Langa Township

TB Clinic

Today we went to look at another site that we can choose to do our service. I have been looking forward to coming to this site since the trip started. This was a TB day clinic in one of the township areas. They also treated many patients with HIV/AIDS because one usually co-exists with the other due to a weak immune system. There was ONE doctor who worked at the clinic for 1,000 patients. There are many sections of the clinic such as pediatrics, pregnant women, TB patients, and HIV positive patients. There is also a nurse who runs a youth clinic where she gives pregnancy tests and sexually tramsmitted disease tests to groups of teenage girls who come in, most whose parents do not even know they are there. Most people if not all people in the townships can not afford a family doctor so they go to get treated at these public clinics. All medication is free at these clinics. However, there are still many obstacles. First of all, the waiting room was packed. We got there at about 2:30pm and mothers had been waiting with their sick babies since 7am to get in to see the nurse. After the tour of the clinic, I started thinking of projects I could potentially start there if I do in fact choose this for my service. One major problem that stuck out to me was the access to medication. Once the doctor prescribes the medication, a social worker must go to the home and make sure the patient does not drink at home and has food to take their medication with. So, even if you have access to the medication, you may be denied it if you do not have enough food to take it with. There is such a shortage of staff, they do not have the time or the resources to deal with problems such as this. Another problem is just lack of education. They have access to many types of birth control but people are not proactive about it. Girls are being tested for pregnancy and STDs AFTER the fact. Education about medication is also crucial. Many people stop taking medication if they begin to feel better, stop taking it because of side effects, or refuse because of cultural beliefs. I think if I end up working here, thinking outside the box and proposing your own ideas is going to be the key. Counseling was another aspect of the clinic. If a patient's test results are HIV positive, they get three counseling sessions. I think they have the right idea going in this direction but THREE sessions is not nearly enough to cope with the fact you have been diagnosed with a terminating disease. It was very overwhelming and sad but at the same time inspiring to think of endless areas that we could help.

Mandela Day

Today is Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday!! We went to the "Ubuntu Fesitval" downtown. "Ubuntu" means respect in South Africa. It is a very common phrase used here. At the festival there was live music and vendors. We then went a couple streets down to the "green market". There were tons of vendors selling everything from jewelry to art to clothing. Every time you expressed interest in what they were selling you would hear "lady, I will give you good price!" or "I have nice things and will give you discount". You had to bargain with these people and I am sure we got ripped off 9 out of 10 times anyway. It was fun though. For lunch I had a chicken pie which is similar to a chicken pot pie in the US but much better here! Meat pies are very popular here. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANDELA!

Service Learning group

Group photo of the service learning kids on a brick wall at the Castle of Good Hope.

Table Mountain

One end of Table Mountain which does not do the justice of its beauty!

Background

Cape Town is an absolutely gorgeous city in the Western Cape of South Africa. Not only do you get the city feel but you also have the beautiful scenary of Table Mountain almost anywhere you go in the city. It is winter here now and VERY cold. Some days are warm (60s) but most are rainy and cold during this month. Locals have told us this is the coldest winter they have had in a long time. The World Cup just ended here. Hosting the World Cup ran deeper in this country than just having a bunch of soccer matches on their fields. Hosting the World Cup proved to South Africans, the South African governement, and the rest of the world that their government CAN be successful if someone is holding them accountable. It was said to be a fail having the World Cup here and that it would be infested with crime and rioting. However, it was a huge success and spirits are high here because they did it even when people did not believe they could. Since so many people came from around the world, stereotypes are now challenged because there is so much greatness about this country that people do not speak about.

Apartheid just ended in 1994, which is extremely recent. It is still so fresh in people's minds and a hot topic to speak about today. South Africa is broken down into 4 ethnic groups: Black African, Coloured, White, and Indian/Asian. The majority of Cape Town is Black African. There is so much diversity and a very interesting dynamic between races because of Apartheid.

Today, we went to look at a few of the sites that we can do service at. For this, we had to drive into the townships, or the "ghettos", on the outskirts of the city. It is shocking being in these areas. Shacks are made out of anything that the family had available whether it be wood or metal. The houses are crammed together so tightly and there are one million people living in the area we drove through. The first school we went to visit we spoke with the principal who was an amazing, enthusiastic woman. They were in the middle of gathering information about one of their students. She is a ninth grader and is being held hostage by a 50 year old man. The man is doing whatever he wants to her right now. They are trying to locate where she is to get her out of the situation. The shocking thing is how casually the principal was explaining this to us. At that point we knew this happened too often.

The next school we went to was Manenberg Primary School. The teachers were having a staff meeting so we sat in on that. There are 600+ students at the school and each classroom has 40 or 50 students in it. One year a class had 75 students to one teacher. They do not have enough textbooks for each child, nor enough desks. They have computers and one computer program but no headphones so they cannot use the program. When we left everyone was extremely overwhelmed. Where do you start? There is too much to be done. I don't know how these teachers stay so optimistic.

Tonight we are going to an African restaurant to eat and dance!

Arrival in Cape Town

I am in the service learning program here in Cape Town. To be honest I did not really know what this entailed before I got here but I could not be happier I chose this program! We are a group of 11 students from colleges all over the country including Vanderbilt, University of Richmond, Whitman College, Northeastern, Trinity College, University of Maine, Samford in Birmingham, and California Lutheran. It is a great group of kids and we all get along really well. The other program here is just called Arts and Sciences and this has about 130 students in it. We are very independent from their program and do not see much of them. The service learners will be taking three classes that actually meet. Then we will be doing service at the site of our choice which has not been decided yet. In addition to doing service, our ongoing project for the semester is to implement a program at the organization we are serving once we see the needs of the community. I am so excited to get started on this aspect!