Week 2 Continued

Tuesday 3/17 - My hardest day yet at Sarah Fox. A new little girl was transferred from another hospital and she screamed the entire day... and this made all of the other kids scream too. An older boy was also transferred to Sarah Fox and was misbehaving in the older kids' room so was sent to the toddlers' room for punishment where he screamed even more. One of the nurses came in to talk to him in Xhosa and said that he was screaming because he missed his mom. Later she told me that his mom recently abandoned him and he is at Sarah Fox waiting to be placed with a family. So sad- I wanted to take him home. The rest of the day was hard because of little things.. A lot of the kids wouldn't eat because their medication was making them feel really sick. We had an overload of kids so all of the volunteers and staff were busy all day and I was without any help. Overall though the day was rewarding.

After placement Whitney, Steph and I hiked to Rhodes Memorial from our homebase. It took about 45 minutes and we passed through the University of Cape Town campus. It was gorgeous..One of the younger volunteers is actually transferring there after her trip. Rhodes Memorial has an awesome view over the city.. We're planning on hiking there a lot.

Later, we ate dinner downtown on Lang Street at an Ethiopian restaurant. It was so good and so different (It reminded me of you Aunt Cindy and the African restaurant where we ate in Chicago). Whitney and I decided that is where we want to have our birthday dinners. We walked down to the Dubliner on Lang St. to meet the rest of our group. On the cab ride home we saw the huge fire on Table Mountain.. Even the volunteers from California said that it was the biggest fire they've ever seen. The whole side of the mountain was in flames and it actually came pretty close to our homebase because someone had set it right below the Rhodes Memorial. Overnight the wind carried the fire to the other side of the mountain and tons of people had to evacuate their homes. Luckily we haven't heard of anyone being hurt.

Wednesday 3/18 - Much better day at Sarah Fox. All the kids were really calm.. The older boy was still crying about his mom :(

One of the little girls today was throwing up all over herself and the floor and the nurses were yelling at me and another volunteer not to touch her. Ten minutes later when the nurse finally came to clean her, she threw a dry towel down on the floor and then with the same towel, wrapped the girl up and took her to change. The other kids were dropping their lollipops on the ground the rest of the day in the same area and picking them up and putting them back in their mouths. Jessica and I tried to say something, but we've been warned over and over again that standards of care are just different here than they are in the US. No wonder the kids get so sick. When the nurses left we took some of the lollipops away.

Another little boy got to go home today :) He has been at Sarah Fox for 9 months for meningitis. He was one my favorites so it was sad to see him leave but awesome to see him go home to a family.