Over the weekend, we went to High Africa. It's this ropes course and conference center. I didn't really feel like I was in Africa. It was a really American concept; team building and meetings. It was fun though. I hadn't been out of the city yet and the drive up to the center was one of the most beautiful drives. There was a tunnel that cut through a massive mountain. It was also so cold up there that I had on all the clothes I had packed for the whole weekend at once. We had to get all 10 of us across various low ropes right after we got out of the van. We're a group of talkers, so that was pretty interesting. On Saturday, we had a whole bunch of expectations workshops. We talked about what we thought before we arrived, during orientation, and all that fun stuff.
We also decided what sites we're going to do our service at. I'm working at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital, probably with little kids. CIEE has been sending students to this site for 3 semesters now, so there is a good relationship between the two organizations. Last semester, one of the girls set up a Buttons for Hope program. The adults at the hospital have lots of free time, so once a week, a man named Jonathan comes in and makes really simple jewelry with them. The buttons are donated to the program and he sells the products for 10-50 rand. We worked with the adults for about 3 hours and I personally made about 7 necklaces. All the money goes towards improving something more sustainable than just giving the patients the profits. Last semester, the money went towards buying educational toys for the children's wards.
Today, I just played with little babies. One of them, Zulu, called me auntie and was really interested in my sweatshirt's drawstrings. He also tried to take my necklace. Another little girl would go down the slide and she loved when I swung her up over my head. I don't know that much about TB, but the kids seemed like perfectly happy and healthy kids. I heard some wheezing, but nothing out of the ordinary.
The hospital's staff try really hard to keep the kids active and maintain a sense of normalcy in their lives. Kids in the TB hospital can stay for any time from 2 months to a year, while most adults stay for over a year. The kids go to school and have after-school programs and can go home on the weekends. The adults just kind of hang out around their wards. I don't think they can really leave the hospital to see their families or have jobs. TB is more contagious with adults than with kids. Whenever I'm inside and around adults, we both wear masks. With the kids, we don't need masks. That's why I like working with them. We're also not allowed to work with the adults. I just wish they had more to do..
My classes are going well so far. I'm taking Social Research Methods, which will be really useful to use at our service sites and the creation of our projects. I'm also taking Poverty and Development and Afrikaans. Poverty and Development should be a really interesting course that "covers everything all over the world." Anna, our teacher, seems really cool and very passionate about the advocacy work she does. I decided to take Afrikaans because it's more what they speak at my service site. And the schedule seemed much better. So far, I've learned about a history of the language. It was used by the apartheid government to oppress non-whites, but it was also a slave language. Quite complex. Suzalle is a great teacher because she is so interactive. We've watched youtube videos about the music scene. She is all about teaching us about the culture of Afrikaans.
Here is a picture of the view from High Africa
Hi Britty! No heat in the buildings reminds me of Ecuador, eh?!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you're a "group of talkers." ;)
Love,
Pops
When's the next update, Britt? You are my new online reading!
ReplyDeleteLove, Jen