Last Day in Durban

For our last day in Durban, we went to the Chatsworth hospice for work. I cannot believe that my five weeks are already up and I am about to enter the last half of my trip!! This was the location that I was dreading the most—I didn’t want to see dying patients, adult or children, and I didn’t want to spend a whole day in such a gruesome place. It actually ended up being a fabulous day and I am so glad I decided to go on this rotation. The nurse we met when we arrived was so bubbly and cute; she absolutely loved her job and was so happy, sweet, and energetic. She explained that here they do not do any invasive procedures, but simply cater to the needs of their patients. So pretty much, they help all of the patients finish up their dying wishes, and enjoy themselves to the best of their ability in comfort before they pass. It was really a wonderful place full of extremely accommodating staff who love their jobs. She explained to us that they try to give all of their patients everything they want. The hospice isn’t government funded, just sponsored, so they don’t have a whole lot of money. However, if the patients want a certain meal or food and they have the money to buy it, they go and get it for them. Or if the patients need to see one person before they die, the nurses find and get a hold of them for the patient so they are able to be in peace when it’s time for them to go. The grounds are a beautiful garden, so they often even wheel some of the bed ridden patients outside—in their beds—to be surrounded by the beautiful view and peaceful garden and weather. It’s just an amazing place. We didn’t see any of the inpatients however. All of the nurses wanted us to go on home visits with them, and we thought this would be a good thing to do.

There were four nurses that went on the trip, with a male driver that was the funniest, and then Miles and I. We both went with different nurses because all four of the nurses went on different visits each ‘round’. The first patient I saw was a very elderly lady. She previously had breast cancer, which was now in remission, but she now has lung cancer, among other small issues. She was very sick and nobody knew how much longer she would make it. She was usually visited at her bedside as she was hardly ever out of bed. But, when we arrived, to everyone’s shock and disbelief, she was sitting in the living room feeding herself breakfast. She was still quite sick, however, and didn’t talk much because she was so short of breath. She lived with her daughter, who expressed that even though it was difficult to take care of her mother, she didn’t know what she was going to do when she passed away. The nurse explained the ‘philosophy’ to her; that the daughter needed to make sure that her mother was aware that although she was going to miss her, she would be okay. I think that’s such a great thing that the hospice promotes, and I’m sure they’re right; I’m sure that there are things these dying patients all want to do or see or say before they go, and the hospice helps them do these things. I would hate to die without doing that one thing, and I think in general the nurses and hospices’ don’t take the time to listen to their elderly patients, thinking that they aren’t really a ‘person’ anymore. Here, they sit and listen very carefully and try to grant everything they can for the patients. I hope that I can in my own life take this ‘company’ philosophy away with me. I want to be the person that helps others complete their wishes, regardless of if they are about to die or not. I feel like I came out of there with a refreshing reminder of my passion and mission.
The next home visit we made was to a younger girl who lived with her older sister. She was raped a few years back and was left HIV positive; how sad is that? She also had some neurological disorders—I’m not sure if they were pre-existing or if they were HIV related, but they were quite noticeable. I felt really bad for the poor girl. I’m sure the rape didn’t help her mental state much either. She was in overall good health, so this was more like a small check up/visit. The thing I loved about these visits was that wasn’t purely business. Yeah, the nurses asked if they had any new concerns, helped them with their medication or whatever they needed, but they also just spent time with the patient. They talked about whatever the patient wanted to talk about, and let them feel like they had a friend or somebody that cared about them. It was so so great. The last home visit was to an older man who had prostate cancer that had spread up to his pelvis and spinal cord. He was on tons of medication to ease the pain, and had chemotherapy and shots all of the time to help—I am not positive on his welfare with treatment. He seemed pretty okay today though. He lived with his daughter, who was a cake baker, so we bought some cupcakes from her—the whole house smelled so yummy! The nurses (and man driver lol) were so funny and friendly. We had a great time and it was such a good ending. It really wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, it was actually pretty great.

To top it all off, it was completely sunny, warm, and beautiful outside. Miles and I had been hoping for this because we still hadn’t been up to the top of the stadium. We went straight there, and bought tickets—the sky car was still out of commission, so we had to do the stairs, which was the slight downfall to the day. Each way was 550 steps up a practically straight incline. It was pretty horrible lol. We had to wear harnesses and strap ourselves to a railing that ran the whole arch. It was quite the intense walk, but the top was completely rewarding. It was the most beautiful sight; you could see the whole city! Every single part of it, plus the coast that was right there. One side of the stadium you could see the coast and beach, the other side the busy downtown city center, the third side the mountain range, and the last side more of the smaller towns. We also got to see the sun starting to set. It was really beautiful and such a clear and amazing day. How lucky was it that the last day ended up so nice when this was our last opportunity to get up to the top of the stadium? It was fabulous. We were both so pleased that our day was going so great. My family wanted to have a braii for me before I left. Braii’s are South African barbeques (but better than ours), and they are HUGE here. Since we got home pretty late, it was pretty much already ready when I got home. Miles and his two brothers headed over—they were invited as well. Zotwa, our maid, made something called steamed bread. It’s also a South African thing, and it is amazingly good. The braii meat was super good as well. It was such a good meal. Zola was still in the hospital though, so I was a little upset that she couldn’t join us and that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye. But, I had a crazy and fun night with all of the boys.

They of course wanted to have a card game, and it turned into an extremely aggressive and intense game. We played crazy eight, but chose the loser who had to suffer survivor style (so I’ve been told). The person that won the match had immunity. We all wrote down a name on a piece of paper, which was our choice for loser. When everyone had finished and put it in a jar, we took them all out and tallied who had the most votes. Whoever that person was, lost the game, and had to drink chili juice (that was the ‘dare’ this time). Mini had to drink the juice the first round, Boom Boom the second, and then it was me. Boom Boom was having some weird rivalry with me the whole time, and thought I wouldn’t be able to handle drinking the juice, so, just to show him that I was tougher (: I drank two glasses instead of one, and didn’t drink anything afterwards like he did. It was quite funny. Miles lost the fourth round, and it was decided that he had to jump into the alligator swamp (yes, back to the swamp). He was in all of his clothes and didn’t want to put dirty AND wet clothes into his suitcase, so instead of letting him get out of it, Mini offered for him to wear an old swim suit he had lying around. It had a huge hole in the crotch and the front of the leg. It was hilarious. He finally agreed since nobody would let him out of it. He put on the swimsuit, which was pathetic—he might as well have been wearing nothing. He didn’t want anybody to push him in, he wanted to get in by himself, and the boys all promised they wouldn’t, but they’re boys, so I’m sure you can imagine what happened. They pushed him in, and when he tried to climb back out, they pushed him in again, and when he tried to get out the second time, they pushed him in once more. This was making him quite angry, so as soon as he finally got out, he chased Thulani around for twenty minutes trying to drag him into the water. It was the biggest brawl ever because Boom Boom was trying to save his brother, Thulani was making it a huge fight to get him in, and all of my brothers were trying to help Miles get him in. Eventually Miles dragged Thulani in fully clothed. It was really funny. And then somehow Mini ended up in the swamp, fully clothed as well. I wanted them to get Boom Boom in, but he was the largest of them all and he was being a chicken and standing by the kitchen door so nobody could get him. I finally challenged him that I would even jump in if he would. He was being such a weenie telling me to jump in first and then he would—I was thinking to myself, “really?!?”. All of the boys came into my room and devised a plan that I would agree to Boom Boom’s stupid idea, and they would all be waiting by the pool behind the trees with buckets of the swamp water to get him wet just in case he didn’t jump in. We decided to try the plan out.

I got into my bathing suit, and Boom Boom and I headed up the stairs towards the pool. All of the sudden, the boys jumped out and dumped all of the water onto his head and body, leaving him drenched. It was the funniest. I decided not to be a chump though, and jumped into the pool. Before doing so, we found a frog in the pool that I made them take out. It was decided that whoever didn’t jump in the pool (between Boom Boom and I) would have to get the frog thrown on them. Boys are so weird. I was on the deep end of the pool and dove in, and as soon as I dove in, Boom Boom quickly hopped into the shallow end up to his chest—he didn’t even get his head wet!! So the boys were all about to throw the frog on him when he again acted like a chump and dunked his head underwater to avoid the frog. I hate it when people will challenge everyone around them and make them do ridiculous things, but when you make them do the same thing they act like they can’t do it. At the end of all of the pool drama, we realized that we could see Miles’ footprints on the bottom of the pool from stepping in all of the gross stuff that had grown on it----ewwww!

I went inside to take a bath because the water in the swamp was seriously disgusting and I was soaked in it. It was SO late already, and I didn’t end up going to sleep until around 2:30 am. This was horrible because I had to be up at 7:30 to get ready to head to the airport for Cape Town in the morning. I had a really fun last night with the boys, so it was worth the tiredness. I’m going to miss them.