Zebras, Birds, and Ghandi :)

Sanibona! ("hello" to more than one)

Sawubona ("hello" to one) literally means "I see you." So in response to this people say, "Yebo, Sawubona" meaning "Yes, I see you." I find it very neat that the Zulus greet others by actually acknowledging their existence, that they are human. I had my first Zulu class last Wednesday night so that's where I got this little lesson from but oh man, what an fascinating language! They have three different clicks and trying to incorporate them into the middle of words is totally difficult. But when you hear the Zulu people speak, the clicks sound so natural and its just really awesome.

Thursday I was back at East Boom. This time I was in the PMTCT unit (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission). PMTCT is a program that is set up for HIV+ pregnant women. Labs are drawn to check certain levels. If the expectant mother has a CD4 count that is below 350 then she is placed on ARV treatment. But before she can see the doctor to receive her ARV treatment, she must first attend three classes or counseling sessions about how to handle HIV as well as ARV treatments. The expectant mother is asked to bring someone who she can trust to come with her to listen in on and participate in these classes. Only after she has completed these classes with her support can she make an appointment with the doctor to start her ARV treatment. My nurse, Sister Hadebe told me about how it is a problem sometimes because once mothers find out their CD4 count is low then they never come back to the clinic because they are basically afraid or embarrassed. Sister Hadebe was a great nurse and I learned a lot. She was able to help me successfully draw my first vial of blood ever -so that was definitely exciting :)

Friday we had class all day but in the evening a group of 17 of us were finally able to get off campus. Our resident director, Janet, turned 23 so we went out to celebrate her birthday. We went to this little bar/restaurant called Keg & Hedgehog. So that was super nice to get out and have some fun. Janet is the second one from the right.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6 and went on a morning hike with two of my chalet mates. We were lucky enough to find two "zeb-bras!" They were having their morning breakfast on the side of the road on the way to the trail.


I love the zebras, can you tell?

I might be over-doing it with the zebra pictures but they are just so cute! Here's just one more, and I promise that will be it:

After our morning hike we left with the whole group to go to Birds of Prey Wildlife Sanctuary. It was pretty neat -they had all kinds of birds: owls, vultures, eagles, hawks, falcons, storks, etc. They train some of the birds too so that was neat. Below is one of the trained owls:

Here is the trainer with a falcon that they rescued and trained:


After our day with the birds, we drove around Pietermaritzburg (PMB) and saw some historical sites. We stopped at the PMB train station. This station is famous because Mahatma Ghandi states his experience there "changed the course of life." Ghandi was a lawyer and had just left England for South Africa to assist one of his clients. Ghandi recalls that on June 7, 1893, seven days after his arrival in South Afirca, he was traveling from Pretoria to Durban and was kicked off of the first class train at the PMB train station because of his race. He spent the night at the platfrom in PMB "shivering" and "afraid." He stated that his "active non-violence begain from that date." Below is a picture of the train station:

And here is a statue of Ghandi in PMB:

After our Ghandi experience we drove up to a beautiful lookout where we could see all of PMB and it was just gorgeous. Here is a picture with Kristina and the beautiful view behind us:


Sunday we went to a small church in the city. The church is located in the heart of a big Hindu community so the whole congregation is made up of Indians that were orginially Hindu. It was a good service and interesting to hear their message about how we can have a personal relationship with God because of Christ and that we do not need to worship idols. After church I spent the day laying on the grass in the sun next to the waterfall reading a book for fun. It was so nice to just relax and take a mental break from nursing studies.

Today we had classes and tomorrow I have clinical again. I will be going to Ethembeni ("Place of Hope") which cares for those who are really poor and really sick by going to their houses and providing them food and spiritual care. So I am excited to experience something new :) They are keeping us busy here but it is so good. I feel extremely blessed to be here. To learn from such amazing people and to be surrounded by such beauty and history. I am just so excited every day that I wake up and I haven't really felt that in a long time.