Week 1 Monday - Friday

Hi everyone
Sorry for the long wait, but I decided it would be better if I told you about the whole week at once, rather than you having to check what I've been up to everyday!!

So here it goes:

Day 1 - Monday 2/3/09
I should probably begin by saying how huge the Dream Centre is, I never imagined it would be in such a big building.
We (the volunteers) are staying in a flat on the 1st floor, its not the most pleasant of places and there was a mouse in the hall to greet us when we arrived...
After unpacking, Nadine and Marlou gave us a tour of the wards and introduced us to the patients. It was quite a shock to see people so young looking so frail and I didn't really know where to look or what to say.
Not all of the patients are bed ridden as some of you may think and many of them walk around freely with a smile on their face. Thats not to say there aren't some very sick patients here and Marlou and Nadine say death is a regular occurrence.
We also met with our regional manager, Tamara, who told us that there are financial problems at the Dream Centre and that last week it was put up for sale. No one knows whats going on and what will happen when or if the Dream centre closes and I will keep you informed on what happens.
 
Day 2 - Tuesday 3/3/09
This morning we got up early to help wash the patients, I was shocked by how little dignity the patients were allowed. The patient Marlou and I helped wash didn't even have soap, she only had a flannel that was falling apart and she had to dry with her dirty pyjama top.  
After all the patients had been washed, we helped change the beds. Many of the patients have no control over their bladders and bowels, so a lot of the sheets were dirty and wet.
We have to wear gloves and an apron, but unlike in the UK, we dont need to change them between each patient and infection control is practically non existent. This really shocked me, especially since the AIM of the dream centre is to help the patients ward off their current infection, so that they can go home, not give them more.
Today we also met with the coordinator of the dream centre, who explained the structure of the Dream centre staff and a bit about what HIV is and how it develops into AIDs.

Every tuesday evening the Be more volunteers run a bingo night for the patients who want to come. This week there were about 55 patients that came, which is quite a lot considering there are only around 80 patients at the Dream centre. It was really nice to see the patients enjoy themselves and see them get so excited about winning a small bedside clock, a pair of socks and even a small sweet. These things are nothing to you and I, but to them they mean everything and I think the idea that they won it gives them a sense of achievement, something they wouldn't get if we just gave the items to them.

Day 3 - Wednesday 4/3/09
On  monday, wednesday and friday morning some of the volunteers run a physio class for the patients. Keeping mobile is very important to the patients as it means they have more of a chance of being allowed to go home. I was surprised how many of the patients managed to do the exercises with weights and how determined they were to complete each set of repeats. I also liked the way the other patients helped those in wheelchairs to get to and from the class and that they know how important its is for them.  There is one guy who has is own language... its not Zulu and it certainly isn't english - but he's always smiling and willing to help, that everyone understands him.

Afterwards Marlou and I went round some of the patients and did their nails and gave feet massages. It was a great way for me to get to know the patients, because I didn't feel as though I was invading their privacy and some spoke freely about how they felt and how long they had been at the Dream centre. I really enjoyed doing this and was shocked that something so simple could make someone so happy.

In the afternoon I went up to the ward on the 6th floor and took photos with some of the patients. They really like having pictures of themselves, so with some of the money, be-more gives the dream centre every month, we get the photos printed off and give them to them.
I spent some time on my own with the patients this afternoon, which was nice because I didn't feel as though I was following Marlou/Nadine around (they've been here for 2 months) and I'm beginning to get a feel of what the next 3-4 weeks will be like. 

Day 4 - Thursday 5/3/09 
Today was the hardest day so far for me. We got up early again to wash the patients and started on the 4th floor with a patient called Gladys. She is very unwell and can hardly do anything for herself, she had soiled her self and it was our job as volunteer to clean her up before taking her to the shower. There were 3 patients in the same bathroom and the door was wide open. The patients really have no privacy here and it upset me to see that they are not even allowed to have a shower on their own (except with a nurse/volunteer to help for those who are less able). 
There's a patient called Thandi, who's on the 4th floor and she wasn't very happy this morning because she'd been told she was moving room and she didn't want to leave her room mates. She was also moving to rm 401, which is where the sicker patients are and was scared about what was going to happen to her. Compared to some of the other patients she looks reasonably well, but the fact that they were moving her scared me because she might actually be much sicker than she seems.
She very scared and upset and started crying, because the nurses hadn't told her why she was moving and I could feel myself welling up. On the way back to our flat, Marlou asked the nurse why she was moving and she said it was because she hasn't been taking her tablets and she's not looking after herself, so they want her somewhere they can keep and eye on her.

Having had an eye opening morning, I decided that I wanted to do something a little less emotional and went to help the pharmacist count tablets. A lot of the tablets come in tubs of 5000 and they need to be divided into packets of 100. It took me 1hr15, to count 40 packets of 100, thats 4000 tablets and by the end of it all I could think about was numbers. 

Every thursday we have a movie night for the patients, sometimes the film is a success and other times lots of the patients leave after they've had crisps and a drink. Tonight it was definitely a success. We showed them "Little Man" and they couldn't stop laughing. 
Before we could take some of the patients down they needed to have their nappy changed. Its weird having to change a nappy on someone who's only in their 20's, wearing a nappy is normally something you would associate with babies and the elderly, but at the Dream centre, its common practice for those who are bed ridden. 
One of the new patients, Mbali, didn't feel very well at the beginning of the movie, so I took her back to her room. Having finally found her a sick bowl, she began to throw up and I was really worried because she couldn't stop shaking, so I went to find a nurse.
It was coming up for home time and most of the nurses were ready to leave. There's no over lap of care at the dream centre so they only response I got was "what do you want us to do, all of the patients are chronic". This made me really angry and I went back to the Mbali and sat with her until she was ready to go to sleep.  

Today was probably the first of many hard days to come and I doubt today was the worst of what I'll see.

Day 5- Friday 6/3/09
Today we held the physio class in the garden under the tree and even some of the new patients came. There are a few patients who have had a stroke and as a result have very little movement on one side. The other volunteers have shown them that they can use their able side to move their less able side and its quite funny (in a good way) to see them doing this in the physio class, especially one of the men, who over exaggerates every movement :).
There was a church service in the chapel this morning and even some of the nurses came. There was a lot of singing (all in Zulu, so I had no idea what they were saying), but there was something about the whole experience that made me well up. It was so nice to see the patients and the nurses come together and when one of the men from the church spoke, I saw some of the patients smile and laugh and mean it for the first time.

In the afternoon I went to visit Mbali again, but she was still feeling very unwell and was curled up in a ball on her bed. It was hard for me to see her like this, because yesterday morning she had been sitting up and talking to me with a smile on her face and now she was in so much pain that all she could do was try and sleep. I sat with one of the other patients in the same room and cut and painted her nails. At the beginning she was very shy, but as she began to trust me she opened up and she laughed at how big the gloves were on me (even a medium is huge on me). 
In the next room, one of the patients asked me to massage her legs, which I did happily and then said that the lady in the bed next to her wakes up in the night crying because her back hurts and asked me if I would massage her too. Bearing in mind I'd never even given a foot massage before I arrived at the dream centre, it was an experience and a half. She'd taken off her pj top, before I'd even said yes, so it was a good job I wasn't going to say no. It actually wasn't has hard as I thought it would be and it seemed to make her happy so when I'd finished I left her to eat her dinner.

This evening we went out for a meal to a restaurant opposite the dream centre called "Butchers Block" - not the most sensible choice of restaurant for a veggie, but the others wanted to go so I didn't complain. Despite only having a choice of 3 things on the menu, the salad was actually quite nice and we also had a bowl of complimentary chips and vegg for the table. In South Africa they have a drink called a Don pedro, which is ice cream with a choice of liqueur. I chose Kahlua which has a subtle coffee flavour and it tasted amazing.. much nicer than plain ice cream and was actually cheaper :p

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