Lorato

(Lor-A-to) Love (..I think..)

This week at the placement was good. I made real progress getting to know the patients, and have learned to have 'conversations' with ones who speak no English without talking. Communication is a very interesting thing.

The past three days we spent in Machudi, a more rural area outside of Gabs, kind of halfway between being a village and being a town. It was really beautiful and nice to be in such a different setting. It was lovely and very green and very quiet compared to the 'big city'.

We were in Machudi to do a group volunteer project as a break from our placements, halfway through, organized by our coordinator with Stepping Stone international. The project was a home build for a grandmother taking care of 4 grandchildren on her own. The fact that we were there to build her a home implies that, in spite of caring for 4 children, she didn't really have one. We were stunned to see the tiny hut and single mattress they'd been living in.

Obviously more valuable than our labour (being entirely inexperienced, unskilled, and pretty weak) was the money we'd raised. When we discussed this months ago, the goal was about $700 CAN, and even though we were a group of 14, people were pretty negative about paying more money than we already had for the trip. And yet once we got here, donations poured in from group members, their friends and family, and some organizations, and we pulled together about $2500 CAN, (I think), which goes a long way.

The money paid for three ACTUAL builders (thank god), and materials. We were able to contribute more 'labour' than expected though. Under builders' instructions, we did a ton of brick laying ourselves, and the horrifying job of mixing cement with shovels for three days....a job which, I realized eventually, would be done by a TRUCK in Canada.

It was an incredible experience for us to do as a group. The grandmother, Maselo, is an incredible woman and a prominent figure in the community. We also got to play with the kids a lot, especially the adorable baby girl One (Ohn-ay) and the 11 year old boy Kitso - who beat us at soccer.

One of the biggest problems of AIDS here is the missing generation - the 20 to 40 year olds - that leave orphans in the care of exhausted grandparents. It was really nice for us to do work that we could see concrete (so to speak) results of, and to have an opportunity to help one family torn by the disease.