Like this:

Here is the thing with a blog.  The busier I am, the more I have to write about.  But unfortunately, the less time I have to write.  Basically I am trying to justify the lack of new material up here for a while.  There has been a lot going on the past week in Cape Town, here are some of the highlights:

School is now in full swing.  My first assignment was due this Tuesday for my literature class.  I haven’t written on literature since high school, this was the longest paper I have ever written, and our teacher is the Poet Laureate of South Africa.  I was a little intimidated.  Its finished though and I’ll see what she thought next week.

All of my housemates and I are working at various nonprofits around Cape Town in addition to the days of classes.  I had my first day at the Desmond Tutu HIV center this week.  I will be working with a mobile HIV testing van humorously called the “Tutu Tester.”  The van travels to busy public places in the poor areas of Cape Town.  They set up tents and patients start walking in off the streets for free testing.  On Monday I observed how the tester operates.  In late September I will begin testing the human powered nebulizer through the tutu tester.  Nebulizers are medical machines that vaporize liquids for patients to inhale.  The tutu tester uses a nebulizer to vaporize salt solution in order to diagnose for TB.  I will be introducing a nebulizer that runs on foot power rather than electricity.  I am excited for that to start. 

In the mean time I am getting experience working on the tutu tester.  On Thursday the nurse taught me how to take blood pressure, run blood sugar, HIV, and syphilis tests.  I was learned how to diagnose inflamed lymph nodes and skin diseases that indicate the severity of the HIV.  I was very excited to get the hands on experience but there was another side the story.  As I sat there thrilled to be learning how to do a finger prick the person across from me was discovering life changing news.  Depending on if there was one line or two lines on the small plastic device told someone if they had HIV or not.  Some of the men trembled as they waited.  Once I had performed the test I had nothing to do.  The nurse who was teaching me was speaking to them in Xhosa.  I simply listened.  Another man who spoke English was learning how HIV was spread.  He asked the nurse, “My wife was diagnosed positive only a year ago, how could she be positive when I am negative?”  The weight of what was happening in the hearts of the men in the booth overshadowed the experience I was gaining. 

But, speaking of Desmond Tutu, we went a mass that he was saying last Friday.  While Desmond Tutu has done some monumental things to further reconciliation and equality in South Africa, I did that meet the ‘Rabble Rouser for Peace.’  I met a funny old priest who still finds pleasure in saying a simple mass early on a Friday morning.  After mass he joined us for breakfast but I did not get the chance to speak to him.  

Last night my housemates and I climbed one of the peaks in Cape Town called Lion’s Head.  The sun was coming down as we neared the top.  The view was breathtaking.  Here is a picture from near the top, sorry that stranger got in on the left.

 

 

 

 

It was the kind of place that I could have spent a lot more time at.  I am learning quite a bit here in South Africa.  While I love being here, I miss you all at home.  I rest in the fact that the same God is at work here as at home.

Advertisement