Hi friends and family
Sorry its been so long in updating my blog. I cant believe I have been here for 5 weeks now! wow time flies by! I'm slowly settling in to life here in Bulembu, getting used to the routine and the bugs. The first time I arrived at my new home it was quite emotional, seeing my room set up for me and a note welcoming me to my new home. Now my room is slowly filling with things from home, pictures on the desk and bible scriptures placed on the walls. adding a few things helps to make me feel more at home. Work is great at the clinic. I'm learning so many new things and trying to learn the local language at the same time. Theres a great team working at the clinic with 7 of us. Wiseman the nurse manager runs the clinic with his wife Sharon who covers the admin, Namile a swazi nurse who came onboard last year, vera a swazi nurse assistant, rose the cleaner, and jannie a nurse assistant from Denmark who moved in just before Christmas. I'm learning the ropes of baby immunisations, family planning and pre/postnatal care. I'm enjoying being stretched in a different direction at the moment. its also great that when we are not busy with patients we have time to sort through the mound of stuff that the clinic has been given over the years, a lot of which we don't really need but has kindly been donated, its just a case of sorting through stuff and thinking outside the box as to what we can use some things for instead! and if theres somewhere else within Swaziland that it can be used.
Church is great lead by a great couple, Pastor Musa and pastor waheedah, which I'm looming forward to getting to know better. I'm slowly getting to meet different people here, Ive noticed that Bulembu is a place where you can easily become isolated if you choose to stay in your own house and don't make the effort to connect with others. I'm going to as many invites as I get at the moment! have been to a baby shower, have had dinner invites, have been to a ladies conference, and have been to Nelspruit for the weekend (a 2 hour drive away over the boarder into south Africa). Ive even been doing some baking, very tempting and not very good for the waistline!
My daily routine is up at 6am, then a 20 minute walk to work down the hill and back up again. Work starts at 730am then finish at 430pm with a walk back down and then up the hill again. The 'hill' is more of a mountain to me and I'm certainly getting my exercise in! The first time I walked to work I had to stop several times to get my breath back, now I only need to stop 1 -2 times so I'm improving thankfully. The town is in a valley surrounded by mountains which is beautiful, not so good when the lightening hits. The mountains that surround us contain large amounts of iron and so we do get quite a few hits so its advisable not to be out walking when the lightening comes!
The evenings are spent chilling, watching tv or dvd and cross stitching, and our 'midnight' is 9pm, so early if I was back home but so needed here! Weekends are mainly washing(if its not raining!) and exploring or resting, unless someone is going out of town to get shopping then I might tag along. Sunday is church, then probably up at the lodge connecting with people back home. Missing home a little now as its sinking in that I'm here for a while, but at the same time its beginning to feel like home here too. Looking forward to exploring much more around town, theres a few nice walks to attempt just need to wait for the weather to cool down a little!
I will leave you with a few pics of what ive been up to and a few pics around town. Hope to update again soon. sending much love to all back home and thanks for joining me on this journey.
