Day 12-Malealea and SOS Teen Camp

Malealea is a town about two hours from Maseru up in the mountains. One of the drivers, Jef, picked us up at 7:30am and drove us there. I had brought a book to read in the car but quickly realized that that definitely wasn’t a good idea once we were off the main road and driving up steep, rocky terrain! We got to Malealea around 9:30am and were planning to do the pony trekking. However the SOS orphanage across the road from the Baylor Clinic was having a teen camp in Malealea for two weeks so we decided to go visit with the kids first. One of the camp leaders picked us up and drove us to where the boys were building a road to connect the main road to the camp. The boys eyed us very suspiciously when we offered to help and it was probably with good reason because Kadi and I only lasted about 20 min using the pick axes! The manual labor was much harder than it looked, but fortunately they were finishing and heading back to camp to eat breakfast. We went along and said met some of the teen girls, and then the driver took us back for our two hour pony trek. The trail through the mountains and small villages was amazing!

Kadi using the pick ax










Dog at Malealea Lodge that kinda looked like Bailey (this is for you Mackenzie!)











Kadi with the peacocks at Malealea Lodge











Erika dumping the wheelbarrow at the road building site











Erika on her pony











Little boy leading my horse to the trail














My pony














Trekking











More trekking












We took a stop and this was the view











Everyone had to take a turn pretending to jump off the edge of the cliff










Erika jumping














Kadi jumping














I really liked these round houses, they look so much warmer than the Cottage!










Giant aloe vera











Girls at teen camp












Helping wash dishes











Cutting up tripe...unlike Erika and I's thinking this is NOT a type of fish!











Erika got some tripe to go...I had no intention of going near it but I decided to be very adventurous and try a bite! The spices were really good but I wasn't crazy about the chewy texture.

Day 11

Spent the day at Baylor doing research for the Nutrition Project. In the evening we went to the grocery store, made dinner at the Cottage, and watched Pride and Prejudice (thanks to Olivia for the DVDs:). Had to go to bed early because in the morning we were getting up to go to Malealea!

Day 10-Queen II and New Project!

Queen II
Queen Elizabeth II is the national hospital of Lesotho. It’s a very different experience from working at the Baylor Clinic and I don’t think I’ll ever forget my first day there. Many people had told me about the conditions at Queen II: roaches running all over the walls, small, dirty rooms crammed with many beds, everything is constantly in short supply-doctors, nurses, space, and especially medical supplies. Even with all the forewarnings it was still a very shocking to experience Queen II firsthand where things were exactly as I had heard them described. The first morning was rough and it was definitely an eye-opening experience to see what the only government run hospital in a poor third world country looks like. It took some getting used to and it’s still not easy to watch some of the sickest children in the world dying of AIDS in those hospital beds, but there are some wonderful stories of children who are recovering from malnutrition, TB, and many other preventable diseases. I spent the day shadowing Jaime and she was really great helping me get to know the hospital and brainstorming ideas for the project I hope to work on there.
Nutrition/Play Therapy Project
I plan to spend the next four weeks at Queen II getting a new project underway in the Children’s Medical Ward. The project focuses on the Nutrition Assistants, NAs, whose job is to provide formula night and day for the babies in the malnutrition ward. The NA job description also calls for them to ensure that the children are meeting developmental and social goals (especially important for malnourished babies), though that part of the job has fallen by the wayside. I’m hoping with this project to provide training in developmental intervention and play therapy so that the Nutrition Assistants can provide better care for these sick children.

Fat Cakes

I bought fat cakes today after lunch from the fat cake lady who sells food on the road outside of the clinic. Fat cakes are basically balls of fried dough and they taste delicious eaten with a little honey.

Day 9

Worked on Dosing Syringe Project in the morning. At lunchtime, Lina and I went to see the Fat Cake Lady and she had made lunch for us! The lunch-beef stew with potatos, papa (it’s similar to grits or mashed potatoes and eaten with every meal here), and spinach (like collards)-was amazing. Most delicious meal and there was a ton of food leftover. We brought her some of the food back and she was already planning another meal for us next week. Such a nice lady!

Day 8

It was so hard to get up in the morning after a late night watching the World Cup and just baaarely made it to work on time! I spent the morning working on the Dosing Syringe Project with Lina. The purpose of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of these clips attached to the syringe that allow the exact dosage to be drawn up rather than the caregiver having to measure the medicine. We marked 70 patients on one of the ARV medications, Kaletra, for evaluation. Still working on the details but we got two patients evaluated today. Erika and I will meet with Dr. Smita tomorrow to discuss the database project and a possible outreach trip this Sunday to Qachas (I’ve been practicing but I’m still not exactly sure how to say this name…there is some very complex tongue clicking involved!).
I came back to the Cottage for dinner. Then read a book, showered, and bed. It got much colder over the weekend so by the time the sun goes down at 5:45pm, all I want to do is curl up in front of the propane heater under a giant blanket with two pairs of socks on…which is exactly what I did!

Day 7

Fruit and Veg
Kadi, Erika, and I woke up early Sunday morning and went to Fruit and Veg (the Lesotho version of Whole Foods). We bought trail mix and fresh juice and then walked several blocks to Pioneer Mall.




Life’s Comfort Solutions
Kadi really wanted to buy jerseys from this store in the mall called Life’s Comfort Solutions. They also sell traditional Basotho blankets which only cost R 90-150 so I definitely want to go back and buy one. Unfortunately they didn’t have the jerseys Kadi wanted but we ended up buying something better-an official Fifa soccer ball to take to the orphanage!


Orphanage
From the mall we took a cab to the orphanage where the children-led church service was just ending. As soon as we walked in, little children ran up to us and wanted to sit in our laps. We sang songs and the leader presented our soccer ball to the kids. The kids loved the ball and were really excited to go outside after church and play! The little ones were really entertained when I took videos of them and played them back on my camera for them. We kicked an old soccer ball around with several kids before Kadi took a taxi back. Then Erika got her nails painted at the local salon where the older girls get their hair done. We played with the little children for another hour before taking a cab back.


Spain vs. Netherlands
We went to the Maseru Sun Hotel to watch the World Cup Final where they projected the game on a big screen. It was packed when we got there and people were going craazyyy, mostly for Spain so we had to cheer for the Netherlands! Erika even decided to be really festive and wear my orange loofa in her hair. So attractive! They lost and I thought I was going to have some permanent hearing damage from all of the vuvuzelas. But it was so exciting to know we were only four hours away from Johannesburg where everything was happening!

Best day so far:)