A Tribute

At my medical school graduation

My grandmother passed away 2 weeks ago.  She had just turned 88.  She lived a long and mostly happy life, but had not really been physically able for the last few years and was very sick for the last few months, so it was her time.  A few months ago she had a major stroke which prevented her from saying more than "Hi" and causing her to become very frustrated that she could not express herself.  Despite knowing that it was for the best, losing someone you love is never easy.  Being 7,800 miles away did not make it any easier. She was incredibly proud of her 3 sons, and their partners, and her 4 grandchildren.   She loved to brag to her friends, and anyone else who would listen, about what her children and grandchildren were up to. She was an avid reader of this blog, when she was able and later liked to have it read to her by my father and look at the pictures.  So I thought it only fitting to have a small tribute to her here. 

Sonia Scherzer (Sunny as she was called by everyone, Grandma to me, and Grandma Beady as she was aptly named by Daniel (and later Sarah) - for her love of beaded necklaces) was a wonderful grandmother.

Trying on the cap and gown with her four grandchildren

Though she was clear that she would have preferred for everyone to live and work in Queens so she could see them everyday, she was also proud that her offspring were globetrotters (some of us more than others).  She herself loved to travel and lamented the fact that she was not able to visit me in Africa – one of the few continents she had never been. 

I can only speak for the last 31 years of her 88-year life, but I feel so lucky to have gotten to know her so well.  I think all would agree that Grandma was a very opinionated, strong willed person who could be very demanding at times, but she was also an incredibly honest, loving, and kindhearted person.  She could, and would, talk to anyone and everyone, and random strangers always felt comfortable telling her everything.   I remember several times when I met her in NY City after she had taken the bus in from Queens and she would tell me the life story of the person who had sat next to her on the bus ride in.  Inevitably they would have shared their problems with her and she would have provided suggestions to them.  She would go on elder hostel trips and easily make new friends.  On our trip to Israel together, when I was 13, I remember how easily she became good friends with the other grandparents.  Though she was at times sad that she was one of the few single grandparents on the trip, she never let that stop her.  For most of her life she had a very active social life of bridge games, dinners out, movie nights and scrabble.  Social work was definitely her calling, and though she was officially retired in my lifetime, she continued to provide “counseling” and advice to her friends and also to random strangers.  

She was an avid reader and loved to recommend books for me to read and get recommendations from me, we shared a love of Jodi Picoult books.  She was a big tennis fan as well and could watch the tennis channel for hours on end, though at the end of her life she was not always sure who was playing, it didn't matter to her.  I will always have fond memories of playing tennis with her in Florida and upstate NY.  Even though I was never particularly good at tennis, she never gave up on me and was happy to play and give pointers.  She had a supreme patience for board games and was happy playing hours upon hours of Monopoly or other such games with her grandchildren. 

We also shared a birthday month and it was often jointly celebrated during Thanksgiving.

She was also an avid knitter and needle pointer.  She, and my mother, taught me to knit and needle point when I was 8 and she passed her love of knitting to me for sure.  She always wanted to know what I was knitting and in the last few years was excited to share her comments over Skype.  She did not get to see my last few knitting projects, when I have branched out into toys....

Over the last 10 years she was so lucky to be expertly carried for by Maxine, and in the last 2 years Charlene and Dimples as well.  Though she was certainly not an easy patient, and not always the best at showing her gratitude, she did appreciate the loving care she received from them and I know she was very thankful that their care (and the devotion of her sons to her wishes) enabled her to stay in her home rather than having to be in the hospital – a place she hated more than any other!  The devotion of her sons to caring, visiting (even coordinating schedules to make sure that someone was there at least once a week – and usually more frequently), and making sure that her wishes were carried out was a true tribute to her and a great example for me and the rest of her grandchildren. 

At Aaron's college graduation

She will continue to live on in all of our memories and actions.  For me she will be ever present in my love for knitting, my inability to have dry eyes at special occasions (happy or sad), my strong-willed sprit, my love for travel, and my pride in and commitment to my family.  Grandma you will be missed, but most definitely not forgotten.  We all love you.

A Race!

I used to say I would never run.  I also said I would never wake up early to exercise!  Well all that changed last year.  After walking the 10 km race at the Soweto Marathon, I saw an announcement for the Gaborone Marathon at which there was also a 10 km race (but only a run).  Long story short, I was talked into training to run it.  I realized that anyone can run if you run slow enough (my run is definitely more of a jog ;) I also realized that in Botswana the only time when it was cool enough to run outdoors in the summer was just after the sun rose (before it had time to heat up the day).  So crazily I began to get up early to train.  Things were going well until a few weeks before the marathon when it was canceled!  Of course, this was after I had already paid my 50 pula (around $8) and I was told that there would be no refunds - just an entry into next year's race.  Anyway it was sad and I decided I would have to try again.  Upon moving to Cape Town, I began running again, this time at more normal hours (after work) as it is not as hot here!  I decided to RUN the 10 km race in the Soweto Marathon.  This year on November 6th I did just that!  I had one goal - to run the entire thing (not to walk any parts of the race).  Despite several large hills, I managed to achieve my goal and to run the 10 km in 1 hr and 10 min which I was happy with (you might remember that I walked it in 1 hr and 35 min, so I really don't run much faster than I walk, but still ;)  

My friends Jacquie and Shikata drove down from Botswana to meet up with me and run the race as well.  We made a nice weekend out of it.  We stayed in the same B+B in Soweto as we did last year.  We went to the Apartheid Museum and though I had been once almost 2 years ago, I still managed to learn a ton.  We also went to Nelson Mandela's house in Soweto.  Of course, he did not actually live there very long before being sent to Robbin Island but Winnie Mandela and his children lived there while he was in prison.  Unfortunately it was burned at one point so there is only one original table (it had been leant to someone else and they got it back afterwards).  The house has a random collection of various citations and awards that the Mandelas have received over the years.  Including "the key" to the city of Newark!  There is also the tree in the backyard under which all of the Mandela's children and grandchildren's umbilical cords have been buried.  Jacquie and Shikata dropped me off in Pretoria for a week of working that side, before heading back to Botswana.  So we stopped at the Union Buildings as well.  The Union Buildings were designed by Sir Herbert Baker in 1910 and were the site of many marches and protests over the years.  Today it houses the offices of the Presidency and Presidents (including Nelson Mandela, of course) are inaugurated at the Union Buildings.

This is Jacaranda season.  Pretoria is known for it's Jacarandas, in fact it is called Jacaranda City because there are so many lining all the streets that the whole city looks purple during this time of year. It is quite pretty. 

The race was followed by a week in the Northwest Province.  In addition, to our regular visits to the clinics, Carolin (one of the South to South nurses) and I conducted a two day training for nurses in the Province.  We were supposed to have 11 people, but due to staff shortages we ended up with only 6.  It was unbearably hot (40C/104F) and the room we were in had no fan or anything!  It was a challenge for the participants to stay awake, however we did manage to get them to do some group work on cases to stay awake.  It is really incredible the conditions under which nurses here work and a true testament to their commitment to their patients!

Here is a slideshow of the week's events:

Bo-Kaap

 Believe it or not, there is Groupon South Africa!  When I saw a coupon for a cooking tour on there, I knew it was meant to be.  Who doesn't want to learn how to make Cape Malay Curry, Chili Bites, Samosas, and Roti?  So on Saturday I headed to Bo-Kaap, a 15 min walk from my house. The neighborhood is full of colorful houses and home to much of the Cape Malay population in Cape Town.  The Cape Malay community are descendants of slaves brought over from Indonesia, Malaysia, other parts of Asia, and the Middle East by the Dutch East India Company in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cape Malay is actually not a correct term as many are not from Malaysia, but they were all clumped together by the Dutch.  Many practice Islam and the Bo-Kaap area has many mosques today (though they were originally not allowed to practice their own religion, they were able to maintain it). 

We (a group of 16 South Africans and me) were met by Zainie at the Bo-Kaap museum (which has a small exhibit on the history of the area).  She gave us a brief orientation to the area and some of the history and then took us to the famous Atlas spice shop which has supplied the community with the essential spices for years.  She pointed out some the essentials and then we walked to her house a few blocks away.  Walking down the street we were greeted by the aroma of delicious smelling curry and knew we were headed in the right direction (she had already spent the morning preparing chicken curry since the group was so big).

We started by making Rotis.  Basically flour, water and oil but then after they have "risen" a bit you roll them out in a special way, spread butter on them, roll them back up, freeze them so the butter sets, roll them out again and then fry them!  Quite a process, but it results in buttery goodness.  While the rotis were rising we start on the chicken curry, but she instructed me, and the other vegetarian, on how to make a butternut squash, carrot, lentil curry that was delicous!  Then we made our own samosas, quite fun to fold.  And chili bites as appetizers.  After 2.5 hours of cooking we sat down to a spectacular meal.  At the end we each got a recipie book and a starter package of spices to go home and try for ourselves!  Looking forward to attempting it one day soon ;)

Here is a slideshow of photos (have to go to the actual blog for the slideshow as always ;)
The first few pictures are of a movie set next to my house.  No photos were allowed when they were actually shooting, but they stopped filming on Friday. On Saturday morning as I made way to Bo-Kaap, I noticed that the set was still there.  So if you every see The Great Britian Story you might recognize something from these photos and will know that it was filmed next door to my apartment complex ;)

Hikes

20 years ago if you asked me to go on a hike, I complained, had to be bribed with M+Ms, and "hated" it! I am also NOT a morning person.  So many would be surprised to learn that I agreed to wake up at 6 am last Sunday for a hike! My how things change, as I now love hiking ;) But really, who could refuse a hike with views like this one?

When people think of Cape Town, they often think of Table Mountain, but Table Mountain is actually one mountain in a whole mountain range and there are tons of awesome hikes.  One of the participants, Allan, who attended the training that I conducted last week, asked me if I wanted to join him and a few of his friends for a hike.  I would have preferred to start a bit later in the day, but people here like to get up early.  We drove to Noordhoek, a suburb of Cape Town and ended up hiking for 4 hours.  It was a beautiful day and we were joined by two gorgeous and super well behaved dogs.  We went along the trail at Silvermine and ended up in Elephant's Eye cave (which is where the picture above was taken).  From there you can look out on the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town.  Interestingly it is a great view of Pollsmoor Prison (an infamous high security prison in South Africa) which is situated right next to an extremely posh golf course community!  How is that for interesting zoning?

Here is a slideshow of the day:


The previous Sunday I also went hiking.  This time up Table Mountain.  I have been up Table Mountain a few times, but always on the cable car.  It was probably not the best idea to try to hike it the day after fasting for Yom Kippur when it was 90+ degrees out, but I made it.  I went with Bev (who I met at a Rosh Hashanah dinner) and her friend Jon.  It was nice that I got to attend services this year for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, though it did make me miss B'nai Keshet and it's fabulous co-presidents even more ;) We went up the most direct route which is basically straight up and it is in the sun the whole way.  It was a rough hike and next time I will make sure to drink water and eat the day before ;) But it was worth the sense of accomplishment at the end!

Here are some photos from that day:

Heritage

September 24th was Heritage Day in South Africa.  September 24 used to be Shaka Day in KwaZulu-Natal (a large province along the Eastern coast of South Africa) in commemoration of King Shaka (an influential Zulu king).  After the end of apartheid it was not initially included in the public holidays bill, but the Inkatha Freedom Party, a political party representing a lot of Zulus, objected to the bill without the Sept 24th holiday.  As a result, a compromise was reached and the holiday was renamed "Heritage Day" and made into a public holiday in 1996.  The holiday is intended to celebrate "the rainbow nation" and all the diverse cultures which are represented in SA.  A nice idea.  Recently many people have started calling it National Braai Day since Braaing (or BBQing as it is called in the US) is certainly a part of the culture here.  Everyone loves to have a Braai.  

What it met for me was that all the government run museums in the city were free for the week!  So I took advantage and decided to explore a few of those which are literally in my front yard.  I went to the South African Museum which reminded me of the National Museum of history in NY (large skeletons of whale, mineral collection, etc.)  I also visited the South African National Gallery which had some interesting art.  And the Castle of Good Hope which is the oldest building in South Africa.  It was built on behalf of the Dutch from 1666 to 1679.   It was complete with torture chambers and a posh palace for the governor which has turned into a museum of artwork and antiques.  Imagining some of the awful things that I am sure went on in the Castle was a sobering experience.

Some photos from the day....

Education?

I have been volunteering with a group called Equal Education here in Cape Town.  They are advocating for improvements in the education system in South Africa.  During the Apartheid era, education of Blacks was called Bantu education and was specifically designed as a separate and unequal system (interesting that this system was implemented just as the similar system in the US was being deconstructed). I think Bantu Education is pretty well summed up with this quote from Hendrik Verwoerd (The Minister of Native Affairs in 1953 when the policy too affect):

"There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour ... What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live."

Obviously, this system is hard to undue.  After 4 decades of inferior education, the damage cannot be undone overnight.  Still most of the current teachers in Black schools, (although they are not officially segregated anymore, they are largely segregated by where people live), were educated in the Bantu education system and are not really qualified to teach the new education curriculum.  The schools are overcrowded, many lack proper sanitation facilities, and 92% of South African public schools do NOT have libraries!  Equal Education is an advocacy group that "advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system and engages in evidence-based activism for improving the nation's schools." You can read more about them here: http://www.equaleducation.org.za/what_is_EE


One of their many projects is to work with schools to create libraries.  Most of the schools have a space called a library, but they don't have books, librarians, computers, etc.  So Equal Education collects books and donations and has already opened about 14 libraries.  I have volunteered with them a few Saturdays in the past few weeks to sort, cover (the books are mostly paperback so they are covered in clear contact paper to increase their lifetime), and catalog books.  Today was the opening of a library in Khayelitsha (the largest Township in Cape Town - 1 Million people!)  It is at Matthew Goniwe Memorial High School.  The opening was quite moving.  The program started with a learner performing a poem about the principal and her work to improve the school.

Then the principal spoke about how the school had gone from being in the news for the wrong reasons (two separate stabbings of students in 2005 and 2006) and now was classified as the best high school in Khayleitsha!  She spoke about her efforts to create a book club of teachers and students (with the help of Equal Education and a local bookstore).  She was told to select 15 students, but had 25 who were interested and qualified after visiting only 5 classes in the school and had managed to get all of them included.  And how she and all the learners were so excited about the library.

Next 4 learners performed a scene from a book they had read and a small group sang some beautiful songs (not the best quality video recordings, sorry).

And then the ribbon was cut and the library officially opened.  The learners quickly filled the room and went right to the books.  They began taking them off the shelves, reading them, and sharing lines with each other.  It was clear that the library will be well used and a much needed resource in the school.

Row of outhouses

After leaving, I drove around the township a little bit.  Rows of shacks, poorly maintained roads, lines of outhouses, crisscrossing electricity wires (as there are many illegal electricity connections), and trash abound. I can only begin to imagine all of the struggles that students from this environment face everyday!  But I hope that having a library, and the ability to take books home, will at least make a small improvement in their lives.

A slideshow with some other photos from the day:

Trainings, Wine Tasting, Visitors, oh MY!

Sunset over Table Mountain

It has been a busy few weeks!  The first weekend in September there was a festival called Franschhoek Uncorked in the winelands (Franschhoek is the name of one of the wine routes near Cape Town).  Marina, a previous South to South epidemiologist who now works for a PEPFAR funded project in Pretoria, invited me to join her and two of her friends for the festival.  We hired a driver (so no one had to drive home after a whole day of wine tasting) and toured 5 different wine estates.  Each estate had a different theme for the weekend, with music, food, and of course wine tasting.  We had a lot of fun.

Here we are with the Champagne (well they can't actually call it that, since it's not made in France) that Obama had at his inauguration!

With the "mariachi band" at one of the wineries which was having a Spanish themed day. (Of course none of these men were actually latin and my rusty Spanish was better than theirs but it they sang and played well.....) 

The first week in September I helped conduct two trainings.  The first part of the week I was at a training at Tygerberg Hospital.  South to South conducts these trainings once a month.  Doctors (and a few nurses) come from all over South Africa to spend 5 days learning about pediatric HIV.  They purposely keep the training groups small (no more than 12) to encourage participation from all group members.  Many of the trainings are taught by South to South staff and then other specialists are brought in from Tygerberg Hospital to contribute as well.  In addition, the participants get to shadow in the children's HIV clinic at Tygerberg and spend time on the pediatric ward at Brooklyn Chest Hospital (where children with complicated tuberculosis infections are admitted).  Since it was my first training, I spent a lot of the time observing and taught one lecture on the HIV medications. It was nice to have such a participatory group, makes teaching so much more interesting!  On Thursday and Friday, South to South was also conducting another training for one of our collaborating agencies so I went to help with that.  We had 35 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and pharmacy assistants at the two day basic pediatric HIV training.  We were able to split them in two groups, and I got to work with the nurses.  We had many lively discussions and though it was brief, I think they were able to get comfortable with the basics.

Along Chapman's Peak Drive

Most excitingly my first visitors in my new apartment arrived!  My first visitor in Cape Town was actually my college roommate, Kerry.  She was traveling around South Africa and visited Cape Town shortly after I arrived.  We spent two days talking and catching up, as we had not seen each other in a few years.  Unbelievably, we did not take any pictures together!  Crazy, but I think we were so busy talking that it never occurred to us.  Last week my brother, Aaron, and his girlfriend, Jen, came to visit and Aaron made sure that there was plenty of photo documentation!  He took more than 1,000 pictures in 5 days!!!  It was great to see them and to get to show them Cape Town.  We went to Cape of Good Hope (the most Southwesterly tip of Africa), drove Chapman's Peak (beautiful costal views), took the Cable Car up Table Mountain, and ate lots of good food.  They got to go wine tasting and see Robben Island while I was at work.  We also discovered some new things, most importantly a Saturday market at The Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock (a neighborhood in Cape Town) which sells amazing prepared foods, cheeses, homemade wines, paella, etc, etc.  I even went back this weekend and think I will make it a Saturday morning tradition of sorts ;)

Me and Jen on the beach at Camps Bay for sunset!

Here is a slideshow of some of the best photos taken by Aaron (and a few by me and Jen) - hard to pic out of a 1000, but don't worry there are less than 60....

Moretele

So the big question is what I am actually doing at work?  Well, last week I really got to find out!  It was my first "implementation week."  Basically South to South is working with the departments of health in the different provinces to help them improve their pediatric HIV care.  Since things in the Western Cape (the province that Cape Town is in) are already decent, most of our work is in other provinces (there are 9 in the country - sort of a similar concept to states in the US).  Right now we are working in the Northwest Province in a sub-district called Moretele (it is blue thumbtack below - you may have to zoom out a lot to get prospective, if it doesn't stay zoomed out)


View Moretele in a larger map

Moretele is about 1-2 hours from Pretoria depending on where in the area you are going and how much rain there has been (since many of the roads are dirt roads, when it rains a lot there is a bit of a problem getting around.  Luckily it is dry season right now ;) There are 26 clinics in the area and we are focusing on 10 (as requested by the department of health).  Only 4 of them currently supply ARVs to patients (and 2 just started this month) the rest of the patients who are HIV positive must travel to one of those clinics to get care, which is an improvement since they used to have to travel to the nearest hospital which is not even in their district.  The clinics are pretty far apart considering most people do not have cars, bikes, or donkey carts and public transportation is limited to minibuses....Many of the clinics do not have running water.  Most of the clinics have a severe chair shortage so meetings are held either standing up or on the beds in the labor room (when there are no patients in labor).  So what we are doing is helping the nurses, lay counselors, and the few doctors and pharmacists develop their skills and comfort in treating pediatric HIV.  We are also focusing heavily on PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) since that is really the only way to stop pediatric HIV.  Some of the time is spent mentoring individual health care workers and the other part is helping the clinics put systems in place to improve care.

A typical sign listing the services at the clinic - though most are supplied by nurses only and many patients have to be referred to the hospital for further management which is hours away.  There is an ambulance in the area most of the time for emergencies though it can take a long time to arrive (and if it is not a life threatening emergency they have find their own transport, which many of them cannot afford)

On Tuesday, I got to attend the second meeting of the Teen Club in one of the clinics.  There were 11 teens (a stark contrast to the 200 who attend Teen Club in Botswana every last Sat of the month).  But this is the beginning. The teens got to know each other, elected members to do different tasks, and discussed the importance of confidentiality.  I am looking forward to working with the social worker at the clinic to help her develop the Teen Club even further, but it is off to a great start.  The kids were really engaged and clearly appreciated being able to attend.

The road to one of the clinics

South to South (S2S) has created registers (basically like patient logs, where healthcare workers enter information about the patients and columns like "mother on HAART y/n" prompt the healthcare worker to ask certain questions and send certain tests).  These have helped to improve the numbers of women who are receiving ARVs when they are pregnant and in labor.  But we realized that some of the health care workers do not really understand why they are doing certain things - they are just following protocols.  This is generally good except that without understanding the reasoning behind the protocols, they are often missing things.  So on Wednesday one of the S2S nurses and I sat with all the nurses in one of the clinics and explained the reasoning behind some of the protocols to them.  It was so nice seeing the lightbulbs go on in many of their heads.

I will be going to this district 1-2 weeks each month for the next 6 months and then we may expand to other districts depending on how things are going in Moretele.  In between traveling weeks, I will work on projects identified while there (this week, improving their adherence sheets, collecting resources for the teen club, and improving the registers).  And also conducting week long trainings at Tygerberg Hospital at the University of Stellenbosch (first one for me is Sept 5-9).

One of the clinics we visited is trying to make the outside look nice so all the workers at the clinic each brought a plant and they were planting and watering when we arrived.

On one of the days we visited a business of local women called the Heartfelt Project during the lunch break.  It was started by a woman named Martha after her son was wrongly accused, imprisoned and died in prison.  She lost all of her money to a corrupt lawyer who had promised to get him out.  She had worked for 20 years for a family in Pretoria and their daughter, Julie, helped her start the business.  Now they have 10 employees and create all sorts of hand sewn felt designs.  If anyone is getting married (or having another occasion to party) and needs nice party favors, consider ordering some from them they are great and the profits go to the women and also to support a local community health project.  .....www.theheartfeltproject.com is where you can read more about them and place orders.
They will even ship all over the world with enough time ;)

Here are some of the designs before being sewn and stuffed.

Hope everyone reading this on the East Coast is managing to stay dry and get back your power!  Stay Safe!

Larry Joe

A few days ago I was invited to hear a guy called Larry Joe perform at a local synagogue.  I had never heard of him and so I googled him before going and thought he sounded good.  Also I thought he must have an interesting story since the songs online were recorded in prison!  But beyond that, I had no idea what to expect and I was truly inspired by him and his story.

He was introduced by Aron Turset-Swartz (a founding and now former member of the band Freshlyground.  Aron said that on World AIDS Day (Dec 1) in 2008 Freshlyground was asked to perform at a small concert in Douglas, South Africa (in the middle of the country).  As the sound equipment was being set up a man came on stage and performed two songs which both got a great reception from the audience. Aron remembered being struck by how great the guy sounded and he asked him who he was and where he was from.  "I'm Larry Joe from the Douglas Correctional Center," he said pointing to the side of the stage where 4 armed guards were waiting to take him back to prison.  To make a long story short, after the concert Aron developed a relationship with Larry and eventually ended up becoming his producer and helping him to record his first CD.  

Then Larry took the stage and began to play his guitar and sing his original songs in 5 different languages!  I thought he was really good. In between songs he told his story.  Basically, when he was in his early 20s he broke into a few houses in Kimberley, South Africa.  When he heard the police were looking for him, he ran away to Cape Town.  He had learned how to play a few chords of guitar from his father and liked to sing.  He begged for money until he had enough to buy a guitar and then began to sing on street corners around Cape Town.  He did this for 7 years and got better as he went, always singing covers.  One day he had a dream that he was playing in Madison Square Garden and he decided that he could not really pursue a music career until he served time for what he did.  So he returned to Kimberley and turned himself into the police.  He was sentenced to 5 years in prison.  While in prison he used the time to improve his musical skills. He began to write his own music for the first time and wrote over 40 songs in 5 different languages.  He only really speaks English and Afrikaans, but he had guards and other inmates translate some songs into Xhosa, Spanish, and Portuguese for him.  In addition, he says he read every book in the prison library and used those to inspire his songs in other languages.

Here he is playing with Aron backing him up on a wooden box as a drum

The prison was incredibly accommodating of his desire to practice and play music, allowing him to play in his cell, asking him to perform at that World AIDS Day Concert, and eventually letting Aron bring in recording equipment so that he could record his first CD from inside a cell in the prison.  They were apparently so accommodating because they want to aid prisoner rehabilitation and they saw this as a great opportunity for Larry.
He was released on parole on December 13, 2010 and his CD was released that day as well.  Now he goes around to schools, prisons, and other community organizations to sing and tell his story in the hopes that he can inspire young people to follow their dreams.  Definitely an inspirational story!  
Here is a link to a video about him so you can hear him sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQgXj1s1sQ4&feature=related.
If it doesn't work just go to youtube and search for Larry Joe.

On a totally unrelated note, for your entertainment purposes, I am going to include the following picture of me and my bosses.

Elke (Pediatric Unit Manager), Liezl (South to South Clinical Director) and Me

What is so great about being in pediatrics is that pediatricians are generally fun.  Elke and I are both new to South to South (though Elke started 2 months ago).  So at our staff meeting, Liezl welcomed us into the organization by giving us each a pair of eyeglasses made from wire.  This is because now we are joining South to South and their vision for better pediatric care for children.  Each previous staff member has also gotten to go through this ritual.  We then got to decorate them with ribbon and beads (you can't really see the beads which form the side of the glasses, but trust me they are there ;)

Slideshow reposted

Apparently there were problems viewing the slideshow on the last post.  I hope this one will work better....



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Settling in

Now that I have been in Cape Town for 2.5 weeks, I am beginning to feel a bit more settled.  I am working in Bellville which is one of the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town (30 km and about a 30 min drive from the city center).  It felt too suburban and too segregated for me to live there, so I decided to live in Cape Town itself. But since choosing an apartment over the internet is hard anywhere, and esp difficult when you don't really know the city very well, I decided to wait until I arrived to find a place.  For the first two weeks, my work arranged for me to stay in Bellville in a self-catering apartment which was a 10 min walk to work and 10 min walk (in the other direction) to a shopping center.   So after a 36 hour trip (through Dubai), I was met at the airport by my super nice co-worker who took me to the local Pick and Pay (grocery store) and to the apartment.  The next day I rented a car (my first time driving a manual alone, more on that later) and began apartment hunting.  In 2 days I must have looked at 20 apartments (some in Blouberg - along the beach and the rest in the city).  I decided on a place in center city right across from Company Gardens. The big blue thumb tack below marks the spot of my building (this map is in my grandfather's honor), if you click on the map you can zoom in and out to get a better sense of where it is....


View St. Martini Gardens in a larger map

It is completely furnished which saves me a lot of hassle.  Parking is under the building and it is walking distance to tons of great restaurants, shopping, a lovely public garden, etc.  I got a 2 bedroom apartment so there is plenty of room for visitors ;)

A slideshow of the first 2 weeks (if you are reading this on email you have to go to the blog to see the slideshow)....



Which brings me to the car!  I did not know how to drive a stick shift before I got to Botswana but last year I learned under the tutelage of Gelane and Bri on our many trips for our outreach evaluation.  And after our trip to Swazi/St. Lucia, I was feeling pretty okay with stick.  Only a few small problems here: HILLS (and very steep ones), lots more people, stop and go traffic.....all these things make driving a stick shift much harder, esp when you learned in a flat, sparsely populated country.  So let's just say that driving stick when I rented a car was interesting and I was thinking that my life would be simpler with an automatic car.  However those are hard to come by, more expensive, harder to get fixed and harder to sell.  As a result I ended up with a Nisaan Micra (ever hear of that one?)  I think it looks like a bug, but it is nice and small (good for parking around here), supposedly light on fuel (it better be considering it cost me the equivalent of $45 for 3/4 of a tank!!!!), and relatively peppy on the highway considering it only has a 1.4L engine!  So far so good, I am getting better on the hills and each day feel slightly more comfortable driving stick....though I still don't understand the appeal when automatics are so easy.

So far work has been a lot of logistics as well.  Familiarizing myself with guidelines, protocols, training manuals etc.  They have developed a great pediatric toolkit to help healthcare providers when they are treating children with HIV.  It was developed for South Africa but now is being changed to be more generally based on the WHO guidelines so it can be used in many other countries, so I helped with that process.  All my colleagues are very nice and friendly and it seems we will make a good team. My first mentoring trip is next week, so I will have a much better sense of things by the end of the month.

One thing I have seen here are the incredible disparities, which I am sure I will see even more of when we go up to the Northwest Province where we are doing the mentoring.  The city is very modern, has good infrastructure, plenty of pretty buildings, and tourist attractions.  However, though apartheid ended 17 years ago, there are many lasting effects still present today.  Residential areas are still incredibly segregated.  In fact, when I called real estate people looking for houses, I talked to one agent, over the phone, who told me "that area is not for you."  I asked him what he meant by that and he said "Trust me, I try to match the right people with the right houses."  I had never met the guy, but I am guessing that he could tell I was American by my accent and probably just assumed I was white based on that.  I never met him, so I was unable to investigate his reasoning any further.

The inequities are everywhere if you pay even a little bit of attention.  When I was moving into my apartment, I had several boxes of things shipped from Botswana to Cape Town.  They arrived bundled together in a giant cardboard box.  As we were unpacking the giant box in the truck in front of my building, the guard for the building was keeping watch.  When we had all the smaller boxes in the apartment, he asked me if he could have the giant cardboard box.  Of course, I said yes and then just because I was curious I asked what he planned to do with it.  "Take it to Khayelitsha [the largest township in Cape Town] and use it to cover my shack since it is so cold," he told me.  Here I was unloading boxes of clothes, blankets, knick knacks, etc and this guy was trying to get some extra insulation for his shack.  Having driven past Khayelitsha and other townships, I have seen the condition of housing there, but I naively assumed that most of the people living in shacks were some of the 25% of the population who are unemployed (a shocking number that I read in the paper this morning).  In fact here was the guy who is working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week as a guard of a big apartment complex and he too is living in a shack.  The disparities here are even greater than in Botswana where, though there is definitely extreme poverty, people who are working can generally afford something more substantial than a shack.  Highlights once again how far there is to go to overcome decades of forced segregation and oppression and how fortunate I am.

Flashback: Bushfire and St. Lucia

Enjoying the music at Bushfire 

Bushfire is an annual music festival in May Swaziland - 3 days of live performances from all over the world (though most performers were from Africa).  Gelane, Premal and I missed it in 2010 so we had been planning to attend in 2011 for some time.  Then realizing that there was a Botswana holiday the same week, we decided to make a week of it and explore the Eastern coast of South Africa with Bri joining us there.  We got off on a bit of a bad start.  We drove from Gaborone to Pretoria in Gelane's car and then realized that the radiator was leaking.  We took the car to a Honda dealer and they said the radiator needed to be completely replaced.....We spent several hours in the Honda dealer (during which I finished the handwarmers I had been making for Gelane)...

Gelane testing out the new hand warmers and praying that they would be able to find a radiator in the area!

Unfortunately they were not able to find the radiator in the area and told us that the car could not be fixed until Tuesday (it was Friday and bushfire was Friday-Sunday in Swaziland which was still a 5 hour drive away!) So we went into planning mode and to make a long story short - headed off in a rented Nissan Hardbody truck (with manual transmission)!  We needed such a big car since we had so much stuff (below is Premal in the rental agency with all our stuff....)

We finally arrived in Swaziland at night and managed to put up our tent in the dark (Premal got really into hammering in the stakes - below) before heading out to experience the music. 

For 3 nights and 2 days, we were treated to some amazing performances.  We camped right next to the area where the stages were and it was great to be able to come and go as we pleased.  

Here is Gelane in the midst of the crowd in front of the stage

It was gorgeous during the days and pretty darn cold at night, but thanks to Liz and Jon's awesome tent and camping equipment we managed to stay pretty warm.  

Oliver Mtukudzi was definitely our favorite.  He is in his 60s and still was jumping around the stage and has an amazing voice!

There was one artist from Botswana, Shanti-Lo, who we also really enjoyed.

When the concert finished we drove through Swaziland (it is a tiny land locked country surrounded by South Africa). We stopped at the Swazi Candle factory where we saw intricate candles of all kinds (from elephants to birds to larger circular creations - these people were talented with wax) being made.

We watched this entire rhino be created and it only took about 10 minutes!

Next stop was St. Lucia - no not the island in the Caribbean!  There is a beach town along the Eastern Coast of South Africa called St. Lucia.  It was a very sleepy beach town (esp. because it was not high season).  Which meant we had a gorgeous beach to ourselves and plenty of room for the requisite jump shots ;)

We even went snorkeling one day though the water was extremely cold and the waves were pretty rough. After freezing a bit and getting bashed by the waves, Gelane and Premal spotted a small tidal pool and decided to try it....

The town is basically in the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park which provided for some amazing views and landscapes as well as excellent animal spotting on our self-drive safaris.  We saw rhino, buffalo, giant kudu, and then on a boat cruise we were super close to Crocs and hippos!

 Here are some photos from the boat cruise

Bri, Gelane, and I even got to go scuba diving in Sodwana Bay which is bit further North of St. Lucia and as extremely clear waters with tons of beautiful fish.

All in all an amazing last trip from Bots!