Anthony, Lauren, and I had the opportunity to go to on a tour of a couple townships today rather than to go to our respective internships. (Sidenote: My original internship was supposed to be working in one of these clinics, shadowing the priest who owns our B&B in his social work for HIV/AIDS patients. The internship/shadowing fell through because it was too inconvenient for me to get to those worksites every day since they’re pretty far away. It’s perfectly fine though since I’m now getting to work with one of the most incredible health advocacy and action programs in the world. Everything happens for a reason!)
The excursion began with Bill and Karlyn driving us out to a hospital in an area called Tygerburg (I think?). The hospital building was soooo old. I guess something that I’ve come to take for granted, especially going to Duke, is how up to date medical facilities and equipment is in most of the US. I’m not the biggest fan of hospitals to begin with, they easily depress me and I have to fight to stay positive (hence me never wanting to be a doctor), but this hospital was especially difficult for me. The ward we were in keeps I think about to 30 children who are HIV positive. We saw children ranging from babies to probably age 5 or so. I think I’ve said this before, but kids always stir up emotions for me much more quickly than other victims of anything else do. If anything, if further inspires me to help in the way that I want to even more than before. If they’re willing to fight, then why shouldn’t we help them as much as we can, whether it be against disease, poverty, racism, whatever.
One thing that made the group extremely uncomfortable throughout the entire day was the lack of confidentiality that the nurses and coordinators express while taking around visitors. Maybe in the States we take it to a completely different level, but it seems to me that the idea of confidentiality and patient respect is not valued nearly as highly here. The lady taking us around at the hospital had no problem taking us to private rooms, nor was she hesitant to tell us how one of the mothers with HIV positive twins had abused her children and that’s why they were here and she was surprised to see their father etc etc. At the clinics we subsequently toured, our guide at one of them would knock on closed examination room doors and just waltz right into them with the group of us, despite the fact that their was a patient on the other side being given his ARV shot or whatever. It didn’t seem to matter. I was SO uncomfortable, as were the others. I couldn’t believe that right after this woman had told us how many people were ashamed of their HIV status and because of that wouldn’t take the drugs that would save their lives in fear that someone would find out and make them victims of the social stigma against the disease. And here she was, clearly exposing these patients to a group of obvious and privileged outsiders. We did stick out pretty badly as a group. Not only were we the only white people the majority of the time, but I also felt bad that someone who could be helping the people waiting in line was instead spending time showing us all around. There were so many people waiting in line to have a check up or get medication or talk to a nurse. I think there were 8 doctors for who knows how many patients. Thousands are served every month in these overcrowded clinics by these overworked doctors. Literally thousands. On top of that, the doctors and nurses are extremely underpaid despite their exhausting work hours and commitment. It’s really discouraging to experience something like that, especially since my whole life I’ve been treated like a princess when it comes to medical care. (Thank you Daddy.) The idea of people not receiving even the most basic health treatment when they did it is unacceptable to me. Hence my determination to do something about it. I guess I’m at the right NGO too, since one of TAC’s stances is that healthcare is a human right.
The evening at Med Villa was a pretty standard one except for the extra face at the dinner table tonight! Bob finally arrived in Cape Town this evening so we spent some time with him, too. I’m interested to see how time with him differs from before. I’m sure it’ll be awesome. After that, Lauren, Julian, and I watched some of the soccer game and talked about different cultural perspectives on people from other countries. Like what do Germans think about so-and-so country versus what Americans think. I think one of my favorite things about Europe is how different each country is despite their close vicinities to one another. I can’t wait to travel around there. Maybe Christmas is a good time to start with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland? That’s my newest goal. I’ll let you know how that convincing goes.
Ukuthula,
Lynn
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