an enclosure. It is Lunda tradition for guests to eat alone. The meal consisted of various dishes including beans, cabbage, potatoes, meat, all eaten with nshima. This time we had mixed nshima which is made of kasava and maize which we found really nice and more manageable than plain kasava. This was a very special meal and we felt honoured to be guests at Peter and Astride’s home.



Well folks, this has been a very long blog but so much has happened that we want to share with you.



With our love, Emma and Christopher x



Christopher learning to pound kasava.



Peter and Astride Kefwaku.