Blog 20

2/12/10 The Last Blog, Images of Africa 2008-9 on walks to and from work in Monze Zambia.

At last after 11 months back in the UK our last blog! For those few that have had the stamina to get this far and you may be the only one, this is mainly images of Africa captured in our walks to and from work at the Monze Mission Hospital. We have sneaked a few others in that were captured elsewhere also evoking memories of the wonderful experience we had in Zambia which will remain with us for the rest of our lives.

What are now called traditional healers set up a clinic on some waste land near where we lived. At first they were suspicious of us when we talked to them but then became more friendly as they realised we weren't making judgements. Their views on the working of the body and how this can be influenced by traditional methods are widely believed and respected, and deeply rooted. Most of their techniques probably do no harm and for most patients there is little alternative treatment available.

We lived close to one of the two or three railway lines in Zambia this one between the capital city Lusaka and Livingstone which took 3 days and was not used by tourists! The trains travelled at snails pace, did not have any ventilation other than open windows and the infra-structure was rapidly deteriorating. This is a goods train which was very long as well as slow so if it was blocking the rail crossing we walked across each day we had to wait up to 5 minutes for it to go past!







This means that all passenger and most commercial transport including copper from the mines in the north travels on a two track narrow strip of tarmac in southern Zambia. Trucks like this one regularly stop at 'Truck stop Monze' which resulted in a lot of activity that the church would not have approved of and we were not at all aware of!







This sort of transport was much used locally and was a common sight around our home.

These two had wandered off and were dragging the tyre and plough share noisily around, which I think was meant to discourage escape.

This was another common form of transport locally. We decided against it for ourselves mostly on the basis of safety.





This was a common outdoor site for a bike shop under a tree

As trains were infrequent this was a perfectly safe form of transport although suspect these worked for the equivalent of 'Rail track' in the UK

Live animals were transported in many ways some seemed more fun than others. This goat seemed quite happy!

These chickens less so.

But cattle seemed to be often cruelly treated on their journey to be slaughtered.

I don't know how they packed these cattle so neatly!

A lot was transported around on these single wheeled barrows.

They are really a way of strapping a wheel to a load that needs to be transported!

These sights were rare in Monze, I suspect because of the enlarged family structure and the strong principle that the richest in the family had responsibility for the poorest. These two characters were probably in this situation because of mental ill health rather than poverty and were able to exist on the products of rubbish dumps with little needed for protection from the climate!


















I couldn't believe it when I saw this old classic Bedford roll by one day up from a village with its load of people and produce. It visited Monze 2-3x per week. The owner had bought it in Zimbawe some time ago and probably had no idea who Sir Roy Welensky, Rhodesia or Nyasaland (Malawi) and the Federation were! Since then Ian Smith, Kenneth Kaunda, Hastings Banda and a few others have ceased to be effective or died but this old trooper, at least 50 years old is still giving a reliable service. What a credit to British engineering and the central African climate. I don't know where spares were obtained or were made. Perhaps it didn't need any!?

Sir Raphael "Roy" Welensky KCMG (20th Jan 1907 - 5th Dec 1991) was a Northern Rhodesian politician and the second and last Prime Minister of The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) to parents of Jewish and Afrikaner ancestry, he moved to Northern Rhodesia and became involved with the trade unions. He entered the colonial legislative council in 1938. There he campaigned for the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (the latter under white self-government,the former under the Colonial Office). Although this failed he succeeded in the formation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, a state within the British Empire which sought to retain predominant power for the white minority while moving in a progressive political direction in contrast to apartheid in South Africa.

Becoming Prime Minister of the Federation in 1957, Welensky opposed British moves towards native African rule and used force to suppress politically motivated violence in the territories. After the advent of African rule in two of the ederation's three territories, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zambia and Malawi respectively), it collapsed in 1963. Welensky retired to Salisbury where he re-entered politics and attempted to prevent Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia) from unilaterally declaring independent.

With the end of white rule in 1979 and the independence of Rhodesia as Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe in 1980, Welensky moved to England where he died in 1991. A fervent admirer of Britain and the Empire, Welensky described himself as "half Jewish, half Afrikaner (and) 100% British".

Man and boy selling South African apples in Monze Market

More Images from around the Hospital

This was a brilliant example of African ingenuity by taking a cheap plastic chair and with a few extra bits of more robust materials made a very good useful and easily maintained piece of essential hospital equipment. A wheel chair1

Mike in front of the hospital offices with Mr Banda, made the Clinical Director while we were there. He was a senior clinical officer, competent surgeon, good paediatrician and physician. I'm sure he would have become a medical licentiate now but this probably wasn't an option when he trained. In the UK I'm sure he would have been a very good doctor perhaps surgeon.

This was one of the hospital security guards who was seconded from the police who Judy christened Inspector Monze. He was called Monze but I'm not sure he was an inspector. He was very friendly to us, always tried to help with taxis and was a devoted father. These were his girls!

The wards often looked dirty and although they did get littered and untidy as the day went on they were cleaned thoroughly at least once a day and sometimes twice.

There was no air conditioning so all the windows were open apart from fine netting. During the dry season a lot of red dust inevitably got into the wards and because a lot of care is delivered by relatives a lot of kit, food and drink is brought in for each patient and with it a lot of litter. The relatives have to 'camp' outside the hospital which also created the impression of disorder. In fact the hospital cleaning had been taken over by a private company and seemed to comprise a small army of people who together with the nurses kept the hospital very clean.

I don't know how these legs finished up here!

We shouldn't be surprised that in a Mission Hospital started by Irish catholic nuns that over the years a lot of the hospital infra-structure had been funded by money from Ireland. Quite what this is other than something electrical, I'm sure it is indispensable.

The hospital grounds in parts were delightful and like a garden. Photos of some of the flowers and shrubs have been shown in previous blogs. This was a spectacular spidery white flower that came out just before Christmas; in fact this photo may have been taken after church on Xmas day 2008.

The waiting room for the children was under a large shady tree just outside theatres. Here are some mothers and patients clutching the children's notes and xrays.

Operating under a window for sunlight, Mr Engulula with Dr Machona assisting was doing a supra-pubic catheter in a patient we couldn't get to theatre. I had refused to do it on the ward but Mr Egulula had no problems in doing it here with a single assistant. Very impressive.




















On the way out of the hospital we almost always passed these ladies and if their prices were right and the bananas good we bargained and usually bought them. They were there illegally, and once when we were buying bananas, they all suddenly grabbed their bags and ran when someone from the council appeared down the road. They thought this was great fun and they all came back as soon as he disappeared.

Three more examples of Zambian ingenuity in our trips around Monze, a watering device and home made toys. In contrast to the amount of toys western kids have, these kids were perfectly happy with their full working models of lorries made out of square plastic bottles, with tops making perfectly adequate wheels on discarded plastic biro axles. They cost nothing apart from time. After this we saw lots of similar toys sometimes just made out of wire.

These paintings were on the wall of a school near Monze. They are perfect for a colorectal educational lecture although I'm not sure of the value of a rectal examination in diarrhoea. It is sad however that these messages have to be so up front on the school wall!
















Although the diarrhoea message is difficult to interpret from a western culture the message about HIV/AIDS seems equally obscure other than this is something that even or particularly children need ?

These were some of the kids that go to this school. I hope they avoid diarrhoea and HIV/AIDS!

Silhouettes in a well at a house of an HIV patient who had lost his leg from an accident. In spite of all his problems he had a young family and an amazingly productive garden.








By the well

His trousers

His family

We have mentioned the amazing bugs we see on our walks and in our home like the golden bug. The Nikon camera enabled us to see features of insect we had never even dreamed of!

In the garden

the golden bug

In the magistrates courts at the back of our house







On a bush outside our house







The plant is decorated with a stick insect





A chamelion on a wall on our way to The Golden Pillow.








On our way home at the end of the wet season. The corn was as high as an elephants eye and all in 3-4months from the dry earth.

At an earlier stage in a field just in front of our house. The corn is just coming up.

And back to the dry earth at the end of our years stay again just outside our house where we also burnt most of our rubbish including plastic bottles and cans which were then simply buried. About yearly the site of the fire would be moved a few feet to a fresh dig!














The Monze Market was always a great visit














This was on a bus on the way to Livingstone but it could have been Monze. This happened quite a lot on our trips but this was probably the most colourful.





The blogs have been full of flowers and many of these were seen to and from work. Here are a few more.

We met a lot of amazing survivors on our walks, this old man probably with burnt out leprosy with loss of his toes.

And so to the end, dressed for the kill?

The long walk in the sun to school, under umbrellas for shade. Zambia's hope for the future!