Monday, March 9, 2009

South Africa II

Hey everyone. Needless to say I've been pretty negligent about the blog in SA, but we've been extremely busy since I last blogged.
I guess I'll give you a typical weekday here to give you a picture of what we are doing. I usually wake up at around 7:30ish, usually more like 7:45, grab a granola bar and hop on the van that takes us to the areas that we are working in. The guy who drives us every day, Percy, is the man, he loves to talk and is wicked nice. He drops us off at the different townships around plettenburg bay that we are working in TBB is in 5 different townships between the different pairs of students: Kwanakatula, Qolweni, Bosesgiff, New Horizons, and Kraanshoek. Katie and I and Nomunde (the care giver we are shadowing) are working in Qolweni and Bosesgiff, where Nomunde lives. We usually meet up with her at around 8:30 or so and visit patients until around 12:30 or 1 in the afternoon. I can't even begin to describe how intense and emotional it is to go into a patient's home, which is usually a small, one room shack, and have them tell you their story of how they are living with HIV and what Nomunde is doing for them. I really wish I could do justice to what we are doing each day, but it's hard to because I really don't have much to compare it to that people would understand. It is hand's down the most fulfilling and moving service work that I have ever done.
After working with the caregivers for the morning we either have a seminar in the afternoon about public health, or, on tuesdays and thursdays, we go to different projects around the townships. Lily, Noah, and I are working at a preschool in Kwanakatula, which is an absolute blast. I don't know why, but south african kids are the cutest kids in the entire world without a doubt. It almost becomes a problem, like for instance, some of the kids like to punch you or throw thing at you, but it's impossible to be mad at them because they are so damn cute.
Anyway, South Africa has been incredible so far and I'm sad that we only have 4 more days with the caregivers.
We head back to the US march 21st, so I'll be in better contact then. Also, I know I kind of skimp over things (especially in this blog because I need to go work on my media project), so if anybody has questions about stuff, just shoot me an email at dbs91090@gmail.com.
peace
-Dave