Worldwide Aids Awareness and Welfare Dept.Day

This week fly by so fast that as I am sit in my garden perch at the B and B in Vryheid and I cannot fathom how another week could disappear from view, use and sense of ownership. Friday Dec 1 was the Worldwide AIDS Awareness Day, which sounds like a depressing event, but turned out to be a day of celebration and community sprit. We are all one in this endeavor to Stop Aids and Keep the Promise! Truthfully, health event days in the United States have seemed to be contrived and lackluster. NOT HERE in South Africa! The opportunity to teach, learn and support one’s neighbor was embraced by the hospital, patients and community in an amazing outpouring of feeling and education that went on for three hours. The nurses and director of the hospital gave rousing speeches in Zulu about the unity and support for HIV positive – we are all together in this problem. The speeches were broken up by singing and dancing-the director of the hospital and the tailor being a hit with their jerk Zulu rhythms. Nurses who normally observe the highest levels of South African decorum were electrically charged as they admonished the participants to Stop the Silence and face the problem. The ten speakers did not use Power Point presentations, notes, overheads or teleprompters. They spoke from their heart and souls using their wit and imagination to entertain and cajole the audience (mainly comprised of patients) to change behavior and face the reality of AIDS. Although I could not understand most of the Zulu speeches, I felt a sense of unity and purpose which can best be described as collective behavior when one loses personal identity and joins in a group identity. A poignant moment occurred when a young girl just discharged came back to the hospital to read a poem she had written.
The last two weekends at Mountain High have been significant as six or seven local residents died and the hospital administration office was full of Isipithipithi(confusion) on Monday morning, straightening out the death records. Unfortunately, every day is Aids Awareness Day in South Africa.
Another day this week was spent assisting a disabled patient obtain his disability grant. The poor soul has been in the hospital since Sept. 2005 and has been attempting to obtain the disability grant promised by the government to seriously ill patients. His only success occurred in Sept 2006, where one hundred dollars showed up in his bank account, and $80 had to be donated to pay for his sister’s funeral. A driver took us to the welfare office in a nearby town around 10am and the entire day was spent waiting on cement benches under a metal awning for the social worker to examine the claim, doctor’s report and identity records. At 4pm she announced that the patient was due to receive money on Jan. 5. Success at last! However, a big worry now is that the bank account will be closed due to lack of activity and the high banking fees charged by South African banks. If the money is not physically withdrawn it is returned to the government. Thus, the unlikely sight of pajama clad patients appears in welfare offices and banks all over South Africa. The day was not a total loss for entertainment as a herd of baboons was spotted scurrying across the high plain to the woods on our drive out. The return was rewarded by sights of eland, springbok and bush pig in a game preserve next to the dirt road. The bush pigs have an exotic look to them with their long ears and exaggerated features. It sure will be fun to get out and see the sights of this magnificent country.
The Peace Corps Medical Officer paid us a visit this week to evaluate our site. She brought the three remaining boxes that we shipped in July including two boxes of M mail (dozens of books to keep us busy the next two years). We had almost given up on seeing our favorite cookbooks, travel guides, technical books for our jobs, and trash novels to keep us entertained. Christmas arrived early for the Bond’s so thank you to the Peace Corps for making the long trip. Our sons are arriving on Dec. 22 so this truly will be a special holiday. Merry Christmas to you all!