Hi all, hope you had a nice Labour Day! It wasn’t a holiday here so I had my first day at the hospice on Monday. It was really interesting since I’ve never worked in a health care facility before. I met all of the patients and learned that most of them are HIV positive but some have Tuberculosis. I’m told that TB is as much a killer now in South Africa as AIDS is because even though it’s treatable, for some reason the doctors in clinics don’t take the testing for it seriously and turn patients away without medication (according to the hospice worker I was speaking with). Then the illness goes untreated for several months so by the time a patient is brought to the hospice, they are very weak and frail. Their weak state is due to both disease (HIV or TB) and malnourishment. I can’t believe how skinny some of the patients here are. There’s a little boy that I’ve been working with who looks like he came straight out of a World Vision infomercial. He has the tiniest waist and legs to the point that he is 5 years old but wearing pants for an 18 month old. When he arrived he was so weak he couldn’t walk but now he has more strength so I’ve been getting him to play games and catch with me.

Of course with such a pandemic as HIV/AIDS, the patients do not always become well enough to go home. One patient died at the hospice last week. It’s heartbreaking after getting to know them while they’re here but sometimes by the time they come to the hospice, they are so ill that they have basically come so that they can have a comfortable place to die. As you can imagine, I’m already learning a lot about the culture of South Africa and the nature of HIV and those it affects.

So far I’ve spent two days getting to know the patients and staff. They’re a nice, welcoming group and I’m looking forward to working with them. I also spent some time working with the children here. I don’t have a lot of experience with small children/babies, but I’ve already fallen in love with one of the little girls. It’s pretty amazing how you can show your love for a child without even being able to speak the same language. I’m sure I’ll write more on this later... better wrap it up now as my internet time is limited. I’ll end with a couple pictures of where I’m staying, as pictures are always the best part of blogs. :)

The view from my room at the guest house

The room I'm staying in

Outside of the guest house

The front gate (for those of you who were concerned about my safety, this is just to prove that there is some measure of security here!)

Cheers,
K