Okay, Okay, so that was really bad. 3 month intervals between posts shouldn't be the norm. I would promise to be a little more attentive to the blog in the future, but seeing as I promised that back in October, let's just play it by ear...
In the three months since my last post, I've had plenty to post about and even the occasional opportunity to post, but something has always seemed to stop me. Whether it be internet failure, flooded bridges (more on that later), being lazy, being in a mood that wasn't conducive to posting in a public forum (this is an upbeat blog!), or otherwise, something has always stopped me (laziness being problem #1). So to make up for all my time off, I thought a double post might be a nice way to catch up. The obvious way to divide this up was work and play, so let's get started with my worklife, shall we?
What your tax dollars are funding:
As you know, my primary assignment is working to increase the outreach capacity of my local clinic here in Sebetia. I described in my last post, way back when, that I had recently received funding to hold HIV testing events at three primary schools, and if I remember correctly, I was really excited about it back then. But as the project started to get its legs under it, it dawned on me just how much work and just how many obstacles were ahead of me.
To begin, I had to firm everything up with the schools, local shopkeeper, village health workers, and clinic staff to coordinate who was doing what, and how the events would actually run. Without reliable cell signals or good roads, that meant I would be doing a lot of walking. But more than that, it meant that any progress would be made increeeeedibly slowly. In the States, I could probably confirm all the details with schools in about 30 minutes of phone calls. Here? I had to hike to each of these schools, which was about 6 hours of walking for three straight days. (On one visit, my shorts split wide open when I was about 2 hours from home. Since there was no way I was turning back, I visited a massive school, filled with small children, with my boxers/thighs dangerously exposed despite my best efforts to keep everything hidden. That's not really relevant, but I thought it was funny).
This is when I started running into problems. Apparently, during planning, the schools and I had not totally understood one another. We were offering to pay them a small amount to hold the event at the schools and help a little. They thought we would be paying MUCH more than we were prepared to as an endowment to the school. We nearly had to cancel the event at that school, but after a few more talks, they grudgingly agreed to go forward.
Toward the end of October, about a week before the events were going to go through, I found out that government approval was required for holding testing events at a school setting. I proceeded to gather all the documentation that they required, but permission was ultimately denied. At this point, we could either cancel entirely, or reschedule for when schools were out of session. Because we were already so invested and had the funding, we decided that rescheduling for December was our best move.
One thing I didn't know about Lesotho, December-February is raaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiny season.
My village is fairly rural, and is seperated from the rest of the country by multiple rivers. But until the rains came, I thought this would be no problem because each river had fairly decent bridges across them, and I had only seen the rivers when they're dry. In retrospect, I completely underestimated rain here. The river leading to my site goes well over a meter above the bridge during heavy rains, and are completely unpassable. And as my luck would have it, the first HEAVY rains came the week of my event. This meant that food couln't be shipped and the sports organization from Maseru couldn't make it.
Another cancellation. Another reschedule.
This time we rescheduled for early January, and prayed that rain wouldn't wash us out. We also moved the events to three schools much closer to Sebetia. We figured, the fewer rivers, the better our chances. And we lucked out.
On January 10, we held our first event in the field in front of the clinic (right beside Sebetia Primary). The event wasn't without its snags, as most people came about 4 hours late, but in the end, the kids played and learned, everybody ate, and we tested a lot of people. On Wednesday we did the same at Majoe Matso, with a similar result, and Thursday at Mamatebele. And I'm happy to say that we saved the best for last. At Mamatebele, we had a massive turnout thanks to a very proactive chief and principle, great weather, and a lot of education. Unfortunately, we ran out of testing kits about halfway through the events. More were delivered later in the day, but I think it probably decreased our overall testing numbers.
In the end, we tested about 300 people, approximately 200 of them being school kids and younger. And altogether, only one of those children came out positive. All things considered, I'll take it.
Now, we're working with the village health workers to track down HIV+ women of child-bearing age to see if their children have been tested. We hope that this will help lead us to more of the at risk kids in the area.
I'm also working at the schools to develop a Life Skills curriculum, with an HIV/AIDS support groups to generate income through a candle making project, starting a volleyball club, and am going to start coaching track next week (those last two are mostly because I'm bored). These projects are just now getting their legs under them, so I'll include more about them once there's more to tell.
For now though, I think that should just about cover it. Sorry for being so long winded. If I don't take another 3 month break, I promise the next will be more concise!
Khotso!
Grant
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