Change.

Saturday evening saw South Africa’s President tell the country that from Tuesday the 18th, Lockdown Level 3 would end, taking us in to Level 2. The Western Cape, the first province to surge with the virus is now seeing decreased hospital admissions, as are Guateng and the Eastern Cape. Kwa – Zulu Natal, where I live, and work in a hospital, is in it’s surge still and probably about to peak, or peaking right now.

Yet there are still all those “conspiracy theorists”, (some of them will say that’s fine that’s what they are, but rather call them “truth seekers”) who insist on claiming Covid 19, is just another flu. Well, here’s the truth, it’s not “just another flu”. I’ve exhausted myself explaining to them, that it’s a serious virus, and no actually – it’s not just like “another flu”. Regardless of how people think the virus started, whether it was really from bats, (or pangolins) or was let out from a lab on purpose to create havoc in the world, is not the point I’m getting at here in this post, my point is that it is real, and it’s serious. I don’t remember in my thirty years of nursing, colleagues getting so sick from flu, especially those working in ICU, making the ultimate sacrifice, and nursing extremely ill patients with Covid. I don’t remember ICU’s being so full of patients with flu, many on ventilators, during previous years. I don’t remember it because it’s never happened, certainly not in my lifetime. I’ve had the weekend off, but I go back to work tonight, wondering if a longtime colleague of mine, who has been very ill and on a ventilator, in the ICU she has worked in for over twenty years, is still hanging in there, or if she has lost her fight against Covid.

I even had an ex colleague of mine, a fellow nurse, and who I thought was a friend, tell me she didn’t believe me that our ICU was almost full of patients with Covid. She told me they are there because of their underlying conditions – or because they were elderly. So I said yes – AND because they had gotten Covid, which then because of their underlying conditions/poor immunity, made them so susceptible to becoming so seriously ill. If they hadn’t gotten Covid they would unlikely be so ill. So she then told me, “well, when it’s your time, it’s your time and it doesn’t matter what you die of anyway, it matters how live”. It’s all well and fine saying that, when you do not work in a hospital and are not seeing the reality of what’s happening, thanks to this virus called Covid. Yet this very same woman, will still insist on putting up (outdated) stats of deaths worldwide from various illnesses, with Covid being on the lower end of the list – but I thought it didn’t matter what people died of?! When I told her (once again) that she didn’t work in a hospital anymore, and had no clue about what we were dealing with, she deleted my comment. She will be the first to complain about lack of freedom of speech eg anti mask posts, anti covid posts, anti vaccine posts, etc. etc. etc. getting taken down, yet she does the same to me, by removing my comment. I don’t often “unfriend” people off face book, but sadly to say I did to her. It did sadden me, because we have been on friendly terms and have seen each other at times, after we stopped working together. She helped me last year when my husband and I moved houses. When my dog was not well, and my husband was not home, she took me to the vet. Yes, we can have differing opinions, but I took it as a slap in the face, when she told me she didn’t believe me – so, are we exaggerating? Lying? Imagining it all? Misinformed? I tried to ask her, but as I said, she deleted my comment. There you go, censorship from someone who will be the first to complain about her freedoms getting taken away. Whether it’s because of losing friends or because of a virus that totally upends our lives, change is inevitable.

A Landfill site fire(s) in #Pietermaritzburg.

A quick google search on landfill site fires around the world, brings up numerous fires on landfill sties this year. In the city of #Pietermaritzburg, our local landfill (The New England Road Rubbish Dump) has been catching fire every year for the last three years. How many dump sites around the world have the dubious distinction of “catching fire” on a regular occurrence? It is totally (I believe, as do most of the residents in the city, except those in the municipal management) the fault of the Msunduzi Municipality. For a week we were engulfed in smoke from the dump. One morning I woke up and I could not see anything out my bedroom window, but for a white awful smelling smoke. At least the previous dump fires were not so bad, but for three years running, this time being the worst, is just absolutely unacceptable, and without regard for our health by those in charge of running the city . They have let the city of Pietermariztburg decline into a miserable state of general disrepair and our landfill site is no exception. It is a glaring example of how those who “run” the city, are inept at doing their jobs efficiently. Maintenance? I’m not sure that word is part of the municipal dictionary. Things are only repaired, when they blow up, like an electricity substation that left many parts of the city without power for days. We can count our lucky stars it was not as tragic and devastating as the recent explosion in Lebanon. Although one wonders if something like that is simply not a matter of time in South Africa. Then we will see the finger pointing. We are not as bad, as say, a country like Zimbabwe, but many will mutter and mumble that we are following the same path as Zimbabwe. I try and remain optimistic, but often I’m not, sadly.

For a week I’ve had a metallic taste in my mouth. Initially I wondered if I was going to be hit by Covid, although I have no other Covid symptoms. I am more convinced now, that that metallic taste is from the ambient air pollution from the fire. As if we aren’t struggling enough with Covid and the ripple effects of it in all parts of our lives, we have to deal with extremely poor municipal management.

Typical of the dynamics of politics in South Africa. Many “informal waste pickers” make a living off the dump site. It’s far easier to have waste pickers do the hard backbreaking work of recycling, and not setting up a safe and proper recycling center as was proposed many years ago, and not paying those waste pickers a cent, letting them make their own pitiful amounts of money. Whether the fire was intentional or because it’s the middle of winter, and the waste pickers were no doubt cooking food on the dump site, and it was a mistake, is a matter of speculation, but what is not speculation is that Pietermaritzburg is saddled with a very incompetent and no doubt corrupt Municipal management. The rot starts from the top, excuse the pun.

Who would have thought?

Who would have thought that at the beginning of the year, the virus that hit China, at the end of last year, would quickly spread around the globe and affect most countries worse than it hit China. Here in South Africa, we have been in lockdown for just over four months. Well, our hard lock down ended a while ago, so it’s semi lock down really. The advice is still to stay home if you can. Although I think it’s fair too say most people are fed up with being told to stay home by now. People just want to get out and about, except for those who are really concerned about their health and age.

I’m happy with my own company, for the most part, so being told to stay home really doesn’t bother me too much. I have my husband and my two dogs. I was one of the fortunate people that was able to continue working during lock down, as a nurse. During the initial lock down, we were actually quite busy in our Neonatal ICU with four little premature babies, all born about 1 kg’s (2.2 pounds) giving us the run around in their fight for their lives. They probably gave us all a few extra grey hairs, but they all pulled through and their parents took them home. So those first couple of months of lock down, for me, carrying on with my normal shifts, didn’t feel like lock down really. The only difference really was the quiet roads, which normally, would be full of traffic. Even now, that lock down has been eased, the traffic is still relatively quiet. Even when lock down is totally eased, I don’t see the traffic being as busy as it used to be. More people will work from home I think. People have lost jobs, and many of those people will struggle to find jobs again after lock down. It is tragic.

Tragic also that we have a Government that did not prepare for it’s future. A Government, particularly the Jacob Zuma Presidency and regime, where many of those politicians and politically connected felt it was their right to plunder millions upon millions of Rands (all in all, billions) off the public coffers, to live their high lives, while the poor got poorer. Instead of building up State Departments, like Eskom, South African Airways, SABC (the country’s TV and radio coverage), Home Affairs, they didn’t seem that worried, that those Departments were very poorly managed, to the point of almost no return, but for bailouts from Government, they kept hanging on, albeit by a thread. Of course they made all sorts of excuses, for why their departments were in such dire straits, and all along unable to actually believe it was due to their ineptness and corruption. It was their time after all. Many many public hospitals were left to deteriorate. Is it any wonder that private hospitals around the country became big business, and anyone who could afford to, (regardless of their race) got themselves onto medical insurance. After all, who would want to land up sick or injured in a dirty and understaffed public hospital? The initial hard lockdown was meant to give the hospitals time to prepare for the surge of Covid patients, but how do you prepare so many hospitals (and a healthcare system) that have been badly managed for at least a decade, in a couple of months or so?

That said, I am fortunate that I have been working in a private hospital for many years and our management have, since the start of the pandemic, provided us with adequate PPE. I must admit, we have good management, that really does care about it’s nurses and staff. Our ICU is experiencing the surge, and I know my fellow nurses working in ICU are working hard and under a great deal of pressure. When I worked last week, many of the staff in ICU were off sick with Covid and sadly I heard that a nurse who I worked with over 20 years ago, when we were in our twenties, and we often saw each other clocking in, in recent years and times, has Covid and is on a ventilator, in the ICU that she has worked in for many years. Just before the surge, we were clocking in, and joking that we were the “old ladies” now. When I started in the neonatal ICU, I was one of the youngest – now I am one of the oldest, and I’m not quite fifty! I hope and pray she makes it.

The country’s Covid “experts”, the Scientists and Doctors I guess, tell us that our “surge” will likely carry on into September and start slowing down towards the end of that month. I certainly hope so.

It’s a typical day in this part of South Africa. Windy with a slightly chilly breeze. It started off sunny, but by lunchtime was overcast and grey. Everything is so dry. The rainy season will certainly be welcome, and hopefully it will be a good one – or at least, a somewhat decent one.