Harry the seal

Harry has been in the pool quite often and has almost the doggy paddle. He loves to jump to dad (who has to take the plunge into the cool waters first) and then attempt to swim to the other side with a little help with dad, who sometimes lets go. Harrison looks like Henry used to, eyes filled with terror, but keeps at it. The other kids are quite proficient in the water already. The practice at school and after school really helps. There isn't a heater in the pool here at the Flats, so it will close for the winter months, and we'll have to find an indoor pool to keep his progress going.

Carla's trip to Vedenburg was postponed until March. Katy's class has a field trip to the Planetarium on Thursday and I will be driving a car load.

Carla’s guest entry

The view from here… 

The research project is humming right along.  I spend time each week in different hospices around the Western Cape.  I am always touched by how the staff I talk to are filled with laughter, which is amazing given the tragedies they see on such a regular basis.  One part of the project involves face-to-face interviews and those are going very well, proceeding much better than expected.  I had hoped to interview about 30 people and have already completed 18.  However, the list of participants is still long and so I'm a long way from completion.  My very able research assistant, Kate, often conducts interviews as well and that means we can collect more data at each visit.  Steve and Harrison come to almost all of the hospice visits which removes the stress of driving.  While we spend time in interviews, they explore the towns (making time for frequent coffee breaks) and take pictures.  Surveys will be mailed shortly so that will keep me busy doing data entry and analysis.   

So what have I been learning?  Much of what I hear mirrors the literature but the words take on different meaning when they come directly from patients or health care providers.  Education, stigma, and empowerment are words frequently heard: in order to provide communities a voice, there needs to be education about HIV.  One story from a nursing sister made me shiver.  She said that even if two people knew they had HIV/AIDS, they would not talk about it between themselves or let on to other people.  Even, she said, if one of the people had multiple partners, the "friend" would be bound be social customs to remain quiet.  To make the point perfectly clear, she said that even if one of the people was sleeping with the other's sibling, nothing would be said.  Very scary. 

The same sister talked about how the power to change lies with the children; many adults are too affected by racial issues rooted in apartheid to be able to accept help from white people.  Even the light colour of pills prescribed by Western practitioners can be a negative sign to people—traditional medicines are typically much darker.  So the work continues and joy can be found even within difficulties of life and death. 

I am loving the research and meeting people from all walks of life.  And really, I feel so fortunate to be given this opportunity.

We hiked up Devil's peak on Saturday, this time using a different route so we could get a closer look at the wildlife, like the wildebeest, the zebra and the gazelle. Harrison did not have his chariot and he mastered the whole hill (at least as far as we went) on his own volition. After naps we got ready for our visitors and the party went very well, people from our flats as well as Marion and Ricardo joined us. It was likea mini united nations with people from at least six different countries, including Columbia, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, and Malawi not to mention South Africa and Canada. We are very thankful for our friends here. Mr. Rondi's cake was great and the platter of finger food was very nice too.

Sunday was quieter…no big adventures, but the movie "How to eat fried worms" was on the agenda along with some chakalaka wors (sausage). On the way to pick up the movie we saw a man with a bag full of bottles start hurling them onto the sidewalk and road…he kept just breaking bottles, it was a little disturbing.