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!