Pictured Above: Larissa, Christie, and I posing for a self-timed photo during our hike through "The Burg." Clearly we weren't worried about the news of an unfortunate car hiccup that morning ;)
Hi everyone,
Well I've finally made it to the final week of my
eight week stay in South Africa, and this will likely be my final post from
overseas! It's felt shorter than it has
been, and yet we've still been getting out and seeing and doing a lot! When I
return home, it won't be with feelings of regret about missing out on anything.
The second and final of our weekend trips out of
Durban was to the Drakensburg Mountains.
We went on a much lower budget than St. Lucia and majority of us stayed
at a backpackers' lodge, only paying a slight upcharge to upgrade to heated
rooms. It did get cold outside at night
and in the morning, but luckily the snow we were fearing never
materialized.
There were a number of things to do at a range of
costs and everyone found something they liked.
Some did a mountain climb up to some rocks with art drawn by the bushmen
of centuries ago, while others took a 4x4 over the mountain pass and into the
small mountainous country of Lesotho (Luh-soo-too), whose border is completely
enclosed by South Africa.
As for me and a couple other girls, we went for
distance on foot and completed an eighteen kilometer hike over the course of
about six hours across the landscape by our lodge. We climbed mountains and traversed wide
flatland and plateaus. The scenery was
beautiful in its own way, and much more barren and open than the hiking trails
in the mountains around Cape Town. It apparently has a very similar profile to the Mountain West states: Utah, Wyoming,.... though I've never been to any of those.
Our cars were working well for nearly the whole
month until we finally ran into a snag over the weekend, and of course, way out
in the countryside. Our automatic shift
car (which I don't drive!) suffered a flat tire on Saturday morning, and the
spare was put on for the rest of the day, before we were fortunate enough to
find a service station on Sunday morning that plugged the hole before our
departure. I guess we were as lucky as
we could have been given the circumstances!
As mentioned in my previous post, my final week
is being spent in the smaller primary care clinics. Monday and Tuesday I spent at Blue Roof,
which is privately sponsored by the Alicia Keys Foundation, among others. It exclusively treats patients who are
dealing with HIV/AIDS by bringing them in for check-ups, logging their use of
the anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs that Blue Roof provides to prevent the virus
from destroying their immune system, and consulting them on the lifestyle they
need to maintain to stay healthy while carrying the condition. The people there have been very nice to work
with and I've worked/observed in a few of the areas, crunching numbers to
determine how well patients are taking their pills, observing consultations,
and assisting in the pharmacy.
HIV/AIDS is the primary healthcare concern that
is plaguing South Africa, and the circumstances by which it arose are complex
and unsettling. South Africa boasts the
highest rate of HIV-positive individuals of any country in the world, and the
KwaZulu-Natal Province contains the highest number in the country. Many things have changed for the better since
the country transitioned to democracy in 1994, but I cannot say that healthcare
is a sector that has entirely benefitted.
The leadership after Nelson Mandela took steps to prevent the ARV drugs from
reaching citizens, even to the degree of outright denying the existance of HIV
& AIDS. While they are finally
relenting and doing better to deliver the drugs to clinics, much of the funding
for them still comes from countries overseas like the United States.
I wish I could spend more than a couple days at
the Blue Roof Clinic, because their efforts seem to get at the heart of what is
really preventing South Africa from emerging as a strong and prosperous member
among the first world nations.
But otherwise, it's only four more days until I
leave for home :) Can't wait to see everyone and hear your stories from the
summer.
Cheers,
David
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