last few days

I think I ended my last update talking about the man whose name I can’t say...well, we went to meet him at the time he said, only to find he had gone out for the morning! ‘Welcome to working with government officials in South Africa’ said Debbie! After more phonecalls and another 2 visits to his office, we finally arranged some meetings through him.
Rob drove me around a number of settlements on Wednesday. I think 2 things really stuck with me from that. One was at the top of a hill, looking down into the valley. We were driving past big houses with swimming pools and security guards and stuff, then literally 10secs drive down the road was a mass of shack houses. It is really striking how juxtaposed wealth and poverty are here. It somehow makes it harder to deal with, which I guess makes me feel a bit uncomfortable that I am not so affected until it is mapped out in front of me so clearly.
At the top of another hill, up some seriously bad roads, I realised we had come to a graveyard. Rows and rows and rows of little wooden crosses and mounds of earth, as far as you could see, and further still. This is the reality of AIDS here, and up until a few years ago, when ARVs came in, Rob and Debbie (and people at CCP) were just going into house after house of dying people day after day. When it rains, lots of the graves get washed away. And Rob says it isn’t uncommon to be digging a grave and uncover other body remains.
On Thursday, I went into a local government hospital here. There is a no guns sign on the gate, and you have to go through security checks on the way in and out (mainly so people don’t steal from the hospital). The guy I went with explained to me that children in hospital hardly get any visitors – most get none, even if they’re in hospital for months. They are either orphans, or their parents can’t afford to come often/at all, or their parents just don’t care. Add to that, there is no education in hospitals, and no toys or anything on wards (staff would just steal them).
So the little organisation I was visiting, plays with the kids and does craft and basic education stuff, and just shows them love. They go into wards in the mornings for kids who are immobile, and they have a little room where they take the mobile kids in the afternoon. This is seriously the only stimulation at all that these kids get. They have made a little playground area, but when we arrived, it was strewn with rubbish – people had just emptied rubbish bins onto it. Broken glass etc – that just shows how lots of people here value children. Very sad.
We had a time of prayer for the kids, then went to get them from the Paed. Wards. I guess I was expecting this to be hard – even in UK, seeing sick kids isn’t easy to deal with. But to be honest, what I saw broke my heart. Cot after cot of ill kids all alone. One of the ladies I was with was explaining how one child’s mum had died of AIDS, when the kid in the next cot started fitting. It was probably about a minute before a nurse casually wandered over. One cot had a scrap of paper on the end saying ‘No mum. Please feed and care for me’. One little girl had awful sores inside her mouth and was just lying motionless, staring. We said hello, and she just stared, her eyes burning into me. I hesitated as we turned away, only to see a single tear falling from her eye. That sounds kind of dramatic or cheesy or whatever, but that’s what happened and I can’t think how else to describe it or how to describe how that made me feel. One little boy we went to pick up was lying in his own urine. 2 nurses stood literally next to his bed, just chatting, ignoring him. As we were sorting out a dry gown for him, another nurse came over to say he couldn’t go with us as he was just off to theatre. This kid looked so scared – he must’ve only been about 6, and he was being sent off to surgery all alone.
Another little boy we had collected started throwing up bile as we walked back to the room, so had to go back. His little face was so disappointed – not being able to come play today, and having to go back to his ward being all sick.
Had about 20 kids in the end, aged from toddlers in nappies to about 8 or 9 years old. Nearly all are likely to be HIV+. Sang some songs, had an interactive story, and learnt about different animals from some amazing photos, before playing on the playground. I had brought a pack of balloons, which they were dead excited about. The younger ones just clutched them and the older ones had great fun rubbing them on their hair and making them stick to the walls. At this point, one kids’ cannula fell out of his hand, so he was spurting blood onto the floor. I shuffled the other kids away, and was quite relieved that one of the ladies mopped him up instead of me – cut on my hand not quite healed over! Kids were v. excited by my camera too, so that provided more entertainment until they had to go back to their wards, clutching their balloons and chattering away.
Massive respect to the people who are doing that day after day. I honestly admire them so much and am so grateful for what they are doing for these kids.
Yesterday was a pretty quiet day – some more research work at CCP, then a bit of a leaving do for a lovely lady there. After work I went to the shop to get a few food bits, and was rather excited to get a chocolate mousse profiterole dessert thing reduced…however, back at the house, it took me a couple of mouthfuls of thinking ‘this actually isn’t that nice’ before I realised that the mousse stuff was totally off. Eww.
Talked to Em on Skype for a long time in the evening, which was good!
Then today I had a nice relaxing morning while the others were out (Rob off to ‘catch a wave’, and the kids and Debbie at sport matches). Then we went to a school fundraiser day for a bit, which included a bit of a paintball session! (African style – absolute minimum protective gear!), before going to the park for the boys’ football match. Then Debbie, the girls and I went to a thing called ‘Art in the Park’ which was just lots of different artists displaying and selling their work. I enjoyed that - some very talented artists.
Tomorrow will be Church, then going to Benson and Beatrice's house for lunch. Benson and Bea are the Ghanaian couple who met me at the airport, and cofounded CCP with Rob and Debbie. I'm sure their hospitality is going to be great - bring on the yummy food!!
xx