too cold for the beach

Back to the wind ranging field of activities that never featured in the ‘job description’ this week.  All great stuff though and as I think I have said before so rewarding; I wouldn’t change anything, not even the cold showers.  Though I have to confess the cold showers have been few and far between lately; it is so hot now that the unheated water is coming out warm (in the morning) and distinctly hot (>40˚C) in the afternoon and evening.  Sleeping is hard as a result of the change in weather; at night the fan just simply blows hot air around my room until the early hours.

We did a ‘home visit’ this week to make repairs to a wheelchair.  This family lived up in the hills and the roadway was so steep we had to park up and walk the last 100yards.  Incredibly challenging place to live, the family had to carry everything, including their water, up that hill.

Around the hospital, I spent a bit of time in my favourite place, the NICU, interviewing nurses and gathering information for a grant application.  We are raising money to build and equip a new NICU Department; one not so cramped (the cots almost touch) to allow ‘kangaroo’ care – apparently that is a pukka term – of the babies by their parents.  We are also hoping to provide more incubators and purpose built cots, there are several tables and cabinets modified to accommodate a baby.  Healthcare in the third world is brutally functional.

We are also drawing up plans to create a Covid-19 Ward.  At the moment the gymnasium has been converted into a 10 bed ward, though thankfully we have averaged only 1 patient for many weeks now.  Our plan is to convert a storeroom into a 4 bed unit and return the gymnasium to its intended purpose, and get some much needed income from it.  

Back with the children, I helped our Physio Therapist refurbish the pool at the MDB (our respite care centre for children with disabilities).  Its not grand, maybe 10 feet by 6, and 18 inches deep, but it was great to have it back in action again for both fun and aqua therapy.  Unfortunately the care staff then used it to bathe the children, so it had to be drained and refilled before next use!

Speaking of the MDB staff, they have been promised a day out as a thank you for their continued commitment to the children, and bit of fun for a few hours away from work.  They were getting anxious and asking for the date to be set, before the end of August.  Apparently its too cold to go to the beach after August.  Really? That tells me I haven’t yet acclimatised as its always warm enough for the beach here as far as I am concerned.  When winter really hits in December, it will be 28˚C.