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!
wowww, that looks lovely
ReplyDelete...have fun with rural excursion take 2!