canzibe life

The Return

2010-09-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

the great thing about living in the transkei for a year is that you get to know your way around. so when your group of friends decides to head up country for new years you can help them plan the whole trip and maybe even tag along.

the itinerary of awesomeness:

27 Dec AM: leave cape town (when you start your journey in cape town, the best city on the planet, you know you're on to something good)

27 Dec PM: arrive at bushman's river and camp for the night

28 Dec: drive to gonubie campsite and paint east london red

29 Dec: drive to coffee bay and prepare to get well destroyed on new years

3 Jan: drive to bulungula backpackers to relax and detox after getting well destroyed on new years

5 Jan: drive to hogsback because hogsback is cool and i like it

7 Jan: drive to jbay and stay by the beach coz there may just be some surf

9 Jan: drive back to cape town coz now you're pretty much broke and will be fired if you are awol for any longer

I'll tell you what, i may not miss working in the transkei that much, but i do miss the weekends. time to relive the good times.

ps. don't forget the frisbee

st patrick's day checklist

2010-03-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

st patrick's day is tomorrow and its a fantastic excuse for drinking

what you need:

the next day off

a green shirt

a fake irish accent

a selection of limericks

an irish pub

green food dye

a working knowledge of ireland's call (because ireland will be calling and you will be expected to answer)

if your friend who happens to be a dwarf is missing, dont worry. he's working as a leprechaun. book yours today http://www.shortdwarf.com/

mozambique

2010-02-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

so i'm not signing off quite yet it seems. while still calling the transkei home i took some leave and headed for mozambique. i stopped in durban for some sailing and the drakensburg for some hiking but excessively warm weather, water and beaches was always the main objective. malaria tablets and sunscreen packed it was time to hit the border. by the time you arrive in nelspruit the heat is oppressive. it makes the air heavy, like a blanket, like a frikkin feather duvet, if you do not have a car with air conditioning you are in trouble. border crossings are also a pain. mozambique has some ridiculous traffic laws including: a sticker on the front of you car if you have a trailer (a blue square with a yellow triangle on top. look out for these on fancy cars) and you have to have a reflective vest around your driver's seat at all times. but hey, its all worth it. get some money changed at one of the garages before the border (check the exchange rate first) there is an official forex place but when we were there on sunday morning it was closed. fortunately this is africa and there are a few mamas hanging around who will give you as many metacais as you need

once you get through the masses of traffic in maputo head north as fast as you can. it doesn't get tropical until you pass xai xai. xai xai is a nice place to stop for some prego rolls and ice cold coke. xai xai beach has an awesome abandoned hotel which was extensively shelled during the war. the fishing is fantastic as well but it doesn't quite pass muster as a tropical beach... not enough coconut palms.

from xai xai we headed north to barra peninsula. as you head further north the country becomes endless coconut palms and mango trees. locals sell cashew nuts and periperi sauce on the side of the road and grow cash crops between the trees. for miles on end you will see nothing more than palm frond houses and a single strip of tarmac. when you finally glimpse the ocean it looks exactly like a picture in a travel magazine, white sand and turquoise water with palm trees down to the water's edge. we reached barra in the evening and i fell into an uneasy mosquito infested sleep.

you awake to find the locals walking around the campsites selling breakfast. you can get pow (spelling?) aka freshly baked portuguese bread, coconut bread, mangoes, pineapples, and any other kind of fruit they can find. screw having cereal. slightly later in the morning the fishermen come around. they will sell you tiger prawns and crayfish. the crayfish happen to be bright blue and as large as cats. be prepared to haggle, the first price they give you is quite often ridiculous.

by now the heat is getting hard to ignore, so its time to head to the beach. take slip-slops, the sand gets hot enough to actually burn your feet. the water is amazing. it is the ideal temperature, warm but cooler then the on land and you can stay in it all day, ideally with snorkel and some flippers... and an underwater camera. the fish are very pretty. as the sun goes down, head back to your camp, have a shower, wince in pain from your sunburn, douse yourself in insect repellent and get a braai going. smother your crayfish in garlic butter and enjoy. i know i did

just if you hadn't noticed...

2010-01-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

it has all come to an end. thanks to all those who made it possible: me (duh), the south african government, the previous south african government, my coworkers, that fucker who got my first round post at jefferies bay, lots of alcohol, the flight of the conchords, the lenient leave system, the generous salary devision, the department of roads, and whoever left his fuckin sheep on the side of the road. good luck to the replacements, may you have a wacky year with many braais, lots of long weekends and little time spent in admin. enjoy the pictures

will signing off...

solvent abuse

2009-12-29T09:13:00.000-08:00

our humble rehabilitation department was recently visited by the highly talented and long limbed Emma Gray. thanks to her the department is looking quite spiffing after a lick of paint and a dash of creativity. who knew first year OTs were actually useful?

never a dull moment

2009-12-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

its been a wet couple of weeks out here and it can be said without fear of contradiction that the roads have seen better days. rob and i arrived at a slick and muddy section of road to find that Dr Caroline had gotten stuck in a ditch. she tried to avoid the photos but i was merciless. after a quick tug out she had a second try and with a bit of power sliding she was away.

best viewed with dolby surround...

makambati

2009-12-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

^ insert surfer here ^

makambati is stunning. if you go one place in the transkei go here....

makambati is a nature reserve in the northern transkei. it a bit of a drive to get there, two hours off the main road (shot robby boy!) and requires a high ground clearance vehicle to get to there. for this extra effort you get perfection. i jest you not. it is without a doubt the best place i have been on the wildcoast... and i've gone to a few places this year. the makambati river stumbles down three waterfalls into the sea and you can be the only one there to see it... awesome. the park can only accommodate a maximum of thirty people so it doesn't get crowded and most of the other people who were there did nothing but fish leaving the beach free for frisbee and various pools open for skinny dipping. word of warning: don't jump from the waterfall you see in the picture. the pool is actually very shallow. this didn't stop me though. fortunately my fall was broken by the rock at the bottom. thank god. as you limp home and spend the rest of day in bed you can console yourself with the fact that you got injured in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

does some one have some ice?

bulungula in racing green

2009-11-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

in the transkei when it's summer it's wet and when it's wet it's green. really really green! i love it.

after having nothing against and many things to like about bulungula the canzibe crew paid it a summertime visit. we were joined in our endeavour by jenny gow, the whitest white girl in lusikisiki, who spent the weekend getting less white via various shades of red and brown. the first night there i indulged in my new found love of tanqueray gin. unfortunately my bottle seemed to develop a leak... it was almost finished the next morning....

if you are willing to go for a short trek through forests and hills you will find yourself at a local pancake establishment. find some shade, sit down, make yourself comfortable and order a three nut pancake. this glorious savoury pancake is stuffed with a butternut, cashew nut and coconut curry filling. it is quite simply divine. after this you can have a dessert pancake if you wish, its not really necessary but if you sensitive about your calorie intake you can tell yourself that you will burn it off when you walk back to the backpackers. i dont worry about that. i always have dessert. learn to live with it

morgan's bay & kei mouth

2009-11-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

the last journey of what you could consider "the originals", the canzibe comm serves 2009, was to the small seaside resort of morgans bay. situated just below the kei river it is outside the borders of the transkei and has none of the usual mud huts or psychotic sheep which add so much character to my current place of residence. none the less morgans bay was very enjoyable. we stayed at mitford lodge having booked dorm rooms. we were pleasantly surprised on arrival to find that, due to construction, our dorm was unavailable and we had been upgraded to a suite. after some minor bickering over who would get the double bed we dined at the lodge restaurant in the evening and though i found the main course to be only passable the chocolate brownies we had for dessert were simply scrumptious (i was going to write orgasmic there but i believe we all managed to keep ourselves under control) but ja... get the brownies.

in the morning i arose early (this always takes everyone by surprise. keep them guessing i say) and went for a walk to the lagoon. i met a wagtail along the way who was feeling very photogenic. after dropping my camera off at the house rob and i returned for a swim

a short drive north and you arrive at kei river mouth. rob and i left the girls tanning (some would say burning) and walked to the river. you really get a sense that you are standing at a great divide. on our side of the river were expensive holiday homes while on the opposite shore mud huts dotted the hillsides. a ferry is available for the border crossing. the river flows out to sea surrounded by large, flat sand banks; perfect for frisbee once the wildlife has scattered. back in the town i spotted the tree full of weavers i have mentioned in a previous post. the weaver in the picture is the one i spoke to... poor bastard, his wife looked like she would rip his nest up at any second.

weekends always end far too soon. before you know it you're in the car, heading back to the sticks. be sure to buy some pineapples on the way and enjoy the view

the holly and the ivy

2009-11-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

in other news: jesus has set up diplomatic offices in Mthatha. and it seems he is getting into the yuletide spirit by having a holly ghost hour. isnt that fantastic?

windows 7: extended beta testing

2009-11-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

it annoys me that microsoft consistently manages to release a product which doesn't work until six months later...

my new laptop has arrived and it is pretty cool spec wise. in an attempt to avoid that OS from the abyss, windows vista, i jumped on the windows 7 train and have to admit I'm pretty disappointed. this is the first time i have upgraded almost immediately after the release. and you can tell. gone are the days of 98 and XP when all the glitches had been figured out by the masses, serviced packed, and installed without any problems. welcome to compatibility issues, random freezes and blue screens of death. oh well. put those upgrades on hold for a few months guys coz its microsoft extended beta testing time.

for those of you still mildly interested in my laptop check it out here: http://www.asus.com/Search.aspx?SearchKey=g71gx

location location location

2009-11-16T01:01:00.000-08:00

its been a while since i have updated this veritable tome of information on living in the transkei. the main reason for this is the death of my much loved computer due to total motherboard failure. the mourning period was short since in the world of technology, as in the world of relationships, one is often on the look out for the next best thing. my new laptop is on its way to me now and wields more power than most european principalities.

until then i present to you the above photo. if you decide to click on it you will find that it is not my usual low quality, easy upload photo but a full sized jpeg begging you to zoom in and have a closer look. taken in the town of Kei river mouth it shows high density suburban weaver housing. i think it is very impressive. the fronds of the palm tree have been stripped fibre by fibre and turned into very fashionable nests. almost every single frond is occupied except those at the very top which appear to be too vertical to build on. why this tree and not another? who knows? i asked the one weaver and he told me i should ask his wife. his wife told me that she had once lived on the other side of the river but there were soooo many darkies and she just cant stand darkies. the mind boggles.

tallyho!

nostalgia

2009-10-22T13:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.lukechueh.com/paintings/nostalgia.html

awesome painting. feeling just like that right now... only 7 weeks to go...

its dry, but you can needle it

2009-10-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

dry needling of insertion of rhomboids and subscapularis. 75mm needle into subscap elicits the pain the patient experiences while writing. twitchy twitch! sweet :)

hogsback

2009-10-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

hogsback is a small wooded town in the central eastern cape. it has some fame as apparently being the inspiration for the forests of The Lord of the Rings. plunging into the forests below Away with the Faeries backpackers you really start to believe this. enormous yellow wood trees reach skywards 800 years since they first germinated. you cant help imagining Tolkien in this place, seeing the placid giants of the forest, seeing the forestry works destroying the natural forests. if only the giants would wake up and defend themselves...

lord of the rings aside, hogsback was very enjoyable. the forests reminded me of home, hiking through the forests of table mountain on yet another table mountain sortie. the dank smell of vegetation, the humidity under the canopy, i almost expected to step out into kirstenbosch at any moment. i completed the 5 waterfall hike with my transkei hiking buddies elin and rob. ok, we didnt actually go to one of the waterfalls... so sue me.

the town of hogsback is named for three mountain peaks above it, which appeared to those people who did exploring and the such to look like the backs of hogs. although it has been a popular tourist destination for quite some time it remains charming and not over done. all the shops and restaurants are run by cheerful locals and there is no pressure from proprietors of Away with the faeries to join in on paid hikes or similar excursions which are hoisted upon you at most backpackers along the coast. i had started to mention the restaurants back there, they were brilliant. reasonably priced, large portions and just the right atmosphere. our group dined at the Enchanted treehouse and Nina's pizzeria on friday and saturday night respectively. Nina's was especially nice. i recommend the moroccan chicken pizza, tasty!

from the physio side of things i would say if you are placed anywhere in the eastern cape for community service give hogsback a visit. its well worth it.

even more on the phsyio side of things, i have managed to develop an achilles tendonopathy. i had the great fortune of noticing it on ascents of the waterfall hike... maybe fortune is the wrong word. anywho, it seems that six months of relative inactivity combined with the liberal use of slip slops, old shoes and a sudden return to sporting activity has decided to bugger up my tendon. fortunately eccentric exercises will damn this nuisance to heck! mother says heck isnt a nice place to be. you have been warned tendon.

now, feast on some pictures

fish river marathon

2009-10-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

working as a rural physiotherapist presents few opportunities for some good old sports injury treatment and so when i was invited to join my friend sam at the fish river marathon there were no objections from me. the fish river marathon takes place in craddock, a small town some 4 hours from mthatha. it is well attended. in the western cape the berg river canoe marathon is attended by around about 140 paddlers. the fish often attracts over 2000. after a scenic trip through maclear and elliot we arrived at craddock and went straight to work. it is always slightly daunting when you have to switch to a sports mindset after working in a general hospital for 9 months so i spent the evening feeling a bit inept. after a while i did manage to get my confidence a bit higher, just in time for the start.

don't get up at 5 am. its cold. the race started at 7 am for the top 50 seeded paddlers. the mist didn't clear until an hour or so later. i managed to strap my first tennis elbow before going to see the mad rush

it turned out to be awesome weather for the rest of the weekend. pictured below is one of the later batches starting off on the dam. one of the draw cards of the fish is that it is a controlled race. water is released from the dam allowing for perfect racing conditions.

it never ceases to amaze me how some people expect physiotherapy to be free. fortunately the strapping for the race was donated by leuko and so we only charged R40 for a strapping. having a sponsor did of course mean that a few photos had to be taken with lots of leuko stuff in it. so smile, say leuko and nail that piriformis sam!

due to work requirements i was only able to watch one rapid being shot. this was called "soutpans" and i only saw it because the road we had to take crossed the river there. the paddlers go over a small weir and under a bridge before a long section of rapids. watching for 10 minutes was enough to get me hooked.

massaging is harder than you think, an afternoon of massage leaves your arms and fingers in a fair amount of pain. at least business was brisk which always means payday will be better... at least in the private sector. the second day was even brisker. tired paddlers came flooding in. one guy had three sessions, one each day. he dislocated his shoulder and had a bristow repair exactly 6 months before the race. 6 months is the recommended time for return to contact sport. he was cutting it fine. gave me a chance to practice my shoulder strapping which is all i ask.

len jenkins, professional paddler and lusty pursuer of a colleague of mine, won the marathon in record time. its his fifth in a row i believe. when he won half of the field was still waiting to start the second day. some people just take the fun out of everything. most likely in an attempt to balance things out, at the end of the race everyone has a big piss up. the varsity students dont mess around. you have not seen drunk until you have gone to fish. since i planned to drive the next day i had an early night. the ladies i traveled with had a wild night. being medical professionals has its benefits though. Dr kelly set up some drips, works wonders I'm told

now some of you out there may think it pretty lame that i didn't get tipsy at the biggest party in the great karoo. this may well be true, however, the next day i got to drive sam's audi A4. yeah. well worth being sober for that.

now where do i buy a kayak?

i luff it when you talk foreign!

2009-09-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

god as my witness i hated afrikaans when i was young. like no other subject at school i dreaded its arrival. it mystified me. i trembled the entire lesson when we were doing mondeling (spoken afrikaans) fearing that suddenly the teacher would choose me to speak and my ignorance would be exposed. throughout my school career it was consistently my lowest mark. my mother took drastic measures. she made me read afrikaans with her in the evening, reading had always been fun before, now the evenings held a dark promise. the list of words i had to memorize grew and grew. fortunately, it seemed to work. my marks stabilised in the mid 60% and the reading lessons stopped. as a further incentive my mother tied my pocket money value to my afrikaans mark. this is why i was constantly poor in high school. then with a final 60% in my final year of school i was free and able to find alternative sources of income.

after some reckless months of laziness with nic and dave and pizza delivery; i settled on physiotherapy as a possible career and was accepted. in second year there was an afrikaans course and i surprised everyone by not fouling it up. my tutor was mildly startled when i even managed to come top of our group for an oral exam (it only happened once) i didnt hate afrikaans any more, in fact it was now a useful tool, most of my patients were afrikaans. i didnt get fluent but i did get passable.

now, i know lots of foreign people. my mother hosted many students learning english in south africa and you cant be friends with nic and not meet foreign people. that guy has his PhD in foreign... girls... knowing them... yes.

as you may notice, foreign people have this annoying habit of looking at you, turning to their friend(s) and jabbering away in some incomprehensible lingo. they then look back at you and laugh. fuckers.

get your own back! speak afrikaans! lekker

mdumbi to the haven: the hike

2009-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

for the recent long weekend rob and i planned to go for a three day hike along the wild coast starting at the haven and finishing at the home away from home, mdumbi. nothing in the transkei comes without some organisational nightmare. our first major problem was the lack of anyone to drop us off at the haven and so it looked as if the hike would get cancelled. fortunately it was suggested to us that if we started at mdumbi and walked to the haven, then we could pay one of the mdumbi drivers to navigate rob's bakkie down to the haven and pick us up. however, this was suggested to us on the tuesday before the long weekend, it was unlikely that there would still be accommodation available at the various sleepover points along the hike. mdumbi, hole in the wall and bulungula were all fully booked, but we decided to go anyway. the main draw card of this particular hike is the backpackers along the way who provide a bed and bedding and food, thus decreasing the load you carry in your pack. indeed it can be done with only a daypack ideally. such was not our lot. full sized packs were found and dusted off and sleeping bags and a tent were acquired. we were also joined by a new arrival to hospital, one elin hem stenersen, a volunteer physiotherapist from norway. we arrived at mdumbi on the thursday and, despite being fully booked, there were three beds available in the dorms. sweet.

here we are at the beginning with rob upping the ante for the "best looking" prize on the hike. the walk on the first day is punctuated by a trip on a small ferry over the mthatha river

and later on, lunch at coffee bay. you dont need to carry any food for the first day unless you want to cut costs. elin had a chicken salad at coffee shack while rob and i contemplated the hardships in our lives... so many hardships

the highlight of the first day is a reef between coffee bay and hole in the wall which looks like it would hold some awesome south west swell. if you have spent the day hiking and have seen hole in the wall before then hole in the wall can wait for the next morning. once again there was accommodation available at the backpackers. this time, to our misfortune, we had a roommate. he snored. bastard.

the next morning we set off with the wind at our backs and bumped into our roommate at the hole. he was passed out by his lonesome on the beach across the river. aren't motorbiking holidays great? the second day consisted of some rather steep climbs and descents. the views were spectacular and the beaches were beautiful.

the agony in my lower limbs while making repeated ascents was soothed by the beauty around me and the assurance that with every step bulungula was getting closer. i have never been so happy to see a backpackers. the food that evening was babootie and yellow rice followed by malva pudding. the main course was so brilliant and smothered with bananas and chutney that it almost made up for the puny size of the desert. attempts on my part to steal more were non-existent. i was too tired to move. bulungula was the only place not to have official room in the inn for us, but we all know what happens in inns with no room (well, everyone who went to sunday school should know). we bumped into fellow health professionals from zitulele and madawaleni and a great time was had. elin and i pitched a tent under the the stars while rob strung out his hammock in the forest on the dunes. satisfaction guaranteed.

a brisk walk from bulungula will take you to the xhora river. since we hiked at the end of winter most of the rivers were easy to cross. the xhora presented the only deep crossing to be made. i came prepared of course and my bag remained dry during the short swim required. rob managed to find a wading route with no swim needed... it looked far away... besides, i was prepared... so i'm damn well going to swim.

the wind had changed overnight and now was forcing us back with every step we took. combine this with soft sandy beaches and you get some hard graft. fortunately there were no more hills just flat walks along the beach. we stopped for lunch at breezy point, a five star wave and one which doesnt rely on sand like mdumbi, even without good conditions we saw one awesome wave crash to shore as we began the final stretch of the hike. the wind was increasing in velocity as a cold front approached us; rain started to spit out of the clouds; and then we spotted our driver on the beach. it was good to be done. the blister on my small toe was beginning to challenge the toe in girth. we drove back to mdumbi, the rain following close behind us, some birds sat on the fence and complained about the weather, and i appreciated life a little bit more.

thanks for an awesome hike guys. drakensberg is next on the list

Dwesa

2009-09-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

there are two annoying things about dwesa nature reserve: 1. the vervet monkeys 2. the rules. the monkeys i dont mind so much.

dwesa nature reserve is found just south of madwaleni hospital and is fairly isolated from the rest of the coast. the mbashe river to the north and a scarcity of road routes to the south ensure that you will have a quiet, relaxing weekend in nature. experience will teach you that ensure is a bit of strong word to use in the transkei... our hard working OT, after some faffing about, booked for four of us to stay the weekend in a 4 sleeper bungalow. she was ensured that it contained four single beds. so off we set, arriving at around 7 o' clock in the evening on friday at the nature reserve, good start. the gate was locked and the surrounding houses were dark. after some hooting a guard arrived in his jocks and after informing us that were in fact at gate 6, not gate 1 where we should be, he let us in and told us to follow the signs to gate 1. after a short drive, during which we saw lots of trees, we arrived at a boom gate. it too was locked and no hint of where the key may be was to be found. as we shortly found out we had arrived at the bungalows. they all seemed to be uninhabited. fortunately a short 5 minute walk took us to gate 1 where two very helpful gentlemen provided us with keys for our bungalow and for the boom gate which blocked our way. we had finally arrived

an inspection of the bungalow revealed a smart wooden structure with a small kitchen, a balcony equipped with a weber, a bath, two singles and a double bed. oh great. problem. no extra mattress could be acquired, even with only four guests in the entire park. long story short, rob and donne got to know each other a little better over the weekend. rob said that she spooned... i can neither confirm or deny.

the next morning rob awoke and opened the bungalow door. minutes later a troop of vervet monkeys were inside stealing the rolls. one short chase later and we settled down for some breakfast and monkey photography.

later we went for a walk on the beach. the best thing about going to a nature reserve in the transkei is that you are alone. there are no huts on the hills, just trees. there are no mamas searching for oysters, just empty rock pools. get up before your friends and you can have the entire beach to yourself.

after some lunch a game drive was attempted. now i may be naive, stranger things have happened, but surely when you are staying at a game reserve, going for a game drive should be easy, right? wrong. the boom gate we had encountered the previous night was locked. a visit to the front gate elicited the following conversation with an unsmiling gate lady: "Hi, could we have the key for the boom gate, we would like to go for a game drive" "No, you cant go for a drive without a guide." "Ok, how much is a guide? can we get one?" "No, the office is closed." Seriously?! first off, this game park arent exactly kruger, what the guide would be doing is a bit of a mystery. regardless, we didnt mind getting a guide... maybe by making people take guides it provides employment for the local community, i dont know, but then she just flat refused to help us further. thats one less guide getting payed if i calculate correctly, not that higher grade. and the office? closed on the weekend? when the hell else are people going to come to a game park in the off season? at the very least some effort should have been made to inform guests that they have to book a guide before they have even arrived at the park. so much for the afternoon. some of the group decided to go chat with mary jane. i went back to bed.

to add to our misfortune the bakkie had a flat tire the next day. not a big problem, it was promptly changed. however, i neglected to tighten the nuts tightly enough and a few kilometres outside the park we lost the wheel and came skidding to somewhat of a halt. things werent as bad as they looked fortunately and we managed to get roadworthy for the trip back to the hospital.

funny thing is that i would definitely go back to dwesa, perhaps just a little more prepared next time. deserted beaches are pretty cool

bulungula

2009-08-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Bulungula: up close

Bulungula: from afar

bulungula, normally the stomping ground of the southern hospitals, zitulele and madwaleni, the canzibe peeps descended on it in a deluge of chillaxing over the weekend. it is rather an interesting backpackers. you start off by arriving at the top of a 3km stretch of "track" which is only navigable by 4x4. there is a vehicle which will pick you up from certain designated parking areas but being adventurous we decided to take it on in Rob's 4x2 bakkie. totally worth it. once you arrive the first thing that strikes you is the lack of cars; the next is the length of the 'let me show you around' speech. there is no externally supplied electricity as well as a limited supply of water and the backpackers makes you acutely aware of this. they have rocket showers, compost toilets, a bicycle driven blender, and candles everywhere. take a torch. the rocket showers are quite exciting, as long as you use one of the side ones, dont use the middle one, it just stays cold. there is something very novel about having a shower while a small inferno blazes not too far from your feet. the compost toilets are perhaps less exciting, especially if you are male, however some muttering was heard from the fairer sex with regards to aiming... mysterious

the food is brilliant and i highly recommend it, the only draw back being that the thrifty traveller bringing his or her own food will find limited self catering facilities. the emphasis is to buy local. you keep track of your purchases with a complex system of honesty tabs, there is one for the kitchen and one for the bar, so if you are looking for a backpackers with a bar but without a drunk bartender then this is the place. i am assured that there are many exciting activities to do at bulungula but being my normal, boring self i read some books, played some crazy simple canadian card games and went for a walk along the beach where i bitched constantly about how crap the surf was. reports of drunkenness on friday night may or may not be based in fact. on a separate note, what happened to my gin?

the frozen chosen

2009-08-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

cape town may still be inundated with winter rain and chilly weather but here in the transkei spring is rapidly approaching. what better time than this to organise a braai and whip up some frozen margaritas?

it took me a few weeks of research and several attempts to get this recipe right. most of the recipes i found online were american and included concentrated lemon and lime products for which there are no equivalents in the good old republic of SA. none the less i decided to experiment and here is the result:

will's frozen lemon margaritas:

first off you need to make lemon syrup. this replaces the concentrates from other recipes

lemon syrup:

1 litre lemon juice

1 kg of sugar (normal table sugar, not castor sugar as this has a anti caking agent)

mix lemon juice and sugar over low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. this is about double what you need for one batch of margaritas so freeze 500ml of it and keep the rest to mix with water to make lemonade. remember, fresh ingredients are always best, if you have an electric juicer use real lemons!

the actual thing:

500ml frozen lemon syrup

200ml lime juice (again fresh limes are best!)

1 cup (250ml) of tequila

1/2 cup (125ml) of triple sec

1/3 (110ml) of a peroni beer

as much ice will fit in the blender + a blender of only ice

add all of the above into a sturdy blender and let rip. pour it into a bowl and do another load of ice to add. the beer adds just a hint of fizz and also takes the edge off all the acidic lemon and lime juice. as for choice of alcohols it is entirely up to you to find your preferred taste. currently i am using Agava Sunrise Silver and Bols triple sec. you dont have to use peroni, but it is a good option as it is bland and wont give the cocktail an aftertaste.

hints:

*if you want the best consistency of ice then you need to get a slush puppy machine to keep the ice frozen in nice tiny little bits. i realise this may not be possible for most, in this case just drink up quickly :)

*you can make your margaritas blue by using blue curacao instead of triple sec, they are both curacao liqueurs

*feel free to adjust the recipe and let me know how it goes

*enjoy!

getting behind the lense

2009-08-14T13:46:00.001-07:00

when the north east wind blows at mdumbi there is a small bay where the hills channel it into an offshore. its very fickle and reportedly very sharky but with nothing else on offer i followed some visitors from jbay and had a good time taking my first surf photos. having splurged on a 6x optical zoom camera i found myself wanting even more zoom, but the results were pretty good... maybe i'll try surfing it this weekend

the falls backpackers

2009-08-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

so there has been a short delay between me visiting the falls backpackers and me blogging about it... say two months or so. one reason is that i have taken a few weeks of much needed leave, but the main reason is that in the beginning of the year i visited so many new backpackers in a very short space of time, and i blogged about them, and i said awesome and fantastic, and i said awesome and fantastic way to much. such is life. but those places are fantastic, dont worry. anywho, the falls backpackers is a short two hour drive up the mountains away from umtata. as i may have mentioned, umtata is a fantastic place to head away from. of all the backpackers this is the most remote, in terms of other people being nearby. it is twenty minutes from the small town of maclear. im not sure if it was originally in the boundaries of the transkei, i may have been born during apartheid but i played a rather limited role in its implementation. the area doesnt feel like it was in the transkei, there is a distinct lack of mud huts and a proliferation of organised farming (relative to canzibe that is) and at the backpackers there is nobody trying to sell you beads, seafood or marijuana. on reflection the lack of seafood doesnt surprise me at all.

the backpackers is owned by a friend of rob's, a kayaking friend. in the summer the kayaking is most agreeable. so agreeable in fact that rob dislocated his shoulder there earlier this year (good luck recovering from the surgery dude) the pictures of the rivers in flood are very impressive and are scattered liberally around the premises. in the winter the area is more well known for its fly fishing. i dont fly fish currently but fortunately i am partial to mountain streams due to my lifelong obsession with kloofing. i went along and took some photos. the area is very scenic and the trout are tasty, we braaied them that evening.

the waterfall that the backpackers is named for is tina falls, pictured above. it is a five minute walk from the backpackers and there is a zip line across the pool if you need some adventure in your life. you can also see some bushman paintings on the ravine walls.

when you return from these activities watch out for billy the goat. he will very likely want to play... he plays rough. he also eats anything, i almost lost my shoe laces. dont let him get inside either. once inside there is pool, foosball and a fire warmed lounge for you to read your current bill bryson book by paraffin lamp (there's no electricity) all in all i highly recommend the falls and hope to head there some time in summer for the floods.

pixies and gremlins

2009-08-07T03:38:00.000-07:00

the lecturer at one of the dry needling (similar to acupuncture) courses i attended earlier this year told the class that depression was highly over diagnosed and over medicated in our society today. he said that without depression we wouldnt have had some famous poetry and we certainly wouldnt have had the fantastic indy music that is The Smiths. i am the first person to say that i quite appreciate that these guys were depressed, great, love the music. but his theory is a bit suspect. by the same reasoning you could say that without drugs the pixies wouldnt have made surfer rosa. surfer rosa has to be one of the best albums of all time. you have to listen to the entire thing as a whole, not just to individual songs (for those of you who dont know, surfer rosa is the album from which the single "where is my mind?" is taken). so long story short, drugs are fantastic and i encourage their use by the artistic community... but depression comes first, no drugs if you're depressed. that indy isnt going to compose itself bitches.

more serious posts about living in the transkei are on the way. or they would be, if only i could get over my depression...

the day the point worked

2009-07-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

saturday mornings are always best started with the view of a perfect set rolling in as you drive down to mdumbi. it took 6 months but finally the sandbank between the point and the bay had formed and for three hours straight it was surfed. good times :) below is me, poor posture and way too far forwards, but having a great time!

some fellow mammals also having a good time, stealing some waves as well

johan showing the best way to get out of a close out

angus carving some speed lines

rob, absolutely exhausted, couldnt quite stand up here and so decided to surf on his posterior, backwards... nice

the surfer from plett who absolutely ripped. this guy was epic!

unfortunately the sand bank was washed away last weekend by some 20ft waves. bummer. here's hoping it reforms.

photos taken on angus' camera (i think) and snapped by andre. thanks guys

the saviour of SAA flight 1370 east london to cape town

2009-06-17T02:25:00.000-07:00

i think its fantastic that dedicated airline staff are looking out for the safety of passengers like me. there is nothing more satisfying than a sense of security when you are airborne. this is why i am extremely grateful to the man who pulled me over at east london airport and told me that i would have to take the scissors out of my carry on luggage to be confiscated. "scissors?" i said... i didnt even know there were scissors in my bag. but after a while i found them, flimsy, blunt nosed and half the size of my hand, they had been hiding in my first aid kit. shock and awe! i had come so close to being forced into hijacking an aeroplane. i handed them over at once, got on the plane, and killed the pilot with my insulin injection pens. it wasnt nearly as fun as doing it with scissors...

winter time

2009-06-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

the year marches on and winter has arrived. temperatures have plummeted to around 20 degrees Celsius, brrr, chilly. the rain has stopped and the once green hills slowly start to turn yellow. in my homeland of capetonia massive storms and rain and even snow (on the high ground) are in full effect. what this means around here is massive swell and offshore winds, yes please!

the last weekend of may was spent at mdumbi backpackers. for us at the hospital its like a second home. the owner used to live at canzibe and romantic liaisons between hospital and backpacker staff are commonplace. its great to be treated as a local and not as a tourist. with a storm raging in cape town the weather was mild and sunny. the swell hitting the bay was anything but mild. the notoriously fickle mdumbi point refused to play ball for the first day and a half but then a stiff direct offshore picked up and it all cleaned up beautifully. i wish i was a good enough surfer to take advantage of it but i only managed one wave before my fitness let me down. the arms are aching at the moment, hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the season.

the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and watching angus repair his new favourite board. the ocean has come to life. chad season has begun and the local fishermen are out in force. a whale was spotted during the surf session and dolphins can be seen everywhere. hopefully next weekend will be a repeat show :)

i am, however, looking forwards to going to cape town in june. distractions are important

the perfect mojito

2009-05-27T09:07:00.001-07:00

there is nothing more refreshing than a well made mojito. it is the ultimate sundowner. this holds true in the transkei as well. so without further ado:

take one tall glass (a mojito is a built cocktail, meaning that you make it in the glass you drink it from)

add 3 teaspoons of granulated sugar (simple syrup also works, but granulated sugar provides a rough surface to muddle the mint leaves with)

pluck 8 mint leaves of reasonable size (if you live at canzibe mint can be found growing outside the admin building)

add a dash of soda water and muddle (muddling is a fancy bar term for beating ingredients with a blunt object) you want to bruise the mint leaves and dissolve the sugar so give it a bit of a stir as well.

add a shot of white rum, im quite partial to Havana club but bacardi should be the cheapest you go

now for the most important part, the limes. a mojito is pointless without limes, dont even bother (half of my luggage was limes when i came back here from cape town last time). you need at least 1 and a half limes per cocktail. squeeze the juice from one lime and cut the half into four. add both to the glass and muddle again.

head for the freezer and add enough ice blocks to fill the glass, i prefer whole blocks to crushed ice as it keeps things simple, no ice crusher required. also i find that a mojito with ice blocks just looks so much more presentable.

top the glass off with soda water, this gives the mojito just a bit of fizz

get a long spoon and use it to scoop the contents from the bottom of the glass to the top so that the end product is well mixed.

i know you are super eager do drink it right away, but give a few seconds to chill. all drinks should be ice cold!

enjoy

coming soon (maybe) after many hours of research and nights of practice, the perfect frozen margarita recipe (no artificial concentrates required!)

girl on the moon

2009-05-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

one of those days. sometimes the transkei is not where i want to be

sugar shacked

2009-05-25T10:17:00.001-07:00

on the way back to canzibe from induction we stayed at sugar shack in east london. we had a four bed dorm to ourselves, which was cool. seemed like a nice place but the stay was rather fleeting. we did get some balance practice in tho. it was also good to hit some cape town addictions: mug & bean and kuaii (how ever you spell that)

getting induced

2009-05-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

the eastern cape department of health induction for community service is a great event to:

go on a road trip to jeffery's bay. stopping at grahamstown on the way down and east london on the way back

stay in three star accommodation on the marina in jeffery's bay at the taxpayer's expense, marvelous

get decent food, three times a day, for free

meet up with some old friends

meet interesting new people... colleagues, coworkers. fantastic

laugh at lecturers. the stuff they say is hilarious. how they say it with a straight face is beyond me.

bunk the afternoon sessions and go surfing. seriously, this is jbay.

will's guide to bunking inductions:

attend breakfast in the mornings, sign the register for the day and head into the lecture hall. you could bunk now, you have after all just registered for the day. but hey, might as well listen to what they have to say. spend the morning session with your eyebrows raised in mirth. have lunch. ditch for the beach. point is safer than kitchen windows and the billabong factory shop. they have spies there. return for supper and the evening amusements. repeat the next day. on the last day you get a certificate confirming that you attended all lectures. congratulate yourself on a job well done

watch out for dr wagner. she is intense

why go to port st johns

2009-05-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

when you can go here? good question. port st johns is great to visit once and thats about it really. rather spend time in the slightly more far flung areas. cool weekend

water water everywhere

2009-05-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

a peaceful morning at canzibe dam. the water disturbed only by a duck. things are less peaceful at the hospital. the water supply has not been operating for the last two weeks. certain parties are getting annoyed, certain physiotherapists included, with taking sponge baths from buckets. certain other parties are a bit peeved so to speak about the lack of water to scrub in and sterilise with. the patients, who must have thought that the hospital toilets were pretty below par when the water worked, long for those days once more. something must be done. an elite crew is assembled. an expert who knows the entire dam and pump house blueprints arrives promptly from bisho and the problem is brilliantly diagnosed after a few minutes. efficiency is the name of the game... in switzerland.

meanwhile, back in the real world, the entire workshop staff, the medical superintendent, the pharmacist and one skiving physiotherapist descend on the dam in two hospital vehicles of dubious road worthiness. number of people present who know the layout of the dam and pump house: zero.

on arrival many theories are put forward. it has pretty much been decided that the pipe in the dam is at fault. there are two pipes coming out of the pump house. one of them is the backup. ok then, we can just switch to the back... oh, it doesn't work and hasnt worked for a while, ok. well then, where do the pipes that are in the dam lie? anyone? no? ok. good thing you came along. no i dont think cutting that pipe there above the valve is a good idea. do the words giant gravity powered siphon mean anything to you? they should.

its around about know that a pharmacist comes in useful since in their job descriptions can be found the requirement to be a competent diver. send your pharmacist off for an early morning dive. for about four hours or so. visibility? say 30 cm if you're lucky.

but hey, anything to get in the papers, at least three times

original article http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=315640

i cant find the letter written by Dieter, one of the doctors boyfriends, but it summed up the whole situation very well. here tho is the response: http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=316971

all and all it shouldn't need the medical superintendent and the pharmacist to get the water fixed. but it did

i leave you with rob gracefully entering the dam. where are those darn pipes anyway?

hospital life

2009-05-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

so it turns out that this blog tends to deviate slightly from topics of the hospital. oh well. anywho, the next few posts should be directly related to life in the public service. time is flying and the halfway mark of the year is swiftly approaching. so what have i learned so far that i can pass on to eager/ 2nd rounded and gatvol physio students?

when you arrive in your room, you may find a heater is already there. a heater? what would you need a heater for in the transkei? well first off, it rains so much in the summer that your clothes will grow mould without one. secondly, the hospital doesn't charge for electricity. there is nothing better than being toasty warm in winter.

don't expect too much, its better to be pleasantly surprised than frustrated.

things go wrong in the transkei, be prepared to go without.

you never get another community service, unless you are incompetent (no names mentioned) so enjoy it. go on as many courses and conferences as you can. without doubt go to the eastern cape DOH community service induction (more info coming) dry needling is fantastic and painful and everyone is a sceptic for you to convert

there is no xhosa word for physiotherapist. saying i-physiotherapist doesn't help. just deal with getting called doctor. learn to say "i have no medication"... "hai, andi amayesi" usually works

if cape town is south africa's beautiful face and joburg is the armpit, then umtata is in between the barefoot, not often washed, toes of south africa. umtata can take an hour to get through on pay day. don't go to umtata on payday.

if you must go to umtata, someone decided to put the only decent shops there, shop at savoy spar. it will surprise you. it doesn't carry just your average spar stuff. it also has fairly secure parking and a tops right next door. yay!

coming soon: how to bunk lectures at community service induction; and a return to rob's beach cottage. oh yes

driving class: in pictures

2009-05-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

hey kids. its driving lesson time. lets go through a few do's and dont's

Do: buy a second hand bakkie from your uncle/mother's cousin (is there an official name for those?) for a pretty good price

Do: drive your bakkie to your new job in the transkei and use it to gallivant around south africa

Don't: forget that traffic comes to an abrupt halt on the N3 by the pavilion shopping centre, durban. if its your first time driving there well that's just too bad

Don't: crash into someone in front of you while checking your blind spot

However, if you do:

Do: wear your seat belt

Do: crash into a company car which is comprehensively insured

Do: exchange all the necessary particulars

Do: call your friend and go on holiday to the drakensburg anyway

After the holiday:

Don't: worry too much, the flash backs start to go away

Do: take some pictures at the panel beaters of: your car; your passenger who survived; and yourself looking cool

Don't: assume that you do look cool, you don't: but nice try

Do: tell everyone that your car sustained R34000 worth of damages. even though theoretically over half of that is labour and value added tax.

and that's the end of the lesson

now, if only your hospital wasn't 1 hour away from the nearest bus stop by dirt road...

how to stalk a cow (or bull...)

2009-04-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

rob demonstrating that entry requirements for pharmacy still leave something to be desired. shortly afterwards he was gently encouraged off. no really, it was gentle

Rob's mildly illegal beach cottage

2009-03-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

rob the pharmacist very kindly took us to his family's beach cottage at mapansan, about 70kms north of the hospital. he and one of the doctors cycled there but me being slightly less keen on cycling drove along the back roads to get there. the cottage was built in 1995 when people were generally confused about who owned the transkei and now it is in danger of being knocked down by nature conservation. it sits halfway up the hill above a small bay and is visited by various sales people offering "wares" at bargain prices... big bargain prices. we bought the four lobster for R20. there was huge cyclone swell coming through all weekend so once again no surfing was done, im getting quite desperate for a surf. sharks point (pic 5) did work on the sunday morning but im not really that keen on 1o ft swells yet :( the weather is slowly improving with less rainy days now, the sunday was very warm indeed. once again the food was good and scenery well above par. if you want to come to the cottage you had better visit me this year while rob is still around :)

chintsa & east london

2009-03-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

so for various boring reasons the first weekend of march was spent in chintsa, about half an hour from east london. i have to agree with the guide books and say that it is the best backpackers i have stayed in quality wise, with a great beach and lagoon thrown into the deal. the first night there we drove to east london to have supper at the smokey swallow, a top 50 in south africa resturant. it was divine, the best R220 rand i have ever spent on food. more specifically kudu in black cherry wine sauce followed by creme brule and double espresso. the rest of the weekend was sedate, shopping in east london in the morning (actually, that was crazy... shopping mall after payday, sheesh) and snorkelling in the afternoon, and then the rain came down. i have to go to that resturant again!

durban to st lucia

2009-02-24T08:02:00.000-08:00

one short flight and i was back in durban and staying with fiona in her "penthouse" granny flat in amanzimtoti. we spent the night there and drove to st lucia the next morning. once we dropped our stuff off at our accommodation in st lucia we drove to meet sam at cape vidal, a short drive up the coast through the game reserve. the water at cape vidal was the warmest i have ever swum in, i went for my first snorkel and saw lots of very brightly coloured fish. the monkey in the picture made its presence know to me by ramming into my legs and grabbing the bag of bread i was holding. fortunately for my stomach he dropped the bread when chased by a game ranger. he did return later and managed to snaffle a slice of bread while we weren't looking. sam had a connection with a friend whose parents live in st lucia and she organised a free cruise on the estuary for us. lots of hippos were seen and many vodka tonics were drunk. we ended off with a braai at the local's house. her parents keep some crocodiles in the back garden... awesome!

being on community service and up country and with some disposable income and having friends scattered around the country opens up opportunities to explore :)

cape town

2009-02-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

being diabetic necessitated that i would need to head back to cape town some time to get some insulin. i would also hopefully be able to fetch my drivers licence and the transkei police force would stop trying to arrest me. i decided to fly from durban the reasons being: i had never been to durban before, i could visit a good friend of mine who is comm serving there, and i could leave my car at her house :) the drive up was very scenic, i drove along the non toll road on the south coast. they say durban is humid, they were right. anyhoo, i caught my flight and arrived in cape town. the pets were quite happy to see me, the cat was being exceptionally cute, kinda weird for her... after catching many taxis and getting a few lifts i managed to get all my chores done. i even baked a lemon meringue for tamwise's birthday. i found i didnt really miss cape town that much, mostly because i prefer living away from my parents. if i move back it would have to be away from them i think. i think i was also looking forwards to the weekend where i had been invited to st lucia... couldnt wait to get back on the plane

burning

2009-02-13T03:52:00.000-08:00

the first burns patient to arrive at the department was not a good experience. he sustained a circumferential partial thickness burn of the forearm, back of hand and part of the elbow when hot porridge was spilled on him. in cape town he would have been admitted to red cross hospital and would have received daily OT and physio. here he arrived at physio 5 days post burn already stuck in a position of comfort. he has oedema of his hand due to the circumferential burn and on passive stretching the scar tissue was tearing and bleeding. he was not considered critical enough to admit to the hospital due to lack of space. we reffered him to the burns unit at nelson mandela hospital in Mthatha, but we have no idea if he will receive the right treatment. hopefully he will

port st johns

2009-02-11T04:15:00.000-08:00

the weekend before last was spent in port st johns, the bottom photo showing the view from amapondo backpackers. we went on the backpacker's waterfall tour which took us up to lusikisiki and went to three waterfalls. angel falls is the smaller one, magwa falls is just huge. if you can handle the height, you can sit right at the edge of the cliff face. back at the backpakers that night, the cats tried desperately to steal my food, so i took one of them hostage...

coffee bay - hole in the wall

2009-02-08T05:17:00.001-08:00

so for yet another weekend mdumbi was fully booked, so off to coffee bay we went. three backpackers in coffee bay pretty much guarantee accommodation. the bottom photo shows coffee bay from the main road leading down to it. on the saturday afternoon, after spending the morning on the beach, we went to hole in the wall. its a 15min drive from coffee bay and is just amazing. the cows in the picture were fighting but stopped before i could get my photo... so unfortunately they became just more animals on the road, just part of life. hole in the wall was amazing and i decided to swim to hole. its a nice swim and you almost think you could swim through the hole until you get close and feel the pull of its currents. i diverted to a shelf of rock which allows you to sit right next to the hole while masses of water and spray pass by you only centimetres away. hole in the wall is always worth a visit and my tiny cellphone camera doesnt really catch it that well. we returned to coffee bay around four and rob, the pharmacist, and i went fishing. we managed to find a pretty much perfect fishing spot. my fishing equipment is lying dusty and unused in cape town but after this i am definitely fetching it asap. rob started things off by reeling in a crayfish, nice but not what we were aiming for. i then caught a cob, which was eventually followed by two others, on caught by rob and one by me. fish braai anyone?

Mdumbi

2009-02-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

the mdumbi river which passes quite close to the hospital, reaches the sea some 20kms later at mdumbi beach. the wave is quite famous even after the sandbanks were washed away in a storm in 2006, fortunately it still cooks and is reforming back to its old self. there is a backpakers on the hill above the beach, it has been rather busy and fully booked recently so we have been limited to day trips. the beach is amazing and it lacks the constant irritation of being offered weed, shrooms and all the rest the moment you step out the backpakers which occurs in coffee bay. very chilled, amazing views, warm water... plans are to spend a lot of time here

mdumbi river waterfall

2009-02-01T07:58:00.001-08:00

a two hour hike from the hospital get you to this awesome waterfall, is it not nifty?

the physiotherapy department

2009-02-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

so its been 12 years since there was last a physio at canzibe. however the department, although dusty and unorganised at first, is quite well equipped. there is an electric plinth, hot pack warmer with timer, IFT machine (kinda working) and two walking frames. there is a lot of old out dated equipment as well, two short wave diathermy machines are stuffed in a corner, infrared lamps are scattered around at random, and the fanciest traction machine you ever did see sits unused in one of the cubicles. the department has its own buliding, so there is planty of space. there is plenty of room for improvement tho, fortunately i have some donation money to use to get towels and arnica and maybe even a bobath plinth.

transkei thunderstorm

2009-02-01T06:25:00.000-08:00

after a boiling hot day this thudercloud formed on the drive back to zitulele hospital. the wind was strong enough to knock out the electricity for the rest of the day

first look

2009-01-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

so after some teething trouble i am now settled at canzibe. at first my bakkie was unavailable so i drove up in my grans 1970s toyota, what a legend. the hospital is an old dutch reformed mission which is pretty much neglected by the government. it is in an amazing area, on top of a hill between the valleys of the umtata and umdumbi rivers. there are banana trees growing everywhere and the house where i stay is shaded by huge peacanut trees. the physio dept has been a bit neglected, the last physio was here 12 years ago, but there is plenty of space and a surprising amount of equipment lying around. weekends have been spent at coffee bay and mdumbi backpackers. if you decided to do your commserve inland then you a just crazy. you are offered weed, shrooms and lobster wherever you go, the lobster is amazing! im staying in a house with a pharmacist on commserve and a dutch doctor who has worked here for years. it looks to be an exciting year

change

2008-12-17T03:50:00.000-08:00

so a change to the title. after hearing nothing from isilimela and being actively pursued by an OT from zitulele i am transferring to canzibe hospital. its still in the transkei just more south and inland than isilimela. i am dissapointed about not being as close to the sea but there will always be weekends. more importantly it looks like there will be more support at canzibe, as well as dutch doctors (dutch people are highly entertaining) the area still looks awesome and mdumbi (awesome wave) is 40 minutes away. now starts in earnest the bureaucracy. forms and more forms. the purchase of my bakkie is underway, cashing out my unit trusts and selling my beloved passat station wagon to get the 30 grand required. everything is becoming rushed and last minute. apparently this is the norm in the transkei.

beginnings

2008-09-27T04:19:00.000-07:00

isilimela hospital, for a place that i will be spending at least one year at, i know very little about it. in my defense, nobody else does either. i am a physiotherapy student at the university of cape town, in a month, if all goes well, i will finish my studies and leave for community service. in south africa, all the medical and health related professions are required to complete a year (or two) of community service i.e. working for the government, to be allowed to work privately in the rest of the country. i believe it is attempting in a small way to ensure that medical professionals stay in the country and to stem the growing brain drain which south africa is experiencing. after two rounds of placements, i am now posted to isilimela hospital in the rural transkei. i knew nothing about it before i applied except that it was near the ocean, so i would be able to surf. once i knew my placement i decided to find out where it was. this would be harder than you would think. the first port of call was the eastern cape department of health website. this department is not well known for its organisation or indeed for its computer skills. a colleague of mine who qualified last year didn't receive pay for three months because nobody in the department knew how to transfer payment on their computer systems. not to mention that the list of second round locations for the province was, in a word, wrong. not a good sign you may think. however, the directions to the hospital provided the first glimpses of something to look forwards to,

"Isilimela Hospital is situated plus minus 17km from the tar road Tombo junction. It serves the port St. Johns municipality area and located at Gomolo A/A next to plus minus 2km to Mpande beach along the Sinangwa River, population served: 437 294."

the rest of the the site is rather sparse, but come on, 2km up river from a beach? as directions? yes please. it was time to whip out the google earth

the beach is mpande beach and apparently is considered the most consistent breaking wave in the area. the pictures of the beach and river are amazing. some quick figures then: isilimela is 40km from the nearest town, port st johns, by road; it is 1050km from my home of cape town; and the closest airport without astronomical prices for tickets is durban, five hours away by road.

as i continued to look through google searches, i was finding minimal information about the hospital itself. what are conditions like? what services are actually offered? where do the staff stay? the only info i found for the conditions was from seven year ago (http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/04/02/features/HOSPITAL.HTM) other than that, nothing of substance.

im beginning this blog so that people who come after me might have the information that i did not. my outlook at the moment is positive. more info as i get it