It's Cold

It’s cold now..bummer. By cold I mean mid-70s.

My independent study project (ISP) is winding down now. I left Friday. Thursday we got to go to a Men’s Support Group Meeting which was so different. They were more lively and interactive. Thought it was gonna be awkward with us there but not at all. Also at all these support group meetings we eat about half a loaf of bread and some fried chicken..its prime. I’m gonna miss the organization I’ve been working with, Siyaphila, and all the people who work there. They had a goodbye breakfast for us Friday morning. I got a lot done on my written report before I left Pietermaritzburg but I’ve been sitting here in Durban working on it as well. We present our research projects on Friday. Then were done! It’s weird. My project is on the Social Considerations of Implementing a Tuberculosis Treatment Support Program in KwaZulu-Natal: a look into the mobilization process of Siyaphila’s TB support program. It’s been interesting to write about. What I accomplished while I was there:
- Made a pamphlet
- Made a business card
- Made a flyer
- Made three different funding proposals
- Sent them out to about 25 businesses
- Still making a website but go to it siyaphila.org
- Made an email account

Anywho hopefully they will get some of that funding and can get money to pay some of their volunteers stipends and be able to afford food packets to those who can’t afford food to take their TB medication with.

Saturday we went to Victoria Street Market. Today I went grocery shopping and am currently cooking chicken and pasta. I’m nowhere near a legit cook yet…bummer. I’ve decided I don’t like to go grocery shopping nor cook for myself…there are too many ingredients. Perhaps if all the food was in my pantry I wouldn’t mind but I think I’m gonna have to marry a cook.

Tonight were going to karaoke..

A Little Update

So I am losing my steam with blog writing. I guess since I’m on the home stretch with this trip..I don’t know. Anywho so I’ve just been doing my ISP stuff. This week and last week we have followed around Nokuthula the program coordinator of Siyaphila on her rounds to support groups for HIV in semi-rural areas and also to home visits to the HIV + patients. We have been talking with all of them and interviewing them. They love having us around, especially the people we visit at home. They don’t often get people who want to visit them..sad…so some visits have gotten a little emotional.

Nokuthula brings us back to our backpackers round 4 everyday and then we get to work on the TB stuff. We have finalized a bigger and better funding proposal, halfway down with a website, creating an email address, made a flyer, pamphlet, and business cards for them. We have also sent out our proposal to about 25 businesses thus far. We have also organized a TB workshop for the staff members of Siyaphila to update their training on the signs and symptoms so they can be looking for those on their home visits and such.

So that’s been a lot. We have this next week to work with them but then we are back in Durban after that. Then we have to write up a whole report about this and such. Not really ending on an easy note.

As for fun, I think I said before we made some friends with University students here in PMB and they took us out a couple times. We watched some of the English Premiership soccer that they are all obsessed with. I’m getting into it though. Dad and I decided we are gonna follow the World Cup fo sho!

Hmm what else is new…oh for everyone that’s reading it out there that I don’t know about..haha..I’m going to Spain for a summer session this summer!!!!

Oh I know. Epic story today. So we walked to this place for lunch that sells Indian food. I got a bean Bunny Chow thingy which is a very popular South African dish. But anywho the guy who works there automatically was like so where are you from in the U.S. Keep in mind this is some random South African dude working in a random Indian place. I was like North Carolina, which no one has ever heard of NC or really knows where it is..it’s normally just a formality to answer the question. BUT this guy goes oh like Kitty Hawk..and I just stood there shocked! I was like actually yes exactly like Kitty Hawk how have you heard of it. He was like that’s where Orville and Wilbur flew…I was so impressed. Apparently international peeps no more about our history then the people in our own country cause really none of the girls on the program have heard of Kitty Hawk. It made my day really!

ISP Update

So to explain it again, for my independent research project, I am spending a total of 3 weeks in Pietermaritzburg. I am working with an NGO (non-governmental organization) called Siyaphila which means “We are living” in Zulu. This program currently works within the hospitals providing adherence classes to people who are about to go on ARV (anti retrivirals – HIV medication) teaching them about what kind of side effects they are going to expect etc. They also have support group meetings within the townships of Pietermartizburg twice a month that HIV + individuals attend to talk about what they are experiencing and anything really. They also do home visits depending on the severity of the patient where they visit the patients at their homes and check out how they are doing. Since TB is the main killer for HIV patients, it only makes sense that there is a TB program working alongside this HIV program. This is what I am trying to do for my ISP. I am implementing a TB program for Siyaphila. What this involves is writing a funding proposal which I have already done and getting lots and lots of funding from donors to start this. We are currently working on getting a TB expert to do a workshop educating the Siyaphila staff members on signs and symptoms of TB. Also making a pamphlet and getting the word out about Siyaphila. Another big thing is getting funding to coordinate food packets to be given to the patients who in severe poverty and have no food to take their TB medications with. Anyway that and some more stuff.

So that’s what I am doing. Today I went around with the coordinators of Siyaphila on their rounds. We went to one support group and two home visits. It was really eye opening hearing all of HIV + individuals stories.

Other than that we have just been getting to know Pietermaritzburg. We’ve walked into town and explored. There’s a mini mall in walking distance, so that’s been convenient. Also I’ve been going for some runs, hoping to lose the weight I gained in Cato.

Oh this past weekend we meet some of the locals who go to the University and went and saw a famous band here play. We also watched some of the soccer tournament that Hannah’s friends participated in. We had a couple braais (cookouts) here at the backpackers as well.

First Day of ISP

Like I said Saturday I moved out of Cato and into Happy Hippo with Julia and Emma. We enjoyed our weekend. Nothing too exciting went to Joe Cools again and to the beach. We have Ushaka just around the corner which is the largest marine park – aquarium thingy in South Africa so that’s cool. We made pasta for dinner Monday night and Tuesday we made chicken curry stir fry. Those days we just had more community health lectures. Wednesday we have one lecture but mainly we had ethics meetings for our ISPs.

Funny thing to note: Julia and I have developed a British accent that we do sometimes. And once when we were in the kitchen at Happy Hippo we were getting our accents on and what do you know..there were British people there. It was a little awkward. We decided we needed to be more aware of our surroundings from now on.

About my ISP it’s a little frustrating right now. The hospital we originally wanted to work out referred us to this one NGO and then they were like no this other NGO really needs your help. So we were all set with this last NGO and two days ago the hospital was like actually no we want you for a little bit too. So that’s frustrating and I’ve abandoned my interest and what I was originally going to do with the hospital so I don’t know what is going to happen.

We moved into our ISP accommodations today. They are great. We are staying in a dorm so it’s cheaper and we get other people coming in and out so we can meet lots of people.

Anyway we got here today and then went straight to the hospital to try and see what they want us to do. They set us up with contacts for our original interests. Hannah – pediatric TB and me – traditional healers and TB however my contact works at night so I don’t know if that’s going to work out. But today we actually followed around a doctor who is the head of medicine on his rounds which was super cool and sad. A lot of HIV. Anyway that’s about it. We took the mini-bus taxi to the stop that’s near the mall that we are staying by. We perused around the mall then walked back to our backpackers. Now we are just chillin. Gotta get some groceries and meet with our contact with Siyaphila, the NGO, to pick up some readings.

This weekend there’s not much going on. Tomorrow were gonna explore Pietermaritzburg and also Hannah has some friends who have a soccer tournament here so were going to go to that. There is also a flea market on Sunday we could go to. Nothing too much for Easter which is sad. Oh well.