RivLife

Thursday and Friday of this past week were our first two days at service sites. We go to our sites from about 9am to 3:30pm Tuesday through Friday and will be going for the next three weeks. My service site is called RivLife and there are 8 of us girls who are working there. 

On day one Reg dropped us off at RivLife, which is about 20 min from AE. Reg is the guy in charge of our APU group and our semester. He is a sweet and wise older man, and we all like him a lot. When Reg dropped us off it was like our mom (or in this case, grandpa) was dropping us off at the mall for the first time. There was a sense of being independent and we were all excited for the day ahead!

One of the first things we did was some planning and we found out basically what the next three weeks will look like at RivLife. On Tuesdays and Fridays we will get to meet with a support group of women who are HIV positive. On Wednesdays we get to hang out with a group of gogo’s (granny’s) and we were told they like to exercise and that they like to run up hills and stuff. Oh yeah, they are like 70 years old, so this should be pretty fun. Then on Thursdays we will go into the community and do home visits with people who are terminally ill. Then I believe in the afternoons everyday we will play with the kids that come to RivLife. 

We were told that basically we would be playing with the kids all day on our first day. So we led a group of 30ish preschoolers outside to this tent, which is incredibly hot inside. All the preschoolers (who do not know English) sat down and did not say a word, they stared at us and we stared at them. All 8 of us girls just looked at each other thinking, “what are we supposed to  do?!” So, we started singing Ageko Ofuna No Jesu (one of two songs we know in Zulu) and we all got totally into it and these kids just looked at us.  We then sang it 3 more times...this was the first funny thing of many funny moments of the day. 

 

The rest of the day went like this... we played with the little kids outside in the baking sun and attempted to possibly say a few words to them. Unfortunately, in our Zulu class we have not yet learned how to say such important words like “stop” and “don’t climb” and “don’t bite” (We did ask out teacher so now we know). During the whole day there was probably 3 to 5 kids hanging on each of us. I pushed kids on the tire swings for probably a total of an hour and a half and I got my hair played with. The kids were a little snotty but super cute. Also, after school in the afternoon some older children came 

and many of them could speak English so we got to talk and hang out with them too. We found out that some of the older children have to walk three to five miles to get to RivLife in the afternoon where they eat their only meal of the day. 

My new team slash family, as we like to call ourselves, is wonderful. We have had many laughs together, and I cannot wait for all the things we will experience together. On the first day one of the only pictures taken was of me napping during our lunch break. It’s really an attractive photo. Thanks, new family, thanks. 

During our second day at RivLife we got to attend the AIDS support group.

There are about 10 women who come to this and together they work on crafts they sell as a business and are just there for each other. When we first met the women, we all told each other our names. It was so difficult to remember their names because they are in Zulu but we are working on it! Everyone in the room laughed because one of the women’s name is Patricia and as Americans we had no problem remembering her name! There were a couple of women who translated for us during the 2 hours we were there. 

We told the group that we were there just to get to know them and be with them each week. Then one of the women told us that they all are HIV positive and asked us if that was okay with us, if we would want to be there knowing this. It 

was heart breaking. On the verge of tears, we told her that, yes, we wanted to be there because we loved them all. Then she asked us if we were okay with the fact that they are mothers who have this disease. We then told her how incredible we think it is that they all have the strength to be mothers and to run businesses and just to be out and doing things while having HIV. 

After this, they told us that they loved us and we all went around giving each other hugs. We noticed how the women held on to us for a long time. Some people still think that HIV can be spread through physical contact. It is due to ignorance that many times people will not associate themselves with those who have HIV. The women then got out some of their crafts and we watched them and they even taught some of us how to do it. At the end of our time with the group, we said our goodbyes and told them we would be back Tuesday. 

This experience was a lot to take in. I don’t think I have ever been so encouraged by a group of people. This is the first time I have really seen how HIV affects people and it is difficult to understand how people who already live in poverty have to deal with such a disease as this. 

I think everything I experience for these next few weeks will really change my perspective on a lot of things. Already after the second day, we found it difficult to say goodbye to the kids we played with and just from being with the women for a little while really made me think about how they live everyday. My group is just beginning to see the realities of life of both the women and children we have begun to build relationships with and it's a lot to process. 

Please keep us all in your prayers as we continue to go to service sites. Especially pray that our bodies would be protected from any diseases the children or people we come into contact with have and that my RivLife “family” would be able to encourage each other and really work as a team.