Third/Fourth Week at The Dream Centre!

Hello,

It's nearly the end of our time here (we leave at five o'clock on Sunday morning!) and I don't know if I'll have a chance to write again so I'll try and sum up everything now!

Last week started off very badly, after finding out that five people had died in our second week we were told on Monday morning that another six had died over the weekend. The wards seemed very empty. Two other men died in the same room that Anthony had died in. Lunga (the last patient staying in that room) was very depressed having witnessed all his roommates pass away, he also insisted on telling people exactly how Anthony had died and told Malou that he had died literally just after Tiara and I had put him to bed and said good night to him, which is quite upsetting.

There's a lot of good to say about The Dream Centre but there's also a lot that still needs to be done. For weeks there was only very cold water to wash the patients in and in the room that those three men died there was a huge leak and the room was very cold. If all the volunteers are coming down with flu of course the patients will get sick too. There is also a lot of good to be said about the nurses that work here, for the most part they seem to work hard and do the best they can with the little resources available to them, however it is also very frustrating when they do not work so well. Many of the nurses are prone to stealing from the hospice, they have little wages and obviously want things just like the rest of us but it isn't very nice when we give patients little gifts (especially those patients that can barely move or talk) and find that those presents have gone the next time we visit them.

Also, it's hard when the things that would be unacceptable in England are seen as fine here. Such as sometimes urine and faeces on the floors of the wards. Also, sometimes the bodies of those patients that have passed away are not covered or moved and so we end up seeing them, which is very traumatic, especially if it isn't unexpected. Jingyi was very upset on Monday when she wanted to take a patient to physio and he had died, he wasn't covered and his eyes were blue.

Sometimes it feels like there is too much wrong and the patients are too ill and you cannot help them but then Thuli (one of the patients) told Malou and I that she came here a few months ago and couldn't walk and that she was very very ill and her CD4 count very low. Even though the nurses were the ones that helped her medically that it was the volunteers that really helped her because they showed her that she was accepted as who she was. AIDs isn't like any other illness. With most illnesses the sufferer is given sympathy, looked after, told to "get better soon" but with AIDs very few people understand it, especially in South Africa, and how it's transmitted. It's seen as scary, only black, poor, promiscous people catch it and spread it in varying false ways. Monique, who worked in physiotherapy, said that even some of the staff here do not understand and wear two pairs of gloves and face masks when just talking to the patients because they are scared. Thuli said that even just to look at someone with AIDs like they are a person, a sick person, but a person, is more than most people will do. Families and whole communities isolate those that contract the disease. So even just the way you look at someone, touch their hands or hug them because you know they are just like any other person can make a difference.

The official statistics say that fifty one percent of the South African population have HIV/AIDs but everyone here thinks it is much much more and still people do not understand it. It's sad to hear when patients tell you that they have no family.

Last week we also visited the other Be More projects, including Bobbi Bear, which is an organisation that helps abused children. It was heartbreaking just listening to the amount of children that are found to be raped and endless other forms of abuse, at such a young age. We visited the 'Tree Clinic', which offers a kind of support group for women in the area every Wednesday under a big tree. Women, who are the poorest of the poor wake up as early as four in the morning to get there, even if there is nothing to give them. One little boy who came whose mother had died and was looked after by a thirteen year old girl, was as tiny as a three month old but we were told that he was two years old and was so tiny because he was underfed. AIDs also stunts a person growth.

Yesterday a thirteen year old girl called Banugile (I don't know how it's spelt, zulu names are too hard), was admitted to The Dream Centre, she looks tiny and we don't even want to think about how she came to contract AIDS in the first place. The Dream Centre is only equipped for adults so it's very strange and horrible that a girl so young is here too. She's in a room with three other women but it must be very scary for her without any family around and so many very very sick people everywhere. However, a lot of the other female patients come together to look after her, treat her like their child. All the patients seem to help one another when they can. Although, there is also misunderstandings about the effects of AIDs among them too, like with those cannot speak or are very confused because of strokes and are seen as "mad" and are sometimes isolated by the other patients.

Oh dear, I definitely do not seem to have written anything good yet! So...At the weekend we went on safari to Hluhluwe (pronounced Shooli-Shooli, well sort of, but it has a click in it that I can't say!) We went on a boat trip on Saturday morning and saw lots of crocodiles and hippos. Then when we walked along the beach later in the afternoon we saw lots of hippos on the other side of the bank, which was cool but I thought we were going to be attacked! Then our van broke down so we rested in a ditch for a while before seeing a cheetah farm. On Sunday we actually went on safari and saw lions (they were very very far in the distance and so were tiny!) but we did see rhinos very close up and various other animals.

On Monday Jingyi and I got our hair cut, the first reaction from the patients was that Jingyi's looked like a wig and mine wasn't "too bad", nice!

Today I was recognised in the Fried Chicken shop because I've been there so many times to buy patients fried chicken, because they love it! It is a very sad day when the woman that works in the chicken shop thinks that all you eat is two pieces of chicken everyday with your chinese friend!

One of the patients called Lunga (who is on bail for murder and robbery at the moment but is actually very lovely!) said he was going to miss Jingyi and I when we leave and was excited to hear that we went to see Orlando Pirates versus Manchester United in Durban yesterday! We saw Rooney take his top off at the end, I'm traumatised. Jingyi now has a bruise on her mouth from blowing her vuvuzela too much (it's kind of like a horn that lots of South Africans have when they go and see football) but I lost mine before the match even started.

Tomorrow we are all very excited because another volunteer here, Helen, had the idea of the Agape choir coming to sing for the patients. They are fifteen children from an orphanage called Agape, which is another Be More project, and they apparently they have beautiful singing voices. They are quite famous in South Africa, or may be just KwaZulu Natal. They even sang for Nelson Mandela at his birthday concert in Hyde Park, so they are famous! They are coming tomorrow to perform so we have been busy all week making goodie bags, sorting out the venue, decorations etc. Most patients are excited, except for Cindi:

Me "Agape choir are coming, it will be amazing!"
Cindi "Oh so no movie tomorrow?"
Me "No, but Madiba requested them personally, they're famous, it will be amazing!"..
Cindi "Yeah but..hmm...no, I think I still would like a movie better!"
Me "Oh Man..I promise it'll be good!"

Now I really hope it is good!

We are off out tonight to Club54 "Dirty Whore" again! Then Jingyi and I start our travels along the South Coast from Durban to Cape Town on Sunday. We are travelling for three weeks and Bart (another volunteer) is travelling with us for a week to Port Elizabeth, so hopefully he'll stop us from killing each other! Then we get back to Cape Town for a week and Dad can be our tour guide (thanks!)

Now I need to go and get dressed because everyone else is ready and I'm still typing! Bye xXx

Add reaction

Name *:
E-mail *:	(will not be visible)
Content *:
Anti spam *:	Type the code on the left in the box below