Under the African skies, we had an open air clinic with its own makeshift pharmacy, on the grounds of King Goodwill’s Enyokenyi Palace.

Registration for the open air clinic on the grounds of King Goodwill’s Enyokenyi Palace (© Robert Sterling/2007-04-12)

“We started seeing patients at around 10:30am in the morning. We got there at around 8am and it took us about two and a half hours to set up from nothing to having a functional clinic set up,” said Dr Forrester.

The medical team left the hotel at 7am in the morning and many didn’t get back until after 7pm at night.

“Today we started off with two doctors but we were later joined by two other doctors when the demand became great,” said Dr. Forrester. “Today’s medical camp was staffed entirely by Canadian volunteers assisted by local interpreters.”

It was an exhilarating rollercoaster ride of a day jammed packed with many activities and mixed with joy and sadness.

“There were children coming in that are already HIV, as well as people with cancers that are not being treated,” said ICU nurse Karen Bennet.

“They don’t have as much as we have but they are not unhappy,” Bennett said.
“It’s so crazy how the world is so different. There’s poverty here and there’s riches elsewhere. To whom much is given, much is expected. We’ve been given much therefore much is expected of us.”

“We in the western world are certainly privileged,” said Pastor Innes Howe who looked after the prayer and counseling area. “There was a barefooted thirteen year old girl that came with a three year old child.”

“Most adults came with more than one child,” said mission coordinator Pastor Stowell Theodore. “They seemed to be caring for children who were orphans.
There is no orphanage in this part of South Africa.”

In addition to providing medical services, the team organized games, stories, balloons and face painting for the children. Also school uniforms were handed out, clothes & shoes were given to the elderly and the “Save A Tooth” toothbrush/toothpaste packages were distributed.

In addition to providing medical services, the team organized games, stories, balloons and face painting for the children (© Gerald Paul/2007-04-12)

The highlight of the day for many of the team members was having lunch with the King of the Zulus, His Majesty Goodwill Zwelithini and taking pictures with him afterwards. “Before we met him we were briefed on how to behave in his presence,” said Pastor Innes. “We were told don’t speak unless you are spoken to and don’t to take pictures of him and the Queen. But by the end of the luncheon he was relaxed and before you knew it we got the freedom we are accustomed to and more. He took pictures with members of the team.”

Not all 72 of us were there at the palace grounds. Some medical team members went back to Benedictine Hospital to continue the work they started yesterday. Dr Matthew Weekes and his assistant Taynia Wright were kept busy with the endless line of patients at the hospital needing urgent dental care. “We saw about 25 patients,” said Dr Weekes. “We saw a few people that had AIDS and we did the best we could for them.”

“The [resident] dentist there is very tired, he’s over worked. The number of patients he’s seeing is too many for him,” said Dr. Weekes. “He seems to be physically exhausted at this time.”

Dental assistant Taynia Wright with the resident dentist at Benedictine Hospital, Nongoma, South Africa. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-12)

The medical team was divided between the various wards at Benedictine Hospital and put to work straight away. The doctors and nurses were flexible and worked in areas where they were needed, which was not always the area they normally work in back home.

Karen Bennett, an ICU nurse, was put to work in the Pediatric (”peads”) Ward. The lack of space at Benedictine has meant that “Peads” can only accommodate children ages 0 to 6, children like Philasande Mata. Philasande is just seven months old. Her mother died in child birth and her father is unable to look after her. She has lived in the hospital since she was born.

Philasande is expected to reside at Benedictine Hospital until she is four or five years old. (© Eunice Oluoch/2006-04-11)

Sister T. S. Dlamini is the Unit Manager in charge of Peads. “The child will be here until the child has grown up and then the father will take the child,” says Dlamini. The father said when the child is able to do things for herself then he’ll come and take the child.

Dlamini says Philasande will likely reside at Benedictine for “four years or five years, I think so. The child is going to live at the hospital until then.”

This type of abandonment isn’t common said Dlamini, “It hasn’t happened before.” There is no one to breast feed Philasande. “We’re feeding her with a cup,” said Dlamini. “The baby is not crawling but the physios are attending to her.”

Older children, from age 6 to 12 are admitted into the adult ward.

This young boy is admitted in male medical at Benedictine Hospital. He’s in a ward with TB patients. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-11)

It was a very emotional day for some of our team members.

Tammy Tenny worked in the new born nursery. “They didn’t have enough basic materials,” said Tenny. “They are low on towels, napkins and other things you need to deliver basic care.”

“If the baby is under the warmer, there’s no monitor to check how warm the baby is,” says Tenny.

Ruth Larmond checking the temperature of a new born baby under a warmer. © Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-11

“There was a baby on oxygen, three litres via nasal canular and there’s no O2 saturation monitor. How do you know when the baby is ready to come off? Right now they are basing it on the doctor’s best guess.”

“If I could give them anything,” said Tenny, “I would give them O2 saturation monitors, I would give them more thermometers, more towels, more sanitation wipes, alcohol swabs and IV poles.”

Joan Brooks, Karen Bennett, Ruth Larmond, Tammy Tenny, Dr. Jayd Kanjee, Lorna King-Bobb, Janet Burnside, Dr. Dennis Forrester and Dr. Leon Augustine on the familiarization tour of Benedictine Hospital, Nongoma, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-10)

After breakfast, we loaded up the coach and went to conduct site inspections at the three locations where our medical and ministry services will be offered.

First stop was Benedictine Hospital, Nongoma a small town about 60 kilometres away from Ulundi. The hospital’s Medical Manager, Dr. Leon Augustine, gave the visiting doctors and nurses a guided tour of the facilities. Dr. Jayd Kanjee, Chief Medical Officer, Anesthesiology also accompanied the group.

Cramped and overcrowded. Benedictine Hospital’s maternity ward, where the expectant mothers often have to sleep two to a bed. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-10)

Next we visited a rural clinic where the medical team familiarized themselves with the resources that they would have to work with, and our last stop was the bucolic palace grounds of the Zulu King, His Majesty Goodwill Zwelithini. The King has given us his permission to hold a medical mission on his land; we will also be handing out school uniforms from that site.

Mahasini Clinic, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-10)

Two of the round houses (Roundervelt) on the Palace Grounds of the Zulu King. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-10)

The journey took over 18 hours and we all arrived safely, all seventy-one of us, united by one goal: to bring the message of the love of Jesus Christ to the nation of South Africa.

Most of us had never to been to South Africa before, and if the saying about first impressions is true, South Africa has certainly made a great first impression on us… right from the airport.

It’s a well organized, welcoming, clean, bustling, richly stocked entity with a smorgasbord of people from every country you could imagine, of every race you could imagine.

An abandoned baby girl at Benedictine Hospital, Nongoma, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Philasonde is seven months old. Her mother died at chilld birth and her father is unable to care for her. She lives at the hospital. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-11)

We landed in Johannesburg (otherwise known as Jo’burg), got our luggage, walked over to the domestic airport and boarded another plane for a 70 minute flight to Durban. Durban is a port city on the southeast coast of the country.

From Durban we took a two and a half hour coach ride to get to Ulundi, a town deep in the heart of the Zulu Kingdom located in the province of Kwa-zulu Natal. The roads are good and we reached Ulundi, (the base for our first phase of the trip) before midnight.

Our group of 71 can be described with the following broad (and sometimes overlapping) categories:

• The medical team
• The prayer & ministry team
• The administrative and logistics team
• The children’s services team
• The communications team

Patients at Empliweni Clinic, an anti retro viral rollout clinic located on the grounds of Benedictine Hospital. (© Eunice Oluoch/2007-04-11)

The Compassion for the Nations Medical Team for the 2007 South African mission is headed up by Dr. Dennis Forrester, a family physician whose daily 9 to 5 usually finds him at Credit Valley Hospital, in Mississauga (Ontario, Canada).

Just like the other volunteers on this trip, he and all the medical personnel are using their vacation time and giving service to the people of Nongoma and Ulundi. They’ve come on their own volition; wanting to help and doing so by donating their skills and imparting their knowledge.

The medical team and where they work

1. Dr. Dennis Forrester, Family Doctor, Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga, Ont.
2. Dr. Michael Padonou, Former Chief of General Surgery, Trillium Mississauga, Ont.
3. Dr. Janet Vickers, Family Doctor, Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga, Ont.
4. Dr. Darlene Weekes, Anesthesia Resident, University of Toronto Teaching Hospital Group, Toronto, Ont.
5. Dr. Matthew Weekes, Dentist, Private Practice, Brampton, Ont.
6. Lorna King-Bobb, Surgical Nurse Practitioner, Trilium Mississauga, Ont.
7. Joan Brooks, Practical Nurse, Toronto Rehab, Toronto, , Ont.
8. Ruth Larmond, Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, California, USA.
9. Tammy Tenny, Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse, Bakersfield Memorial Hospital, California, USA.
10. Karen Bennett, Intensive Care Unit Nurse, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ont.
11. Janet Burnside, Renal Dialysis/General Medicine Nurse, Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga, Ont.
12. Taynia Wright, Dental Assistant, Scarborough, Ont.
13. Myrna Matak, Retired Personal Support Worker/Nurse’s aid, Chatham, Ont.
14. Michelle Matak, Critical Care Nurse, Trillium Mississauga, Ont.
15. Corlan Blisset, Public Health Nurse, Toronto, Ont.

Dr. Darlene Weekes, Dr. Matthew Weekes, Dr. Janet Vickers, Dr. Michael Padonou and Dr. Dennis Forrester at Benedictine Hospital, Nongoma, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa.
(© Eunice Oluoch)

Some of the volunteer nurses and medical assistants at Benedictine Hospital, Nongoma, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. (© Eunice Oluoch)