My Jinxed Friday

As I was eating breakfast this morning (Captain Crunch! thanks to a care package from my nephews), I was thinking about how uneventful the week was. I should have known that was a great way to make today full of adventures.

It started innocently enough. I got to the office at 8:30, the usual opening time for the Centre. I had a cup of tea and caught up on overnight e-mails. Wednesday was the monthly food parcel day, and we had a few extra bags, so I decided to take one over to Rosie and her family. Rosie is the woman who had no bed that I wrote about a few weeks ago. She and her three kids stay with her sister and her family in New Crossroads, about a 5-minute drive from the Centre.

Rosie has HIV, diagnosed when her last child was born a couple years ago. Her CD4 counts are high, so she should be in good shape. However, she's been struggling with a GI bug for the past month and has had really bad problem the past couple weeks. I had taken her to clinic on the 16th when she was very weak and unable to eat. The nurse gave her an IV with some multivitamins, and the doctor order some medications and special food (porridge and milk powder) to help renourish her. I thought that would take care of the problem.

When I stopped today, I didn't get but one foot in her room before she started crying and asked to be taken to hospital. Not only has her diarrhea not gotten better, now she was unable to control her other functions. She hadn't eaten in over 5 days and looked very emaciated. She's also very concerned about how much of a burden she is to her sister and her family. I told her sister that I would check on what had to be done in order to get her in the hospital. So, I drove to the clinic and spoke with one of the nurses about what to do. In order to be admitted to hospital, people must be referred from their primary care clinic (like Brown's Farm). So, back to Rosie's house to bundle her up and bring her in.

Her sister got her ready to go, not an easy process when you're so weak you can hardly sit up. She also couldn't walk today, a combination of the weakness and some nerve problems in her feet. Fortunately, her sister's partner was at home so he helped me carry-walk her to the car. Of course, just as we got to the door it started to rain. I gave Rosie to her sister and went out to move the car closer. We eventually got her into the back seat and away we went.

I waited while the doctor saw her, just in case she was not going to hospital and had to be taken home. The doctor agreed to send her, so they called for an ambulance (not that it was an emergency, it's just how they do the transport). I gave her my cell number and R20 (no such thing as a free call in hospitals here) in case she needed anything and I left. I stopped at her house on my way back to the Centre to tell everyone what was happening and leave my cell number. So far, no calls, but I don't expect the weekend to pass without some word on what's happening. My guess at this point is that she has hepatitis, which is surprisingly uncommon here. We'll see what develops.

One 5-minute job that only took 2 hours. Not the first time that's happened and probably not the last, either.

I got back to the Centre in time to catch the tail end of a planning session with Edwin and Yvonne about blankets. Yesterday, I learned that politicians CAN be trusted. When the Deputy President was at JL Zwane in May, she said she was working on a blanket collection program with some women golf pros in September. But, she said, she knew that they would be needed in July and August, so she was going to try and get them to us earlier than originally planned. I'll be darned if 37 assorted blankets didn't arrive yesterday afternoon, delivered by 4 of her staffers. She also sent over 3 boxes of bath towels (about 36 in all) and a dozen warm-up suits for kids. They couldn't have come at a better time - the prediction for the weekend is for an emerging cold front with highs only around 55 F. It's also been very, very windy and rainy for the past 2 days and that's supposed to continue through tomorrow. So, I told Edwin yesterday that we had to get these blankets out today, and that's what he and Yvonne were discussing.

Yvonne made a list of about 12 kids who needed blankets and we arrange to start delivering them after lunch. Before that happened, I had a women come to see me who I had not met before. She said she need some money for food, that she and her children had nothing and were really struggling. I gave her some money and she went away happy. (My name is getting out there as someone who can help people, and I'll occasionally get a visitor who needs a "loan." I've bought shoes for someone, paid for a bus ticket to job training, and paid for another ticket for someone to see family in the Eastern Cape. I figure if they had enough courage to approach me, then I should have the grace to help. I don't expect to get these monies back, but someone wants to repay me I'll gladly accept it.)

Now that we ate, Yvonne and I were on our way. I had thought that these deliveries would take a hour or so. Silly me. I should know by now that working with Yvonne has it's own timetable and it takes as long as it takes (not that that's bad, you just have to be flexible). The upside is I got to see some new places and a whole lot more of Guguletu.

We picked up Nomokwezi, a woman who works in Nyanga and helps Yvonne with the child-headed household program. We went to the regulars, like Noloyiso and Shepherd, to drop blankets and a couple food parcels. It's always good to see these kids, and I see them regularly enough that they will talk to me. Noloyiso's house was broken into a couple weeks ago and she lost her electric kettle, iron, and a sandwich maker. I need to see if I can help replace them.

We went to a house where a woman started a center for mentally disabled kids. She had one of her own and couldn't find anyone to take care of her, so she quit her job and started taking in other similar kids. She now has 14 in her house and gets no government assistance, relaying on the kindness of strangers and the few parents who still look in on their kids. She had 7 cribs in a space the size of my living room at home, and I could only guess where the other kids slept. Some kids had blankets and bedding, some didn't. The food and blankets we brought will be very appreciated.

Just down the street, we stopped at a foster care home with 7 children to drop some blankets and towels. There was a (God-awful) aroma of tripe boiling on the stove, and it took me a minute to realize that it wasn't a dead mouse or something. The kids in this house are well cared for and seem very happy, which is not always the case with foster care here. Some people do it just for the support checks and the kids are not looked after.

We stopped at the home of our head custodian, Noboniso, to drop a prescription from the clinic. She lives in New Crossroads, in a shack behind a house. Normally this would be okay, except that her plot is at a low point and she had about 8 inches of water in her "front yard" (the driveway). I asked if she had water in the house and she said yes, and that it would take about 2 days to dry out. Sadly, those 2 days won't start until Monday, and the problem will be a whole lot worse by then. There were two guys bailing water from the yard and pouring it down a storm sewer. I think if you look up futility in the dictionary, a picture of them will be next to the definition.

We dropped some blankets and warm-up suits at a hostel called WJM (not the station from Mary Tyler Moore's show). The hostels are not for backpackers, they are where families were originally moved to when resettlements took place under apartheid. The hostel unit contains a shared common room (usually used as an eating area) and 4-6 "apartments" where people live and sleep. Families used to share rooms in the old days, but now one family has a room to themselves. Of course, this doesn't normally mean 2-3 people, it means more like 6-12. The family we saw today had 11 in their room - a grandmother, her daughter, her daughter's children, and a couple cousins who lost their parents from HIV within the past 2 years. This is not unusual, although this is one of the largest families I've seen in one room. Because there's usually only one bed, people end up sleeping on floors and any furniture that might be around. Again, blankets will definitely help keep the chill away.

I got back to the Centre about 4:15, after dropping Yvonne and Nomokwezi at the corner to catch a taxi. I spent a few minutes with Edwin about some staff problems, and then went home. None of my task list items got done today, except the one that says "help someone today." Gold star for that one.

Off the topic a bit, here are some things from this week that I won't forget anytime soon:
1. Watching 5 cows, yes real cows, walk side-by-side down a road in the middle of Phillipi, the township where I work. Their front-right hooves were tied to their necks so they couldn't run away. Like they wanted to. The ambled along not caring about the taxis honking or cars trying to pass. They (and the goats that you see even more often) are owned by locals, and no one ever tries to mess with the animals. They are usually allowed to roam free, although they spend most of their time in fields. Seeing them in the shack areas is unusual and it made a good visual.
2. Driving to clinic on Wednesday and seeing a baby funeral happening in someone's front yard. Wednesday was the only sunny day this week, and it was probably warmer outside than inside. There were about 6 men in suits on one side of the small yard, a little pink casket on a bench in the middle, and 8 women sitting on the other side. Someone was preaching as I drove by, and I can probably guess at what he was saying.
3. Fulfilling a promise to a boy at Stormont Madebela school to buy him a new pair of shoes and seeing his face when he got them. This boy had shoes with no soles on them. He needed to wear shoes to school so he had no choice but to wear them. At least the new ones will keep his feet dry. Unfortunately, now that he has the shoes he's hitting me up for a sweater, slacks, and shirt too. And, don't forget socks.
4. Driving to the school for more painting and getting nice waves and thumbs-up signs. I was worried after the water debacle of last week that I wouldn't be welcomed back. But, everything seems to be forgotten now. The kids were back to play just like before. If I could just get them to understand not to touch the wet paint, life would be perfect.

More to come.