Second Week at The Dream Centre!

Hi, so apparently a few people did look at my blog so now I feel under pressure to actually write well, ohdear...

Anyway, it's the end of the second week here and I'm quite tired so if this doesn't make a whole lot of sense it's because of that, not because I'm an idiot..!

In some ways this week has been easier and in others it has been a lot harder. Firstly Tiara, Jamilla (a couple of the other volunteers) Jingyi and I caught some kind of virus/chest infection so most of last week there was a lot of coughing and sleeping/trying to sleep and feeling ill, but the wonder of working in a hospital is that we have access to lots of drugs, which we dosed ourselves up on! (I still sound like I've been smoking forty a day but I feel a lot better.) Being ill didn't really make volunteering a whole lot easier, especially because on Wednesday (when I felt at my worst) there was a transport strike in South Africa so none of the nurses could come in, so apart from those nurses that had been working night shifts and a few other volunteers there were only us eight Be More volunteers to look after the patients. I think Helen and Jamilla helped to clean and look after the patients but the rest of us had to pretty much spend all day in the kitchen (wearing very fetching hair nets) because there were only two kitchen staff to make the food for the patients. It was quite stressful but a couple of the patients helped to give the food out and collect the plates for us.

I'm more used to the hospital now, seeing the patients, being able to deal with the ones that are more ill and once you've had a few conversations they remember you and you become like friends. However, it's then really difficult if they die. Apparently, only about thirty percent of the patients that come here die, most, once they are given ARVs, and spend a few months here are able to leave. A couple of patients last week were discharged and were really happy which is lovely to see.

I also did more work on grants for the patients, although the buraucracy is ridiculous and frustrating. Tiara and I were at SASSA (South African Social Security Association) so much on Tuesday that we even went for drinks with some guys that worked there! (It was interesting to say the least, we went to a bar where we were the only white people and the beer was R10, less than one pound, for what looked like a litre!)

However, five of the patients died in five days. The very very skinny lady Jingyi and I took to the Bingo the week before, died. The only way we found out was by going to visit her, her bed was empty and her name rubbed out.

After the Film Night on Thursday (which they all loved because this time we managed to find a Zulu equivalant to Laurel and Hardy!) Tiara and I took a patient called Anthony to bed. I'd spoken to him a few times and he was always friendly and spoke English well so we could have a joke and a conversation, but he was very very skinny. When we lifted him into bed that night, I could see every single one of his ribs and his knees looked like golf balls as I tucked them under the bed covers. He joked that we'd get muscles from all this moving him in and out of bed and pushing his wheelchair around. I fed him some of his dinner, that he couldn't finish from earlier, and propped his cushions up and spoke to him for a while then he asked where his fiance was because she hadn't been to see him and he told me that he was depressed and wanted to see the counsillor. I told him that it was very late and he should try and get some rest and promised to find her the next day and tell her to go and see him.

The next morning I didn't get up until late and Jingyi came and told me that she'd been to see Anthony but he'd had a coughing fit and died in the night. It was very upsetting. Jingyi had spoken to him for a long time in the garden the day before and they'd become good friends and all the other volunteers knew him and so it was very sad. Even if you haven't become very good friends with a patient it is very strange not seeing them in bed when you go and visit other patients in the same room.

Being in The Dream Centre and then leaving the patients at night or at the weekends is like being in two separate worlds. On Thursday night, after talking to Anthony, we went to a club in Durban called 'Joe Cools', which firstly played very rubbish music and was full of only white people (all wearing the same rubbish clothes/hair style etc), some of whom decided to share their opinions on South Africa with Malou. One view being that the club 'was too high class for blacks as all black people have AIDs and are criminals." I am definitely not going back there again.

We (the volunteers) went away for the whole weekend which was really fun. We went to the Drakensburg, North KwaZulu Natal, and it was breathtaking. We went hiking yesterday morning and then horseriding in the afternoon. We rode up the side of the mountains and had amazing views and all that. However, firstly, I am not a fan of horses. Secondly, I was given a particularly aggressive horse who decided he hated all the other horses and insisted on biting/kicking them wherever possible so I had to hold on for dear life most of the time. The views were incredible but I couldn't really enjoy them as I was scared for my life most of the time and my bum still hurts. Today we went through the Drakensburg on the Sani Pass into Lesotho and went to the Highest Pub in Africa!
Even though it's fun going out in the evenings and at weekends it feels like we are returning home when we get back to The Dream Centre.

I've just read this back and it seems like nothing good has happened this week but I think I've just concentrated on the hard parts because I'm tired, a lot of good things have happened! I took a patient to the bank and we got to push in front of the queue because he complained that his ears hurt and because they thought I was his incapable nurse, he was pleased. There are a few patients, including Sbusiso, who have done so well in physio that they don't need to use their sticks any more. There's a patient who is on bail from a murder and robbery case (that's probably not good news but it's kind of exciting, although apparently we should avoid going into his room on our own, it was in the local paper and everything!)

Anyway, Bart and Jingyi are rushing me to get off the computer, (I type slowly) so I have to go, bye! xXx

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