Preparations for the future and the withdrawal of the army doctors
The cocks crowed six o’clock when I left the flat for the hospital. I showed the permit to the guard at the checkpoint. Though it was compulsory to check the permit, the guards followed the order often sloppily and did not look on the permit when I was accompanied by the young colleague in uniform as a lieutenant of the SADF. Military vehicles drove frequently out in respect of the fear of the whites regarding the increase of insecurity. These vehicles had driven deep ruts and big potholes into the gravel roads.
Quite a number of villagers had left Oshakati with their families for the south what was Windhoek or one of the coastal towns, or for South Africa to get out of the danger of war and to enjoy the better life with quiet and restful nights and to start some kind of profitable businesses. They preferred to bypass the last rigours of war by joining people who lived without disturbances and fears, and in the prosperity of the white ‘peace’ and to observe the further development of the last, but decisive battle from a distance of the personal safety. The distance did depend on the prosperity they had achieved in the north. The higher the prosperity was with the hidden wealth, the bigger became the distance, but some hundred kilometres in general.
As ‘people from the front’, they held themselves important when they discussed the ongoing war in the north and the consequences with the business people and friends and some drinks what could be expected for the country. They discussed these topics also in length with the stool neighbour at the bar counter what led by the regular repetitions to remarkable and advantageous business deals. Some houses in the village became vacant. The situation was used by the Filipinos who worked as teachers and motor mechanics when they moved from smaller houses into bigger houses which were better maintained and had a bigger garden in the front and in the back.
I passed the hospital gate. The gatekeeper behind the right post was busy with peeling his egg. He threw the shells on the ground and stuffed a big part of the egg into his mouth that he could not reply my morning greeting. Fresh ruts of the Casspirs rough treads with curves were pressed in the sand on the square. Some ruts branched off to the gravelled ring road inside the premises with its huge potholes. I started the round in the intensive care unit. The patient after relaparotomy to stop the intraabdominal bleeder was in a stable condition. The drain produced only little amounts of blood. The blood pressure and pulse rate were reasonable. A bag of blood was connected. I made my notes. The other patients were in stable conditions to be transferred to the general wards. The two bedrooms that the superintendent and doctor for his private patients had occupied were full. In one room were the mothers after their recent deliveries.
I went to the surgical male ward and looked after the old man after the exploratory laparotomy with the inoperable colon cancer. The patient had opened his eyes in which I read the fear of uncertainty and death. The word which should comfort him took the patient without a word. I went from the male ward to the female ward. The old woman after amputation of her left leg due to the malignant bone tumour looked at me without any complaint. She impressed by showing her strong will to recover from the operation that she could leave the hospital as soon as possible to support her daughter in the upbringing of the two small children. ‘High life’ was in the children’s ward. Children who were not bedridden, ran and crawled half or fully naked through the corridor and bedrooms. Some of them had spots of excrements on their grey hospital dresses. There were small urine lakes and piles on the floor what had to be cleared up.
The few nurses did a marvellous work in cleaning the children and replacing the dirty linen by clean linen. They fed them and put them on the bedpan. I admired their commitment and patience. One of these nurses, I called her the angel of the children’s ward, was busy in changing dressings on children with burns. She did it in a professional manner with a mask over her mouth and sterile gloves and made the dressings wet with sterile saline solution before she removed the dressings from the wound. This particular nurse with the true human face was lean and did her work extremely gently to avoid any unnecessary hurt. It were the sick children who were in her mind when she did her work without looking at the small watch on her left wrist. I followed her doing with great attention and respect. I
