Of Nannies and Road Trips

  As some of you may know, I babysit for an amazing family. That family recently had a 'business' trip up to the slightly mountainous region of the country I live in.  I would 'nanny' the kids while the adults took care of their work, then they would come and have fun with us. Great, right? Yes!

One of my charges

My other charge

 The drive up was pretty enjoyable, and we listened to lots of music before we arrived. They even found me a theme song that included my name: 'More Than a Feeling' :) 

This video is of an encroaching village, with one of the mountains in view. 

When we finally arrived, we were stopped at this gate and then escorted to the Guest House.

The Guest House

  Everyone made us feel so welcome there! I have no complaint other than the bugs and the heat, but no one there was responsible for that :)  Once we got settled in, I was taken to my dorm-like room to meet one of my roommates. Kari is a doctor volunteering at a hospital that stayed in room six - my other roommate was Grace, a nurse. They were both so sweet!  And who couldn't love a room with air conditioning when the room at your house doesn't!

After dinner we were told very seriously to NEVER walk outside after 6:30 without a flashlight: termites, army ants, scorpions, and snakes are all over the property. There's a nice thought. But don't worry, I'm fine GranAnnie!

Room 6; complete with bamboo plants and a mountain view :)

  

   

The next morning the work commenced. My clients talked with one of the men in charge to figure out where the water came from, what they did with the hospital waste, where the electricity came from, and other questions only architects would know. 

  Mr. Michael took us on a tour of the immediate grounds and then the hospital.

 One of the hospital's struggles right now is that they don't have a medical burner to destroy the tissue waste and so on. Right now they are burning what they can in a trash burner.

  

   Mr. John told us a hysterical joke that some of you +Caitlin Kelly  +Wallace Kelly  might find funny (I know my dad loved it): The hospital has to go old fashioned and bury their amputated limbs with lime in a field; Mr. John invited us to come and visit that field during the Rapture. THAT would be a sight to see! :)

  Then we got a tour of the hospital. Or part of it. The kids weren't enjoying the experience of a 3rd world country hospital, so I took them outside. But the first part was really interesting!

The Lab

The Radiology doctors were so proud of their new portable x-ray machine!

Beds like these are lined up row after row against walls, in the middle of the room, and at all the entrances. None of the rooms except the ones that store medicines are climate controlled. Whole families will sit at their loved ones bedsides on the floor or in broken plastic chairs; unlike most American patients , they wait patiently for their visit or even bed-and if there's too much demand they understand and come back the next day, or just sleep outside. One very harsh reality were the caskets sold by people not connected with the hospital outside the gates. 

After this the kids and I left and went outside. However, the adults had forgotten to give us the key to their room, so we played at the tire swing for about 30 minutes 'til they remembered us and tore themselves away from the fun. :)

 The tire swing was the most popular attraction and I took a gazillion pictures of my charges on it, but I won't bore you with them all. 

 

Then long story short they went swimming!  We were all ecstatic because the pool was so nice and it was "just like an American pool!!!"

I swam too, but I didn't want to take my camera in the water.

Afterwards we had a more close call of a trip home; more people than usual were driving on the wrong side of the roads, and there were Africa-vans galore; but we made it safely!

There's WORSE; trust me, there's worse.

A car parked on the right side before a blind curve and a car coming around. What do you do....

We've seen families of six all on the same motorcycle. 

The Harmattan is over!!

I have several pictures of all the mountains, but they all mostly look the same, so this is your sample. :)

Home Sweet Home! I got back on Monday evening and was very heartily welcomed back by my family. 

Be sure to check for my next post, True Bush Livin' !!