Maun, Botswana
Our bush taxi was a very new, small plane,
all electronic, very impressive. Yet in the Delta one lands more or less by
sight. The runways in the Delta are just dirt tracks, flights after dark are
impossible due to possible animals on the runway. Those small landing strips
inside the Delta have no guidance system, nothing but either grass or gravel
and cannot be seen in the dark. Still it was a nice plane.
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| Flight from the Delta to Maun |
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| Instrument Panel in Bush Plane |
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| He Doesn`t Look Sick but he Really Was |
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| Dr. Max Assisted by Hanta to put in 3 Stitches when Hans Fainted & Cut his Head Due to low Blood Pressure |
prick) for Malaria which was negative. This Dr. does not mess around. He was the most personable Dr. one can imagine. His office is sparse but very clean and modern. Dr. Max does the talking; and Hanta, the male nurse, does the hands on work. What a great team.
After 2 hours of evaluation we were told
the sad news. No more safaris in the Delta for me. We had to scrub the rest of
the 3 safaris we had booked. Instead I am off to the hospital in Maun, Botswana.
I need more tests, maybe different medications, who knows what else.
Dr. Max runs a private clinic, a way to
still separate the rich from the not so rich. I went along with how it is here
and opted to follow Dr. Max’s suggestions. We
checked into a hotel 10 minutes from his
office; which was booked for us by the tour representative and preferable to the State run local Hospital. Dr. Max approved of
this hotel and this is now my hospital room for a few days. Dr. Max comes and
visits every day (sometimes twice a day), he is available by phone and
internet. We have Internet in our room and one restaurant within walking
distance. Horribly expensive, but I have no other choice. The other option is
to quit the whole vacation and cruise trip and go home. I don't want to do
that. So basically I am in a “Hospital” in Maun, Botswana.
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| The Hotel (Temporary Hospital) in Maun |
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| Beautiful Sunsets Here |
I am not going to bore you with each temperature
reading but let me say this, Carol is a gem. She is dedicated, precise and knowledgeable;
having her around helped me a lot. Sure, a good Doctor, a good assistant is
nice; but nothing beats Carol’s help. Thank you, Carol.
Please remember this is Botswana, not
Canada, not the U.S. While the modern, young African Doctors are often trained
in Europe, Australia or the Americas, they lack the resources once they are
back in Botswana or any other African Country. The Drs. have the knowledge and
training and know what to prescribe, for example; but the meds are not always
available in Botswana. Even simple things like a supply of needles, special
band aids, IV stands, etc. need to be approved by the government for importation. This
is a bureaucratic nightmare and an arcane set up, ripe for corruption. Africa,
especially Botswana, needs better leadership.
The Internet is great, if a question
arises, a look up will clear things up. Doctors can use the internet and they
do it without much difficulty. But what do you do if you’re short of needles, what
do you do for simple things like band aids?
The supplier does not have any, he says. Really, is this true? Or is he
waiting for you to up the price to find some items for you? There is a demand for
medical supplies but government control of supplies is not a good set up.
I was impressed with the thoroughness of
the lab guy, Chris. From the small samples he received he sure spit out a lot of
info in his lab reports. There is a synergy between the Doctor, his Nurse Assistant,
Lab Technician and Pharmacy guy. A real support group that work in harmony and
for the same cause. Everybody is very friendly; they stop and talk to you. I
did not feel like a number, but like a human being who needed and received
help. My health was their main focus.
I received better than first world care in
a third world country. The final results of all the tests indicated and
confirmed that I have a bowel infection (colitis?). But so far nobody can find the balance between food
intake, expulsion rate and medication. My body's immune system wants to fight the bacteria,
which it thinks is bad. Instead of fighting just one special bacterium my body
now attacks everything, even good bacteria. How do you talk to your body?
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| Restaurant at Maun Lodge but There is Little Hans can Eat |
So after Dr. Max and all his support group
patched me up I am now in Paarl, South Africa.
The one day travel from Maun to Paarl, with
a stopover in Johannesburg, was a nightmare. There were many misunderstandings,
wrongly understood instructions and plain incompetence. During all of the
hassles I left behind my camera bag. It was a nice, but older camera, including
telephoto lenses, chargers and memory cards. I had someone check if the bag was
found but, as is expected, gone! Such is
life.
Now I rest for a few days in Paarl, a town
about an hour East of Cape Town. We could get no other accommodations over the
New Year’s Celebrations going on in Cape Town. CP was booked solid.
No matter to me, Paarl is good. It is a
historic town where Nelson Mandela ended his “Long Walk to Freedom”.
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