The Week of Recovery

It’s been awhile, so here are a few quick updates.

1. I spoke too fast when I said we had all recovered. The aftermath of the Jungle Monkey continued well into the next week. I visited the doctor twice; the first time I was given antibiotics to wipe out whatever was living in my gut, the second time told to take some packets of dead bacteria and probiotics to restore my digestive microflora. My mama also taught me how to make rehydration solution after a particularly bad night (sound travels well when you have no ceilings): 1 liter of water, 1 tsp salt, 10 tsp sugar. Mix it up and enjoy!

2. Our Zulu class is now finished, sadly. We had our written and oral examinations yesterday. They packed a lot into our four weeks of classes. Among other things, I can say:
Ngithanda oshizi eWisconsin (I like Wisconsin cheese)
Ngifuna ukuphuza utshwala ebha (I want to drink beer at the bar)
I can also talk about the weather, being sick, my family, where I’m going, directions, and what I like to do on the weekend. I just thought the above phrases might be especially useful to those back home! I've been able to have some short conversations in Zulu with people I meet, specifically children, which has been really cool, and I hope to keep learning more of the language even though Zulu classes are done.

3. Saturday was another Durban adventure. I’ve been feeling pretty cooped up being in the same places so much, as we have school all day during the week and we’re not supposed to go in and out of Cato Manor at night, so a free day on Saturday was delightful. I went with two of my friends to try to find a library in town that has a book that one of my professors recommended to get some more information for potential independent study ideas. We walked at least an hour in blazing heat to find that the library was closed, but on the way we happened to stumble upon an amazing flea market, with lots of crafty items and delicious food. I bought a light, flowy dress and nibbled feta and spinach quiche while studying Zulu under a tree, and it was lovely. Also, we went to a rugby game that night. This was my first rugby game ever and it was a great first! The Sharks, Durban’s team, won!

4. Family beach day on Sunday! Our mamas had planned a beach party and braai for us far in advance, so the rain didn’t stop us! We ate our fried chicken and mutton under raincoats and towels. I didn’t venture into the water, but Nono and some of the other kids were braver! Oh, and p.s. Thulane got into school! His uncle drove down to bring him his transcript, and my mama has a friend who works in one of the schools, so they were able to pull some strings and get him in. Yay!

5. Today I visited a community clinic and shadowed some home-based caregivers, who are nurses and volunteers that visit patients at home who are too sick or weak to make it to the clinic. It was really interesting to see what these people do, and I was struck by how warm and positive they all were. Some of the patients, most who are HIV+, are quite sick, but we were told that many are getting much better. The caregivers had lots of success stories to tell us as well about patients in grim states who made remarkable recoveries, whose CD4 counts went way up, and who are now relatively healthy, happy, and self-sufficient. From hearing these stories and seeing them in action, it’s clear that the caregivers’ holistic approach and compassion is a major factor in this. This is a public service, so it is free, but still there is a shortage of resources; the nurses say there is no way they would be able to see everyone who is sick, which makes the volunteers all the more important. Another interesting thing I learned about the public sector and HIV is that while antiretrovirals are free once a person is below a certain CD4 level, many people will stop taking them when there CD4 level gets high again. This is because they are only able to receive disability grants from the government when their CD4 count is below a certain point. There's a complicated catch-22, and makes it so a lot of people remain ill.

6. We’re supposed to start figuring out our ISP (independent study project), which is really hard since I’m interested in so much! I think I might want to do something with the tuberculosis epidemic here, maybe through working in a clinic or a hospital and learning more about what the challenges are with treatment and control and people's perceptions of the disease. TB is a major problem here as well as many other developing countries and increasingly on the rise, including the scary drug resistant TB, and goes hand in hand with the rising HIV prevalence. People are much more likely to contract TB when their immune systems are down. It would be interesting to learn more about TB in this context. It’s hard getting in touch with organizations I might work with, but hopefully I’ll figure it out soon! There's a TB clinic near where I am now, and SIT has connections with some rural hospitals, so I might be able to be based from one of these organizations.

7. Here are a couple pictures from our last hike:

A village near where we were hiking:



Waterfall bluff:


One of the long stretches:


Some of those rolling hills:


We’re going on another rural excursion this weekend. We’ll be spending a couple days in the Drakensburg mountains and then having a home stay with home based caregivers in a town called Impendle. Hopefully this excursion will be better than the last- wish me luck!

A Little Experiential Learning in Community Health

So, rural excursion didn't go exactly as planned. Let me start at the beginning.

We embarked on our six hour car ride last Friday morning, arriving at Mboyki campsite right before dark. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we wouldn't actually be camping but sleeping on beds in circular, straw-grass huts. The next day we drove an hour or so down some bumpy dirt roads toward where we would be hiking. The 7 hour hike was gorgeous- the South African country-side in the Eastern Cape is absolutely breath-taking. Big rolling hills, patches of lush forest, big cliffs next to the sea, and all so green. I felt like I should be writing a poem or singing some Sound of Music (I did hum a couple of lines from 'the hills are alive...') We passed cattle and people riding horses every so often and waded across small streams. Our final destination was Waterfall Bluff, a waterfall crashing over a rocky cliff into the ocean below. We sat there awhile taking pictures and admiring the view before we noticed an older woman sitting and staring out at the ocean. It turned out there had been people there collecting mussels from the rocks, and a woman had slipped off into the ocean and was swept under by one of the waves. The others had gone back for help and this woman was waiting to see if she would resurface. This had happened a couple hours ago, and our cell phones wouldn't have reception, so there was nothing we could really do, and with the rough waters and all the sharks it was probably too late. This put a somber tone to the second half of our hike. It's so easy to forget about the hazards people face who live and work amongst these beautiful yet dangerous areas, and it was really sad to see this.

The next day while we were driving to the village we would be staying at it started to downpour. The dirt roads were getting really nasty, and it was doubtful we would be able to make it down the steep dirt road going into the village without sliding in our big 10 passenger vans with trailers, so we opted to stay at Jungle Monkey, a backpacker's lodge in Port St. Johns. We had a blast singing karaoke and went to bed happy and tired. And then it happened. Around 11pm, the first person dashed to the bathroom. Then another, then another. Within a few hours about half of our group of 22, including me, was violently expelling from both ends, for lack of a more delicate description. I spent the night on some couches with about eight other girls and a trash can, trying to rehydrate ourselves with this disgusting salt and sugar water solution. Needless to say, it was a bonding experience. The next day the other lucky half went on to the rural homestay while the rest of us stayed at the hostel sipping watered-down sports drinks and trying not to move too much. I'm fine now, besides looking like I have chicken pox from all the mosquitoes and fleas from the cute but apparently dirty dogs living at the Jungle Monkey. We think it was probably from the water at the campsite that was supposedly safe; either that or some weird virus that we all happened to get at the same time.

So, our trip was certainly not what we had planned. But I guess it was a little bit of experiential learning in community health.

Durban Fun, Food, and School

Hey everyone! It’s the beginning of the week again and we’re back at school. This was a super fun and refreshing weekend, which I think we were all needing. On Friday night we had ‘girls night out’ (not by choice w/ our all girls program haha) and stayed at a hostel called Surf n’ Dreams in the city. We got to see a bit of the Durban night life on Friday. It was a bit of an epic adventure! We kept getting suggestions for different places to go- the first place was empty, the next wouldn’t let you in with flip flops, we took a cab to another place and the turned us down b/c you had to be 23, and finally we went to a dance club by the beach, where they wouldn’t let us in b/c we didn’t think we needed our IDs to show we were 18! After about half an hour of arguing, the bouncer finally agreed to let like the 16 of us in and we were able to let loose and dance to some good old pop music. And now we know to bring nice shoes and an ID, although we probably aren’t going to have the opportunity to do this again for awhile. The next day after being proposed to be a random man on the street we went to the beach and it was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was shining, the waves were huge, and it was super hot. I was legitimately scared when I tried to swim- every wave would knock me underwater and I’d be spinning around for a few minutes until I found me way back up- and we weren’t even more than a couple yards from the shore! It was refreshing though, and no sharks! Several people got really burned, but thanks to my 50 spf I don't even have tan lines! I think I'm going to have to find some 30 so I can have some proof that I saw the sun this semester.

We spent the rest of the weekend with our homestay families. I went to church with my mama on Sunday morning. It lasted about three hours and was in a metal building- during a couple points I felt like I was going to pass out and sneakily ate a granola bar out of my bag. I didn’t understand much of what was being said- it was all in Zulu- but I was able to pick out a few words from my limited knowledge. The singing was cool to listen to though. It was really spontaneous- someone would start a song and everyone would join in in harmony. People played bells and small drum things and would dance around. I went to the mall with my little sister and some SIT people Sunday afternoon, and I made pizza for my family that evening. I bought pre-made crust and pretty much just sprinkled on some cheese and veggis, so not very impressive, but for my lack of cooking ability I’m pretty happy with myself. Finally, I went to a braii at my friend’s house that night, which is basically a meat-cooking party. Her host brother, Themba, used to be a model and was in the Men’s Health magazine fitness contest thing so he showed us the video from that- if any of you are avid Men’s Health readers you should see if you can find it! Needless to say, it was a good weekend over all, but now I’m going to have to buckle down and try to get some hw done, and work on memorizing this Zulu vocab.

I’ve gotten requests to talk about the food, the schools, and put up pictures. The first two I can do; the last one I’m working on, but we have limited, slow bandwidth and picture uploading limits, so you may have to hold out for the slide show when I get back, or until I can find an internet café.

So food. People in Cato eat a lot of carbohydrates and a lot of meat. Most of my meals are rice or paap (like really thick, coarse corn meal) with a curry-like dish on top and fried chicken. KFC is everywhere here! Lunches on the weekends have been scrambled eggs, fish sticks, and chips (French fries), and porridge (like cream of wheat) is a common breakfast. My favorite breakfast though is Wheat-bix, which are these wheat cereal bars that you add sugar and milk to and crunch up. Everyone drinks full cream milk. I tried this for a few days and my weak stomach couldn’t handle it, so now I have 2% milk at home. We drink tea in the morning (maybe this will cure my coffee addiction!) The curry in Durban is really really good, and my favorite curry dish is called bunny chow which is curry in a hollowed out half-loaf of bread that you eat with your hands. I’m always sooo full after it though. Also, side note, according to Zed, our academic director, the quickest way to spot an American is to look for a Nalgene or a Sigg, b/c we’re all addicted to water compared to people here. I just thought that was funny!

There are actually a lot of problems with obesity and chronic diseases like heart disease and high blood pressure in South Africa, much of which is due to diet. We don’t eat a lot of vegetables or fruit at home, so I stock up on it during the school day. (My new favorite is mangos!) But things like rice, paap, and chicken are certainly cheaper more efficient ways to get energy than buying lots of vegetables. What's more, it's pretty inconvenient to go grocery shopping and we have to carry our bags back on the mini-bus taxis so it's difficult to get a lot of things at once. We have two major projects while we're here, one of which is a four week independent study, and I'm thinking about doing something related to nutrition for one of these.

And school. Although some schools here are better than others, there clearly are a lot of issues. We visited schools last week, including schools with disabilities, and there are a lot of issues with overcrowding and school culture. Schools have fees, and even public ones can have different fees, so usually the schools with higher fees are better. There are some really good private schools, but these are generally too expensive for people in Cato. Interestingly, the speakers we’ve had who have talked to us about the schools say that a lot of money is spent on public education, but it doesn’t seem to be making a difference overall. Instead the culture of the schools and the teachers is what seems to be a deciding factor, and this is obviously a difficult area to have interventions. The teacher’s union is really strong so it’s difficult to get them to change things about their teaching. Also, integration after apartheid is still an issue being sorted out. I visited a school for children with mental disabilities; there was a lot of variation between classes and teachers. But one thing that struck me is that there a lot of classes there with children who just haven’t been able to succeed in ‘regular’ schools due to being slower learners. Their teachers said that if there were smaller classes and more personal attention they would probably be able to succeed in the regular system.

Personally, I am very frustrated with school bureaucracy. My cousin Thulane who is living with us just moved here after going to a school near Johannesburg last year. He hasn’t been able to get a hold of his transcript so the schools didn’t let him register initially (school started about 3 weeks ago). Now all the schools say they are full, and nobody has been able to help them get around this, which seems absolutely ridiculous. I’ve been trying to help out by calling from the SIT phone, but it is just so hard to get a hold of anyone. The schools still say they are full. I got in touch with someone from the education department that says he can get Thulane into a school if we can get is transcript and a transfer card, so now I’ve been trying to call his old school and get them to fax it. Hopefully this fax will come in soon so he can start school. You can only stay in school until you’re 20 here, so it’s so important that he go this year so he can finish in time. It’s just been such a frustrating process for me, so much more so for my family, and it would be really sad if this kid falls through the cracks. I really hope that this will work out.

Well now you’ve heard my rant! Other than this I’m still having a good time and learning a lot. This weekend we are going to Gxwetlintaba which is a rural village in the Eastern Cape. We’re camping a couple of nights, going on a six hour hike which is supposed to be both beautiful and exhausting, and staying with families there for a couple of nights as well. Hope everyone is well, and I’ll let you know how it goes!

Snapshots of Cato

As requested, here are a few pictures of my home stay! We're only allowed to upload three pictures a week, and the server is really slow, so these will appear gradually. Enjoy!!


This first one is a picture of my neighborhood. My house is the one on the left!



This is my mama and the baby in my house.



Kids chasing bubbles! The woman in the doorway runs a tuck shop from her house. Tuck shops are little stores around that sell things like snacks, airtime for cell phones, soda, and soap.



This is another picture of a street in Cato Manor. I think a little kid might have taken this picture, but I think it's pretty good.

My New Home

So we have officially started our homestays! There are actually more people in the house than I was expecting. There’s my host mom, mama, three sisters, Nono, 13, Slindile (Slie), 21, and Sithembile, 24, a cousin, Thendla who is 18, and Sithembile’s 10 month old baby. Very packed! They speak Zulu as well as English, some better than others (Nono speaks perfect English). I am able to practice my limited Zulu, although I am really struggling with this.

Cato Manor is a township right outside of Durban. It has a really interesting history. It is described as have being a really diverse area with lots of friendliness and cultural richness. During apartheid it was illegal for Africans to buy European liquor, and Cato Manor was a hub for homemade beer. It experienced frequent raids by the police after it was made illegal as the government wanted the rights to sell it. With this, and along with the fact that areas where people of different races being able to happily live together definitely went against the ideals of apartheid, people were systematically removed from Cato Manor around 1959-64 and relocated to racially designated places. People started moving back around 1990, and even more so after 1994 when apartheid ended. My mama said she moved to Cato Manor in 1993, so right about this time.

Cato Manor is still a really friendly place. There are always neighbor kids over at our house, people are always walking around the street, everyone says hi to one another, and there are sooo many kids everywhere! There are always neighbor kids over at our house, and I can’t walk anywhere without little kids running over to me and asking me to pick them up or play a game. They are all so cute! On Friday I spent some time playing with a group of kids with some other SIT kids. We did lots of singing/dancing games that were funny, and some will help me practice my Zulu! We played a version of duck duck goose, soccer, and this game they taught us that’s kind of like dodge ball, except you’re running around. I taught them ‘Bubble gum bubble gum in a dish,’ mostly because I was absolutely exhausted and wanted to sit down. I don’t have enough stamina to play that hard anymore! They don’t have many things to play with; they made a ball out of paper and a plastic bag I think, and the soccer ball was pretty flat, and they have some happy meal toys. Even so, they are very creative in what they do to occupy themselves and really like singing/dancing games.

My house is painted a bright orange on the outside, and my room is blue. The house is probably about the size of my kitchen and living room. The floors are cement/linoleum and really clean. The walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling so you can hear the TV and people talking wherever you are. The TV is always on- the favorite show around here is called Generations and it’s a soap opera in half Zulu, half English. I’m having a hard time catching up, but there’s a girl with her face bandaged because her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend stabbed her with a piece of glass. Nono loves pop music, which is pretty much the same as in the US, and she knows all the words and sings and dances along to that. There is indoor plumbing in the house but no hot water, so I boil water for my bath. We're really careful not to waste anything- water, food, everything else.

My mama works during the week cleaning at a hospital and Nono is in high school. Slie is planning to go to college next year to study model engineering, and right now she and Sithembile are starting jobs. My family is very warm and welcoming and I’m enjoying getting to know them. I went with Nono, Mama, and Thendla to do errands in Durban this weekend and it was fun to walk around in all the business of downtown. We rode mini-bus taxis around- they drive super fast and blast techno-music! I got a lot of stares being the only white person there. People were a bit confused when Nono would tell them that I'm her sister! My mama told me that most of the people who have cars will go to the malls to shop instead, and she said that "mostly Africans and poor Indians shop downtown" where you can get to by taxi. This seemed to be true by my observations, but on the other hand a lecturer told us that most of the people in homeless shelters are white people and migrant workers. Obviously socio-economic issues and peoples perceptions of race and ethnicity are complicated. I'm struck with how bluntly people talk about 'race' here though; really different than the concern about being politically correct that is my experience in the US.

There are clearly very different worlds within South Africa. Many people here avoid the poverty, as most tourists do and we did the first few days where we stayed in hostels and visited museums and beaches. And there’s certainly poverty beyond the townships that we are living in- we pass homemade shacks built of scraps of metal and plastic, and there are those without homes at all. I am living in one of the nicer homes in Cato! As students we have access to some of the best health care available, but many people do not have access to health care at all and South Africa as a whole is home to so many health problems.

I’m adjusting well to living with my family in Cato, although it’s certainly a reality check. It’s uncomfortable having my own room when the others in the family are sharing the two others, and having my bag of medication, my i-pod, my camera, etc. when I’m living in a place with potential food security issues. They all seem to enjoy each other's company though, and it's fun becoming friends with my sisters!

This week I am visiting a school for children with disabilities, and next Friday the SIT group has a night out in Durban which should be fun. I’ll let you know how the week goes! Sala kahle!