“I am not HIV positive, but I am HIV affected.”
Grant, one of the guys in charge at Ethembeni, said that yesterday morning. Our group went to the clinic location of Ethembeni, did a bible study, and kind of sat in on their meeting. During the bible study, Grant said that while talking about the importance of being the body of Christ and making sure we care for each other the way that Christ did. It really hit me when he said that because there is so much truth in it.
After that meeting, we were all split up into groups to go do home visits with a nurse and a Zulu translator. I got grouped with Nombeku, a strong and incredibly kind Zulu woman, and Anne, a hilarious yet compassionate nurse from Ireland. I wish I could have gotten a picture with these two women. Anne was absolutely hilarious. She had me laughing all morning, which was nice in between the intensity of the home visits. We did 4 home visits, and each one was so different. Everyone we visited is infected with HIV/AIDS and the first woman was named Dudu. We read some Scripture with each patient, and ironically, Anne had me turn to Psalm 139 which is one of my absolute favorite passages. At the end, she asked Dudu’s sister to pray and the first thing she said was “God, thank you for each day and each sunrise.” The simplicity of life here keeps hitting me; they are thankful just for each day to be alive.
There was another woman named Thelma who was in her late 50’s and suffering from AIDS. Sadly, her son died just 5 days before in a car accident. He left behind two sons that she now feels obligated to take care of, even though she’s so sick she can barely get out of bed. It’s just so sad to see these situations that people are in, and there really is no way to get out of it. It’s a horrible cycle that just continues over and over. However, the joy this woman had was amazing. Her son had died just days before and even though she was crying, she was talking about how God has a plan and that God must really want her son to be in heaven since he was taken so early. The hope and faith they have is remarkable.
Then, just to give you a better idea of Anne, our last home visit didn’t happen because the patient wasn’t home, so when we got back in the car, Anne said “Well, I guess now we eat!” So the three of us went and got Coke and chocolate cake. :) Which was so fun, getting to just talk to these women and laugh with them as if we were old friends. I also found out that Anne had picked me off the list because she really wanted to work with a boy….my name threw her off a little bit ;) Haha. But she told me after spending the day with me, she was really glad she made a mistake. After that, we went back to play with the kids but were only there for about an hour. The home visits took up most of the day. It was good though. It was nice to see a different side to the community. It helped me understand the reality of some people’s situations.
Today was a rather slow day. We spent the whole morning just playing with the kids and put them down for nap time, which was kind of more for us than them :). Another girl and I fell asleep. Oops! Then I went with my mentor Ellen to do a school visit for Andizwa, the girl I told you about in my last blog. Through the conversation with the teacher, the suspicions we had about abuse at home and having to take care of her little sister were confirmed. It’s hard because there still isn’t anything we can do about it; we just know what’s going on but feel rather powerless to help. Then we went to the Mpophomeni museum (which was just a big room with newspaper clippings and typed out documents) but it was neat because the two guys showing us took a lot of pride in what they were showing us. They also took us to a memorial for all the children who were killed by police during the apartheid. For Mpophomeni alone, there were 97 children who died. As sad as that is, it made apartheid so much more personal to hear about the lives of people in this township we’ve been spending so much time with. That’s been the coolest thing about spending time at Ethembeni…hearing personal stories about all the things that have happened in this country, like apartheid or AIDS. It changes it in your mind. It’s no longer just a statistic or foreign concept; it’s real and has changed these people’s lives.
Something that I really ask you all be in prayer about is the Ethembeni center as a whole. They had a staff meeting today and Claire informed us that the center is running out of money. The clinic’s rate of survival for their patients is only 40%, because most of these people come to them after it’s too late. But the donors see this as failure and say Ethembeni isn’t doing anything to help, and they want to put their money elsewhere. But they really have no idea how important this center is. Because of the decreasing funds, they have to cut the staff’s pay nearly in half and, starting April 1st, the family center will only be open 3 days a week instead of 5. This is detrimental to the community though. Because most of the little children we play with every day have parents who are still in high school. If they lose their child care twice a week, they won’t be able to go to school and will eventually, most likely drop out. It’s a ripple affect of negative things and Ethembeni is helping prevent so many of those things from becoming a reality. So please pray! Pray that God will provide. Pray that He’ll give the staff wisdom and the donors understanding. Pray pray pray. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about out here, it’s prayer. It works and is so powerful.
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourself. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” –Romans 12:10-13
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