"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
— Dr. Seuss

Kristen warned us about these guys. This is our new friend Bob. He lives in our room with us. We dont mind because hes so small. He likes the ceiling the best.

Girl Talk

Us nurses got to do a teaching project in the schools yesterday. Each group got a different topic. ours was menstruation of course. So we made these beautiful posters. One poster was of a uterus and the other...well you can see what that is. I used glitter for the blood. obviously. So me and Callee were on a mission to empower these young girls. We explained the anatomy and why we have a period and everything that goes along with it. After we had them ask anonymous questions..Some were sad. and some were just plain funny..here are some we got:
-Do babies come from my anus?
- When we have puberty, does it make us have feelings for boys?
-Why do girls have 3 holes and boys have 1?
-Why do girls have pregnancy and boys dont?
These girls were all ages 13-15. and after all the questions about "sleeping with a boy". We realized quickly they were all having sex already soo we really quickly added information about STI's and birth control.
There were a few questions asking if it was healthy to prevent pregnancy..lets just say we were adamant about encouraging the use of condoms.
Anyway the day ended with hugs, smiles and laughter.
Hopefully we could make them a little bit aware of themselves

Happy Valentines Day

Me and my beautiful valentine Callee. we make such a great couple

‎"To see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower. To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour."

outtings

So two bikes. 3 people. soo me bethany and alex decide it would be a good idea to have alex ride on the handle bars of my bike...with this awesome headlamp. lets just say it didnt work out as planned...

culture shock

so here are some signs of culture shock...and im definitely starting to feel some of these.
hmmm I want starbucks or a burrito. and I miss the US. It probably doesnt help that we are stuck on campus all.the.time.

-a feeling of sadness and loneliness,
-an over-concern about your health,
-headaches, pains, and allergies
-insomnia or sleeping too much
-feelings of anger, depression, vulnerability
-idealizing your own culture
-trying too hard to adapt by becoming obsessed with the new culture
-the smallest problems seem overwhelming
-feeling shy or insecure
-become obsessed with cleanliness
-overwhelming sense of homesickness
-feeling lost or confused
-questioning your decision to move to this place

on a lighter note

We went to Durban last weekend. spent the day at the beach. soo nice. Here are some things we saw on the beach. they are called blue bottles and i guess the little tail they have touch your skin and really hurt.
Oh and WHY DONT THEY HAVE ICED COFFEE HERE??

ok soo this week I was at ethinbeti( a HIV clinic) and it was definitely a shock to my system. I went along on multiple home visits with a nurse the first day. The things I saw make me feel sick. Patients laying on a bed with flies all around them. They are all HIV positive and seem soo lonely. One woman who was just diagnosed was so weak she couldnt even get up. and in a house with four other people. Just laying there all day and too ashamned to tell her family, so she stays with her sister who is also HIV positive.Every single one of them are jobless and have no income. but have grants for their children.. 250 rand per month (about 35 dollars). A bubbly, happy zulu woman came along and read the bible to each of these women. trying to bring hope. In between the english zulu language, I learned that she herself was HIV positive. I was so suprised. She had so much hope and love in her heart that she made visits to these patients, bringing them encouragement because she like them has been in that exact place before.
One thing I dont understand..how a girl like the one in the picture can be born here and grow up learning she has no power and probably have no chance. while I as an american is born with an education and respected as a woman. What if I were born here in a zulu culture? Goshh its so overwhelming to see death everyday

falling leaf

Falling leaf is the name we gave Kayla because she is our new yoga instruct er. Heres some meditation we did before clinical...just kidding. we didnt meditate..but we did do downward dog andd warrior pose i think?
Im pretty sure all the rest of the people think were freaks..especially since they have to pass us to get to breakfast. But what else are we supposed to do for fun?

Monkeys.

yep they are everywhere. and this guy took the banana peel from our garbage can..they actually can attack. They were supposed to give us pepper spray but we never got any. We have plastic wire on our window..so we thought it would be safe to leave it open fo rthe night...nope. one of theses little devils got through a fist size hole in the window, got into our room and was sitting on our chair reaching for our stuff.. Good thing Callee woke up and scared him away..I thought it was a dream so i didnt even get up. oops

typical occurrence here

This is what we have to stop for. they own the road. rude

Sister Zuma

This is her trying to make me pronounce zulu..she laughed at me a lot..along with the patients

Sister is what people call nurses here. and I got to work with sister Eugena Zuma. She taught me a lot about Zulu culture and the patients of course. Again every single patient was HIV positive here and on ARV's (HIV medication). Its sad that i almost get used to the HIV here..that was until a beautiful 9 year old boy came in with it. Uhh with his little levi jeans and argyle shirt..he probably didnt understand why he was always in the doctors and had to take so many pills everyday. One day his mom will have to explain that to him..
Another middle aged woman came in with a high CD4 count who was on regime 2 medication ( meaning regime 1 failed), this was her last chance at getting better. But since her boyfriend wouldnt wear condoms she kept getting reinfected. She had no power like all of the women we see. I just dont understand it. I just want to say stand up to him! but it isnt the same as the U.S.