Bloemfontein

Sorry for the delay in posting something on the blog. I arrived in Bloemfontein last Monday morning after spending about 5 days in Johannesburg. I am living with a wonderful family, Estelle who has tons of HIV/AIDS connections and her two children who are 20 and 17.

I hate to comment about the weather but I wanted to let you know it is very hot but not humid.

Where to start. There are many times over the past few days where I have smiled to myself and said yes I am in South Africa. There is a certain rhythm here and spirit that I can't quite describe.

I have now learned to take the public bus out to the township where I am located with World Vision. The township is called Botshabelo. I think it is on a map but if not it is close to Thaba N'chu. I have not seen any other white person in the bus station or on the bus. This is about a 45 minute ride. If only I could understand Sotho. I'm trying to learn one word a day. I'm starting with simple greetings and thankyou.

Let me give you a bit of history about Botshabelo. This township area began during the apartheid era when homelands were created. The black people were moved to these locations as they could not live in the city. There are about 20 sections in the township with about 800 people per section. It is a mixture of shacks, houses, and government built houses. The government has tried to provide electricity and a toilet to every household. The sections are divided by large field areas. Apparently the intent of this planning was to help police respond to any disruptions by being able to quickly cordon off the area. Divide and conquer or manage and control.

World Vision has a few different programs in Botshabelo. They have many sponsored children that all have sponsors from Canada. There are community workers who visit with these children and provide reports back to the sponsors. Then there are the tremendous home-based caregivers. There are 20 in all who are part of World Vision. These workers are volunteers who have been trained by WV. They receive a stiped from the Department of Health of $1000 Rand a month which equals $160 Canadian. These tremendous people visit patients in their homes who are ill with cancer, respiratory issues, heart problems or they are HIV +. Then they also connect with the children in these homes to make sure they are being looked after. The workers visit their patients at least 2 times a week to check on their health, medication, food, financial issues. Some of these homes are referred to as Child Headed households. That means that there may not be any parent or perhaps no grandparent so children aged 14 to 21 are looking after their siblings and they may also be ill. I asked two workers aged 35 and 29 why they do this hard work. They commented that they have experienced so much illness in their own families and community that they just had to do something and help others. They see this as their calling. Both of them would like to study nursing or social work but don't see how they can financially do this. World Vision really encourages the volunteers to continue to build their skills and capacity by moving on to further education and not stay as a homebased caregiver forever.

I will be joining some of the volunteers as they complete their homevisits. Other workers commented that sometimes they take money from their own pocket when the families have no food. There are times when the patient can't take their medication on an empty stomach because it is too hard on their body. So the volunteers provide food.

People who are HIV+ can receive a government grant if their CD4 count is below $200. This is viewed as a temporary relief grant, and they must see their doctor on a regular basis who approves the grant. There have been occassions where some individuals don't take their ARV medication regularly because they are frightened they will lose their grant if the blood test gives a count higher than 200. What a cycle.

I look forward to working with people more and hope that I can assist them in their work. The workers and volunteers do so much for their community with very limited resources.

There we go - I think that is enough for today. Take care.