Soccer City

I will have to contain my excitement for a moment and tell you about the rest of the weekend before my Sunday night experience of Soccer City! Friday afternoon we headed across the border to Ladybrand for one of our regular bridge evenings. This was however, a bridge evening with a difference... we had a bridge sleep over! We played until 1 am and then again at breakfast, lush! After our leisurely breakfast we made our way to Pretoria. We passed numerous cars and busses with flags flying, heading the other way to Bloemfontein for the showdown between England and Germany. Despite South Africa’s exit from the tournament, the football fever is still running high!

In Pretoria, we caught up with Greg and Elonah, had a braai and watched the two matches on the Saturday. Sunday morning we got up, and headed to the mall to try and buy moustaches and sombreros. We had decided to support Mexico at the match, but unfortunately our shop was unsuccessful. After lunch we headed to Jo’burg and watched the England game round the corner from Soccer City. It was a good game, but a disappointing outcome for England. They performed better than in previous games, but it just wasn’t enough. We then tried to put the setback behind us as we headed to Soccer City.

Shortly after we turned off the highway, the magnificent stadium came into view. The sun had just set, so the lit up stadium stood out in the night sky... it looked impressive! We parked, made the final preparations to our Mexican banditos look and walked with many thousand others to the stadium. There was an amazing atmosphere amongst the crowds. Greg and I had our photo taken with fellow supporters. We made our way up into our seats in anticipation of a great game. The Argentinean supporters were in the majority, but there were plenty of “fellow Mexicans” around too. The match was super! The football was good, the singing and dancing, the vuvuzelas and the hot dogs were all smashing!! We got to see Maradonna pacing in (and out) of his box, Messi was magical, and although Argentina deserved the win, Mexico performed well.

After the game, there was a rush to get back to the car, and avoid hours of queuing. We were stopped by a cameraman who asked if we were Mexican, and our thoughts on the off-side goal! I think he was German, partly because of his accent, but also when we turned the discussion to the Germany v England match, and the need for video refereeing, he stopped filming!! We made it to the car, and it only took 30 minutes to get back onto the highway. A lovely bonus at the end of a great experience. Now I just need to get some tickets for the final, and hope its Netherlands v Germany!

Royal visits, the world cup and another trip to Semongkong

Last week the snow hit Lesotho, just as Prince Harry and William arrived for their visit. They were over visiting some projects during the world cup. Our friends Helen and Rich were invited to an official lunch with the royals as representatives of the charity Dolen for which Harry is a patron. Matt and I actually bumped into them one night last week after watching yet another world cup match at the local hotel. I was looking particularly fetching dressed in approximately 6 fleeces and bobble hat!

The world cup has been quite a big part of our lives over the past fortnight. Matt is very interested in the games and I am happy to keep warm in the hotel and soak up the atmosphere! Matt is off to see Argentina versus Mexico at Soccer City this Sunday with Greg and is very excited about that. Hopefully it will be a good match.

Last week the Welsh teachers who have been over here with Dolen left as their 6 month placements had finished. We had some fun leaving parties and had several of them staying at our place – 8 people on a couple of nights – cosy! Helen is leaving next week and as one of our last weekends away together we headed to Semongkong. We had heard news during the week that the snow had blocked the road to all cars except for 4x4s. Well, that news was enough to get Matt excited about putting Jeepy through her paces yet again. We set off early on Saturday and the road was clear of snow (to Matt’s disappointment) although there was evidence of some on the shady sides of the mountains and we passed some stunning frozen waterfalls. The lodge was recovering after a chaotic week of having the Princes and their entourage staying. It was clear skies and sun but freezing temperatures - minus 10 at night!

On Sunday morning we did a 5 hour hike attempting to get to the bottom of the waterfall but were sadly unable to tackle the final 200 metres due to the icy path. It was quite an adventure – less of a hike and more of a slide down and clamber back up for 3 hours!! Bruises to prove it. Matt and Helen tried an alternative route to reach the bottom (whilst I sat in safety taking photos) only for Matt to lose his footing, do a dramatic slide and only manage to stop himself by uprooting a tree! We are heading there for Christmas and are already excited as we were told about the mouth watering menus and glorious weather to expect. I think Matt is keen to take the quicker route down and attempt the abseil.

We are off to watch the Netherlands match now and then heading off to Pretoria for the weekend. Fingers crossed the Lesotho/South Africa border is better as it took us over 3 hours when we came back through after our trip to the UK!! Madness.

Work: some ups and downs of audiology in Lesotho

I was lucky enough to be able to find funding for a brand new audiometer which I collected from Pretoria after our trip back to the UK. With assistance from Matt we installed it in the ENT department at the QEII (to a 28 year old sound proof booth!) and I excitedly started feeling like we could get a proper service of the ground. I purchased a diary for booking patients and we were off. 

The audiometer worked well and the team helped to translate when taking histories from patients where needed.  My first 2 patients were fairly challenging and quite sad cases....both of which would have benefitted from intervention years ago.  One was a 17 year old boy who came with his father and had travelled 7 hours from the far north. He was being referred to psychiatry for lack of speech, limited interaction and altered behaviour...but had never had a hearing test.  He had a moderate to severe hearing loss and evidence of chronic middle ear disease which appears to have been ongoing since he was 6 years old.  The second patient was an 8 year old girl who had meningitis when she was 5 and is likely to have lost her hearing completely in one ear from then. The other ear we are able to fit a hearing aid to. The third patient was a 45 year old man with hearing loss who came back in yesterday to show me his new hearing aid from South Africa (funded for by a friend) – he was delighted and is coming back to have a second hearing aid donated by charity.  

Unfortunately just as word was getting out that the audiometer had arrived....it stopped working. Whether it is the minus temperatures (it is very cold here now!!!) or a blown fuse, I am having to take it back to South Africa for repair. I am using this opportunity to take more equipment for calibrating so that hopefully we can start travelling out of Maseru to run clinics in the rural areas as well as in the hospital.  More news soon.

snow

Football seems to be the focus of life in Lesotho at the moment, but somehow work is being fit in around the matches!  Bafana Bafana are playing this evening again, so I am sure the fever and noise of the vuvuzelas will rise!  The fever has not been hot enough to prevent snow!  Yesterday morning it was bitterly cold with ominous looking clouds in the sky.  About half an hour after getting to work we had our first experience of African snow!  It didn’t settle, but I am told it has higher up in the mountains.  So, Kit and I are heading off with Helen to Semonkong for the weekend for a bit of hiking or sledging!! 

 

Bafanna Bafanna (the boys, the boys)

The FIFA world cup has arrived!! More about that in a moment, but first an update on what we’ve been up to since the last post... which has been quite a while!

We had a flying visit to the UK (and France) at the end of May and beginning of June. As strictly speaking this is a blog of our adventures in Lesotho I will keep it brief. We arrived at Heathrow on Monday morning in time to catch the tube at 8 am. As we headed towards central London needless to say it got quite busy. Both Kit and I were struck not by the number of commuters, but by their very successful effort not to communicate with each other! Arriving in Hammersmith we were witness to rush hour at the street level in full flow. people rushing in all directions, cars and buses waiting impatiently at traffic lights and one school boy almost being knocked over by a taxi in a rush. This almost felt like my first time in London. We felt that we have truly been “Africanised” by our 3 months in Lesotho!

The trip in Britain involved one night in London, then Bristol, Cardiff, Usk, Oxford, Northampton, Milton Keynes, and Luton. We had a lovely time catching up with our friends and meeting a new little friend, Robert, in Usk. We then drove down to southern France for our friends’, George and John’s, wedding. It was a truly spectacular affair! We had a few days after the wedding to spend time with family. A long drive back to Bristol followed and then back to Africa and World Cup craze!

It was really odd returning from a warm, sunny UK to a cold, misty and drizzly Lesotho! Although it has yet to be as cold as winter in the UK, the temperature inside is much the same as out! The motivation to get out of bed in the mornings is lacking. Fortunately we returned with a suitcase full of winter clothes, we have taken measures to insulate and have invested in a gas heater for our living room. Living is more tolerable now, but I am bracing myself for what is to come!

Now onto yesterday and the first day of the first World Cup tournament to be held outside of Europe, Asia and the Americas (as one excitable commentator said yesterday)! Although we are officially living in a sovereign nation and not in South Africa, I think you would be excused not to have appreciated that yesterday. The consultant rushed through his ward round yesterday and cancelled our usual educational session on a Friday afternoon so that we could all be free for the opening ceremony at 2pm and the match thereafter. On leaving work I could already feel the fever, the vuvuzelas were filling the misty air with their distinct tones! There were hundreds of people making their way home, or to various venues across town to watch the exciting events. Kit and I went to one of the hotels in town which were projecting the game on a big screen. We were joined by a crowd of our pals and many excited Basotho dressed in the gold and green of the Bafanna Bafanna and brandishing their vuvuzelas. The atmosphere and decibels (at least 90 according to Kit!) in the room were amazing. The intensity of excitement exploded whenever South Africa entered Mexico’s half, or when a Mexican attempt at goal was stopped. In the second half, South Africa scored the first goal of the tournament. I thought the roof of the hotel has going to come off!! For the next 15 minutes, there was singing, dancing, hugging and a lot of vuvuzela noise! There was a roar when a replay was shown, followed by laughter when people realised this was not another Bafanna Bafanna goal! When Mexico scored their equaliser, the party carried on, but perhaps not at the same intensity. Although we weren’t at Soccer City in Johannesburg, I’m not sure it would have felt much different to the bar at the Maseru Sun Hotel!!

I was planning a detox after the fortnight in the UK, but the next month is going to be far from that! I will have to let my liver and ears recover in July and August!! Perhaps Kit can check my hearing out on her new audiometer... I’m sure she will update you about that soon!

I must get ready for the next match at 1:30 today Argentina v Nigeria – potentially a cracker!