Jenn & Paul in South Africa

My sister & her fiance (almost wrote boyfriend!) are living and volunteering in Kayamandi, which is a slum just on the outskirts of Cape Town in South Africa. She is volunteering at a local school teaching grade 12 biology and grade 8 math, and has 65 kids in her math class with chairs and desks for only 40 people. Luckily an NGO just donated math textbooks to the school, so for the first time the kids have activities in a book to do.

On top of that she has a placement at an AIDS hospice nearby, where she is doing some observations with the doctors as well as taking weight, height etc. She checks patients adherence to their drugs; each month they have to bring in their pill containers and she counts how many they have to see if they are taking the right amount. On first line defense for AIDS there are 2 drugs you must take in the morning and 3 at night, and so if they aren't taking the right amount, then she counsels them and explains why it is so important. In addition, each time a new patient comes in she has to make sure they know what HIV is, what AIDS is, what a CD4 count is, etc before they are allowed to start the pills. She says that it can be very challenging as some of the patients know virtually nothing about it.

She just sent me these fantastic photos, and I thought that they deserved a post! In December, they are coming up to Nairobi, and the 4 of us are trucking down to Tanzania for a grand adventure! We are very much looking forward to it!