Four Months Fly...

WE MADE IT!

We survived the stress of our independent study projects (ISPs) and successfully completed our papers and presentations! It was 7 days spent of endless typing in a hostel where the six of us sat in our room of bunk beds for hours working. Most of us finished our papers right around 50-60 pages...I thought it used to be stressful getting assigned a 25 page term paper- a lot of things have been put into perspective! It was a bittersweet feeling that Friday after we finished our presentations...our semester was really over which meant we would be leaving South Africa so soon! However, it was a huge stress relief to be finished with the assignments and we were all looking forward to heading to St. Lucia to go on safari for two days.

Overall the Community Health & Social Policy study program exceeded my expectations for a study abroad experience. It was really amazing to expand our knowledge on Public Health related issues through field studies, talking with experts, and through our very own day to day experiences living in several different communities. I would really recommend this program to any students who are interested in studying abroad....for both an amazing adventure and high quality learning experience in the field of our major (Public Health).

*and no we are not getting paid to testify for the program by our SIT professors and advisors.

More than anything from this experience I feel I have a much deeper understanding of the burden of HIV/AIDS on South Africa's health care system. I've read and studied the AIDS epidemic for years...but nothing puts the disease into perspective than working in the clinics supplying ARVs (antiretroviral drugs for people who are HIV positive), living in the communities that have been hit the hardest, and caring for the children who have been orphaned due to this devastating disease. The scary part is that there does not appear to be any signs of the disease rates declining and children will continue to be left parent-less for many years to come. It brought me to the realization that AIDS is not an event, or a series of events, instead it is an ongoing struggle that communities will continue to face for decades to come. The pandemic, and how we respond to it, forces us to confront the difficult issues of sex, drugs, and inequity. The spread of this one virus raises difficult questions about why we do the things we do, why we believe what we believe, and finally who we are and what we value.

That’s all for now…thanks to everyone who actually followed and read our blog, we hope that you enjoyed it J

I’ll leave you with some photos from our safari…

Zebra

Mama and Baby Zebra

Mama and Baby Antelope

A Herd of about 100 Elephants Crossing

Still More Coming!

White Rhino...that nearly charged our car

I loved the Giraffes!

Hippos

Hippo Yawning

Sunset on the River

Also, I (Alyssa) will be doing some more traveling throughout South Africa to visit Cape Town as well as the countries of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, and possibly Kenya. I’ll continue to use this same blog to post some experiences (although they may not be Public Health related) and pictures since many of my friends and family have this website address already.

Sala Kahle

Back From ISP!

It’s so hard to believe that our time spent in our ISP locations is already over! Saying good-bye to the kids and the staff at the Clouds of Hope orphanage was really hard, however, I have a feeling that I’ll go back to the organization to volunteer for a much longer period of time after graduation. For now, we are all back in Durban and hard at work on our Independent Study Projects. Our papers will be quite long (I’m already at 30 pages single spaced and have a lot more to go…yikes!), and then we must prepare a 15 minute presentation on our experience and findings to our academic directors, advisors, and fellow students. Our papers and presentations are due this upcoming Friday….but then we are free!!! It will feel really great to get this project finished, but at the same time that means our program will be coming to an end…which is unreal just how fast this time has gone by.

After Friday we will have a free Saturday here in Durban to say goodbye to our host families and friends and then as a group we will head to St. Lucia. We stayed there for one night after the Reed Dance and it was really beautiful so we are all excited to go back as a reward for all of our hard work. There we will get the chance to go on safari for two days and relax on the beach before heading back to the states on December 2^nd.

Until then I just wanted to share some pictures from my ISP time spent in Underberg for the past three and half weeks where I lived and worked at the Clouds of Hope orphanage.

On the Clouds of Hope grounds in Underberg, South Africa

Clouds of Hope

Clouds of Hope cottages...where I lived for the past 3 1/2 weeks

Anele and I, it was hard not to bring her home with me!!

Syamthanda

Graduation Day from Playgroup :)

Apiwe

Playing Soccer After School

Anele

Babies, babies, and more babies

Life here in Eshowe is both uneventful and eventful at the same time... while my days all pretty much consist of the same thing, I'm learning a ton every single day.

We get up early to have breakfast at 6:45, take a 20 minute walk to the hospital and head to the doctors meeting at 7:30. From there, I head up to the labor ward and spend the day talking with and learning from the sisters. Some days are a lot more exciting than others, there have been a few that there haven't been any deliveries, but for the most part I've seen a lot! Each delivery is a little bit different, and I'm starting to learn about all the circumstances and complications the sisters have to handle. I'm so impressed about how much they know.

Last Friday I was invited down to theater (the operating rooms) to scrub in on some C-sections (or Caesers as they call them here)! I thought I would just get to see one, but the doctor who was performing them let me come to his next two as well. I was a little nervous, especially after one of the doctors said the last student passed out and needed 6 stitches when he observed a Caeser....

I was totally fine though, and thought the whole procedure was SO interesting. I never thought I'd be that interested in surgery, but it really was so cool. Each one took about 45 minutes or so, but the actual extraction of the baby took only 5 to 10, the rest of the time spent suturing. After being in theatre for 3 and a half hours on my feet I was definitely tired... I don't know how the doctors on call do it all night!

Every Wednesday Sally and I have been helping out in the pharmacy, and while it doesn't exactly relate to our projects, it's our little way of giving back and we are learning a ton. Wednesdays are diabetes day in the chronic outpatient clinic, so literally hundreds of people come to collect their meds. It's super hectic, but we got the hang of it pretty quickly. We're both confident that we could fill a diabetes scrip in our sleep at this point.

Weekends haven't been too eventful (Eshowe is a pretty residential town)but we're going to check out the George Hotel and brewery sometime and hopefully find the old fort we've heard about....

It's hard to believe that I only have one more week in Eshowe, and only about 3 weeks left in South Africa! It's been such an incredible experience so far, and even though I'm soooo excited to get home, I'll definitely miss everything here.

Khotso, Pula, Nala

Updates from Underberg!!!

Saturday

Telise and I moved out of the Pile Inn Bed and Breakfast and moved into Clouds of Hope cottage # 11. It’s really convenient living on the Clouds property now, which makes the commute to work every day just about 1 minute. It’s also quite nice to walk outside of your front door everyday and get ambushed by a million hugs from the kids! They are all so adorable and so sweet. After we moved in on Saturday we went and hiked the mountain that is right behind the orphanage grounds, it’s called “the place of echoes” (I forgot the Zulu name for it). We saw tons of geckos and lizards while we were climbing and then had a nice lunch at the top on a big boulder. After our hike we walked into the town of Underberg to run to the grocery store and to hang out at this local café called “The Lemon Tree.” We’ve already become regulars here, it’s such a great place to hang out, write post cards, read, type up our ISPs, and drink delicious smoothies while enjoying the back patio. Town is just about a mile from the orphanage, but it is a really nice walk through the forest, we’ve ended up coming into town just about every day since we arrived. When we got back to the orphanage we set up a movie for all of the kids to watch in the lounge of the big house and then passed out from a long day!

Sunday

The next morning, Sunday, was also quite an adventurous day! Telise and I signed up to travel the Sani Pass (a long stretch of winding roads that crosses over into Lesotho). We left around 9:30 a.m. and traveled by 4x4 about 50 km until we reached the very top. At the top is where “The Highest Pub in Africa” is located so we stopped there for lunch and drinks. Afterwards we visited a traditional Lesotho village where the Basotho people live. The other people in our car were in quite a bit of shock when we arrived and kept talking about how poor these people must be. This was a bit awkward, especially since Telise and I have lived in similar villages throughout the course of our rural home stays, which makes us realize just how lucky we are to have the opportunities that we’ve had throughout this program. Lesotho is called the “Kingdom in the Sky,” and the Lesotho people are known as the “People of the Blanket” because everyone is always wrapped up in big wool blankets to stay warm. We saw lots of shepherds who are dressed especially warm…and one Afrikaans lady in our car kept talking about how scary they looked…which was also awkward…especially since the lady lives in Johannesburg and there are way scarier things going on over there…But it was a really cool experience. We also got to go into one lady’s round house to learn a little bit more about their culture. The traditional greeting that the Basotho people say is “Khotso, Pula, Nala,” which means that you wish that person peace, rain, and prosperity. Then we tasted some Basotho beer…it was a sour taste that reminded me of the traditional Zulu dish, Maas (which is just soured milk and mealy meal), and THEN we tasted some homemade fresh bread…it was so delicious…I thought steam bread was good….but this gave it a run for its money that’s for sure. We all bought a few more pieces and then headed back to Underberg. It was a long day of driving on the side of steep cliffs but it was so much fun, and a really awesome opportunity to have while we are staying out here in the Drakensberg Mountains.

P.S. I apologize in advance, I thought I would be able to upload updates daily but I have no cell phone reception out here on the orphanage grounds, so I can only post once I’m in town and have a bit more service in my modem!

This past week has gone by waayyy too fast! Telise and I have been busy working in the manager’s office that was recently redone. The manager is a really nice man who lives on the orphanage grounds with his wife and daughter in one of the cottages. He’s very soft spoken and has two little Jack Russell terriers that follow him around all day long. One of the dogs, Lilly, snuck into the playgroup with the little kids today and come out covered in pink marker…it looks like she got attacked by the kids. We’ve been working on re-filing the children’s documents and report cards, which is also where we have been gathering the majority of our data. We spend most mornings collecting our data and doing some small jobs around the orphanage whenever we’re asked to. At times it can get depressing reading the kids files and seeing into their unhappy pasts…many of the children lost their parents due to AIDS, or were simply abandoned after they were born. One girl was dumped in a garbage can after birth until a police officer found her in a plastic bag still attached to the placenta. Many of the other children have been physically or sexually abused by other family members that were supposed to be looking after them, or the kids ended up in households to raise themselves.

In the afternoon we head back to our cottage for lunch, play with the kids outside for a while and then walk the mile into town to get some work done on the Internet. On Tuesday nights we are invited to eat dinner with Gogo Abi in the big house with about 10 other children living there. It’s great to get some more Zulu cooking when we can…and it was a really great way for us to bond with some of the older kids as well. Gogo Abi is really one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. It’s great just to be around her…I don’t think she ever really gets tired, she’s always in her white tennis shoes running from place to place and still caring for small children as young as 2 in addition to all of the other children she has adopted from babies and are now in their late teens. You would never guess that’s she’s actually 76 years old…she drives a big 4x4 pick-up truck to take the kids to school and pick them up in the afternoon. She’s so witty she always keeps everyone laughing and smiling!

Alrighty, well that’s all I’m going to post for now…hopefully I will get a chance to upload pictures at some point…I’ll work on that for the next post!

Sala Kahle

Alyssa

Eshowe update

My first few days at Eshowe have certainly been exciting! To explain everything would take forever, but here's some highlights:

-I got to see my first delivery on Friday! Two girls came in at the same time around 9 in the morning, so I got to see the whole process from admission to delivery. It was pretty exciting, and the nurses were great at answering questions for me and explaining how charting works. Yes, the baby was pretty adorable, and no, I wasn't grossed out at all! I guess my career choice of being an obstetric & gynecology PA won't have to change :)

-Saturday was my 21st birthday! Not quite as exciting as many 21sts are in the states, but we had a good day including seeing some zebras, taking a walk on the beach (I've officially spent more time at the Indian Ocean than the Atlantic...), and having a braai (South African's bbq... delicious).

-Today we checked out the Dlinza forest, a 20 minute walk from the B&B. There's a cool aerial boardwalk, a viewing tower, and some trails that wind through the forest. It was beautiful, and our tour guide/security guy took pictures of us and let us climb some 600 year old trees in the forest (according to him, all the trees were "too old")

Tomorrow starts our first full week at the hospital. I'll be spending the majority of the time on the labor ward, but we're planning on helping out in the pharmacy for a day as well. This unlimited wi-fi is definitely a luxury, which means lots more posts in the next few weeks :)

-Kristen

Independent Study Projects Begin!

After our hectic week of traveling in rural South Africa and hiking in the Drakensberg Mountains we returned to a busy week of classes and lectures. Our proposals for our independent studies took up quite a bit of our time as we worked through all of the necessary steps to provide human subject consent forms and completed confidentiality and privacy requirements for each of our research projects. From there we worked on finalizing our placement sites, found housing locations, and contacted local advisors for our projects who are experts in the field we wish to study. We enjoyed our weekend in Durban and relaxed on the beach in the time we had off over the weekend. The next week jumped right back into intensive work as we each completed our Community Health Seminar final papers which ended up being upwards of 30 pages. By the time we turned in our papers it was already time to get started on our independent study projects. The next day we moved out of our flats on the beach and had drop offs all over…depending on where students decided to pursue their projects.

Kristen and another student were dropped off in a rural village, Eshowe where she will be working at a local hospital.

Myself and another student ended up heading back to the Drakensberg area in an area known as Underberg. The small town is located in the foothills of the mountains and we are both working at the local orphanage, “Clouds of Hope AIDS Project.” Today was only our second day at our site but we already love it! The children and the staff are truly amazing. The founder of the organization Gogo Abi, is pretty much a modern day Mother Theresa. Her father never believed in schooling for women so she wasn’t able to start her education until she was 14 and decided to enter 1^st grade. She finished her schooling and went on to become a nurse and midwife. She traveled throughout South Africa as a nurse until the AIDS epidemic broke out and she started adopting orphans in the area. At one point she had 6 adopted children and 6 foster children all living with her in her tiny 2 bedroom home. She wrote several articles for the local paper talking about the needs of these orphaned children in the community. The community responded and ended up raising enough funds to start the Clouds of Hope project. The orphanage has been quite successful and currently has 12 “cottages” on their property which each house up to 8 children with a house Mama living in each one of the cottages. Gogo Abi was recently presented with an award in San Francisco by the Dalai Lama. As we settled in Gogo told us about a few of the little kids as we sat down for tea. One little girl who looks to be about the size of 2 year old is actually over 4 years old. She was born very premature at 24 weeks, the nurses in the hospital thought the woman was having an abortion until they saw the fetus breathing. The mother was extremely sick at the time she gave birth with complications from AIDS and ended up dying of pneumonia 3 days after giving birth. Gogo Abi was called into the hospital and the nurses told her that the little girl was paralyzed, deaf, blind, and mentally retarded and would probably die soon. They asked Gogo Abi to take her in so that she could at least die in loving arms. Today, the little girl is 4 years old, she’s not mentally retarded, and able to see and hear just fine. She’s mobile but is still working to build up muscle in her legs to start walking…other than that she is quite healthy and speaks English quite well as I noticed when she crawled over to me and told me she wanted to sit in my lap. She’s quite adorable and I know already that she will be one of the children that I will grow to be attached to.

I thought that the kids would be afraid of us at first from previous experiences in rural villages with children having little exposure to white people. But I was more than happy to be greeted by a swarm of hugs from the entire pre-school class. There seem to be a million things to write about the organization so I will try to consistently update the blog on interesting stories and experiences that I have throughout the next three weeks here at Clouds.

Until then…Sala Kahle

Alyssa

Umthwalume to Drakensberg!!!

The next morning before heading north, we stopped by at a TB hospital. It was interesting to see the facilities and talk with some of the patients who were currently receiving treatment while living in the hospital. There were a lot of empty beds (a good thing!) and only one child living there during the time of our visit.

Outside of the TB Hospital in Umthwalume

After our hospital visit we said good-bye to Umthwalume and then had a 4 hour drive inland to Underberg, and then another short drive to Cobham, where our campsite was. Because it was pretty rainy, most of us chose to sleep in the hut that was right next to our site, it had tons of bunk beds and even a flushing toilet (but no electricity…). There was still a little sun when we first got there, so we got to see our beautiful surroundings. I’ve seen lots of mountains in my life, but these were by far the most amazing. We spent the rest of the day hanging out, enjoying a group dinner, and got to bed early for our big hike the next day.

Saturday

We were all a little nervous for our big hike… we were told that it was rare the whole group to make it to the top! The first hour of the hike was completely flat and followed along a stream- and because there were very few trees, we had amazing views the whole way.

In the Drakensberg Mountains

After the first hour, we started heading up. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this was the hardest hike that most of us had ever been on. It was incredibly steep, but luckily the view was incredible.

On our way up the mountain

A few of us (including the two of us) were feeling the altitude, and had to take a pretty long break before we didn’t feel so dizzy. Luckily, it was easy to continue at our own pace so we ended up splitting up. After what seemed like an endless climb, we finally reached the bushman paintings almost at the top. Even though they were only a few hundred years old, they were still pretty cool! After that, the trail seemed to end, and we couldn’t see the rest of the group, so we kind of had to figure out our own way to the top. We thought we had found a relatively easy way, until we were trying to traverse a near vertical drop to get to the top. It was pretty scary, and made some of us realize that we actually do have a fear of heights…. We finally reached the top, but had to scale a rock face (and almost died again) to reach the rest of the group. It was definitely worth it when we got to the top! All of us made it up, and Zed, our director, was pretty impressed. Clouds looked to be rolling in, so we started heading down pretty quick, but luckily we got tons of pictures. By the time we got to the base our feet were killing and we were all exhausted, but Zed pointed out a pool in the stream that we could swim in! It was pretty cold but super refreshing after our long hike, and we had an amazing time cooling off. We then had to walk the hour back to the site- a 6 hour hike in all! We were all sooo tired by the time we got back, and spent the afternoon relaxing and eating.

Drakensberg to....our Penthouse apartment!?

The next morning we packed up early and began the trip back to Durban. After stopping at the SIT house quick to pick up our extra luggage, we got to move into our penthouse apartment at Windemere (an apartment complex right on the Indian Ocean)! Our apartment is HUGE, I think we all went through a little bit of reverse culture shock of our new living conditions. The six of us in our apartment settled into our own beds, enjoyed our first hot shower in a good 10 days, and got prepared for a new week of lectures and classes back in Durban.

This week was quite an adventure, but we're happy to be settled again. We'll be here for another week and a half before we start our independent study projects!

Hope you enjoyed all the updates!

Sala Kahle

Alyssa & Kristen