On Friday, I was able to discharge T.M. from the hospital after his month long stay to treat cryptococcal meningitis!!!! We bought him a small puzzle and a card that was signed by all the PAC doctors (as we have all taken care of him over the last 3 months since he was diagnosed). He was very happy to leave and excited (though a bit nervous) to start school on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the clinic was packed and the wards were not too busy; so I went over to help out in the clinic for several hours. One of the patients I saw was an adorable 6 year old boy and we had one of the best clinic visits ever....
I asked him "why do you take your medications"
"To keep my body STRONG!"
"Has anyone ever told you about the masole (soldiers)?"
"No"
"Well then I think Gloria (the nurse) has a good story for you."
"Story, yeah story. Tell me the story"
So Gloria tells him the story of the soldiers that are being attacked by the bad guy. He listens very carefully and answers all the questions right.
"My soldiers have big muscles" he says, flexing his biceps.
Then just as we were wrapping up. He suddenly says "AIDS, Aquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome!" We were all very surprised, where had he learned that? I asked him what it meant. He said "AIDS kills." We talked about how that is not the case if you take your medications. And then he broke into song, which I cannot do full justice to in written form, but just picture a six year old singing this to a catchy tune.
"My name Lerato (none of these are his real name, he made them up) I am a solider. AIDS you CANNOT touch me. I will kill you. (Setswana word that means) "to the ground".
My name is Thabo, I am a doctor, AIDS you CANNOT hurt me, I will inject you, "to the ground."
My name is Nametso, I am a lawyer, AIDS you CANNOT kill me, I will rule you "to the ground"
Gloria, the visiting resident, his mother, and I all cheered him on and he marched out of the room singing and flexing his biceps. Luckily the song was over by the time he reached the line for the pharmacy, where it may have caused a bit of a stir if the other children had begun to ask their mothers what AIDS was. I guess there are some children who are just ready to be fully disclosed to at an earlier age than we might think they are.
Since this blog has no pictures; here are some pictures of our adventurous new year's weekend in Rustenberg, South Africa. We went Zip Lining in the Magaliesberg Mountains.
The longest of the cables, where you could not even see the other end!
Having fun on the trampoline at the hotel the zip lining was based out of.
I am heading to Serowe for the next two weeks for more outreach and mentoring, so it may be awhile before my next post. Hope everyone is having a good start to 2010!
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