Holiday

I was never really one for taking holidays, but this one taught me it's important to take them from time to time! I had a lovely time with friends in Livingstone and South Africa.


The Victoria Falls are amazing, these photos don't do it justice. Amazing how close you are allowed to the top of them, even to swim! What an experience!!


Friendly baboons at the Vic Falls... well I don't know if friendly is the right word, tame perhaps... obviously used to having people around anyway.


I spent over a week with good friends Mariska, Craig and their new baby Angus. They live in Natal, close to the Drakensburg mountains. Beautiful!


Stellenbosch is a beautiful part of South Africa, I went mountain bike riding and hiking there with Chris and Anna.


In Cape Town, I swam in the sea for the first time in over a year, woohoo! We are spoilt in NZ!! This is my friend Amelia's boy Zach.


Anna and Justin Phiri with their son Khondwani, a day old. Anna did a fantastic job of covering my ward while I was away and delivered her baby the day I started back! Gods timing is perfect!

See you soon Kalene

I'm off for a holiday, so thought I'd upload a few of my lastest pics before I go...

The night before I left for holiday I went into Mens Ward and said good-bye to my patients. Of course they all wanted their photo taken! We had such a laugh.


The TB room. These guys are great! They have to be in hospital for a while for their treatment so I get to know them well. They drew some pictures for me, this was my favourite!

Childrens ward

Kasongu... he's doing so well! A 10 year old. He came in terribly malnourished, and is also found to have TB. When he first arrived, his swelling was so bad you couldn't even make out his chin or ankles!


Silver is 8, but about the size of a 4 year old. Another malnutrition patient. So polite and friendly, he's gorgeous.


Muyila was brought in after being found on the side of the road hypothermic and unconscious. We warmed him up, gave him fluids and hydrocortisone, and ventilated him for a few hours, the next day he was back to normal and went home a few days later. We still don't know what was wrong with him!


Nandu fell into a fire during a seizure (from Malaria).


Anna with some of her kiddies. Anna leaves Kalene on the 30th of January, she will miss her kids! And I'm sure they'll miss her too.


Anna and her staff.

Some interesting cases...

Is that an abscess? After a squeeze, this maggot appeared from the skin of a wee boy on childrens ward.


This man has portal hypertension. He has classic ascites and collatoral veins. Amazingly he's been like this for 14 years!


This cyst was removed from an eldery womans abdomen.

Outside working hours

The girls! Bethany (a midwife from the USA), Anne, Anna and I.


Anna with braids.


Anne negotiating the mud on her way home from church, and a man having much difficulty getting up a muddy hill on his motorbike. Yes, this is the state of the roads around here!


Another visit to the orphanage.

Nature has it...

Snakes! A friendly (although we still didn't get too close) house snake, and what we think may be a black mamba. We saw it at the top of the hill (after Anna prayed we'd see a snake!). Thankfully it was on a ledge 6ft below us!!


Some smaller creatures... This acrobatic chamelion we'd put on my bed and it fell off the edge and caught itself on the telephone wire.

My first year!

I've recently put together a bit of a summary of my first almost year of life here in Zambia. Click here to download a PDF copy.

A Kalene Christmas

Christmas! Some special home baking (how I spent my Christmas day afternoon), and some of the staff enjoying a meal at the staff Christmas party. It was a very different Christmas in rural Africa!


Christmas Day! Presents for all the patients.


My gardner Rihan and his family outside their house in the village, and one of my ward staff Orpheus and his wife with their first child. Very proud parents!


Anne Revell arrived early December from Auckland (same church - St Georges Epsom) for a 2 month stay.


Some of the kids in the village and Anne trying to look natural with a pounding stick.


Anne brought a wheelchair with her from New Zealand to give to this old lady who suffered from a stroke but was confined to her bed in her dark room. This Sunday morning we took her to church. She fell asleep during the service!


A bike ride out to the Zambezi river


Tuberculosis. Three different cases on my ward within a few weeks, all with very impressive xrays.


Anna and some of the kids on her ward.


Fredrick, who featured on my previous blog, a few weeks after his injury, happy and healing well!


Haircut day! I've never (successfully) cut a woman's hair before, but enjoyed having a go at Anna's, and I must say was quite pleased with the outcome!