I was so excited to return to Macha and be here a whole month before having to leave again. My week, though, had some frustrations, mostly around work, so I have been working on self-care and staying focussed.
My position is a new position, and we are all trying to figure it out. No one is really my direct supervisor, and figuring out what my job will concretely be is largely up to me. There is a general goal, but how I go about that is not clear. I am creating my own way. I have of course been in and out as has the nursing officer and now another key person who I have been trying to sit down and meet with is out all this month. I would like to spend more time in the ART clinic and the nurse in charge of ART agrees with this, but he will be out all next week and it needs to go through the nursing officer first. This week the acting nursing officer was dealing with alot, including the senior nursing students doing their final clincal exams. So I will try and find a time this week to meet with him.
In the meantime, I have been sitting in front of my computer a lot, dealing with data. I also have been trying to pin down a time for a Tonga lesson without success. Thus the need for self-care.
I borrowed a bike for a ride one evening, went for a walk with a friend to the dam another evening. I have been trying to visit people. I harvested my lemon tree Saturday morning (with a few scars to prove it) when the power was out and took bags around to various people. A few of us got together to play a game the other night and some friends had me over for dinner last night. Community is always important. This is the first time I have lived alone in many years, and though I enjoy it in many ways, I have to be more proactive in socializing than when living with others.
Yesterday afternoon Fiona, a Scottish doctor here for three months, and I took a three hour long bike ride out into the bush. It was a great afternoon. With minimal Tonga, no road signs or maps, but a great sense of adventure, some food, water and sunblock,we headed out. We were really hoping to make a loop. It was quite funny because after riding through the tall grass and past several villages we had very different opinions of where we were in relation to Macha hospital, but we just laughed and kept going. The people we met, who spoke little more English than we spoke Tonga kept telling us we had to go back the way we came to return to the hospital but we kept continuing on, thinking there must be a way to loop back on one of the many village paths.
We ran into an older gentleman who asked if we were headed to the big bridge. That was exciting for us, because we had wanted to get to a river. So we headed that way, and soon found the bridge and a nearby bar with people hollering at us to join them. We smiled and kept biking. The river was not very inviting with it being the dry season and all. We got the name of the river and the bridge from people on the other side. On we went to a junction in the road with a sign for a school. We wanted to turn back by 4 in case we got lost. It was 3:30 and we decided to keep looking for a loop. Eventually we got to a village on top of a hill where people pointed forwards instead of back when we asked the way to Macha hospital. We did have to cross the same river, without a bridge this time, but it was way dryer in this spot with big sand bars and small streams of water we could step across and push our bikes through. We are guessing people were telling us to return the other way not knowing the height of the river at that crossing. Anyrate, we were quite pleased with ourselves for having found a loop.
Now that we were on the path home, we decided we would be up for stopping and visiting at a house if the chance presented itself. It soon did. We were biking past a house near the football (soccer) field in Bulebo when the women greated us and clapped their hands and said "come". So we went to sit with Grandma Mwaanga, her grandaughter and great-grandchildren and another woman and her child whose connection to the others we didn't quite figure out. The two older women were degraining maize and the younger woman was milling ground nuts in the traditional wooden mortar and pestle. Tonga stools were brought out for us, the bottom of Fiona's was a bit rotten and she immediately fell over which provided for lots of laughter. Grandma Mwaanga's granddaughter did most of the communicating with us. She has 6 children, 5 girls and one boy including two sets of twins. Six month old Choolwe (a common name in Tonga which means luck) and 3 1/2 year old Progress were at mom's side when we arrived. When we sat down, we were a bit too close for Progress's comfort and though she shook Fiona's hand and we tried to sit a distance from her, she still got up and walked away. Later in the visit she was back hovering close by, and even said something directly to me at one point, but I couldn't understand her. Then when her two older sisters Mavis and Natasha arrived carrying water, she was even more engaging. We never did meet Progress' twin Precious. We sat and helped the women finish with the maize. Took a few pictures and headed on our way. I was a bit frustrated not being able to ask simple things in Tonga. I hope to remember where the house is and go back for another visit when my Tonga is better.
Today I have stayed near home. Went to the big BIC church here in Macha. There is a trio that sings every Sunday who are just wonderful. The bigger choirs are wonderful also, but those three are something special. One day I will meet them and thank them for their powerful singing. I am blogging and journaling and still have some lemons to deliver. I also want to go visit the principal of the nursing school who helped me prepare for the exam to say thanks. Then I want to visit my Tonga teacher and try to arrange a new tutoring schedule. Tomorrow is Monday, and the beginning of a new work week. I hope it will be a bit less frustrating than the last. There is much to be grateful for.
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