Here we go again

January 5, 2022 Grant Strugnell

Happy New Year, 2022!

Just after writing that sentence, I feel I need to also write this: “Here we go again, huh?”

You don’t need to hear from me how, almost 2 years since Covid became our new reality, we seem to just keep slipping back to where we were, with no end in sight.

It’s easy for us all to wake up in January and realize that we are just doing the same things again: Going about our daily lives, getting kids to school, going to work, or whatever else.

While that can seem overwhelming, I want to look at those words from a different perspective.

It is the slow, determined consistency that creates lasting results. Sometimes that slow consistency seems tedious, like we are simply treading water day in and day out. And we’d prefer immediate results — clear indications that we are making significant progress. But when it comes to making positive changes in the world, it’s the brutal consistency that will do it.

I reflect on that in our work in Lesotho. Being involved in development and relief work, as we are with PCC and MAF, forces us to realize that true results come with time and consistency.

We have started to see some examples of this in the children and staff at Pulane Children’s Centre. The Centre has been open 13 years, and every year that passes we see how the committed love and security provided by the staff and community at PCC rubs off on the children. We are often joyfully surprised at the good choices children are making, and even their willingness to engage in hard conversations after making poor choices. Our staff continue to gain confidence and ownership of their roles. There are few things that delight Emily more than hearing our managers say, “We’ve been discussing this situation and have an idea we want to try.”

When it comes to the support MAF provides through aviation, we also get glimpses of how important consistency is. It’s no good being safe one day, and throwing that all out the window the next. Day after day we have to make sure we are consistently safe, effective, and providing the best service we can to support the healthcare system in the mountains. Helping one person, or one community, at a time and doing it again the next day with the same focus and determination.

It’s tempting to only write stories when we have big, interesting events that happen: Life saving flights, PCC children getting top marks in their classes at school, or new and exciting projects. But the reality is that the most effective work is done in the day to day consistency. That’s what makes the difference.

So as we all step into this new year, join me in refreshing our determination to be consistent.

Consistently keeping ourselves and our families as safe as we can from Covid.

Consistently being patient and seeking understanding in the midst of disagreements.

Consistently working for good in our communities.

Our new normal

June 22, 2020 Grant Strugnell

COVID-19 has obviously affected life for everyone. I wanted to take a moment in this blog to share a few day to day happenings around the Strugnell household in a COVID world.

Our MAF team is divided into two teams. Two pilots on each, with the idea that if someone gets sick, the other team is completely separated and can keep working. I am on the ‘Operations’ team, as opposed to the ‘Mechanics’ team. That means either 2 or 3 days a week I am on-call, and the other days I am working from home. Lately we have had a good amount of scheduled flying, meaning a few of those days every week I am going to the hangar to do normal flights as well.

Emily and Jane are at home. Jane’s school remains closed and probably will be until at least after the winter holidays that end in August (is that confusing if you are American? Yes, winter holidays ending in August!)

When I wake up, the first thing on my mind is always a panicked ‘is the coal stove still alight?’ Our house is warmed in winter by an anthracite burning stove. I love this thing, but if you look at it wrong it can go out! Each one has a personality and demands that you treat it exactly right in order for it to provide you with a constant supply of heat. Outside temps at night get below freezing, and inside doesn't stay much warmer if it wasn't for the stove. So, I wake up, stoke the stove and refill it, and then get the coffee pot on.

Jane has really been having fun learning about Lego

Jane and Emily soon arise from the cold side of the house and gather by the stove. It usually doesn't take Jane long to wander over to our living room area to start piecing together a new Lego creation. Since lockdown, we have essentially turned our living room into a full time building area. Jane and I spend lots of time there, making whatever new idea comes to mind.

At some point after breakfast, Emily gets Jane going on some work that her school has been sending. Basic math, writing and coloring flags of African nations. Jane usually fights it for a while and ultimately gives in and does it.

Emily’s day is a dance of constant interruptions and divided attention. Jane’s school, the usual housework, and Pulane Children’s Centre management. That last point shouldn’t be understated. Sometimes I don't even realize how much information she is getting from our staff looking for advice and direction: What should the do about this sick child, for example? Well, for Emily that involves asking all the details, then relaying that to our doctor friend who freely offers advice, and getting that back to the staff in a way that they can act on with their limited resources. That’s just one example. She is always helping the staff make plans, work with the budget, solve problems and offer fresh advice. While the staff do a great job, I know they appreciate Emily’s reassuring guidance on a daily basis.

Between Emily and I, we also do the accounts for PCC, and work with donors and supporters. The Trust that Emily directs actually oversees 4 projects: Pulane Children’s Centre, Thuto Shepherd School, Thuso education fund and the Semonkong sponsorship program supporting older people in the Semonkong area. The trust is in charge of all 4 projects, and while PCC takes up the bulk of the time, the other 3 are financially managed by us.

When I work from home I am typically working on maintaining our safety systems at MAF. That means looking at problems that have been identified in the last few months, and figuring out ways to mitigate the risks on those. Often that involves working on new procedures, improving systems that we use, or taking action on things that need improvement, like working on our airstrips.

At some point in the day, we get out into the sunny big yard we have, and get some jumping in on the trampoline. We are so grateful for our huge garden!

Grateful to have a treadmill for late workouts

Grocery shopping has been an event since Covid-19. While it’s getting better, there was a period where it was hard to get certain items. On a day that I’m not on call, Emily will go and do our shopping. Usually it also involves getting supplies or medications for PCC as well, and so the shopping trip is usually a few hour endeavor.

As the day winds down, Emily and I try and get some home-based exercise done, which is a great way to unwind and warm up!

At first it was hard to adjust to the new normal, having Jane at home full time and not being able to visit friends. However, as the weeks go by we feel more and more how this is now a new baseline, and anything extra we get to do is a bonus. The South African border remains closed, so we are not able to travel to larger cities like Bloemfontein for specific supplies, and that, as well as not seeing friends or family, feels like the biggest and hardest change.

We are certainly not in a position to complain, and we are grateful that we have so much access to things here in Maseru. So, settling into a new normal is really not a big ask if it helps to keep us and others safer.

Pulane Children's Centre news update

June 14, 2020 Grant Strugnell

Click here to be redirected to PCC’s news page.

News written by Emily.

Lesotho, MAF, PCC and us in a COVID-19 world

April 9, 2020 Grant Strugnell

Lesotho

A weeks ago, Lesotho followed South Africa’s lead in going into a full lockdown: grocery stores are only open 8-11am daily, movement outside of that time is restricted and limited to essential service personnel, and the borders are closed. The police and military are enforcing this, at least in the city, towns and bigger villages. As a result, people are forced to take it seriously. The medical sector in Lesotho is always under pressure: Lesotho has one of the highest prevalences of HIV worldwide. It is also a rural country with isolated communities and small basic health care clinics scattered throughout the country, along with a few district hospitals. The doctors and nurses work hard, but with limited equipment and supplies, it’s tough under normal circumstances. With that as a starting point, adding COVID-19 into the mix is certainly going to be challenging. If developed counties are struggling with this, we anticipate Lesotho will also be under intense pressure in the months to come. As testing is very slow and sporadic, there are still no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. However, we are not disillusioned into thinking that is an accurate representation of the situation. We assume it is among us and are following operating procedures already implemented in other countries. Lesotho will remain on lockdown until the 21 April, and then probably reassess and follow the lead of our neighboring South Africa.

MAF

Med evac flight for a maternity patient.

A few weeks ago, MAF Lesotho sent home any staff who were high-risk. A few days later, our manager extended that to non-essential staff. At that point, 2 pilots (myself being one of them) were sent home to work from there and be on-call for emergency flights. That way, we were not interacting with the mechanic team who was needed at work to get airplanes out of maintenance and ready to go. So, for about 2 weeks I have been working from home, and alternating being on-call with the other pilot. As of 2 days ago, the mechanic team is now also at home, having prepared the airplanes for the foreseeable future. MAF here is part of Lesotho’s rural healthcare system, and we are trying hard to find balance between supporting it as best we can, and not wanting to bring harm to the isolated communities by taking infected people from the city to the mountains. For our team, it’s a daily balancing act as we continually reassess the risk of doing harm with the benefit of supporting the normal day-to-day primary healthcare needs. When we do fly, we take every precaution to ensure we are not spreading COVID-19. The planes are disinfected after every flight, the pilots wear PPE, and the rare cases where we take nurses out to the mountains, they are screened as best we can to ensure they are not sick. In order for us to balance the risk and benefit, at this stage we are only doing emergency flights. This at least helps those most in need, and lessens the risk of us taking COVID-19 to the mountains. These flights are probably still 80% related to maternity cases, either pregnant ladies needing to be flown to a more equipped hospital, or mothers in need of emergency care after giving birth. As the situation develops in Lesotho, MAF will reassess how we can best assist, and adjust our flying accordingly.

PCC

While PCC has the advantage of being remote, it is at a disadvantage when it comes to healthcare facilities. Emily has been doing a great job trying to take the new normal precautions the world is used to (washing hands, social distancing, etc) and explaining them to the staff in a way that will work in their very different environment, where we have 66 kids living together. The staff stepped-up to the challenge, finding a way to keep the boys and girls apart, doing school work outside at desks that are well separated, and by sending high-risk staff home and finding a few temporary replacements. We told the staff, as strictly as we could, that we didn't want them traveling on taxis, and so during this time, they have our truck which can be used on the bad dirt road to get to town as needed. We have been doing what we can to prepare PCC, educating and planning ahead, and we hope to keep revising and updating procedures. We have been encouraged to see people taking charge and empowering themselves: in a community where running water isn't the norm, and regular handwashing isn't usually possible, one of our staff members has taken the Tippy Tap plans we sent, and made one for her home, so that her family can put into practice some of these new hygiene essentials.

Us

Home school coloring. Current obsession: Lion Guard.

Every few days I get called out on a flight. On Sunday I had 2 patients who needed transfer. The first was a lady from a small village, who needed to get to the district hospital before having her baby. She was stable, and the short flight for her was only about 10 minutes. The other patient was a mother who had given birth the night before and had lost a lot of blood. She was on a stretcher while a nurse cared for the newborn. I collected them from a bigger town, Thaba Tseka, loaded-up mother, nurse, baby and paramedic, and flew them to Maseru where an ambulance was waiting. I was grateful to be able to do something to help. On days when I am not flying, I am at home doing computer-based work, often related to improving our safety system or developing training tools. Jane is of course home from school, and is keeping busy doing homeschool activities. Emily is doing a great job of leading Jane’s schoolwork, and is balancing her time between that and keeping tabs on PCC, as well as keeping our household running. Like the rest of the world, we are finding it tough to not be able to go out, see friends, and do normal life kinds of things. Shopping has become a big deal. As the stores are only open for 3 hours a day, it has the effect of making those 3 hours very busy and congested (a detail that frustrates me and is so counterproductive to the whole idea of a lockdown). We are going as little as possible, but sometimes you just need to restock. Emily went yesterday and waited in long lines just to get into the busy store. Thankfully the shop was doing an effective job of maintaining sufficient stock in this bizarre shopping environment. While the lines and changes can be overwhelming, we find that people are still looking out for one another and treating each other with gentle respect in the shops.

We are trying to adapt, and settle into a new normal. We don't foresee this situation improving suddenly, and so we are getting ready to be living life like this for a while. We hope to keep doing what we can at MAF to support the country’s healthcare system, and at PCC to protect and look after the kids and staff. At some point, we just need to accept, adapt, and set our sights on being part of the solution and healing of this country and world.