Reunion

It is 7:30 am here and believe it or not, I've been up since 5am. Crazy the things jet lag does to you. The sun is already shining, birds are singing, and chickens are pecking around. I love this place!! It feels like I've been here awhile already even though its only been 2 days. I'll give you a quick run through to what I've experienced so far. Marc, Rebecca, and Abigail picked me up at the airport. Unfortunately, they only had 2 people working in passport control so it took about 1.5 hours to get through. I didn't arrive on the property until midnight. I have wonderful friends that they were willing to wait for me with their 3 month old.

Quick sidenote: Abigail is beautiful and sweet. I am so happy to get to spend time with her. Things are much easier this time having dear friends and being familiar with the property.

There are currently 7 other volunteers and several more people living on the church property so I have lots of people to talk with. I have my own room and share a bathroom, kitchen, etc. I will take pictures in the future. Last night we had a braai which is a bar-b-q and it was nice to get to know the other volunteers. They come from Germany, UK, Brazil, and Holland. There is another American as well. Yesterday I went to the clinic where I will be working and met the nurses. They are called sisters here so it is king of funny with my Catholic upbringing to call all of these nurses, Sister Sarah, etc. The clinic is going to be an incredible experience. It is located only about 5 miles from here and is in what is called an informal settlement. Basically, people started squatting there and building shacks to live in. It has grown to around 40,000 people now. Some live in government housing now that are small concrete houses with a few rooms, but many are still in tiny shacks of corrugated metal, wood, etc. I'm not sure how many clinics are in the area, but I know that this clinic sees LOTS of people. There are no appointments. You just show up and take a number and wait for it to be called. I would assume this process would take hours from what I could observe. There were probably about 75 people waiting when I was there. They have a specific area for HIV/AIDS testing and counseling of pregnant women and their babies. They also have a specific area for TB which has become a tremendous problem here. TB is the number 1 reason people with AIDS are dying here so they are trying to work hard to combat this.

I was very relieved to learn what I would be doing while working there. I will be buddied with another nurse the entire time which is reassuring because things are very different. I will be with the HIV nurse who works with women and children first, then I will work with the nurses who are doing general sick visits, then work on vaccinations, then work in the pharmacy a bit to learn about the medications. Something interesting is that the head nurse took me to introduce me to all the other nurses and she would just barge into the exam room while there was a patient and leave the door open to introduce me. We woud have a quick conversation while the poor patient is just sitting there. The hallway has lots of other patients too that could easily see in. So, privacy is a different matter here.

There are no doctors in the clinic. I don't know if they come in on certain days but for the most part the nurses do everything. They diagnose, prescribe, etc. Of course, if it is something that needs more involvement, they refer the patient to the hospital. My first day will be on Monday so I'm sure my blogs will become much more interesting.

Today, I am spending time with Rebecca and Abigail. Going to a market and maybe to another friends house this afternoon who has a pool. Crazy the extremes of wealth here.

I am a bit limited with internet because everyone has a cap and the church has a lot of people using it so we are pretty limited in posting pictures etc. I will try to post a few soon though. Also, they have been shutting it off in evening so skyping may be more difficult than I thought. We will have to see.

Love and blessings to you all.