Nkhaba Home Based Care

Greetings One and All!
Tomorrow David and I will head south with Fr. Andrew and two members of the Diocesan HIV/AIDS office. The Staff from the HIV/AIDS office translate for me, and they are learning what I am teaching. We will be presenting two more workshop presentations tomorrow (I think), and take some additional supplies to the dental team at their worksite. We are anxious to see how the dental team are doing in this second location, and will be better able to report tomorrow night.

There have been many metanoia/turning around/conversion of the heart experiences here in Swaziland, but none more powerful than today. We drove out northwest this morning, and picked up a woman waiting for us. Sandra climbed into the SUV with us, and then onto to some even more rural roads to see one of her success cases - a 27 year old mother of two who has AIDS and TB. Through Sandra's efforts and the care of her uncle and his wife, she is regularly receiving drugs for both diseases. Sandra and the aunt kept telling us how well the young woman was doing. She is still very thin with obvious muscle wasting- and walking is difficult for her. The aunt told me, "She was so sick, I thought she was dying. But, this woman came and said, "Don't worry. I will help you, and we will get the help she needs. And by God's grace now she is better." Much of the activity of the morning was to keep the large, guard rooster out of the house, who was not sure we should be in the house. I don't think Dave realized that shooing the rooster, as well as a hen and her chicks out of the house would be part of the day's job description.
Then around to the second place on even more challenging roads/trails. Rosemary Symounds was driving today, and she did a masterful job on difficult roads and conditions. This patient was a 40 year old male, who had been in denial for a long time, and only started on ARV's for full-blown AIDS last week. This two room house was constructed of tree branches, and red clay ( not bricks) filling in between the branch poles. Sandra marched in and talked to the man, and a relative who was cleaning the house this morning. I was glad to see that the woman who was cleaning was wearing gloves, and one could smell the chlorox. When I was outside with Sandra, I asked if she had training as a nurse. "No, but I am Christian, and have taken all the training the Diocese has offered. I think I have a gift for this work, and it is my calling." Sandra heated water over an open fire outside, and then when she had adjusted the temperature of the water, she added a little chlorox, and a bar of soap, and I helped her bathe the man. I am in awe of her gentleness and strength - her courage and persistance. Her patient needed some medication for a urinary tract infection, and so after our training session, we drove her to the clinic to get the medicine, and then she would walk back to the man's house with the antibiotics. Yes, Sandra, has indeed responded to God's call to visit and care for the sick in her isolated, rural community! What an example! I started working in hospitals at 19, and have met a number of very talented and gifted health professionals over these many years, but Sandra is right up there at the top! Tonight I know myself as a coddled American, and will spend the rest of my days praying for Sandra, and others, for their works of mercy with AIDS patients here in Swaziland.
As we are Enfolded in God's Love,
Mary Jane+