A trip to Widhoek

The day after Daisy's birthday I came home from a very bad day of school to get some shocking news. Daisy had got a phone call saying that since she was still ill she had to go up to Windhoek and that they were considering flying her to South Africa to get treatment there...........

The only reasonable thing to do was to have a nap, while we waited to see whether we would be hitch-hiking in the morning or if the insurance company would send an ambulance down to us like they had said. Half way through my afternoon nap Daisy woke me up, saying that there was someone on the phone and that they wanted to speak to me?!?!







The person on the other end of the phone asked me if I was Daisy Homes companion (that word always just makes me think of Doctor Who) and asked me to describe her condition. He then informed me that they were sending an AIR AMBULANCE to Keetmans that same night to pick us up and fly us both to Windhoek. I don't think that I have ever been more shocked in my entire life. I was told that we weren't allowed to hitch hike to Keetmans and that I had to call him back when we had a lift.

So it was up to me to tell Daisy the news. To be honest if I hadn't been so totally shocked myself the look of horror on her face would have been hysterical! Leaving her to panic in the house I went to school to find Sachi, in the hope that she could help us find a lift at such short notice (the word 'life-saver' comes to mind!)



After asking around, phoning potential taxi numbers and going to try to find the nuns to ask if Ruben could drive us there in their truck we were left with no option. We had to ask Mrs Kruse. Delightfully her initial reaction was simply to say that Daisy should just go back to England (exactly the kind of encouraging remark you want to hear in that kind of situation) but finally she agreed to take us.



Back home we both packed our little rucksacks. We packed enough clothes for about a week, since neither of us thought that we would be staying in Windhoek for any longer than that. Eventually Mrs Kruse came to pick us up. Well, to be precise, she got Mr Swartbooi to come and pick us up while she sat in the passenger seat. Sat in the back of a truck, bouncing around with no seatbelts. Exactly the situation you want to be in when your partner has stomach feelings and is feeing nauseous!

Not that I wasn't grateful to Mr Swarbooi because we were, it honestly was really nice of him to drive us to Keetmans on such short notice. Although I must confess that we were less than impressed when Mrs Kruse suddenly demanded money off us for the ride. No words.

So we had to stay in Keetmans for about an hour before getting a ride to the airport - just enough time for me to have a delicious dinner of chicken nuggets and chips :) The journey to the airport probably took about 10 minutes. For the first time since being in Namibia the taxi driver was a woman, and an Afrikaans woman at that. But she was truly lovely, telling us when we had over-paid her, instead of just pocketing the money like most people would have done.

The airport was, of course, tiny. So tiny that we were the only people there! Finally the plane arrived and we could set off. It was also tiny, with only enough room for seats for the two pilots, me and the medical guy, and a bed for Daisy to lie in. While it was a pretty cool experience being in such a tiny plane I must confess that it was also slightly concerning.

We flew through the middle of a massive lightning storm, which meant that our tiny plane was going through massive turbulence. Kind of felt like we were trying to fly in a toy plane! But finally we got there in one piece. Once we landed in Windhoek we were met by an ambulance and transported to the hospital.

The first couple hours there were just lots of questions (normally the same questions just repeatedly asked by about four different people, much to Daisy's annoyance) and filling out lots of paperwork. Finally they transported Daisy to her ward, where we were met by our first problem - where was I going to sleep? The only option was the floor and so I politely asked the nurse if I could have a blanket. Since Daisy always loves it when I write down the conversations properly I shall do it:
Nurse: why?
Me: Just to make the evening a little bit easier. The floor is quite hard.
Nurse: You're staying here?
Me: Yes
Nurse: Why are you staying here?
Me: Because it's 1:30 am and I have nowhere else to do

Thankfully a nice male nurse gave me a couple of blankets and a pillow and so I was able to make myself reasonably comfortable on the floor. A very busy and unexpected day!