The joys of living with a doctor (part 2)

Very similar to part 1: Another experience of an unusual surprise when I opened Liz's fridge

Unfortunate incident

An afternoon of baby-sitting

Pierre-Andre and Berdine (comserve doctor and his wife) rescued two little abandoned puppies and nutured them for several weeks. They really had to work hard, waking up to attend to them several times every night. Anyway, one friday afternoon, they wanted to go shopping in Mthatha but realised the puppies wouldn't do very well left alone for so long, so i offered to baby-sit them.

The puppies required constant attention as my garden is not fenced in and I was terrified they would eat someone's plants and get ex-communicated from the Plaza (our housing compound). Thankfully, after about an hour of running around they would calm down and sleep for an hour. Then they would go crazy again and the cycle would keep repeating itself.

At some point during the puppy-sitting, the children arrived on the scene. Then the puppies would require extra attention as they are a little rough and the kids need protection from getting mauled. The kids also wanted to me to play with them - which I was very keen to do, but it was rather tricky keeping an eye on 5 kids and 2 puppies at the same time!

Puppies and children were all just too cute and needed lots of pictures. No pics of awake puppies as they don't keep still!

Beans
Lily
They may be hard work, but they are super cuddly!

Lesson of the day: I don't want 7 children!

Mpako adventure

2o of the Zithulele gang headed to a community-run campsite near Port St John's for an awesome weekend of fun in the sun.

Tetris packing: can you see Jack?

Epic 4x4ing. We drove 4 cars in convoy - the scenic route :)

View from the deck (above)
Beautiful sunsetSun downers :)

Karen taking advantage of Angela's dirty car, while we wait for Ian to negotiate a tricky bit on the road home.

Good times at Nzulwini clinic!

Sewing skills put to the test

Pressure garments are something OTs are supposed to make to prevent scarring after a burn. They are made out of a special fabric (dont ask me what its called) and have to be extremely tight and perfectly fitted. Fortunately the fabric is stretchy which makes it easier to get a tight fit, but an intracite pattern still needs to be designed specifically for each patient. This is my first ever pressure garment which would not exist if it wasn't for Kate rescuing me when i was freaking out because i didn't have all the measurements and didn't know what the pattern is supposed to look like. A huge step-up for my newly-aquired sewing skills!

But it turned out pretty well. The pants actually look almost like r

egular clothes: leggings :)

Ironically, after not making any pressure garments for 2 years, I ended up making 3 in one week!

Number 2 is this vest which gave me a lot of trouble with the shoulders and armpits. By this stage in the week (also trying to finger out PG 3: a glove!) i enlisted some help in the form of Julia and Elizabet (2 Sweedish Jabulani volunteers). So they helped with many adjustments needed to get the vest tight enough. Again, a happy result:

Can hardly see he's wearing it under his T-shirt :)

(by the way: the children's heads are cut off for confidentiality purposes, not because i cannot take a proper picture)

Gracie's birthday

Grace is turning 5 next week! (seemed like the other day it was 3!). Daddy Ben has a tradition of making his children's birthday cakes (well actually Taryn bakes them and Ben decorates them and gets all the credit). This year Grace chose a sweet shop.

The children were entertained with balloon hats...

but it seems like the adults were having more fun!

The birthday girl and Emma in their pretty dresses