Author Description

A recently graduated dietician does her community service at a public hospital in Johannesburg in 2008. There, with the hospital’s limited resources, she confronts challenges specific to her context, as well as the trial of working alongside other healthcare professionals. Her frustration, she realises, is less about the hospital’s lack in terms of material resources and more about her precarious position as caregiver. She is disheartened that she is part of a team whose motivations she finds questionable, and her dismay is compounded by the fleeting and insubstantial patient interactions. Recurrently returning to Floor 1, she wonders what it is that she’s achieved. About the Author: Carla Chait is a dietician, practising macrobiotics. She also has a Master’s degree in English Literature and was awarded the 2012 Deon Hofmeyr Prize for Creative Writing at Wits.