One year ago.

Almost a year ago South Africa 🇿🇦 went into lockdown – a strict lockdown, classified as Level 5, only allowing essential businesses to operate, as well as essential services. Of course this was easier said than done in South Africa with a high unemployment rate, and millions of people living in poverty and informal settlements, making sure a strict lockdown was adhered to throughout the country was almost impossible. Unlike wealthier countries who remained in lockdown during their surges and peaks, 🇿🇦 began easing lockdown before the first surge hit in July and we simply cannot afford another strict lockdown. By September things had eased, but because lockdown had been eased and so many more people had become complacent, or simply disagreed Covid was a serious problem, another surge hit going into Christmas, which has only eased over the last month or so. I work in a city hospital and we struggled through both surges, with the hospital being strained by patients needing oxygen and treatment – it’s not “just the flu”. Both surges saw the hospital being filled up with mostly patients needing treatment for Covid and we are anticipating a third surge after Easter. So it will go, surge after surge, until we have “herd immunity”, either through vaccinations or natural immunity to Covid. Of course, being for or against vaccinations is a sensitive matter for many people and it’s a personal choice. Most hospitals in hotspots have had health care workers become ill from it and sadly some were not able to fight it. We have lost colleagues, and it’s been a hard and at times heartbreaking year. Personally I am relieved to have had the vaccine, and glad that the rollout has begun in 🇿🇦, although it needs to speed up.

I remember going to work for the first time when lockdown began at 6.30 pm for my night shift and the roads were almost deserted. I was expecting some sort of police presence, but it was eerily quiet. I guess those of us living in the middle to upper class suburbs weren’t considered among those likely to break the lockdown laws and never once after that did I encounter the police on my way to work. If there was one thing that I didn’t mind and even enjoyed about lockdown, it was the lack of traffic. South Africa is known for having a high traffic crash and death rate, so the quieter roads were a relief for me. It is beyond me why so many people feel the need to be impatient and reckless drivers, having little consideration for other road users. I put it down to plain impatience and also a culture of South African drivers wanting to get ahead of everyone else in the traffic. Far too many big egos and “show offs” on the road. Heaven forbid if you can’t get first place at that red traffic light, or a lesser vehicle slows you down, even just a little. I wondered if being in the grip of a Pandemic, or at the very least going through hard times, would get people to calm down and become more considerate and cautious? Now that we are pretty much back to normal, nothing has changed and all those big egos who used to drive recklessly and lawlessly, still do so. The only thing that will change our entrenched culture of lawless driving is very strict policing, but this is South Africa 🇿🇦, the land if the lawless, so I’m not holding my breath change will happen anytime soon. 🇿🇦 is not for sissies, that’s for sure.

Endless City Woes.

My two week break is drawing to an end and it’s been just that. A break. Mostly I have stayed at home, and besides the usual “housework” and cooking, I have at least relaxed. Watched some Netflix and read. I had intended to do some writing, but sadly I failed with that for the most part.

A month ago, we had had our electricity disconnected – as I mentioned in a previous post, through no fault of ours. Our municipality, as I have often mentioned is in a shambolic state of affairs and their billings department is a good reflection of their shambles. At the beginning of this month, when I began my two week break, I received my utility bill, I was overcharged with my water usage – due to an incorrect meter reading. Municipal meter readers do their rounds every month, but we also read our own meters every month and email them, because their is no guarantee they will get it correct, – either the meter reader or the clerk who enters the readings into the computer system. So, I didn’t start off my break particularly positively. A few days later, I went to the municipality, yet again to try and resolve the problem, but the queue was all the way down the stairs of the building and onto the pavement. Who knows if I would have even been seen to, as the queue really was pathetically long, and government departments in South Africa are known to tell people, when it’s time to close for the day, “come back tomorrow”, regardless if you’ve been standing in the queue in the hot sun for hours, tough luck. So I have gone the email route. I sent an email to about ten people in the municipality, including the Billings manager, and let them know as tactfully as I could, about my billing problems. I have had two responses, that indicate it might get sorted out. Oh well, I live in hope. My only consolation is that so many people in this city have had problems similar to mine – and worse, sadly. As I keep saying, fair enough, there are people who take advantage of the system, even people who “steal” electricity (which is a common problem in South Africa) – yes go after them, but for those of us who pay their accounts every month, treating us poorly is like biting the hand that feeds you. People are getting fed up. We pay every month for water, electricity, taxes, rates, for rubbish collection, sewerage services Etc. Etc. but for what? To live in a shambolic city, with litter and piles of rubbish all about, and where we hope daily that our taps won’t run dry and the electrical grid will not collapse! At the end of the day, it’s about poor leadership and bad politics. Leaders and politicians who only care about their own backs, how they can remain in their lofty positions, lofty positions which ensure they have access to all the best business deals and best of all, the coffers of the tax payers. Do they really care that the city they live in, is in a shambles, as long as they can live in luxury and make millions? I’m sure their pantries are well stocked and they have their generators on standby. Never mind the people living in tiny shacks with no access to electricity and running water. Strong leadership is lacking, and it’s often about devious politics and pompous officials in the corridors of the Municipality. Let’s not forget about corruption either, because that is certainly part of the problem with politics in South Africa.

Anyway. Such are the realities of life in South Africa, but we do need to speak out about these issues and not remain silent. Remaining silent just gives corrupt and inept politicians license to continue doing what they are doing.

Living in South Africa isn’t for sissies, that’s for sure.

A Year Ago.

A year ago, in South Africa we were four days away from receiving news that the first case of Covid had been reported in Hilton, Kwa – Zulu Natal. I remember going to the shops later in the afternoon, to buy some groceries, and noticed that the hand sanitizers, disinfectant hand wipes etc. had all been taken, nothing remained of those products on the shelves. By then, we all knew the virus was rapidly spreading in Italy, and it was a group of South Africans tourists to Italy, on a skiing holiday, that brought the virus back home to South Africa. Of course, social media in South Africa lit up in an angered frenzy about these “selfish and rich” tourists, who had brought the virus back home. When I tried to defend the tourists, saying it could have been anyone that might have brought it into South Africa, not necessarily “rich tourists”, I was slammed by quite a few people. Seriously though, it could have been anyone. Many South Africans have family abroad, and could have visited family in an emergency, and on their way back to South Africa, picked up the virus. Many South Africans also work and do business abroad and likewise they could have gotten the virus first. Unfortunately because it was “rich” tourists that brought the virus back to South Africa, it was their fault that South Africa was now at the mercy of Covid19. How petty by the finger pointing, blaming social media brigade. Did any of them stop to think that we were living in such an interconnected world, and air travel so prevalent with thousands of flights in progress worldwide, on a daily basis, that it was simply a matter of time before the virus hit South Africa? Once the virus spread out of China, there really was no stopping it. A few weeks later South Africa entered it’s initial Level 5 lockdown, and on paper it was certainly a very hard lockdown. Only essential workers country wide, were allowed to carry on working, otherwise we were only allowed to leave home for essential purposes, eg to buy food or to seek medical assistance. We were not allowed to even exercise outside our homes. Alcohol and cigarette sales were banned. Our initial lockdown has been described as one of the hardest in the world.

This last year seems to have flown by and it really feels just like yesterday to me, when it all began. At the end of 2019, when we started hearing of this virus in China, we really had no clue just how quickly the virus would snowball around the world. We had our first surge in South Africa around June/July and our second surge around December/January. At the moment in South Africa, our numbers are decreasing, and we are back to Level One Lockdown in the country – for the most part the country is open, besides a curfew from midnight to four or five am and there are some restrictions on large gatherings of people. Mask wearing is mandatory when you leave your home. Schools are open. Needless to say, our third surge is being forecast for around May or so. I won’t be surprised. South Africans love their public holidays and long weekends – Easter will be no different, people will gather in large groups, families, party goers etc. It will spread again. Yes, we all know about Covid. Some claim that it’s a “‘plandemic”, others claim it’s no worse than the flu. Well, as far as I’m concerned, being a nurse who worked in a city hospital that was greatly strained by the first two surges, it was one hell of a bad flu, the likes of which I’ve never experienced in my 30 years of nursing. Nursing colleagues have died, because they made the ultimate sacrifice, nursing Covid patients. I am very fortunate to work in a small Neo Natal ICU, on night duty, where our exposure to Covid is much lower compared to the ICU and general wards. So far, so good and I have not picked up Covid.

I am hoping to get the vaccine soon – as a healthcare worker, I have been registered to get it. Over 67000 health care workers have now received it in South Africa. It will be interesting to see how much of an impact the vaccine will have with a third surge looming, and if a third surge is to happen, will it be as bad as the first two surges? Time will tell.

That all said, I am now on a two week break from work. I last had two weeks off last year in February, a week off in July and a week off October over my birthday. I worked over Christmas and New Year. I have never been more exhausted to be quite honest and these two weeks off are much needed. These last six months especially, each morning that I have returned home from work after a 12 hour night shift, I have felt utterly exhausted physically and it’s been because of a combination of things – I haven’t run for months and have lost the fitness levels I had at the beginning of last year and I’m not getting any younger, next year I’ll be fifty. Night duty, is catching up with I’m sure – it’s not a normal way of life, but I have done nights for over twenty years. Of course the stress of living in such times is exhausting in itself. We wear our masks all the time at work, and after a twelve hour shift, I cannot wait to take my mask off. For sure, I don’t particularly like wearing a mask, but if I can do my bit in helping to reduce the spread of Covid, I will. The amount of nasty comments I’ve read on social media during this last year has been more than I’ve read during all the other years I’ve been on social media. I try my best to avoid the comment sections of anything Covid or politically related. I have filled my Facebook feed with feel good pages. Yes, I know the realities of the world, but I don’t want to be inundated by those problems every time I look at social media. My opinions are my opinions. When I comment, I do my best to comment as politely and tactfully as possible, i.e. no name calling or swearing, and it saddens me that so many people can not respond in a similar manner when they disagree. Such is social media though. It’s easy to be rude and nasty when you don’t have to actually look some one in the eye, and that is why I don’t often comment any more. Anyway, these next two weeks I simply need to rest. To not worry about the outside world. To appreciate the simple things in life. To write and read more. Go for a few walks and start getting my fitness levels up again.

In South Africa, it’s a lovely time of the year. The summer intensity has abated. The mornings and evenings are cooler and refreshing. My herbs and plants have grown well these last few months. I find such peace sitting on the veranda, overlooking my herbs and watching my dogs run around. I’ve had quite a lazy day today. Read a little, hung up a little laundry, sat on the verandah drinking tea and coffee during the course of the day. Listened to music. I’ve been wanting to re watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for some reason, so I started on the that. Now it’s time to finish this post, go feed my dogs and get our own dinner started and seeing I’ve drunk enough tea and coffee for the day, a glass of wine or whiskey. Cheers.