Today we woke up early to catch the van to the House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. The driver showed up on time, however, she did not bring a large enough van for us, so she had to go back and get a new one. We all sat on the front steps and read our books for class. An hour and a half later she came back with a new van, freshly refueled, and a broken door, which would open up as we were driving on the freeway. Good thing Carrie wasn’t resting against the door, because she would have flown out when the door swung open! We arrived at the AIDS Haven after a twenty minute drive and we were brought into a chapel and met with Aggie, the matron of the Haven, and she began to tell us about how the Haven was founded and about the nursing duties, the number of residents. The AIDS Haven houses and cares for adults (which is considered twelve years and older), children, and babies. While Aggie was talking to us, two of the little boys arrive home from school, both are in grade R (which is similar to Kindergarten) and they walked in with their uniforms on. They looked like little Golden Gophers, because their uniforms were maroon and gold wind suits! After Aggie was finished talking with us, she gave a tour and we began in the children’s room where they sleep. There were eight sets of bunkbeds lining two walls, and every bed had a little one in it, bouncing up and down, waving, doing gymnastic tricks, and making faces at us! It probably wasn’t the wisest to bring us in there because they were just getting ready to take a nap, and our arrival wound them up! We were showed the baby room, and I think that I fell in love with the beautiful babies all standing in their cribs waving their bottles. Who needs to have their own child, when you could adopt all of those little babies who just want to be loved? I can’t wait until I can go back and spend more time with them tomorrow. We ate lunch at the House of Resurrection, except, I didn’t do much eating. Lets just say that the hotdogs that they served us resembled a pink bubblegum “It’s a Girl” cigar. Just thinking about it now makes me feel sick. I felt so bad, but I couldn’t make myself eat it, so I just ate the bread and went hungry until 6:30pm when I finally was able to eat dinner! After everyone finished, our driver drove us straight to NMMU for our music class. I added more money into my printing account and I made my way to the computer lab to print my syllabus and to check my email. I have never been so grateful to have my own personal computer. First of all, there was a line of people waiting to get into the full computer lab, so we had to wait fifteen minutes to get into the lab. Then, as I was trying to check and send emails, it moved slower than dial up internet at home. I was online for twenty minutes, and I was able to reply to two emails that were sent to me (both Mom and Dad) and then it was time to go and find our classroom. We met our music teacher, Lestie, who seems like a very nice woman. She was a little frazzled today because nothing seemed to be going according to plan. The TV and VCR were not working, they she ran out of her syllabus and notes, and then spilt her water on the desk and broke the glass. It seems like it is going to be an interesting class. She taught us about Nguni music of the Xhosa people, and we watched a (homemade) video about the musical bows that were used to make the music. The bows resembled a regular old bow for a bow and arrow and it was pretty amazing how the man on the video could play a musical scale with one piece of string and using his mouth to amplify the sounds. Lestie also taught us a Xhosa song that we all sang in a round, the song was titled “Umzi watcha” which translates to, “The house is burning.” By the time our two hour class was over, it was raining and we all piled into the Kombi, which breaks the previous record…there were 23 of us in there. I was squeezed between Brenna and another student while Carrie sat on my lap, and as soon as we started the song “Ride It Dirty” came on, and we couldn’t stop laughing. We must have been a sight driving down the street. We were thankful to be back to the flats and all four of us rushed into the kitchen to make dinner! Two pots were filled with four different types of pasta and we all sat down and ate dinner together. After dinner, I was having a terrible craving for candy, so Ashley and I walked to the gas station in the rain and we stocked up on Skittles, Kit-Kats, and milk chocolate. Now Carrie and I are sitting in our cozy room reading and journaling while listening to the rain outside. I’ll probably start on some homework that we have to do this week here in a bit, but when I start, it makes the school year official, and I would rather delay that process for as long as I can…I guess the only good thing is know that this is my last year of doing homework, and then I finally will be a nurse!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
August 28, 2007: AIDS Haven
Today we woke up early to catch the van to the House of Resurrection AIDS Haven. The driver showed up on time, however, she did not bring a large enough van for us, so she had to go back and get a new one. We all sat on the front steps and read our books for class. An hour and a half later she came back with a new van, freshly refueled, and a broken door, which would open up as we were driving on the freeway. Good thing Carrie wasn’t resting against the door, because she would have flown out when the door swung open! We arrived at the AIDS Haven after a twenty minute drive and we were brought into a chapel and met with Aggie, the matron of the Haven, and she began to tell us about how the Haven was founded and about the nursing duties, the number of residents. The AIDS Haven houses and cares for adults (which is considered twelve years and older), children, and babies. While Aggie was talking to us, two of the little boys arrive home from school, both are in grade R (which is similar to Kindergarten) and they walked in with their uniforms on. They looked like little Golden Gophers, because their uniforms were maroon and gold wind suits! After Aggie was finished talking with us, she gave a tour and we began in the children’s room where they sleep. There were eight sets of bunkbeds lining two walls, and every bed had a little one in it, bouncing up and down, waving, doing gymnastic tricks, and making faces at us! It probably wasn’t the wisest to bring us in there because they were just getting ready to take a nap, and our arrival wound them up! We were showed the baby room, and I think that I fell in love with the beautiful babies all standing in their cribs waving their bottles. Who needs to have their own child, when you could adopt all of those little babies who just want to be loved? I can’t wait until I can go back and spend more time with them tomorrow. We ate lunch at the House of Resurrection, except, I didn’t do much eating. Lets just say that the hotdogs that they served us resembled a pink bubblegum “It’s a Girl” cigar. Just thinking about it now makes me feel sick. I felt so bad, but I couldn’t make myself eat it, so I just ate the bread and went hungry until 6:30pm when I finally was able to eat dinner! After everyone finished, our driver drove us straight to NMMU for our music class. I added more money into my printing account and I made my way to the computer lab to print my syllabus and to check my email. I have never been so grateful to have my own personal computer. First of all, there was a line of people waiting to get into the full computer lab, so we had to wait fifteen minutes to get into the lab. Then, as I was trying to check and send emails, it moved slower than dial up internet at home. I was online for twenty minutes, and I was able to reply to two emails that were sent to me (both Mom and Dad) and then it was time to go and find our classroom. We met our music teacher, Lestie, who seems like a very nice woman. She was a little frazzled today because nothing seemed to be going according to plan. The TV and VCR were not working, they she ran out of her syllabus and notes, and then spilt her water on the desk and broke the glass. It seems like it is going to be an interesting class. She taught us about Nguni music of the Xhosa people, and we watched a (homemade) video about the musical bows that were used to make the music. The bows resembled a regular old bow for a bow and arrow and it was pretty amazing how the man on the video could play a musical scale with one piece of string and using his mouth to amplify the sounds. Lestie also taught us a Xhosa song that we all sang in a round, the song was titled “Umzi watcha” which translates to, “The house is burning.” By the time our two hour class was over, it was raining and we all piled into the Kombi, which breaks the previous record…there were 23 of us in there. I was squeezed between Brenna and another student while Carrie sat on my lap, and as soon as we started the song “Ride It Dirty” came on, and we couldn’t stop laughing. We must have been a sight driving down the street. We were thankful to be back to the flats and all four of us rushed into the kitchen to make dinner! Two pots were filled with four different types of pasta and we all sat down and ate dinner together. After dinner, I was having a terrible craving for candy, so Ashley and I walked to the gas station in the rain and we stocked up on Skittles, Kit-Kats, and milk chocolate. Now Carrie and I are sitting in our cozy room reading and journaling while listening to the rain outside. I’ll probably start on some homework that we have to do this week here in a bit, but when I start, it makes the school year official, and I would rather delay that process for as long as I can…I guess the only good thing is know that this is my last year of doing homework, and then I finally will be a nurse!
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