KCA and the Dream Center

Hi everyone!
I hope everyone is doing well! Don’t worry mum the cheetah farm was perfectly safe there was a trained professional right there with us, just not the right trained professional.....haha but seriously I’m fine and continuing to be safe. Right now I’m staying at a woman named Rona’s house who is the South African representative of Keep A Child Alive , the organization that Louise and I work with at McGill. She basically is the only liaison in South Africa for KCA so she has a huge job coordinating all of the projects that KCA funds, the main one being a clinic called the Blue Roof that provides Anti-retroviral drugs for people with AIDS. Rona had Louise and I over for dinner and since she runs a bed and breakfast on the beach she was sweet enough to have us stay the night. Rona has lived in South Africa her whole life so it was really great to sit down and talk about the history of South Africa and the future of it as well. After speaking to Rona and other South African natives I’ve learned so much more about South Africa than from any book I’ve read or history class I’ve taken. South Africa is first and foremost a really beautiful country that has amazing people but one that also has a really negative reputation. Although the statistics about crime and poverty and AIDS are not to be ignored it’s a country that shouldn’t be known for it’s problems but for one that is making huge efforts to overcome them. South Africa has come a long way in the 14 years since the end of the Apartheid and although some of the effects of the apartheid have been lasting such as the harsh income inequality and extreme poverty the country is trying to fix them. Even though the government struggles with corruption and Mbeki the president, still denies that HIV causes AIDS there are so many South Africans who care so deeply about the outcome of their country and they are the ones who are working on making South Africa a better place.
Yesterday we visited the Dream Center ,a hospital for AIDS patients. We were able to visit with some of the patients which was really nice. Some of them were very very ill and couldn’t get out of bed but they still looked so happy to see us and smiled and said hello despite how sick they were. Other patients who were not as ill were able to go to the garden and to some physiotherapy. We had tea with one patient in the Garden and played Jinga with her which she loved. Even though she was very sick and visibly in a lot of pain she insisted on staying outside and chatting with us. Up in the wards Sabine and I played cards with one man who was so happy to have company and told us several time how much he liked having volunteers around. I taught him to shuffle the cards the way my grandma taught me to and gave him a spare deck I had in my bag( we had borrowed his neighbours card deck) Sabine and I and Scibo played “4 of a kind”( which made up on the spot because I couldn’t remember how to play any real ones with 3 people besides go fish) Scibo loved “4 of a kind” though and soon the man in the room beside him came over to see what has happening and joined in too. They were really funny guys and they were laughing and smiling the whole time so when it was time for us to go we left them playing the game which conveniently can be played with people also haha so hopefully it kept them busy for a while longer.
Today Rona is taking us to the Blue Roof Clinic and then Tonight I’m spending the night at Agape so that will definitely be an experience on its own haha
Take care everyone!
Xoxo
-Margo

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