Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hey,
Hope you are all well and had good easters! It is currently 4am, we are flying to Perth this arvo and figured it would be clever to get on to their time zone now so we dont get to jet lagged. Not loving the idea at this stage!
For the last two weeks we have been in Jo'burg staying at Doulos Ministries, a care home for 18 children of which 17 have AIDS. Our school did some fund raising for the home and it was great to see the cheche which the money paid for.
On the journey from the airport Emma (the lady who set up Doulos) filled us with confidence telling us about how they were recently burgled, about when she got hijacked at gunpoint and pointing out local houses where murders have happened. Brilliant! We suddenly felt so alive and happy to be in Jo'burg!!!! We were also a bit apprehensive about arriving at the home as sadly one of the children had passed away the previous week.
As soon as we arrived we felt much safer thanks to the two ridiculously scary rotvilers, the laser alarm system and the electric fencing and gate. Just a few of the normal precautions people here take! When we met the kids we knew our time here would definitely be worthwhile - they are awesome!
At the moment all 18 of them live in the house with Emma and her family which is also where we stayed. It is amazing how Emma and her family cope with the living situation as it takes over their home and they have no private space. Thankfully they are in the process of building a new care centre next door for all the children to live in so they can finally get their home back after 4 years.
Currently their are 7 babies (0-3yrs) and the rest range from about 5-12 yrs. Most of them are so happy and active that you forget how ill they really are. However you are reminded of the harshness of this disease as soon as you go in the terminally ill room. One girl, Zanele, has developed cerebral palsy as a result of the AIDs and cant move at all and is totally braindead. All they can do for her is make her as confortable as possible. Khosi is also very sick and incredibly thin however she doesnt let it stop her and tries to join in with the others as much as possible. Unfortunately after recent progress they found out last week she has develped a form of cancer related to the AIDs. At the moment she is far to weak for Chemo but even if she gets stronger Doulos will be unable to fund it. We could go on about all these childrens backgrounds, it is heartbreaking how these innocent children have had their lives taken away from them. We will write more about the children with all the photos we put on the blog.
We struggled for the first few days with the harsh reality of what these children have to go through everyday. However the kids didnt let us think about it too much as all they wanted to do was play!
Emma set up a programme for us to help us learn about the disease and some of S.A other problems. We altenated between spending the day with the nurse, working in the creche doing arts and crafts blue peter style and going into the community to work on the feeding scheme. One thing we found a bit disturbing about S.A is the rich poor divide. One minute you can be in a very westernised shopping mall full of whites and two minutes down the road you are in a massive slum where only blacks live. It felt wrong that there was such a harsh divide and difference in weath. Aside from Doulos Emma set up the community feeding scheme where they cook hot food at the house and then go into the local slum and feed about 150 children who are all affected by AIDs. They set up base at one of the houses and all of tha children come with their bowls to get some food. It was great to get involved and also interesting to try and understand why there is such an unfair wealth difference.
Doulos is so lucky to have the help of a local GP called Dr Plit. He is always on hand for Doulos and has been a lifeline for them. On good friday he generously offered to take some of the bigger children out on his boat. It was such a great day and a really fun experience for the children as they rarely get out of the house.
We spent most of our time at the home but Emma, her husband Tony and daugther Avril were incrediable generous and took us out all the time. We went to watch Tony's rugby team in Jo'burg, had some retail therapy for the first time in 3 months, went to live the dream of touching a baby lion at the lion park, saw a ridiculously cheesy romcom at the cinema - it was so good!!, had a south african braai (BBQ) and went to an all you can eat buffet - sounds crappy but actually the most incredible food, definitely got our moneys worth as we were there for about 4 hours. We also had the use of a car, probably illegal for us to drive but they dont seem to care here. Vix did the driving and we made numerous journeys to the supermarket to help out and to buy lots of snacky snackys for us.
Overall we have had such an awesome time here, the children are phenomenal and what Emma has achieved is truely spectacular. Most of these children have no family but she provides such a loving home for them all.
However we are shocked to still be alive. South Africa seems to have every problem at its worst. For example we were out for a meal with some friends of Emma and Tony and they recieved a call to say they had just been burgled. Bothered! They said it happend like every 3 months but they get a new TV out of it so its not all bad! Also the car accidents and drink driving is a serious problem and something we have experienced first hand with some seriously terrifying journeys! Overall love it! Cant wait to come back!
No seriously despite all its problems it is an amazing country and we will definitely be coming back.
Check out all the cute kids on www.statraveljournals.com/sjgapyear
Keep us updated with all your news and we will email again from down under!
Lots of Love
Sarah, Jen and Vix xxxxx
- comments