First of all, sorry for the delay in writing this, we had very good intentions of writing it during our last week in Zambia, and then during our first week back in the UK, and then during our second week back in the UK….and here we are, six weeks later. I partly blame the excitement of seeing our families and friends, the drama of the Olympics and the adjusting to starting back at work. But to be honest, we’ve been putting it off because it’s really hard to think about. I guess this is what it feels like to have culture shock.
As Dave and I sit on the sofa under a blanket watching E4 on our flat screen HD TV, it genuinely feels like we’ve never been away. If it weren’t for the photos of us surrounded by Zambian villagers in a concrete block classroom 80 miles from electricity, I wouldn’t believe it had ever happened. And to be honest, the thought of it all makes me feel so strange, I barely allowed myself to think about it for the first month after being back. As I write this, it feels so surreal and I can’t say I like it. It’s so hard not to feel guilty for spending what seems like a ridiculous amount of money on a new pair of jeans or a bottle of wine. We have to keep reminding ourselves, and each other, that we now live in a totally different economy and constantly comparing our lives here to our lives there isn’t healthy. It’ll definitely take some time to adjust, and maybe we shouldn’t try to adjust totally. As long as we can find the right balance, I’m hopeful that we can maintain our renewed appreciation of home without the guilt of enjoying things that inevitably cost money.
You won’t be surprised to hear that our last clinic in Zambia finished with the ususal broken down car. This time, the engine overheated so much that we had to abandon the Land Rover and get a bus home (I am of course cutting a long story short but I’m sure that anyone still reading this blog is rather bored of hearing about broken down vehicle stories). A few days before we flew home, two of the On Call Africa trustees arrived to take over. A lot had changed since they had set up the charity 18 months earlier and so it was rather a rush to get everything handed over, but we enjoyed sharing stories of our adventures and felt reassured by the fact that they had experienced almost all of the challenges we had during their time in Zambia (we were starting to think it was just us!). Sadly we were unable to sell our personal vehicle in Livingstone so we set off to do the final drive on the Livingstone-Lusaka road, petrified about more breakdowns, collisions or driving disciplines. I’m happy to say we had none, and quickly found a dealership who were happy to sell our car for us. We spent our last couple of days in Lusaka getting pretty over-excited about coming home. We’d had some amazing times, some awful times, and some pretty tedious times too. But it was definitely time to go home.
So here we are, me settling into my new career in Public Health wondering how our society got into the situation where one of our biggest health problems is eating too much, Dave rushing round A&E wondering why patients are so rude to the staff working so hard at 4am on a Tuesday morning. But every now and then, a little memory taps us on the shoulder to remind us to be grateful for the fact that eating in this country is such a pleasure, not a necessity. Any food that I fancy, literally any food, I can have for dinner tonight, thanks to Mr Tesco. And in our hospitals, there are boxes full of gloves on every clinic room corner, healthcare is truly free, and when a sick child is brought into A&E, specialists and treatments are on hand to save its life. It’s good to be home.
Thank you so much to all of you who have kept up to date with our blog we really hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it. We can’t begin to express to grateful we are for all your support and encouragement during our year away. On Call Africa are going from strength to strength and have just recruited a new project coordinator to oversee the work in Zambia. After spending six month working for them, we feel more than ever that they are a truly inspirational charity who are motivated by a passion for improving healthcare for those most in need. But most importantly, this passion is grounded in an understanding that solving these issues is a very complex and very very long process. We are happy to be able to continue to support them as their new international volunteer coordinators and look forward to helping them raise money for a much-needed new vehicle.
So it’s a last goodbye from our blog. From Uganda, to Kosovo, to The Caribbean, to Zambia. Maybe it was just a dream…..
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