Time is continuing to fly by here in South Africa and sadly I have just 3 weeks left here. It is amazing to think of how fast my timer here has passed. I have been so privileged to see and experience all that I have so far. This blog entry is going to be a mix of two very different experiences that I’ve had since my last post and I’m hoping that the title will be enough to link them together, even though they are largely unrelated. If not, then I hope you enjoy them each individually.
As I mentioned, I spent the weekend in the Drakensburg Mountains on the border of Lesotho. A group of us flew to Durban on Thursday afternoon and then drove rental cars 3 hours up into the mountains to the northern part of the mountain range to a place called the Amphitheatre where we spent the next three nights. We got in late the first night so we didn’t get a chance to look at our surroundings very well, but when we woke up the next morning we were stunned by the gorgeous view out of our hostel. As far as the eye could see were beautiful mountains.
When we woke up on Friday, we immediately got on a mini-bus for a trip to Lesotho that was organized by the hostel. We drove for about an hour and a half up into the mountains and onto a dirt road before we reached the border. We got our passports stamped out of South Africa and then continued driving. I expected to reach the Lesotho side of border control, but it never arrived in front of us. Apparently Lesotho is so small that they simply use South Africa for their border control. Somehow I think that there isn’t a huge immigration problem at the border we crossed. We traveled on dirt roads until we reached a small village in the mountains about 15 minutes from the border. Despite being so close to a city on the South Africa side, this village was anything but urban. Little round huts dotted the countryside where lots of corn and vegetables grew and cows wandered without fences. Our first stop in country was at a small school which the hostel supports. The principal spoke to us and was very vocal about the issues facing her community, but also her tremendous sense of hope. It was hard to be so hopeful when we found out some practical information about the village. The nearest medical clinic of any kind was a three hour drive by car unless the person had a passport to go to the South African side which we were told was unlikely. In addition to this, there were only three cars in the surrounding area and no petrol stations, so these people were unlikely to actually lend out their car unless someone was actually dying. The people of the village are forced to practice entirely traditional medicine. No one knows if there is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and there would be no way to treat it if that were the case. This was on my mind the rest of the day as we hiked around the surrounding hills in the village and learned more about life in Lesotho. I was exhausted when we got back to the hostel and headed to sleep pretty quickly to get some rest for the next day’s activities.
Saturday brought another hostel-organized trip, this time to hike up the Amphitheatre itself. We again got on a minibus and drove over to the trailhead and began to start hiking. We began at around 2500 meters (8,250 ft) and at our highest point we reached 3100 meters (10,230 ft). Our hike was mostly switchbacks on the way up, until we were near the top. For the last 250 meters we went up a ravine by scrambling up rocks. It was really steep, but you would all be happy to know that I was the first to reach the top. When we got there, we were greeted by the most majestic views. We could see the entire Amphitheatre from the top and on all sides there was at least a 1 km drop. It was truly breathtaking. We ate lunch with one of the best views I have ever had. From there we hiked over to the top of a waterfall that descends the Amphitheatre. It is called Tugela Falls and is the second highest waterfall in the world at 986 m. Unfortunately it has relatively low flow and so is not nearly so spectacular, but the surrounding views made up for it. On our descent, we took several chain ladders that stretched for 40 feet down several rock faces. That led us to the same trail we came in on and we headed back to the hostel.
On Sunday we just drove back to the airport after a relaxed morning and arrived back in Cape Town late at night. I spent the rest of the night catching up on emails I missed over the weekend and then got some rest before my long week. Pictures from the trip can be found on Picasa.
Every Monday morning, I go to Dunoon Township with my course on AIDS to work with a nonprofit running a home based care system. Today was special because we arranged a meeting with all of the health workers and all of the Stanford students that included elements of a focus group. The purpose of the meeting was to give feedback to each other on what the experience was like for both sides and how we can finish our time together by leaving a real impact. The experience was both rewarding as well as challenging. From the conversation it became clear that our presence had helped renew a sense of pride and excitement about what they were doing. They were glad that we really listened to what they had been telling us over the past nine weeks. By the end of the focus group, every one of the home based care workers was smiling.
Everything seemed great until several undertones came into focus. There were several mentions about how our presence as Americans had made important entities in the community actually listen to them and take them seriously. Several of the women mentioned that they were excited for us to go home and tell others about their operation with the sense that we would recruit sponsors. The final piece that caused uneasiness to spread throughout our group was a statement by one of the health care workers. “Now that you are here, I’m expecting something to change, here in Dunoon.” Our time here, though we may have done a few things, cannot possibly cause large scale change. I don’t believe that there is going to be a big change in the operation of the NGO because we really have done very little to actually change anything. We have been building this mountain of hope, but when we leave it all going to come crashing down. People will go back to ignoring the community health workers and we will no longer be around to use our American influence. The only thing that may help them is that our research into mapping the patients they see may be able to get money to increase the salaries of the home based care workers. Rather than setting them up for change, it appears that they are more likely headed for a crash and burn at the bottom. I can only hope that a Stanford partnership that is being built with the organization will continue and that those who follow us at this NGO will be able to keep the momentum going up the mountain instead of letting it all come crashing down.
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