I had a super busy week/weekend! Like I mentioned before, we had tons of stuff due last week, and I felt like all I was doing was writing. I turned in an almost 40 page paper on Tuesday, gave a presentation on Wednesday, and handed in my Independent study project proposal on Friday. Then we went on to Relay for Life on Saturday. The SIT group was volunteering/walking, and with all the work the previous week, we were pretty unprepared! All the other teams had super decorated tents, tons of food, and team t-shirts, and we showed up with no snacks, no decorations, and two ugly brown tents. Go Team America! It turned out to be pretty fun though. Everyone was really nice, there were tons of people there, and there was lots of food and things to buy, so we didn’t go hungry. Our neighbors took pity on us as well and brought us muffins and pancakes the next morning. They said they knew we were in a recession and wanted to help us out a bit, haha. Then on Sunday my roommates and I went to a concert of a South African band called Freshly Ground in the Durban botanical gardens. We brought a wine and cheese picnic lunch and it was a beautiful day, so it was a lot of fun. Freshly Ground was great; I really like their music. So, it was a good Durban weekend. I feel like I’m finally starting to know my way around more, and know things going on and things to do, right as I’m getting set to leave again!
I start my independent study project (ISP) on Wednesday- two days! I’m super excited to be out doing my own project- we’ve all been going really crazy listening to lectures so much these past weeks. For my project, I’m going to be doing a three week practicum at a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) which serves a large rural population in a small town about three hours away from Durban. There are two other girls doing their project there too, including my friend Sara, and we’re living together in a flat within walking distance of the hospital. My topic is pediatric diarrheal disease, which is a big problem in KZN. I’ll be learning about it while doing ‘participant observation,’ so shadowing doctors and nurses and helping out where I can, and also interviewing health professionals and parents of kids in the hospital about some of the social issues connected to childhood diarrheal diseases in the area. I’m hoping I can shadow a community health worker for a few days as well. I’m really excited- it will be really interesting to spend time in this hospital and learn more about the health issues there. I will have limited internet access though, so don’t be alarmed if I don’t respond to e-mail for awhile. So until next time, sala khale!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Amatekulu
So we had our third rural homestay last week and guess what- success! No sickness! Either my immune system is getting stronger or I was a little more careful about drinking my own water. This time we were in Amatekulu, about an hour outstide of Durban and staying with Community Health Workers. Community Health Workers are community members who go around visiting different houses and teaching people about health issues in the area. This includes things like HIV/AIDS and TB as well as info related to pregnancy, child health, nutrition, etc. They also help check up on people who are sick with things like diarrhea and try to teach them about making rehydration solution and encourage them to visit the clinic if it gets to bad.
My friend Sara and I stayed with my mama, who was the CHW, her husband, her 27 year old daughter Mbali, and Mbali’s three kids, age 10, 8, and 4. The four year old, Anele was crazy! She was super cute but all over the place and every time I sat down she promptly much ran over and jumped on me. Similar to other four year olds I’ve encountered, she also thought it was pretty funny to punch my stomach and pinch my arms. I’m surprised I was able to leave without any bruises! We had to walk down dirt rows through fields with super tall grass and dotted with farms to get to our house, and again, the country side was beautiful. There was no electricity, so we had some early bedtimes and early morning wakeups. My family was really friendly and laughed a lot which was fun. One night they made us sing the US National Anthem for them! I hadn't sung that for awhile!
One of the days we got to go with our mama on her CHW rounds, which we learned a lot from. She has about 100 houses in her district, and we visited five that day. There are big socio-economic divides, even in the rural areas. One of the houses we visited was huge, had crazy nice kitchen appliances, hard wood floor, and chandeliers, while others were more traditional looking round huts with no running water or electricity. I was struck and alarmed by how many malnourished kids we saw that day; so many kids I saw looked like they were stunted or had kwashiorkor.
Now we’re in Durban again in our apartments. I’m living with my friends Sara, Laura, and Allison, and we’ve become a little family cooking dinner together and writing papers at the kitchen table. It’s weird living here after Cato Manor, and it’s sad not being with our families, but it’s nice in terms of being able to get out and see a bit more of Durban and being able to get some work done. We have a lot of papers due in the next week, and it would be especially hard to do these with the noise and everything in Cato. The program really is flying by, and our independent study is quickly approaching (April 1!)! I'll leave you for now with a few more pictures!
My Amatekulu family
Here's Anele!
Some of my Cato family at the end of home stay party: Mu (the baby), my sister Slie, my cousin Thulane, and my older sister Sithembile's 7 year old son, Luthando, who lived with us on weekends.
My roomies!
My friend Sara and I stayed with my mama, who was the CHW, her husband, her 27 year old daughter Mbali, and Mbali’s three kids, age 10, 8, and 4. The four year old, Anele was crazy! She was super cute but all over the place and every time I sat down she promptly much ran over and jumped on me. Similar to other four year olds I’ve encountered, she also thought it was pretty funny to punch my stomach and pinch my arms. I’m surprised I was able to leave without any bruises! We had to walk down dirt rows through fields with super tall grass and dotted with farms to get to our house, and again, the country side was beautiful. There was no electricity, so we had some early bedtimes and early morning wakeups. My family was really friendly and laughed a lot which was fun. One night they made us sing the US National Anthem for them! I hadn't sung that for awhile!
One of the days we got to go with our mama on her CHW rounds, which we learned a lot from. She has about 100 houses in her district, and we visited five that day. There are big socio-economic divides, even in the rural areas. One of the houses we visited was huge, had crazy nice kitchen appliances, hard wood floor, and chandeliers, while others were more traditional looking round huts with no running water or electricity. I was struck and alarmed by how many malnourished kids we saw that day; so many kids I saw looked like they were stunted or had kwashiorkor.
Now we’re in Durban again in our apartments. I’m living with my friends Sara, Laura, and Allison, and we’ve become a little family cooking dinner together and writing papers at the kitchen table. It’s weird living here after Cato Manor, and it’s sad not being with our families, but it’s nice in terms of being able to get out and see a bit more of Durban and being able to get some work done. We have a lot of papers due in the next week, and it would be especially hard to do these with the noise and everything in Cato. The program really is flying by, and our independent study is quickly approaching (April 1!)! I'll leave you for now with a few more pictures!
My Amatekulu family
Here's Anele!
Some of my Cato family at the end of home stay party: Mu (the baby), my sister Slie, my cousin Thulane, and my older sister Sithembile's 7 year old son, Luthando, who lived with us on weekends.
My roomies!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Rural Excursion, Take Two
Our rural excursion was much more successful than the last! Only five of us got sick this time, and the recovery time was much faster. I was one of those five, go figure, but hey, even if the rural areas don’t like me, I still like them! I think a little Cipro action might be in order though....
We started off spending a couple days in the Drakensburg Mountains. Once again, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, and the cool weather was a nice break from the Durban heat. The first day we hiked up to see so Koi San Paintings on rocks, which was really cool. The San people were nomadic hunters and gatherers and are considered one of the oldest groups of people in the world and used to live in this area, now the small number living more traditionally mostly live in the Kalahari desert: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561208/San_(people).html
Here’s a picture of one of the paintings:
The next day we set off to find the waterfall/stream our AD, Zed, had told us about. The ground was muddy due to the recent rain and there wasn’t much of a path, but we were determined. As we started getting close we looked up the mountain and saw at least 10 baboons. A few of them ran away, but most of them just sat there watching us. Not knowing much about baboons except that they are territorial and definitely bigger, stronger, and faster than we are, this made us a little nervous. Yet, we prevailed, and finally reached the freezing cold but clear waters of what we named Baboon Lagoon. We didn’t see any more of the baboons, but as you can see from this picture, we definitely would have been able to fight them off!
A side note about our all girls program- although it can be a little much at time, it's actually working out ok! We've all gotten pretty close and I think because we're an all female group we feel like we can talk about anything we want anytime. I imagine we might drive our AD a little crazy, but it's a good group overall and we support each other well and have a lot of fun.
Later that day we set off for Impendle, the village where we would be staying. Impendle is a very rural area, although there is a town center with stores and a clinic.
We lived with families and spent the day learning about community health initiatives in the area. My friend Sara and I stayed with a really nice couple in a cozy house with electricity but no running water. They spoke some English and we spoke a little Zulu, so we were able to communicate pretty well. Here's a picture of me w/ my Impendle mama and baba:
My baba had such an interesting stories to tell us. In the late 80s and early 90s he worked for the ANC as part of the anti-apartheid movement. He was in great danger because of this, and the ANC sent him to Poland and England to tell people about what was going on in South Africa and try to mobilize foreign aid. Now neither he nor his wife have a job though, and I find it really sad and ironic that he worked so hard for the freedom struggle, going on strike from his original job with the ANC, yet the ANC hasn’t really taken care of him beyond that. Don’t get me wrong, he was quick to tell us home much better life was after 1994, but this is just another example of the long way there is to go.
Which brings me back to my other homestay! We are leaving our home stay families this Saturday, which makes me really sad. We will be spending another week traveling and then we will live in some apartments near the beach for the couple weeks before our ISP starts. It will be really nice to have some alone time again, and it will certainly be fun to live with my friends on the beach, but I’m really going to miss my family. They are such wonderful people, so open to bringing me into their lives. I’m going to miss my sisters especially; I feel like we’ve become friends this past month. It’s uncomfortable leaving as well; when going in we were told to leave our privilege and power behind and really embrace the community with an open mind. I’ve certainly tried to do this, but our privilege and power becomes all the more apparent when we move out to live in beach condos. I suppose it’s good to feel uncomfortable about this- I’d be concerned if I didn’t. But it’s going to be hard to negotiate this with myself. I guess the best thing we all can do is remember the challenges people in Cato and places like it face and keep these in mind in our work in future careers and policies we advocate for or support. And I’m going to try my very best to keep in touch with my family after I leave!
As a final note, I think have a new direction for my ISP- pediatric diarrheal disease in rural areas. My interest may have been sparked by my personal experience, but this is a major cause of child and infant morbidity and mortality in South Africa and hence a vital area of study. Right now I’m trying to get in touch with a hospital in the Eastern Cape that I could be based at; hopefully this will work out!
We started off spending a couple days in the Drakensburg Mountains. Once again, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, and the cool weather was a nice break from the Durban heat. The first day we hiked up to see so Koi San Paintings on rocks, which was really cool. The San people were nomadic hunters and gatherers and are considered one of the oldest groups of people in the world and used to live in this area, now the small number living more traditionally mostly live in the Kalahari desert: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561208/San_(people).html
Here’s a picture of one of the paintings:
The next day we set off to find the waterfall/stream our AD, Zed, had told us about. The ground was muddy due to the recent rain and there wasn’t much of a path, but we were determined. As we started getting close we looked up the mountain and saw at least 10 baboons. A few of them ran away, but most of them just sat there watching us. Not knowing much about baboons except that they are territorial and definitely bigger, stronger, and faster than we are, this made us a little nervous. Yet, we prevailed, and finally reached the freezing cold but clear waters of what we named Baboon Lagoon. We didn’t see any more of the baboons, but as you can see from this picture, we definitely would have been able to fight them off!
A side note about our all girls program- although it can be a little much at time, it's actually working out ok! We've all gotten pretty close and I think because we're an all female group we feel like we can talk about anything we want anytime. I imagine we might drive our AD a little crazy, but it's a good group overall and we support each other well and have a lot of fun.
Later that day we set off for Impendle, the village where we would be staying. Impendle is a very rural area, although there is a town center with stores and a clinic.
We lived with families and spent the day learning about community health initiatives in the area. My friend Sara and I stayed with a really nice couple in a cozy house with electricity but no running water. They spoke some English and we spoke a little Zulu, so we were able to communicate pretty well. Here's a picture of me w/ my Impendle mama and baba:
My baba had such an interesting stories to tell us. In the late 80s and early 90s he worked for the ANC as part of the anti-apartheid movement. He was in great danger because of this, and the ANC sent him to Poland and England to tell people about what was going on in South Africa and try to mobilize foreign aid. Now neither he nor his wife have a job though, and I find it really sad and ironic that he worked so hard for the freedom struggle, going on strike from his original job with the ANC, yet the ANC hasn’t really taken care of him beyond that. Don’t get me wrong, he was quick to tell us home much better life was after 1994, but this is just another example of the long way there is to go.
Which brings me back to my other homestay! We are leaving our home stay families this Saturday, which makes me really sad. We will be spending another week traveling and then we will live in some apartments near the beach for the couple weeks before our ISP starts. It will be really nice to have some alone time again, and it will certainly be fun to live with my friends on the beach, but I’m really going to miss my family. They are such wonderful people, so open to bringing me into their lives. I’m going to miss my sisters especially; I feel like we’ve become friends this past month. It’s uncomfortable leaving as well; when going in we were told to leave our privilege and power behind and really embrace the community with an open mind. I’ve certainly tried to do this, but our privilege and power becomes all the more apparent when we move out to live in beach condos. I suppose it’s good to feel uncomfortable about this- I’d be concerned if I didn’t. But it’s going to be hard to negotiate this with myself. I guess the best thing we all can do is remember the challenges people in Cato and places like it face and keep these in mind in our work in future careers and policies we advocate for or support. And I’m going to try my very best to keep in touch with my family after I leave!
As a final note, I think have a new direction for my ISP- pediatric diarrheal disease in rural areas. My interest may have been sparked by my personal experience, but this is a major cause of child and infant morbidity and mortality in South Africa and hence a vital area of study. Right now I’m trying to get in touch with a hospital in the Eastern Cape that I could be based at; hopefully this will work out!
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