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Since I was renting a car for the last weekend, Nairouz and I decided to take 2 of the patients out to the beach, which was lot's of fun! Though one of the patients was a bit scared of the water, the other one would hardly come out! She was splashing away in the waves, having the time of her life, since this was her first time ever at the beach!!
At night we went out to dinner with the DC volunteers, and had some cocktails in town.
Suddenly it was Saturday, and it was time for me to leave. Of course, even though I had known this moment would come, I wasn't ready at all. So many more plans, so much stuff to do still. And no more time.
While I was packing up my stuff, I tried to figure out what would be better to do, to just disappear, or to go upstairs and say my goodbyes.
I'm glad I chose the latter, because it wasn't untill the moment I said my goodbyes that I found out what I had really meant.

Once again my time here at the Dream Centre is almost up, only this time I won't be coming back again. So I've been quite busy doing all the stuff I still want to do before I go, making lots of last minute pics and also starting to say goodbye to the patients.

One of the things we've been planning this week was a big party. We would have a braai, a disco and a group of ladies were coming to play drums for us. I spent most of my morning checking out the prices at the different supermarkets and this afternoon Nairouz, Marlotte and I headed out to get the food. Just as we came back from buying 80 burgers, 60 saucages, 144 breadrolls, 10 kg of charcoal, 4 liters of sauce and lots of other stuff my phone rings...... and the drum ladies cancel on us. Quite a disappointment, though we were all very happy that we hadn't told any patients about the drums yet.

We've been spoiled rotten with chocolate cake the last few days. Yesterday was Eddy's birthday, so we threw him a little party. It's amazing to see an adult this happy over a string of balloons and a little attention. The highlight of his day was definitely the news that his mom was going to arrange for his TV to be sent here. Now he'll finally be able to watch all the football games.

Today was one of those days that I once again realised the horror of being stuck here. Now don't get me wrong, the Dream Centre is a great place to be when you're gravely ill. As most of you know, when you're sick you tend to stay in bed and sleep a lot. Now, when you have AIDS, you're obviously sick, but you're not always bedridden. And, though most of the patients here spend almost all of their days in bed, there's also a few patients that are quite well. Adult patients who can walk, talk, wash and dress themselves, but who aren't well enough to go home. Maybe they don't have a home to go to, or the day to day care of a household would be too much for them. Maybe they're not well enough to work, or they've not been well for long enough to be discharged. Anyway, for these patients the Dream Centre can seem almost like a prison.

Whooops! Seems I managed to not post any messages for quite a while! Don't even have a good excuse for it, shame on me. Anyways, this is what has been going on:

* We had a volunteer day, which meant we got to visit some of the Be More projects and see the other volunteers. When we arrived a  Umthombo, a new project which deals with streetkids, I turned into the major attraction. It's not often you see someone with tattoo's and/or piercings around here. Especially not someone who has as many as I do. So suddenly I found myself surrounded by loads kids who wanted to know all about tattoo's and piercings, where I had them, if it hurt and how much it costs. 

* The weekend of the 10th turned out to be very hectic. We lost 5 patients. 

* Nairouz and I suffered from temporary insanity and decided to jump into the Oribi Gorge (luckily we were attached to a rope when we did this).

Time flies when your having fun, especially when you're running around the country trying to see everything at once! But I did have an absolutely marvelous time. I went up to the Kruger Park, saw loads of animals, and did a roadtrip along the coast from Durban to Cape Town. Stayed in CT for a while visiting friends, then made my way back to the Dream Centre again.

And now that I'm back at the hospital again I realize how much can change in a single month. There have been some amazing recoveries, patients who could hardly sit up last time I saw them are walking around now. Some of them looking so much healthier that I hardly recognise them. Of course there are also lots of patients struggling to stay healthy, but seeming to lose the battle. Others are gone, some went home, some have passed away.

Suddenly the 4 weeks are over and it's time to leave. Since almost all of the volunteers are going this weekend we're all a bit stressed out, and most of our time is spent saying our goodbyes, packing and arrangeing last minute things. While the rest will be going back to Holland, it's time for me to travel around and see some more of this beautiful country. And then, after 5 weeks, I will be right back here to start on another volunteering period. Untill then!

Hope you all had a merry Xmas!

Here at the Dream Centre we had a busy day. A local church arranged a service in the conference room and a lunch, but of course they could use our help with setting stuff up and getting the patients downstairs.
After the service, while the patients downstairs were enjoying their lunches, I decided to go upstairs and help some of the more sick patients eat. Imagine my surprise when I was feeding a patient and suddenly 5 of these religious people are standing next to me, holding hands, and chanting about God and miracles. Apparently they were making rounds upstairs and praying for every patient they ran into. Sweet, but freaky!
After dinner and a surprise dessert (ICE CREAM!!!!) the conference room turned into a disco, with loads of singing and dancing. Definitely a Xmas the patients will be remembering!

At the beginning of this week we were only half way, now we're almost finished! Time is really going fast! Luckily I've got another volunteer period coming up after my travels.

One of the things I've been doing lately is waking up real early to help out the nursing staff with the morning shift..... they start at 7 AM!!!! Horror!!
Usually I tag along with Gebby, we make up the beds, wash patients and just see how everyone's doing. We do this while wearing masks, gloves and aprons, not your fantasy nurses outfit, but definitely practical.

Yesterday we had our first art afternoon in the new format, which worked out quite nicely. Supposedly up to now the patients would either draw or paint, but Letty and I have been quite busy setting up a whole range of projects that allow the patients to make and decorate things. We started out with X-mas trees, since it's that time of year again and the wards haven't been decorated yet. We got all kinds of sparkly, shiny stuff, loads of ribbons, glitter glue and alu-foil, cut out some tree shapes and set the patients to work. At first they seemed quite surprised and unsure (some didn't seem to know what glue was), copying our examples, but after some hints and tips they were soon happily making their own creations. We made a few extra trees to give to some of the more sick patients. Now the wards look a lot more cheerful with proud patients showing off their new trees.

Just got back from our weekend trip. Saturday was Zululand, Snakes & Crocs, Valley of 1000 hills and a tour of Pietermaritzburg. After a long day and a nice hot bath we met a Norwegian backpacker and hit the local bar with him. I was very proud of myself for managing to have a few beers but no ciggies!
The next morning one of the lovely staff drove us over to the Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve, where we went on a bit of a hike. Of course, I decided that I only needed to put suntan lotion on once, so now I have bright red shoulders. We saw loads of waterfalls, butterflies, a snake and a lizard. We got up close and personal with a group of zebra's, they were wandering around all over the place, super freaky! Then Gebby came along and we headed over to Howick Falls, a 107m high waterfall where we were going........abseiling!

What a week! We've been quite busy, but we're starting to settle in and slowly getting used to everything. Last night was our first movie night, it was quite a succes! The ladies on the 6th floor asked for Tsotsi, which turned out to be everybody's favorite. It's going to be hard to come up with something better for next week.
Letty and I have been busy making big plans to get the ART-afternoon going again, we hope to be able to get a group (or 2) of patients downstairs every week where they can work on small arts & crafts projects. To start out we're thinking of making and decorating X-mass trees this monday, seems nice and easy, but we'll have to see what level of work the patients are really up to.

We (the new volunteers) are absolutely blessed with the old volunteers (Martine, Maud and Gebby), who have already been here for a month. It's wonderful to have people around you who know exactly what you're experiencing, but can also help you out.
After a good nights sleep we all went on another tour of the hospital. Since the patients are a lot more active in the morning I was very happy to see many more people who could sit, talk and walk. Exactly what I needed to see after my experience yesterday. Yes, these people are still sick, and a lot of them are dying, but at least the situation didn't seem like a total loss. Which is really what it seemed like yesterday (I wonder if just having made an 20 hour trip to the other side of the world had anything to do with that....?)

And I need your help. My room is absolutely boring, so please feel free to send me postcards and pictures to brighten up my walls. This is my address:

Well, as usual it took quite a lot of drama to get me here, but I made it. Yesterday morning I arrived to Durban International Airport where some folks from the Be More team where waiting to pick us up. Apparently I'm not the only one who arrives with loads of drama, so after waiting for some of the other volunteers for a while Gunther and Vincent decided that it was better to just bring me to the Dream Centre. In the meantime I had been checking out the airport and I was quite surprised to realize that the people, shops, cafe's & restaurants all seemed quite european. I didn't even see a lot of black people..... And the few black people in the airport seemed to be the people working there. Welcome to South Africa.