9/2/22
So today I had breakfast before my 09.30 class, to go and find that once again no-one showed up! I went back to my room, had a coffee and read my book. Then around 12pm, I got ready to go to Las Geel with Mubarak and Asha. We got in the car, but were waiting for the guard, then Mubarak went to chase the guard, and pray while he was waiting. Then Asha went to pray. The guard had still not arrived. Then I decided I was hungry so we went to get food from the falafel stall on site. Then Mubarak returned. Eventually the guard showed up and we left around 12.40!! It was the same guard that had come to Bali-Gubele with me, Asha and Abdulla to do outreach work in a village hospital.
We arrived at Las Geel around 14.00, after someone from the ministry of tourism checked some paperwork for me – they charge $25 for tourists but nothing for locals, but Mubarak said they want to change this to charge everyone something, so they can maintain it better. We went down yet another rocky track and then met a guide, who was infinitely better than Hassan! He was peaceful and relaxed, and wanted us to enjoy our experience at Las Geel. Las Geel is a series of caves which people lived in thousands of years ago and where there are ancient painting on the rock. We walked up to each one, admired the views and took some snaps.
After the caves, we thanked the guide, and walked to the top of the hill, above the caves to admire the view. On the way I found some quartz, and Asha found a huge one which she then lugged around for the rest of the walk for Edna. Me and Asha chilled on a rock overlooking the countryside for awhile to admire the view, before we all headed down to the bottom again.
Back at the entrance, everyone washed and then prayed, while I waited next to a whiney, maungy cat. I was mildly shocked that everyone was using bottled water to wash for prayer while water is a commodity and there is a drought on – to me it seems a strange priority, but I guess religious people see this as vital. After prayer, we headed on, towards another steep sided hill. The driver had enjoyed his walk with us, so decided to join us for the next part too! We marched out, until we reached the rock, when we had to navigate through many thorn bushes and scramble up rocks. While this normally would be completely fine, I had worn a long traditional Somali dress for the caves, which was very restrictive to climb in. At some points it completely blocked my view of what was underfoot, and I felt like a C-section patient with a screen between my face and my legs!! This made walking much more hazardous than it otherwise may have been!!
We chilled as close to the top as we could, put some tunes on and waited for sunset. I started with Come on Eileen which did not quite fit the chilled vibe, and as it started I saw the driver pull a face – I got Mubarak to ask the driver if he liked the music – he did not! Afterwards, I changed the music to What a Wonderful World and asked the driver again if the music was better – it was. No 80s pop for Somali mountain tops – as much as I love 80s music, I think I agree to be fair! We continued with chilled chooons after that! While we were sitting on top of the rock, we saw around 50 baboons heading across the savanna to the one and only remaining watering hole in what was left of the river – in monsoon, which is soon, the river will become big and strong again and wildlife will thrive once more! We watched the sunset, which was not the most epic of sunsets, but still pretty nice, before heading down again!
We got emergency biscuits on the way back, before hitting the road and driving to a curry house in Hargeisa. I was a little apprehensive about what a curry house would be like in a place where there are no Indian people, especially given the high standard of curries in Brum so was braced for disappointment. We ordered a few curries to share and to be fair the butter chicken was pretty tasty. Detectable as butter chicken and not at all a bad job – nicely spiced, but not spicy. It was nice to have an Indian, and by the time the food came it was 21.30 so we even had it at an appropriately late time. By the time we got back to the hospital, I was shattered, so I headed straight to bed.
10/2/22
Yesterday apparently wiped me out, so I woke up today at 10am. I considered my options – NICU only had two relatively well babies so did not require my help and we had no teaching and no surgeries on. I headed over to Nomad cafe and messaged Amanda to see if she also fancied a cafe chill. I had coffee and a freshly made doughnut, before ordering fuul for lunch – it was scrummy! We chatted and I also read my book, while Amanda sorted some uni and travel bits. At 13.00, we got kicked out since it was closing time (time for Somali people to eat, pray and nap!) We stopped by the tailors to see if our sheets had been turned into dresses – they had not and our tailor was not there, so we headed back to the hospital.
I spent my afternoon streaming Sophie Tea’s channel 4 documentary ‘Boobs’ and ended up using a weeks worth of data in the process – oooops!! It was an interesting and incredibly empowering show, and it felt all the more wild watching it here, in a super conservative country!! After the show, I got ready for my run. We headed out around 4pm to Masalaha. Amanda stayed behind to watch births, so it was just me and Mubarak – not too much wildlife today – only sheep and camels! I did not do a sub 30 minute 5km, but it was both hot and windy – one day I will make it!! (I did Race for Life when I was around 10 with my friends and got sub 30 mins so surely it has to be possible?!) On the way back, we passed lots of ladies walking.
We stopped at Guluf Air cafe, the cafe in an abandoned aircraft. We ordered fresh lemon juice and lime juice arrived, which was insaaaaanely tangy!! Even with extra water, it was still tangy!!
We came back to the hospital in time for tea. Amanda had seen a C-section so that was good! The baby was only 1kg though so had to go to NICU – that’s another baby for me to care for next week! After that, I went down to check if there was another C-section as I wanted to see Asha working as a surgeon. Sadly for me, it was cancelled until tomorrow. Luckily for the patient, the baby and the mother were stable, so it was not urgent, but also the surgery could not take place because the husband had still not signed the consent form. YES, women do not get to give consent for their own surgery – if they are not married, their father or brother consents for them – how grim is that?!?! Anyway, no surgery meant it was coffee time, so Mubarak and I chilled until Amanda and then Asha joined us. Asha got called back to work (as she is on-call) and Amanda headed off to bed, while I battled on with this blog! I’ve nearly made it… til tomorrow!
wanderingwelshie travels 