Siyancoba!

I apologize for my blogging abscence. I have been very busy...have added four new African countries to my passport, have officially been to all of the southern African countries, have visited one of the natural wonders of the world (victoria falls) and visited the only existing ancient wonder of the world (pyramids of giza). Obviously I have a lot of catch up to do on the blog, but wanted to start with a post that I initially started writing in December.

Siyancoba! We are the champions!

The Manzini teen support group had our first official meeting in November 2009. During this meeting after a lot of brainstorming and an offical vote, the children decided they wanted their group to be known as "The Champions" because they are beating of HIV.

Our teen support group meets the second saturday of every month. Children from our clinic who are between 10-18 who know they are HIV positive come to clinic for different activities. We provide money for transport and just recently a local catering company started to donate lunch for the children and volunteers. The support group is to meant to provide a safe place where the kids can come be kids as well as interact with peers facing similar issues. We do our best to balance having fun with learning. Our ultimate goal is for these kids to transition as smoothly as possible into adulthood. Honestly though I think the volunteers get as much from the group as the kids. Last month I was not feeling well so came late. The only reason I went was because I had promised a couple of kids that I would be there. As I walked in I got hugs, after a while of hanging out with the kids I was feeling better...there is no better medicine.

Over the last few months some of the issues we have dealt with are:

What does HIV do in the body? We demonstrated this with a game that the children really enjoyed. I think it helped them understand better some of the strange words (CD4, immune system) that they hear in clinic and school.

We have also discussed feelings. Through activities we tried to get the children to recognize different feelings and come up with ways to cope with these feelings.
After that we discussed supporters in their lives. We tried to get them to identify people they could rely on and go to for help as well as how they could be supporters to people in their lives. Our last meeting we talked about how to make good decisions in life.

It's not all serious though. We to keep the kids engaged by adding in purely fun activities. The most requested activity is always dancing. It is an interesting mix between hip-hop dance and traditional swazi dance. It is one of the few places I get to show off my Swazi dance moves, which I have been working on for the last year and a half.

When not dancing, we pass the time with a variety of other games. I have never had such a large repertoire of children's games up my sleeve. At the end of our November support group we had an unofficial opening of our clinic. I was initially scheduled to be out of the country for the opening of the new building so Pinkett, one of the best nurses I have ever worked with, kept joking that to her the clinic would not be open until I cut the ribbon. This is very flattering given the fact that she has really been the one that built the clinic and so should be the one cutting the ribbon. Of course, as things always are in Swaizland the actual opening was postponed. The minister of health kept delaying so finally the government sent someone to tour the building and give us permission to start operations while we were awaiting the official opening. Of course, that day we had so many patients that I stayed behind to see patients so the rest of the team could go for the "blessing" of the clinic. So at the end of the support group Pinkett surprised me by bring out a ribbon and scissors. She insisted on having me cut the ribbon. I agreed under the condition that we would cut it together "unofficially" opening the clinic. Four months later we are still waiting for the minister of health to have our official opening. Each kid took home a small piece of the ribbon.

In addition to our monthly support groups, an American NGO called "Hole in the Wall" helps us run a yearly teen camp. This year we hosted two four day camps in December. The first for 10-13 year olds and the second for 14-16 year olds. For the second year in the row I have been lucky enough to get to be one of the camp doctors. As camp doctor you dispense their daily drugs as well as address any acute illnesses that come up. This is one of the most enjoyable while at the same time tiring assignments since I have been in Swaziland. Most of you know how deep of a sleeper I normally am (if not, to give an example, I slept through a fire alarm in Libya), but this week I slept as lightly as I did on call. My room was right by the bathroom so everytime someone came to the bathroom I awoke convinced they were coming to get me. In the end there were no night time consults while I was there, only a lot of full bladders. This year at the end of the week, the kids put together a stage night. We were able to scare up a pretty good audience for them.
The children were divided into four groups and each was to prepare their own act. The stories that were performed were a sad reflection of the life these kids lead. One of the dramas the girls acted out was a girl being sexually abused by a neighbor. The other was regarding a drunk mom coming home and smothering her child when she passed out. The fact that these were topics that were conceived by 10-13 year olds makes you realize they have been exposed to many things that no child should have to deal with. In contrast to their plays each group also put together an act about dancing (you should be noticing a theme). I have to say that my RFM kids have definitely benefited from studying under my tutelage. Below are two of my girls leading their group in a dance. One of my boys demonstrating my specialty Swazi dance. And finally, one of my kids acting as a body guard for his rapper counterparts. Where they have learned to emulate gangsta rappers I do not know, but they have the act down pat. I think the kids really enjoyed putting a show on for the crowd. In between the two teen camps, Sarah, the American deputy ambassador, hosted a christmas party for the teens. She learned about our group last year during a tour of the clinic and has been one of our biggest supporters since then. This year she offered to open her house to the 150 children for the annual christmas party. On top of this she secured donations from the US, provided food and drinks and volunteers to help keep the kids under control. I also provided two volunteers, my parents. Sarah lives within a couple blocks of the clinic so the head of security for the Embassy walked all the kids from the clinic down the road to the house. Luckily it was beautiful weather so we were able to have it outdoors. As always there was lots of dancing and other games. Each child received a full meal. In order to ensure there were not double portions given, each child received a necklace after getting their food. The icing on the cake was that Sarah had arranged enough donations that as the children were leaving they each received a stocking stuffed full of goodies including a stuffed bear.

Thanks to Sarah, all of our children received at least one gift during the holiday season.