Global Poverty Monitor

The Dream Centre is six stories high, and really of no lesser quality than an Australian hospital. Everything is well constructed, there are lovely paintings and pictures on all of the walls, the patients are mostly in private or semi-private rooms, and from what I could see most of the rooms had a TV. It was really strange to walk around and compare it to Chitima, with its concrete floors, mattresses on the floor, heat, flies, and the masses of patients sitting on the ground outside to escape the heat and the smell inside. There is just no comparison. I hate to think that the other volunteers think this is what an African hospital is like. Chitima has no doctors – the Dream Centre has Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Counselors, as well as many doctors and nurses, not to mention the medication and facilities available. Its crazy. I would still like to spend some time there, maybe only half a day though, to take Polaroids of the patients for them to give to their families and children. But I really don’t think the place is deserving of monetary contributions when there are so many other places that need the help so much more.

We came back to the house after that, and the Dutch boy Martain, who has been here for four weeks already, said he needed to speak to us at 5pm. So I went outside and rang Mum, and she told me about various hotels that I can stay at in Durban if I decide to take that option for my second weekend here. I’d like to go on the camping trip with the girls but if there’s any chance its not going to happen then I’ll organize my own. There is some appeal for me to stay in Durban by myself for that time, I’m not sure why, but I’m not going to make my mind up just yet. I came inside and read and chatted with some people until 5pm, when we all met up with Martain. He spoke to us about the Tree Clinic, and Project Bobbi Bear, and his thoughts on why we aren’t able to visit the project any longer. We all had a communal whinge about Tracey and the whole organization. It is true that the whole thing is very disorganized, and its so frustrating that so far we still haven’t really done anything. Its all right for the people who are here for four weeks or longer, but for Jenny and me its harder because we’ve only got two weeks, minus weekends, minus Wednesdays and minus the first two days.

Onwards, upwards, to the next blog on the blogroll - San Diego, CA