The mentors have left the building!

The day has come to pack up our little house at Kolandoto and wave goodbye to all the friends we have made over the last 3 months – it has been a lot of waving! Folk were at our door from 6.30am this morning; I’d like to think to wave us off, not just to check we were going! Last night Cosmos (our pharmacist) and Mary (our lovely home help) invited us to their church for an hour to say cheerio. Four hours later, after much ‘joyful marching’ down the aisle, we were still there being treated to a full on African style farewell party with all its little customs. A night to remember – particularly as Grace and I were made to strip down to our undies and bra outside the church under the light of the moon in order to try on the new dresses that had been made for us as leaving gifts! We have been spoilt and have some gorgeous tailor made, African outfits to come home with which fills me with girly glee!

I have mixed feelings about leaving. Obviously I will be sad to leave behind some very special people here but I am equally excited to be seeing those people who are special to me back home. We have been living, breathing, eating and sleeping this project and it will be weird to relinquish control and put our trust in others to nurture that which we have sewn. But this is what we must do. For those who have been reading my whiffle over the last few months you will recognise there have been ups and downs and challenges a plenty but I feel very positive about the overall state of affairs we leave behind. I think we are leaving on a really high note having put our heart and soul in right to the end.

In the last week we have set up 6 individual income generating projects for the volunteers using money kindly donated by Grace’s church. The idea is that by providing the volunteers with a small business opportunity you are supplying them with an income from which they can choose to support themselves and their families or their patients or both. It is a motivation tool to try and enable them to continue with their sterling palliative care work. They currently received the equivalent of £1 month which even by Africa standards is insulting and this is likely to stop when the budget ceases. It is our way of trying to induce some sustainability into the project and it feels like a really important thing to do. Pigs and chickens were their request as they breed well and money is generated from selling the eggs, meat and manure. So having purchased 13 pigs and 124 chickens we have learnt a lot about pigs and chickens this week and can now add animal husbandry to the role of a palliative care mentor! If laughter is good medicine I think everyone should be encouraged in their lifetime to round up pigs!

The cherry on the cake for us came on our last day. We managed to meet with the RMO (Regional Medical Officer) and after productive discussion he agreed that adding palliative care to the regional medical budget proposal was both important and necessary. He is meeting with the powers that be within a month and will discuss this further. Inner cartwheels of delight! If this comes to fruition this will be a huge success story for the Shinyanga palliative care project.

It is funny. I looked up mentoring in the Oxford Dictionary – verb; ‘to advise or train (someone, especially a younger colleague)’ or noun; ‘an experienced and trusted adviser.’ From what I know of ‘mentoring’ in Africa I can promise you - it is about so much more than this. And to all those who ‘mentor’ me in life (both at work and home) I thank you. I now appreciate all that you put into the role.

But for now these two mentors are hanging up their boots for a while. You will find them over the next week gawping at animals in the Serengeti and trying to make sense of all that they have seen, heard and experienced over the last 3 months. The final test I think will be saying goodbye to my mzungu partner in crime, Grace, as we go our separate ways at Heathrow airport. It has been a journey in life shared and all the better for it.

Can’t wait to see you all and share with you more stories when home.

Sending some final love from Africa

C x