Day 6 - Belfast - Unravelling the mystery

South Africa seems like a mystery waiting to be unravelled. Aspects of it are so frustrating and feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall.

This morning we sat the whole morning listening to the Grannies having a discussion about Farming God's Way and then health issues. Mark commented at the end that as a team we could have been putting up the enormous water butt that has been purchased. You can see it in the back ground of this picture lying against a wall. It's obviously been there a while. How much longer will it be there before it's put to use?

After the talk on farming, they went on to talk about health issues. Before we came out to South Africa we were asked to lead a workshop on cancer care for their patient support group. We said very firmly that none of us were qualified doctors so we would not be able to run that workshop. When we got to SA once again it was mentioned that we would be running the workshop and when Cat reminded them that we would not be running the workshop, it was suggested that she 'Googled' the information!

So this morning it wasn't really a surprise when during the health talk Doris turned to us and asked us to teach them on patient care.

I've learnt that even the little we do know seems to be more that the little they know and they need to be taught about even minor things like the fact that when taking medication you should complete the course. When people get TB they are given a course of medication for 6 months but quite often start to feel better early on and don't finish the course. Then the TB returns and is much worse the second time.

I also learnt more about the AIDS pandemic. Over 75% of the people in the community of Belfast are HIV positive. They have access to condoms but don't use them. Often a person with HIV will sleep around and maybe infect 10 others so that he doesn't die on his own.

When girls who are HIV positive give birth, they take a tablet just as the baby's head is crowning. They believe this tablet stops the baby's blood mixing with the mother's and therefore stops the baby becoming infected with HIV.