2/21/12
Dear Everyone,
So I’m in South Africa now, and I know what you’re thinking, “what the hell happened to India?” Well, India’s a work in progress. It’ll go up eventually, and probably all at once. Until then, I’ve decided not to be lazy, and to get a head start on South Africa.
We arrived here on Saturday night, over twenty-four hours after our departure. It was a simple route: Delhi to Mumbai (layover 4hrs), Mumbai to Johannesburg (layover 5.5hrs), Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. And with G-D as my witness (I finally finished Gone With the Wind!) I shall never fly through the Mumbai airport again. If I had been on the fence on whether or not I was ready to leave India, this certainly sealed my opinion. Let’s flash back to when we first arrived in India via the Mumbai airport. During our midnight layover we were trying to sleep on the floor, but an instrumental version of Elton John’s “Yellow Brick Road” was being blasted on repeat for three straight hours! They were literally torturing us! Every time I hear that song now I feel physical pain. It’s like something that would have been funny on a sitcom if it hadn’t been so painful happening to us.
Our first stop on our way out of India was Mumbai, and I should have known something was wrong when we landed and they immediately started playing Elton John’s “Your Song.” Then we had to take a half hour bus ride from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. The immigration guy was convinced everyone in my line didn’t match his or her passport pictures. The security people went through my bag to find absolutely nothing, but took the time to play with all my stuff they found cool. And poor sick Connor was forced to leave the gate and go back through security a second time, because a little tag fell off his carry-on. We had a four-hour layover, but didn’t sit down for a second of it. As my leader put it, it was complete and utter “clusterfuck.”
In comparison, the efficiency of the Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth airports made me unreasonably giddy. We finally arrived and were greeted by wind and moisture for the first time in seven weeks! South Africa, or at least this part of it, is stunning, absolutely stunning. It’s like Vermont and the Berkshires and Arizona all mixed into one…in a weird sort of way. We were picked up from the airport in a van with enough room for all of us, and our luggage! That never happens! Then the driver started playing Eminem, and a collection of other tasteful rap songs with language I don’t even feel comfortable using. It was a wonderful shock after being in such a conservative country for so long. And all of the signs, they were in English! I’ve really missed English. I’ve been assured by my leaders that South Africa is not going to be easy, but so far it’s been wonderful to be in place that just seems so much closer to home. Perhaps doing South Africa last is TBB’s way of starting to bring us back into our own culture. Though once again, I’ve been assured things are going to be very different here.
Before we go into homestay, we’re staying at a wonderful lodge, and sleeping in carpeted, electricity-ed, double bed-ed tents. It’s a bit claustrophobic and Alison keeps slapping me in her sleep, but it’s nice to be so close to nature. We’ve even got “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair” showers. And homey food that doesn’t hurt our stomachs! Do I use exclamation points too much?
All through India I prayed for a competent NGO, and I think the G-Ds may have been a little over-zealous in granting my wish. Our partner here took absolutely no time in yelling at one of us for doing something “fucking stupid.” He was referring to going for a run and getting lost. They’re really intense about security here. I personally think you should never yell at someone for something they didn’t do out of malice, but overall he seems like a good guy. He clearly has his shit together, which is really all that matters to me.
Yesterday they took us to see one of the townships we’ll be working in. It was mainly made up of Xhosa (pronounced with a click) people, but also some black Africans from other tribes, and some Coloured people. It’s odd, the town was made up of shacks and identical government built homes, and yet I didn’t find it depressing. Perhaps I’ve just loved too many people who love in this type of home, or perhaps it’s because the sun was shining, the grass was sort of green, and the children were absolutely adorable. When they saw us they all ran to the school’s wire fence, shouted hello, and stuck their hands through to touch us. My hands ended up a little sticky, but I loved meeting them. What little English they had they used on us, and they were quick to pronounce Andrew Kim “China.”
Here we will be living with white families, and shadowing non-white caregivers in non-white townships. It will be very interesting to see the contrast in lifestyle. We will be working mostly with AIDs patients, and studying public health with our leaders. I expect it to be challenging, but I’m also very excited for this core country. As usual, I have attached the official syllabus at the end of this post.
Love,
Katherine
Course Description:
HIV/AIDS and Public Health
South Africa 11-12
The global HIV/AIDS crisis is a complex issue faced by nations around the world. Some communities and nations have effectively slowed the spread of the disease and provided medication and services to those infected, making AIDS a chronic but non- debilitating illness. However, many countries, particularly in the developing world, have seen a rapid spread of the disease, millions of deaths, and the virtual collapse of local communities that are now stripped of a generation of teachers, doctors, nurses, and farmers. No region of the world is more heavily affected than sub-Saharan Africa, and no country has more infected individuals than South Africa. To understand the devastating reality of AIDS in South Africa requires an understanding of the challenge of the transition of a post-colonial society to nationhood, the development of physical and social infrastructure, and the relationship between disease and poverty. This unit engages students in localized observations of those affected and those who seek to serve them. The seminars challenge students to place their observations in the broad historical, cultural, political, and economic contexts that made the current state of affairs a reality.
This course challenges students to identify common assumptions about the needs of the chronically and terminally ill, public health policy, and the relationship between poverty and public health. Through daily trips accompanying home-based care givers to visit patients in the townships surrounding Plettenberg Bay, the students directly observe the challenges that patients, care givers, and public health NGOs face in addressing HIV/AIDS, TB, and other major illnesses. Readings and seminars push the group beyond common perspectives on intellectual property rights of drug companies, who is responsible for treating the ill, and the historical influence of colonialism in the contemporary struggle for development and equity. Finally, national level policies are compared and examined for lessons on effectiveness in policy development.
Objectives:
• Examine the root causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS and the challenges of addressing the needs of its victims in the developing world.
• Understand the impact of the transition from colonial to post- colonial society on long-term policy and infrastructure with regard to development.
• Observe and comprehend the personal reality of those affected by HIV/AIDS, their communities, and those who provide them services.
Essential Question:
Why are so many nations failing to effectively address HIV/AIDS and protect public health?
Seminar Questions:
Seminar One: Why does public health matter?
Seminar Two: Why is public health infrastructure difficult to create in the developing world?
Seminar Three: What is development?
Seminar Four: Why is it often difficult for post-colonial governments to create the infrastructure needed to protect public health?
Seminar Five: Why has sub-Saharan Africa been hit so much harder than other regions of the world?
Seminar Six: Why did Uganda succeed at designing an effective policy to address HIV/AIDS while South Africa failed?
Seminar Seven: What should a proactive, international response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic include?
Seminar Eight: If the medication to treat HIV/AIDS exists, why hasn’t the global community given everyone access?
Seminar Nine: Why is it so difficult to prevent the spread of a preventable disease?
Seminar Ten: How can we affect change? _______________________________________________________
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Required Readings:
Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder
Chapters from: Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond AIDS in the Twenty-First Century, Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside Witness to AIDS, Edwin Cameron The White House and the World, editor Nancy Birdsall
There will be readings from The Economist, The New York Times, The New England Journal of Medicine, other periodicals, and various governmental and academic research sources.
