The Paid Tourist

I have been called many things in the past but “The Paid Tourist” is a new label to me. Granted I am being paid to go to some really beautiful places in Southern Africa. Swaziland, Zambia, Namibia and even Zimbabwe (for a few hours but I was there) I have even been put up in some fantastic accommodation too. Kiambi Safari Lodge in Zambia where I saw loads of Elephants and Hippo’s and the Beach Lodge Hotel in Swakopmund, Namibia where the beach was only a few meters away from my room. All great stuff I assure you and with the South African Rand and UK Pound exchange rate all very cheep places to stay. But these places to come at a price to my self. Long hours of travel and the solitude.

Don’t get me wrong on the solitude bit. I do have friends here but it’s not a case of them just being around the corner. South Africa is a vast place. No longer am I just a 2 hr drive from one coast line to the other coast line. It’s more like 5 hrs just to hit the coast of Durban and 13 hrs to get to Cape Town. Hell you can drive the whole length of the UK in just over 13hrs. So it’s a little harder to just jump in the car and go round to your mates for a meal or a chat.

So what have I been doing while I have been enjoying the wildlife in Zambia and the rolling dunes of Namibia? I know a lot of you have seen loads of fabulous photos of wild life and sunsets and it does look like I am on a holiday but that’s far from the truth. I don’t really have a regular 9 – 5 type job at the moment. I like to say I have a job that needs to be done. What is this job that needs to be done I hear you cry? Well its jobs actually. My first task when I got here was to look at and over hall the current IT infrastructure that is in place. Currently we have clinics that sync to a centralized database here in Jo’burg. This is done via 3G wireless technology, but not every Southern African country has 3G so we have got the software developers to develop an application that will do the syncing to a USB memory key so that we can manually do the data transfers. So this is one of my responsibilities, to ensure there is a robust IT infrastructure and solution in place to record every thing that happens in our wellness centres regardless of there location.

My next responsibility is the rolling out of these wellness centres. Once a location has been identified we can start the project rolling. This starts with meeting with stakeholders (key people in key positions to help aid in the roll out of the Wellness Centres (Minister of Health, Transport Ministers and other aid groups) ) to gain there support for the project and to basically drum up awareness of what we are trying to achieve. We then have to ensure that every key member is kept up to date with progress and if they have agreed to add any thing to the project that they deliver. We then need to ensure that the container has been converted to specification and that we have all the equipment ready to go into the container. By this time the logistics of getting the containers (Wellness Centre) to its destination has been completed and all that will required to do is load the container and get it picked up and shipped. All the stakeholders will be notified of the container’s movements so that the site is ready for the centres arrival.

Once the container has been placed in its new home ready to become a Wellness Centre there is still a lot of work to be done. Staff need to be recruited (Peer Educator and Nurse) Water and electricity to be connected. The stakeholders are also sensitises to what is going on with the centre and to ensure they start to let others know that the opening of the centre is imminent and to offer as much support as they can to the centre. After a lot of negotiations and hard work from every one the centre is ready to open.

Once open the Wellness Centre will be offering education on HIV/AIDS its risks and preventative measures that can be taken to help reduce the risk of infection. Also as part of this education is the STI (Sexually Transmitted Infections (STD’s – Sexually Transmitted Diseases)) If you can curb the spread of STI’s then you will also aid in the spread of HIV. In addition to the education part of the centre there is the clinic side. The nurse will help truck drivers, drivers assistance, commercial sex workers and the local community with there primary health care, occupational health and STI treatment.

So a fair bit of work goes into one of these Wellness Centres right from the start and ongoing. But this work is not just done by me. There is a team of motivated people working next to me to ensure the sustainability of these projects. I admire the dedication and the motivation that each and every one of these people put into these projects. So I guess at the end of the day all the long days of travelling and the bit of solitude is all worth it in the end. I have got to go to some really awesome places, met some really amazing people and do a very worth while job all at the same time. Not many people get to do that!



I am currently in Namibia but I was here a few weeks back and took these photos. Click here to view some stunning shots of a sunset near Walvis Bay