Already the middle of March..

On Thursday this past week was our last official day of clinical. I was at Mason's Clinic, and I worked in the ARV clinic. It was pretty hectic, becuase there was a shortage of nurses. Ever since my first day at CAPRISA, I have had a passion for learning about HIV/AIDS and interacting/caring for those in that specific population.

I spent my day with Sister Terry. Most of the HIV positive patients we saw were women. But we did have one male patient. He was a middle-aged man who had defaulted on his ARV treatment, due to his work schedule. Sister Terry explined that he was a day laborer, and sometimes his work would take him very far from the clinic, so therefore he was not able to pick up his medication.

One issue that Sister Terry spoke about was the struggle that many of the patients here face, which is putting aside their own health in order to take care/provide for their family. This man that we saw could not even take care of himslef, because he was having to so musch to provide for his family. It is a dilemma that faces many people of the community, and in the whole of South Africa. Sister Terry also gave another exampe of how one of her patients traveled so far to pay her "last dues" to a family member who had passed away. The traveling had caused her to get very ill, and it also took her a while to get back into town becuase she ranout of money, all while her health continued to deteriorate. This truth had never been really been explained to me before and it is also quite foreign in the States, so it was very eye-opening for me to learn.

Overall, my clinical experience here in South Africa was more than I expected. I have learned so much, and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything else! There is so much to healthcare, patients, and treatment than what I was used to seeing in the States. Please continue to pray for me as I begin to process all that I have seen thus far, as well as pray for the country of South Africa in that there are many, many sick people here that need healing.

It was planned for this past weekend that our group would go to UShaka, a marine park in Durban, but the weather wasn't the greatest so it got postponed to another weekend. So Friday day, I worked on some homework and then went to the mall with a group of people to get off campus. After dinner, there was a commissioning for Foxfire, which is a group of young evangelists for South Africa. Just like we are supported by African Enterprise (the place here that we stay), so are they. So Friday night, a group of about 20 of us went to the commissioning service, and it was really nice. IT was encouraging to see that there are young people who want to change South Africa and tell people about Jesus. IT was also encouraging to see how how well they are supported. There were many family members, ex-Foxfire, church members, and friends at the service to support the Foxfire.

Saturday was an unplanned day, which was very different from what I've been used to. Since our group is so large, it is rare that something is not planned for us to do. I decided to take advantage of the day and sleep in and then work on senior scholarly paper. In order to graduate, every senior needs to take the senior seminar class and write a final scholarly paper. I am writing mine on pediatric HIV disclosure. In my time here, I have come across alot of cases where parents have not disclosed to their children their child's HIV status. So these children live their lives not being told that they are HIV positive. It is a difficult ehtical issue, because there are many reasons why parents do not tell their children of thier child's HIV status, such as guilt and fear. Also, other personal scenarios that I have come across is where the parents tell their children that they are taking TB medication rather than ARV medication. It's tough. So Saturday the other nursing students and I went to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal library to work on our paper. For the rest of the night, I continued working on my paper.

Also this weekend, I was able to spend some time with new friends, Becca and Hilary. We went to a coffee shop and worked on a little homework, but mostly talked. Overall, a restful, productive weekend. :) Until next time...