African Travels - JL1
My name is Jess, I'm 19, and needed a year off before starting Med school in September in the UK, so I packed up and headed to Africa for a few months...
So far I've been overlanding Nairobi to...

Window Seat!
London, United Kingdom
Walking through to airport security, properly on my own for the first time, was possibly one of the scariest things I've done in a while - including my first ever trip to alton towers last week where I was forcibly taken on oblivion. Twice.
The highlight of the usually uneventful boarding process was the bus ride sitting next to a couple of young actors from the film 'Africa United'. They were on their way to Rwanda by invitation from the government (or similar authority) to promote the film and its ties to the country, and were telling anyone that would listen about their parts as 2 of the main 5 children in the film. Funnily enough i didnt beg for autographs - maybe i will kick myself in a few years time when they are superstars. Maybe not.
Scored with a window seat...
In flight movies : Eclipse (again) - yup, still very much Team Jacob
Inception (again) - Still dont quite undertand how they follow the guy
into limbo without dying...
Moments panic int he first few hours of Africa:
When the woman at the bureau de change wouldnt accept my signature ont he travellers cheques until i did it 3 separate times.
Waiting for over 45 minutes for my bags to come through, the very very last on the conveyor belt.
Standing in a sea of people holding signs and not seeing my name or my hostel for a good minute (but felt like 30)
Being approached by a man in a trenchcoat with a security badge asking me if i knew the man i was just with (the driver), to which i said 'No, but he's from the hostel I am staying at' and being met with a steely gaze and something being muttered into a walkie talkie...
I never did find out whether he was security or just a stange man but luvkily the driver was a real driver and i got to Wildebeast Camp in one piece.
I need to perfect the skill of getting into a dorm, getting into a bunk bed, and getting to sleep, as silently as possible so as to not wake my 5 dorm buddies at 1am.
written by  JL1 on November 5, 2010 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: African Travels

Canadians, Carnivore, and Celebrating my 19th
Nairobi, Kenya
Happy Birthday Me! :)
So I arrived yesterday and actually managed to meet some lovely people over breakfast who invited me to tag along with their plans.
Our little day trip was made up of:
2x Canadian women – Jan and Robin who had only met recently to travel together and were heading off to see gorillas next!
1x A local student called Martha who studies and works at the National Museum and was showing the Canadians round.
1x an NGO worker called Robert who spends most of his time in Africa working for ‘Hope for Children’ but is actually from London.
And me :)
We spent the day wandering around the Massai Market (which was a little big like a carboot sale without cars and with added hassle from guys looking for commission), the National Museum, and the Snake Park.
The Canadians had plans to go to Carnivore that night and invited us along too. Obvously there wasn’t a lot I could eat but I went for the experience - and the chocolate brownies turned out to be amazing!!
Today I’ve had one of the most unconventional birthdays… I spent the day in Eastleigh Slum where Robert was doing some work at an orphanage. I was able to visit the orphanage and the girls there and had happy birthday sung to me by them and then visit some of the families in the slum that the orphanage outreach programme was working with. The conditions and the houses were not great, and the families were obviously very poor, but they are some of the happiest kids I’ve seen.
A lot of the people living in the area were hostile to Muzungus (white people), because people visit on ‘Slum Tours’ and they promise help or money – and maybe these people do donate to a charity or they do join an aid organisation, but rarely does that go back to the same slum they visited and so the families just end up feeling exploited.
For the same reasons I didn’t take a camera so no pictures sorry!
The evening was more of a normal birthday – drinking on the patio at the hostel. I also met James and Maria and Marc and Kylie who are joining the Oasis trip tomorrow too.
written by  JL1 on November 7, 2010 from Nairobi, Kenya
from the travel blog: African Travels

We All Live On A Yellow Truck …
Arusha, Tanzania
First long drive day of many. We all boarded the truck at about 8.30am and apart from toilet and lunch stops we didn’t stop until we reached Tanzania that night. First camp – Snake Park, Arusha.
My home for the next 2 months is a 24 seater yellow truck called bulldog. There are 19 of us at the moment; most people are in their 20, taking a break form work to travel for a while.
The road to the boarder crossing and then on to Arusha was pretty bumpy and full of diversions that apparently have been going on for years as they try to improve the roads. I spent it mainly watching the views of Kenya turn into the tribal villages and flat plains of Tanzania from the huge open sides of the truck. And trying to learn people’s names…
After our first toilet stop in Tanzania and the first ‘bush pee’ for me and the newbies we celebrated with some failed jumping photos.
And then started on the beers.
written by  JL1 on November 8, 2010 from Arusha, Tanzania
from the travel blog: African Travels

Safari Safari Safari!!
Arusha, Tanzania
Just got back to camp after 3 full days of safari! We started by jumping into jeeps and heading to Lake Manyara the day after we arrived in Arusha. The National park here was mostly dense forests and a few open grassland areas and we spotted monkeys, baboons, herds of elephants and a handful of giraffes.
It was amazing to be so close to Elephants! The females and their calves generally hang out together with the bulls usually wandering on their own and the herds can be up to 50 or 60 Ellies!
It was my first ever safari and I stood up with my head out of the truck all day- can’t believe how tiring it was doing nothing but animal spotting!
We stayed that night at a place called Kudu Camp near to our next safari spot – Ngorogoro Crater. The crater is whats left of a volcano and backs onto the Serengeti which is next on the list.
The crater had such a high concentration of animals – a pregnant hyena, jackals, warthogs, hippos, elephants, gazelles, ostriches, and lines of wildebeest and zebra following each other and possibly heading to the Serengeti for the migration. And my first lions! A young male sunbathing on his back and then a few of females hiding in the long grass from the midday heat.
After lunch on the rim of the crater we headed into the Serengeti for an afterooon game drive. After a few hours wait at the entrance gate because of some problem, this turned into an evening drive pretty much straight to the camp site for the night.
I think everyone would have been a lot more disappointed about the lack of game drive if It hadn’t been for the cheetah and her gazelle kill, she called to her 4 cubs too and they started tucking into their tea at the side of the road as we drove by!
I think the Serengeti is quite renowned for its cats and it lived up to it - we saw loads more lions and a leopard with a cub (all be it briefly) too!
We camped in a campsite in the middle of the game reserve with no fence and just a guard with a gun. The gun was to protect the animals from us, not the other way around!
After sleeping to the sounds of hyenas and waking up to more elephant and lion spotting, we drove 4 hours back to Arusha and I had to wash off 3 days worth of dirt and dust pretty fast because it my turn to cook… Luckily not on my own :)
written by  JL1 on November 11, 2010 from Arusha, Tanzania

Zanzibar = Paradise
Zanzibar, Tanzania
A picture is worth 1000 words so here is paradise – Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar.
White Sand, Blue Sea, Scuba Diving, Snorkelling and Beach-Side Bars.
Not to mention sleeping in beds!
We ferried here from Dar-es-Salaam yesterday, after a night a Mikadi Beach on the coast. I met an acrobatics teacher with his troop of gymnasts doing a performace at mikadi beach and we got chatting about gymnastics for ages. I showed them a few videos from my gym too. I almost wished I had an extra day in Dar so I could have visited their community centre where they train, but the Ferry was already booked.
Highlights of the past few days on Zanzibar…
-Learning to Scuba dive! Swimming with so many fish and a guitar shark! Even if the instructor did insist on walking around in his Speedos…
-Drinking the evening away after Rod & Alice announced they had just got engaged!
-Volleyball on the beach.
- Eating out at local back-street restaurants and buying beer from rastas in a tin shack shop.
- Drinking (again) and learning drinking games from lizzie, who has a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
-Generally doing absolutely nothing on the beach and in the sea.
We spent the last day in Stone Town, a town with a very obvious Arabic influence away from the beaches and on the south side of the island. Stone Town was made up of loads of narrow, cobbled, higgledy-piggledy streets with low hanging electrical cables and stone buildings and was too easy to get lost in. We visited the slave museum and the site of one of the biggest slave markets in Africa which was really interesting.
That night we went out to a huge food market with stalls selling all types of meat, seafood, pizza/omelette concoctions and sugar cane juice. It was crazy busy because it was a local holiday too. We stopped in to the Freddie Mercury bar on the way home for a bit of Queen themed drinking at a memorial bar celebrating his birthplace. I love Zanzibar!
written by  JL1 on January 10, 2011 from Zanzibar, Tanzania

Day 80, Blog Number 1....
Knysna, South Africa
Change of tactics... I've been away for 3 months already and kept meaning to write my blog but never really got round to it in East Africa because we never really had internet and since then every time i thought about doing it i realised i had soo much to catch up on it would take forever. So i never did. Now i'm regretting it so instead i'm going to write from today and then catch up some other time :)
So right now I'm in Knysna in South Africa and I've been here for about a week already! It doesn't feel that long ago that I was in cape town staying in a posh hotel and partying at the Dubliners ('Traditional Irish Pub'...)
I'm living in a really nice little house with 9 other girls who are all doing volunteering with Edge Of Africa too, but doing different projects. I am mainly in hospitals and clinics and helping with home based caring, some people are working at an elephant sanctuary, some with kids in the community and some doing similar medical-type things to me but with HIV/AIDS workshops for kids too.
Quick run down of the week:
SAT - Left Buffalo Bay on the Baz Bus and trundled along for all of about 20 minutes before getting off again in Knysna and meeting 7 lovely people in our little house on the hill. So far we are: 2 others from England, 1 from Holland, 1 from Germany, 1 from Norway, and 2 Americans. Turns out we get all our food cooked for us and brought to us at tea time! A luxury after living off dairylea sandwiches for the past week. Out for drinks... Didn't exactly end up being a quiet night and I was very very very ill by about 1am. I blame the mixture of cider, cocktails, shots, wine and then more cider. All in all i think i made a great first impression! Ha!
SUN - Recovery in the form of a whole day on the beach at Buffalo Bay :) Sun + sea + sand + milkshakes = Good sunday.
MON - Official first day on the job... ish. We met all the volunteer co-ordinators and learnt the basics about Edge of Africa. They seem to be a really good volunteering organisation who actually get their volunteers to do worthwhile work that is part of a large project not just bottle feed babies at an orphanage, get great photos, then leave and the orphanage goes back to what it was before. I'd tell you all about it but this was supposed to be a summary and i'm already babbling so try here www.edgeofafrica.com
Anyway we spent the day visiting the community projects they work. First up was with a few preschools with smiley kids who loved to have their photo taken and then giggle and point at themselves on the camera :) One of the preschools was just recently rebuilt by Edge of Africa and what used to be a tin shed is now a 5 classroom preschool with an office and a kitchen and a playground - and they have now got 80 kids on the registers instead of 30!
Next up we visited the largest rasta community in south africa and their eco-trail project. They have taken over a piece of land in the centre of the township and started removing all of the alien plant species to allow the natural Fynbos to grow. The western cape has really unique plant life but it is overrun with invading species so the rastas are creating a hiking trail with information boards and guided walks to not only educate the people in the township but to create a tourist attraction to bring in money too.
The last place we visited was pretty amazing. An HIV+ man from Chester, UK decided to move to south Africa to try to do something to make a difference. He opened a centre for children and people to express themselves through art about HIV. They do drama workshops and have a library too and its just a really nice place wehre kids can come to learn or relax or play as many of them dont really have much space to do that at home. The centre was pretty big and has soo much potential. There was a little naked 2 year old boy running around too … he was so sweet!
TUES - FRI - Did some real work! I've been in a pre-school, in Knysna hospital, in a small 8 bed clinic in Plett and out in peoples houses doing home based care.
Highlights so far ... (plus some other experiences that weren't so great)
Helping to do ECGs with some really old fashions machines.
Wheeling and walking the same patient (with a stab wound to the chest!) between 2 wards 4 times because the ward sisters couldn't decide on who they wanted where... she was not a happy bunny!
Going on rounds with the doctor and learning about testing for TB, treating DVT, and monitoring hyperglycaemic diabetics.
Observing the removal of a chest drain! (suturing without local anaesthetic!!!)
Cleaning up soiled sheets and people and emptying bed pans and catheters (on the not so fun list)
Assisting with HIV tests, taking blood pressure and blood glucose levels for home care patients and occupying children in Paeds :)
And that marks the end of my long 'quick summary'. The only bit left to talk about is this weekend in which we visited Plettenberg Bay, drank milkshakes, visited Monkeyland sanctuary to see some free roaming monkeys rescued and donated from zoos and I acquired 57 mosquito bites on one leg!!!! (True to form I'm only getting round to writing this on monday night, Monkeyland was saturday morning and the bites are still huge and red and swollen and so so ITCHY! :( )
That's All folks, I'll try and keep this up but no promises :)
written by  JL1 on January 24, 2011 from Knysna, South Africa

I Love Night Swimming and Camp fires! :)
Knysna, South Africa
This weekend was pretty eventful and alcohol fuelled....
Friday Night - Out drinking, multiple bars, lots of dancing, lift home in the back of a pick-up truck. All 12 of us...
Sunday Night - Out drinking, braai-ing by the lagoon, lots of wine brewed at our new hippie-type friend's vineyard, night swimming, lift home in the back of a truck...
Monday morning - Attended a lecture on alcohol abuse and foetal alcohol syndrome.... !
Apart from the irony and the fact that i think some of the others were suffering with hangovers the lecture was really really good. The speaker was from Pretoria university and had been conducting research into Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, how it presents in pre-school children and the best methods for early diagnosis and intervention.
I did not realise how common it was for women to drink during pregnancy, especially in the Western Cape. some of the main risk factors are the poverty and the lack of other leisure activities as you might expect, but i also learnt that the western cape is particularly bad, partly due to the fact that historically (up into 30-40yrs ago) labourers on the wine estates would receive part of their wage payment as alcohol!! There is now a huge binge drinking culture and many people don't realise that when they drink during pregnancy, so does their baby, or don't understand the damage that alcohol causes to their child. Apparently even some health professionals advise that its fine to drink as much as you like!!!
Emily found herself a small child with FASD who had been abandoned by her mother and was now being cared for by an amazing woman who runs a home for abandoned and abused children. We very nearly ended up having a new member of our household but unfortunately had to give her back...
We all spent the afternoon working on the individual projects that we have been given as a part of our volunteering here. I spoke to Dayne a few days ago and she has basically given me free reign over setting up some sort of check-up system for the children in the township where EoA runs their swap shop. Every wednesday around 100 kids turn up with bags of recycling that they have collected and it gets weighed and exchanged for token for the shop. Here they can buy everything from clothes and toiletries to toys and books and even dogfood :) The idea is to set up a health check up for the kids whilst they are there too as very few of them get any sort of healthcare and it would mean we could refer them if needs be.
So far i've been researching child health practices and protocols to work out what sort of check ups to do, making a database, designing forms and thinking of ways to highlight children that are not doing so well so that we can refer them to a doctor. Its going to be such an amazing project when its done and hopefully it could even get rolled out across other townships and areas too! So much still to do though!
I've been asking the nurses at the hospital for their opinions and ideas, and the woman who spoke today too. She really knew her stuff about FASD and had a background in speech and language therapy so i asked her a few questions to help me with the child health clinic project - she was so helpful and not only gave me cues to look for when screening speech and hearing but also is sending me a checklist for checking for potential FASD.
I'm actually really excited about setting all this up - it could turn into a mobile clinic if all goes to plan and it will be a way to regularly screen the children for their health, development, HIV status and anything else that you can think of. The long long long term goal would be our own clinic or hospital too, that anyone could access - children, parents, adolecents, anyone. Its going to be amazing to be able to say that I helped start it all!
Back to working in the Plett Aid clinic tomorrow with Marissa and Emily and Emillie (The other Emily's friend that arrived today! Which brings us to a grand total of 10 :) )
People got tattoos today!!! Crazy pain seeking people! I think I'll stick to just photos and memories :)
written by  JL1 on January 25, 2011 from Knysna, South Africa

Just a quick one...
Knysna, South Africa
Today I spent the morning at a clinic in Plettenberg Bay with the new Emilie, but we had nothing to do for the first hour because the nurse was nowhere to be seen... So we sat in the office and had nerdy conversations about biology :) After a while of feeling useless I asked if we could observe what the nurse was doing and we got to meet a lovely 80yr old man called Pete who never left the house without his jazzy lil' hat. We drove him home and walked around visiting people who needed blood sugar testing, blood pressure testing, and medicine deliveries. One guy has some really scary dogs so the nurse refuses to go in past the gate and passes the medicine over the garden wall instead! Ooh and I got to do more finger-pricking again too! Woop!
The houses in this township were so varied - some people had fully kitted out homes with nice kitchens, sitting rooms with Tvs, and multiple bedrooms. Whereas 5 houses away people were living in tiny, 1 room, tin walled homes, with no furniture besides a few matresses and a table. It was so strange to see such huge differences within the space of a few metres but liek everywhere in africa, everyone was smiling and happy! Even most of the sick people were less grumpy that the average Englishman.
At Lunch we were picked up and finished the day at the hospital. We were supposed to be in the male ward but they were really really quiet. I helped admitt a patient and got chatting to a lovely old man about travelling (he had been on a cargo ship for years apparently and knew all the best spots) we went to help out on the female ward instead. After that we didnt really stop all afternoon they were so busy! Did alot of hte usual running about with beds and meds and bloods and helping with admissions and got talking to a nurse in theatre and hopefully i will get to see an operation tomorrow!
Finally finished the Children's Health Check-up stuff!! I'm trying it out for the first time tomorrow at the swap shop - over 100 kids in 2 hours!! The other Jess is goign to help too though so hopefully it wont be too chaotic...
ANDD its Emily's 21st birthday tomorrow! Dayne was trying to organise a night with the Rastas which would be awesome, but even if not i think the plan is to go out and party 'til the early hours :) I Love Birthdays!
written by  JL1 on January 25, 2011 from Knysna, South Africa

Happy Birthday Emilyy!!!
I wish it had been my birthday yesterday - it was such a good day! Spent the morning at Knysna Hospital and talked my way into observing in theatre =D I got there at 8am and by 8.30 I was all scrubbed in ready to see a caesarean! It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen hospital and medicine wise - and maybe so far overall. I was one of the first people the baby saw! And she was such a beautiful little baby girl. The mum had a few minutes to see her and kiss her but then she got taken up to the maternity ward for all her measurements whilst the mum had to finish up in theatre.
That morning I also got to see a Tonsillectomy and a Bi-Lateral Tubal Ligation which is the female sterilization :) I love theatre! I don't think I have a steady enough hand for surgery though... The anaesthetist suggested taking up knitting and sewing.
Anyway after the excitement of open surgery I went to the excitement of the first day of the health check ups at the swap shop :) It wasn't exactly a busy first day as only about 6 people turned up to the swap shop not the usual 100, but it meant we had an easy trial run. The swap shop is a really good project that EoA run where children from the township bring bags of recycling to be weighed and collected and in return they receive tokens to spend it the shop, they can buy anything from toys and books to clothes and toiletries and footballs and stationary. We decided we need to get some sort of lollipop incentive to give the kids after they have been checked as all they really wanted to do was to get to the shop and spend their tokens.
The rest of the night was equally as we went to see the largest Rasta community in SA and they cooked for us and played their reggae band. The leader is a guy called Maxi and he made me want to be a Rasta. Of all religions it very nearly actually made sense.... nearly. We danced for a good few hours to the reggae, which was weird at first because we were all totally sober but after we got into it it was good fun. And I met a cool little kid called Michael, he was 7, soo intelligent and could dance like nothing I've seen before! I'd quite like to keep him :)
Me Emily and Emilie stayed out drinking with Dayne and Roger til 2.30am and for god knows what reason ended up in a gay bar all night (that had no gay people in it) and we mihgt have maybe just a little bit been making fools of ourselves on the pole..... I blame Dayne. (Who is the project co-ordinator, manager and owner of EoA. She was also on the pole at one point...)
All in all it was a really good night, ending with us lying on the eating the rest of Emily's 3 layered chocolate fudge brownie cake that I made.

100 Staples Later...
So today wasn't so great. I woke up and found Emily on the sofa still, she didnt even make it up the stairs! That wasnt what made it a bad day though, that part was actually an amusing highlight. Possibly the only highlight of the whole day....
The rain wasn't exactly a good start but it all went downhill from the moment i stepped into the maternity ward. The Sisters were grumpy and kind of rude, and they didnt really have anythign for me to do. I offered to go to a different ward where they needed me but instead the ward manager decided my time would be best spent being hte clerks assistant (bitch) for the day. so i cut and stapled over a hundred pieces of paper to leaflets.... All the live long day!!! I answered the phone a few times and the sister was shocked when i was able to tell the person on the other end the right information and that i knew what Haemoglobin were.... But not impressed enough to upgrade me from my stapling duties.
Two women gave birth whilst i way in the ward an i wasnæt able to see either of them :( Time went so slowly and in the end i sat 'eating lunch' with the other volunteers in the hospital but taking over an hour about it so i didnt have to go back!
Marissa had a similar time of it in Casualty as their clerk is on leave but Emily was in theatre today and got to see a gall blader removal and a fiberous lump removal from a 15yr old girl!
Dayne even gave us all a half day today as a present seeing as it was Em's birthday, which is good because none of us could have hacked any more. : / The Emilys slept alll afternoon and I tried to research some travelling. Jess and I spent the evening playing netball with the girls in the township and I forgot how much I LOVE netball :)
... going to ache tomorrow though!

Another 5am Friday
Today we got relative lie in - 9am instead of 7.30 (!) and a few of us spent the day gardening at the HIV clinic. EoA set up vegetable and herb garden for the clinic last year and the idea was that the patients could get involved in the watering and gardening and then would have a free supply of vegetables that they could help themselves to, but over the christmas and new years break it got forgotten. It was a complete mess when we started and we spent hours de-weeding and turning the soil over with compost until it looked almost healthy. Now the whole garden is pretty with lettuce and tomatoes and chives and onions and basil and sections where we need to go back and plant lavender to keep the bugs away :)
We all returned home a little burnt and very tired but feeling satisfied with our little garden project.
This evening we were treated to a traditional south africa braai (bbq) courtesy of Roger - Corn, Butternut, Gems squash, potatoes, Chicken, Boerwores (spicy sausage) and homemade garlic bread :)
It was so nice to sit in the sun at 7pm and drink sparkling rosé and listening to mumford and sons through the teeny tiny speakers of a laptop. We've also decided to got to a music festival next weekend called Up The Creek Festival in Swellendam which is about an hour and a half drive from our house!! We're going to swim in the river there, go watch the music and then camp 2 nights! Soo excited!
The rest of the night was pretty much the same as last week and went as follows:
Some of the girls went to see the long haired guys from last weekend and the rest of us headed to the waterfront for cocktails.Unfortunately here we bumped into the waiter from the oyster bar Jeremy who seems to be following us around ... he decided to ditch his friends and come along with us. Alll Night.
Then came zanzibar for dancing and double vodkas.
And eventually Tryst - the one and only 'nightclub' in Knysna that everyone flocks to from 2am - 4.30 when they turn the lights on. They have a really good 'last orders' policy of shots only so they can clear everyone out in record time.
At this point we would normally head home but for some reason we ended up going to the local backpackers with an eclectic collection of people we'd accumulated over the night including the long haired hippie guys and some people with the keys to the backpackers...
Its now 6am and me and emily just hiked alll the way back up the huge hill home. Tomorrow i will sleep.
The End

Paradise II - Buffalo Bay
Paradise I was Zanzibar, which i haven't gotten around to uploading the photos of yet, but this weekend I showed the Emilys Buffalo Bay backpackers where I stayed on my way here.
After waking up at noon we packed a picnic and spent R200 on a 30min taxi ride to wild side backpackers, buffalo bay. The beach there is beautiful. The backpackers sits around the coast from the main beach, on a completely deserted stretch of sand and rocks and sea, with tidal pools and a river that ran red. We lay int he sun, clambered on rocks and then went swimming in the river. It was a bit off-putting swimming in blood red water but i think it was just because of the Mineral run-off from the soil further up... I hope.
We were accompanied by a little dog for our walk along the entire length of the beach to the river and tidal pools, but he didn't fancy swimming so instead just stood and waited for us on the other side of the river. For an hour! Before following us alll the way home :)
Back at the backpackers we drank wine, ate bread and cheese, read cosmo, made a fire and played pool until we got a lift back to Knysna from one of the malawians who run the backpackers.
Such a perfect day :)
Today was a lot less eventful and consisted of sleeping, skyping and watching dvds in my pyjamas
written by  JL1 on February 1, 2011 from Knysna, South Africa

Theatre :)
Its so hot! Its gone 10pm and its still boiling so I'm going to be brief before I fall asleep...
Yesterday I was introduced to Liz at a project called MAD about Art. It sands for Make A Difference about Art and is a centre in the township that runs structured programmes for HIV/AIDS education and awareness through different forms of expression. The programmes includes both an in-school curriculum of lessons that they take into 4 primary schools in the area, and a series of after school clubs. They aim to teach the skills necessary to make positive life choices - including everything from healthy food choices, to good hygiene, and reasoning and debating skills, that will eventually lead to them being confident to make good choices about sex and their health later on. They also have general Art, Art Therapy, Sports, Early Learning and Gardening programmes that the children can take part in. Its a really really good centre with soo much going on! Like everywhere in the townships here - people are doing so much to help each other and themselves.
Today i was in theatre again this morning and i got to see more C-sections, sterilisations, and a uterus evauation (.... which was a bit hard to take) as well as abscesses and a baby with a needle stuck it its foot!! I love surgery!
This afternoon i went back to MAD to help out with their early learning programme, which i found out when i got there was actually taught by a 14yr old kid. He was really good and he was trying so hard, but he was just saying some things totally wrong... how tea and coffee are healthy drinks and not to drink water after you exercise because you'll get cramps... to 4/5yr old kids! :/ But i think thats why EoA are getting more involved with the centre, to help with things like that :)
Anyway, now its bed time and i'm shattered. Clinic again tomorrow and Jess' Sack Race/Fete event... Should be fun. If more than 5 kids turn up to the swap shop this week....
written by  JL1 on February 1, 2011 from Knysna, South Africa