Easter

We used our Sunday to visit Durban's northern beaches. The sky was blue, the sand golden and the Indian Ocean pretty bloody ferocious, thus demanding hoards of life guards (who took their touch rugby duties very seriously). Moses Mabdiba Stadium was built for the 2010 World Cup at enormous cost but with impressive results, here I am being battered by the wind, you can just about see the stadium behind my hair.

We've had a pretty intensive week of medicine so it was a good thing it was only four days long. On Tuesday whilst at 1000 Hills Clinic some volunteers brought in a lady they had found in a local shelter, who was very ill from an infection of the wound where her hand had been recently amputated as a result of leprosy. There was very little nursing care available where she was staying so her dressings had not been changed. We sent her to hospital and when she was discharged back to the same shelter we arranged for her to be admitted to a lovely local hospice, where they would be able to care for her wound. Leprosy is very treatable and the incidence is declining in South Africa, but there are still many misconceptions and the local doctors thought it possible this lady's poor care was due to staff members being scared of catching it.

One of the doctors at the TB hospital was on leave this week so Hannah and I did his ward round on Wednesday. We saw pretty much every complication of TB there is and witnessed firsthand how late presentation and poor compliance with medication can have devastating consequences.

The long Easter weekend meant a break from school and clinic for all of us. The weather was glorious and after Easter themed activities on Friday we had a braai (South African BBQ) with all the children on Saturday.

On Easter Sunday a couple of us took a group of the teenagers to Kloof Gorge where they conducted an impromptu photoshoot by the waterfall. Nearly 20 of the 7-14 year olds went on an overnight camp, leaving the village bizarrely quiet.

Easter Monday was the second day of the Kearsney College Rugby Festival, where some of South Africa's best school teams competed and future stars were selected by the Sharks Academy. The standard was amazing and no doubt some of these guys will be Springboks in a couple of years.

This week's view is from the back of Makaphutu out over the forested hills behind us.