Cathy Buckle's Weekly Letter From Zimbabwe !

TO THE DIASPORA !

Dear Family and Friends,

Only once in the last seven days has there been electricity, water and
telephone services at the same time and that was for less than two hours
one afternoon. In the past week electricity has been off for 18 hours a
day, every day, and water cuts last for days at a time. This is now the
norm of life as everything is approaching, or has already reached, a state
of complete collapse. All attempts at normal day to day functioning are
virtually impossible.

This week I had a first hand encounter with the precarious state of
Zimbabwe's health delivery system and it made me very aware of why we have
the lowest life expectancy in the world. My body had been aching for two
days and I was racked with fever: dripping with sweat one minute and
shaking with uncontrollable cold the next. I knew I needed help and was
fortunate to be able to see a doctor - this is a luxury most Zimbabweans
rarely have. The first sign of abnormality came after the blood test when
the doctor apologised for not providing a plaster - something so simple but
now unobtainable. It was an insignificant inconvenience. Far worse lay
ahead. There are four pharmacies in the town and none had the common drug
that had been prescribed to treat malaria. An alternative drug was proposed
but none of the chemists had this one either. Malaria: so common, so
deadly, no drugs for treatment - this was chilling.

My next stop was the hospital, by now I was weak and disorientated and had
only got this far thanks to the help of a friend with a car - another rare
luxury unavailable to most. Only four patients occupied beds: few can
afford the hundreds of millions of dollars needed per night. The hospital
also didn't have the prescribed malaria drug, or the alternative that I
needed. Finally a course of injections was made available but only if I
could pay cash upfront for the vials so the hospital could immediately try
and replace them. How many others before me had been down this road and not
been so lucky?

Over the next five days I visited the hospital every morning for another
precious injection. For three days and nights the hospital had no running
water at all. When the doctor did his rounds, nurses trickled water from a
jug over his hands after he had examined each patient. A local farmer had
helped and provided a bowser of water but this was being carried in, by the
bucket load, to flush toilets, clean human waste, wash dishes and equipment
and sponge down patients. The hospital, like the rest of the town, was only
getting electricity in the middle of the night; water was being boiled
outside on open wood fires. A generator was dealing with emergencies, the
cost of running it phenomenal.

Every day I felt so privileged to be receiving treatment from nurses
working under such appalling conditions. They have left home without a hot
meal or cup of tea in the morning. They will return home to carry water
from wells, cook outside on open fires and prepare for another day of much
the same. And yet always they were polite, professional, helpful and
gentle. On my last day I asked the nurse when she would have time off - I
seemed to have seen her there every day. She told me they were short
staffed because so many nurses had gone. "Gone to the Diaspora," she said.
"To Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, South Africa, Botswana -
anywhere." I asked the nurse what made her stay and she said it was very
hard to go. As hard as it to stay.

Until next time, thanks for reading,
love cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle 26 January 2008 www.cathybuckle.com My books:
"African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are available in South Africa from:
books@clarkesbooks.co.za and in the UK from: orders@africabookcentre.com