So here we are. It’s our last night at the hospital, and what has been our home these past 10 months. We’ve found it hard to blog the last few nights, mainly because we’ve preferred not to confront our feelings about leaving. But now, as I sit here at 2am looking at all our worldly possessions packed away into a couple of rucksacks and holdalls, I can’t run away from the reality of us going away.
The last few days have been quite difficult. We’ve had parties to lighten the mood a little – first our own on Friday night that was a bigger success than we expected. We just made a few flyers and distributed them around the hospital and hoped some people would turn up, but it turned out to be a really good night, with doctors and nurses, security guards and social workers all dancing the night away to some Shangaan music provided by one of the other doctors on his very impressive sound system. James got a taste of what life must be like for Matthew Booth when the rest of Bafana Bafana enter the stadium dancing with a rhythm he doesn’t possess! I can’t say I’m much better, but at least I stick out less!!
Then on Tuesday, the hospital held a surprise party for us at lunch time. Everyone was there, even little baby Shivani! After speeches were made and even poems read out by some of our colleagues, we were presented with handmade Shangaan outfits – in my case, a top, beaded skirt, beaded shawl, beaded necklace, headgear and bracelet, but the pièce de résistance was a pair of beaded shoes!! James got a tailor-made shirt that matches my skirt. Everything was handmade by a lady in the village, and the nurses organised it all in secret, getting our sizes from the clothes and shoes we left in the theatre changing room!
James and Benny with the two Shivanis
The most you can expect when you leave a firm in the UK is a team lunch! All the effort the nurses went through to give us a good send-off was really touching, to say the least.
The hospital car is taking us back to Johannesburg tomorrow, the same one that brought us here way back in September. We will leave our hospital, and the community, better doctors and, I hope, better people, having had the most challenging but also the best 10 months of our lives.
