Yet more sickness!

I haven't written for so long, I'm so sorry! I don't even have a good excuse other than laziness!

So what's been happening? Nothing actually! My hand looks much better, it turns out it's much deeper than I first thought and it's going to scar like nothing else but it didn't get infected and (surprise, surprise) I don't have HIV or Hepatitis. But I am sick AGAIN.

Just before Sarah left for her holiday (end of May-she doesn't get back til the 19th of JUNE...I'm so lonely) I had the beginnings of a cough that felt like it could get quite nasty. Most of the children in my house have had a cough that's lasted from 2 weeks to about a month so I just presumed it was that. Last week was my short week so I had Friday, Saturday and Sunday off (although I had to help in the office on Friday). On Friday I didn't feel so brilliant: my lungs felt sore and my cough seemed more persistent but I ignored it thinking it was just getting worse before it got better, plus I had 2 days to sleep it off before I had to work again. However on Saturday I was having trouble taking a proper breath, not to the extent that I couldn't breathe but I couldn't take a big enough breath to cough properly with out my lungs feeling like they were on fire and normal breathing made my lungs ache. I vowed to wait until the next day (Sunday) to see if it had gotten better or worse before I went to the medi-clinic. I did do a quick bit of googling to see what it might be and once I'd ignored all the diagnoses of lung cancer the most probable thing it came up with was Bronchitis, which apparently they just run a whole lot of tests including a chest x-ray but they can't give you medication cause it isn't bacterial so you just have to wait for it to clear.

On Sunday, I woke up to find my breathing much easier and less painful. I went to the kitchen to wait for the girl who had offered to potentially drive me to the medi-clinic and let her know I didn't need to go anymore. I still didn't feel 100%, I felt quite dizzy and spaced out and I had a bit of a headache. When I coughed it felt like my head might explode. I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. When I woke up again my head was KILLING me. It was so painful! It was manageable if I lay still but the minute I moved it felt like someone was drilling into my skull and pulling my brains out. I promised myself and my room-mate I would go to the medi-clinic in the morning and I texted the volunteer-manager's-assistant-who-is-a-volunteer-himself to let him know I wouldn't be able to working the next day.

Monday I woke up and felt much better! Again! I have a slight headache still, my cough is ever present and when I cough my head still feels like my skull is cracking into a million billion pieces and if I take too deep of a breath it hurts and makes me cough more but I definitely feel more alive than dead!

I feel I should explain why I didn't go to the medi-clinic throughout all of this. Money. I have health insurance or medical aide as it's called here. Project Trust organised it. Now I have nothing against PT, they did the job of getting me out here perfectly-it was somewhat expensive, but I would never have found this place without them, so for that I am grateful. But I'm fairly sure all the volunteers are told before the training that we don't have to worry about paying for medical bills. Because PT is an organisation and they buy(?) the medical aide as such there is a very high excess fee/charge. Now as I'm sure most people know insurance prices goes up the more you claim, so if you get burgled every week, your house insurance would be phenomenally high. Same goes with our medical aide only it doesn't go on us as an individual, it goes for all PT volunteers. Basically we have to rack up £250 for medical bills before we can claim back anything. According to google £250 is R3960.30!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't even know how many times I would have to get Tonsillitis before I hit that limit. I think I would have to be airlifted home before I would be able to claim anything back. When you go to the doctors, there is a basic R500 charge just for seeing someone. Then it's around +R200 for antibiotics and prescription grade painkillers thankfully are +R20. So every time I go to the doctors it costs me R700-R800 depending on what drugs I need. *quickly consults google* that's like £50. I personally think PT should pay any medical costs that aren't covered by the medical aide-apart from injuries sustained from bungee jumping or sky-diving or something, obviously.

So lets end this on a vaguely helpful note: I know there are 2 PT volunteers following this blog and possibly more that are reading sporadically, so to any future PT vols, consider raising extra money and designate it specifically to any medical bills you might have to pay. You might get lucky and not have to go to the doctors at all in your year in which case you have funds for when you get back. But if you need any medical treatment at all, you'll probably be glad for it. I don't usually get sick in England, at most I get a cold once or twice a year, but I've had tonsillitis 3 times in the last 4/5 months and whatever this recent thing was. Sarah got foot and mouth, impetigo and countless other things, she's had to go to the hospital more than 5 times and she's still not hit the limit. This applies to any country as well, not just SA. Also, you'll probably be working with kids. Maybe live with them as well. Nobodies immune system is ninja enough to hold of 150 kids and 30 volunteers from around the globe for a whole year. No one.

Things what do bite.

Written yesterday at about 8pm


So today I got bitten again by a child. The first time happened before Christmas and was when a child didn't want to go downstairs and when I tried to carry her, she bit me. It was quite hard and my arm swelled up and went a little blue and hard but it was fine after a week or so. This time was tonight-about 30 minutes ago! One of the most difficult children was refusing to go to bed, usually this wouldn't have been such a big deal but she was trying to go into the boys bathroom then took to hiding in the boys bedrooms under their beds (bathrooms and bedrooms are stricktly off limits to the opposite sex). When we finally got her out from under a bed, she ran straight to the girls bathrooms and barricaded herself into one of the cubicles. The other child-care worker had mentioned to me that technically we aren't allowed to physically restrain the children unless we've been through the training for it-which I haven't. But this CCW told me to sit on the floor of the bathroom with the girl and hold her there at least until we had the other children in bed. I held her as lightly as I could, only tightening my grip when she struggled. I was holding her wrists in each hand and I had one leg draped over her legs to stop her trying to kick me. She was spitting on me and occasionally biting me but not with much conviction, just testing the water I think to see if I would let go. All of a sudden she grabbed my hand with her mouth and chomped down hard. Some of these kids get unnaturally strong when they're angry and boy was she biting hard. She pulled my skin with her teeth until my skin broke and I started bleeding.

Now broken skin from a bite means one horrible, horrible thing...I have to go to the doctors tomorrow :'( I'm fairly certain the child doesn't have HIV or Hepatitis (it is remarkably difficult-near impossible to catch HIV from a bite though), I still have to go just to make sure it's OK. I also have to write a report.

The best bit was when the other girls saw it, they kept asking me if I cried and when I said no, one of them asked if I cried in my head! One of them then kissed my watch to make me feel better. It's a pity the girl that bit me had covered the watch with spit and I was on my way to clean it off!

This is what it looks like today/now :)

PICTURES!

As promised, here are the pictures from the open gardens event on Sunday. They were taken on my mum's iphone so they're not brilliant quality but hey!

A Flower on (as my mum calls it) Tequila Terrace-My dad calls it Porridge Patio.

"It took me 3 mornings to get the Euphonium working after winter"

 (Email from my Mum)

My cousin Ben making CHOCOLATE! The kid's a genius!

My family amazes me at what they can produce!

CAKE!

Yesterday my parents opened up our garden for the local rotary club's annual fundraiser or something. We did it last year and raised around £700 total from the cake and tea sales alone. I wasn't expecting to raise as much this year because I wasn't there to help and tell people about what I was doing (not that my parents are completely incompetant). However this year I was able to send pictures and video's of me and the kids to use and it was the second year of the open gardens event. All in all, I was expecting to raise maybe £500. At a push, I was thinking £500 would be a good amount. If I raised £700 again, that would be wonderful.


My wonderful amazing parents clearly pulled out all the charm and cake they owned though. They managed to make me a whopping £1000!!!!! I've just spent at least 5 minutes sat in the kitchen unable to say anything other than the word CAKE! In an abnormally high, squeaky voice!

Hopefully my parents can send me some more pictures later but here's the one I have now of folk enjoying the day, thanks to everyone who went and donated money, you've just made my day!

Tonsillitis.

So the first time I got tonsillitis I wanted to post a picture of the pills I have to take for it because they're so damn massive. The first time, I was barely able to swallow them cause my tonsils were so swollen. But I forgot to take a picture.

The 2nd time I got it I also forgot to take a picture, or rather I remembered just after downing my last dose. But 3rd time's a charm so here you are!

3 Times, 4 Months.

I have tonsillitis again. YAYYYY! For the 3rd time in 4 months. I'd never had it in England before and now I can't seem to get rid of it! My boss was pretty angry at me though because I refuse to take any holiday and when she forces it upon me, I work anyway: last week she gave me the week off-although I was only supposed to be working Wednesday and Thursday, but on Wednesday I spent most of my day at the Beiber concert. Then Thursday I went to Stellenbosch with the kids because there was a golf day fundraiser there and we'd been asked to drum and on Friday was the home's annual fundraiser ball for which I also had to drum. Then the week I'm supposed to work, I get sick. I can see her point, I just can't help when I get sick though!

The timing is spectacularly bad though as me and Evlien had planned to take the kids on a suprise outing on Saturday. We have been planning it for nearly 6 months now and I will be so devastated if I can't go with them and some other volunteer gets to go, but my boss has said if I stay in bed for the next 3 days like I'm supposed to and I'm feeling better I can go with :) I think the conversation went a little something like this:

Her: You understand what I'm saying though, we gave you the whole of last week off to rest and get back to 100% but you did lots of extra things. You're a great volunteer but you have to rest when we give you time off otherwise you're going to keep getting sick.
Me: Sooo...does this mean I'm not allowed to work on Sarturday? *really hopeful, slightly ashamed smile*

I then went to my CCW to apologise for being off work and to let her know I would arrange some cover for myself for tomorrow, only to be caught by my boss when I was on my way back. And now I'm in bed, bored already.

GAHHHHH

Suprise!

Right. This is a bit of a long story. And an unusual one. Also, I'm zonked so this may not read very well.

Anyway...

Last week my manager came and asked me if I wanted to go on an outing with the older girls on Wednesday (yesterday). I said I would, but I was working-kids/work come first so if there's an outing and you're working 9/10 times you can't go. That was all I was told. An outing. On Friday, my manager came and spoke to me, Evlien and Sarah in our room to say that it had been an elimination process and anyone that had ummed and ahhed had been voted out so to speak. However she wanted us to go so unless we had said no straight away we were all going. We were told to be in her office at 2.30 on Wednesday and to be wearing takkies (trainers) jeans, a red, pink or white top and a warm jacket. We weren't allowed to have bags with us and to only take the bare minimum. We still knew nothing.

Because I knew I wasn't going to be working Wedesday afternoon, I let my Child Care Worker-Amanda-know so that she could prepare for not having me there. On Monday it was a childs birthday and I took another one to Clicks (see two posts previous) so I popped into the house to say hello. Amanda told me she'd seen a note in the Cokus (morning meeting for the CCW's) book about us filming/shooting an advert with the girls. I was pretty excited, it sounded like fun!

On Tuesday I went for an AWSOME picnic under a windmill with Anne (you pronounce the 'e' as an 'eh' sound for any non-germans!) because Sarah and Evlien had gone on a road trip to wild spirit. After our awesome picnic we went to the annex to do that amazingly sociable thing teenagers do which is sitting in 1 room with a laptop each and showing each other funny or strange videos. Some other volunteers came in who I knew were taking part in the outing, so we crept outside to discuss what we knew. We weren't allowed to talk to any volunteers that we knew weren't going though. Some bright spark had realised that Justin Beiber was performing (with his circus) at Cape Town Stadium and had got it into their head (and others) that we were going to see him. I thought this a fairly rediculous notion. There are something like +24 kids in House 1 and 2 as well as 7/8 volunteers and however many staff members. There was no way the Home could afford it.

In the end Sarah and Evlien couldn't come because they couldn't get back from their road trip in time.

The rest of us met in the office at 2.30. We were given some leaflets on HIV to read and Gender Based Violence. The assistant mentioned something about Desmond Tutu giving a speech. We were all given up to 3 children that we would be responsible for. We went to the activity hall to meet up with the girls and there was a radio station there. 94.5 Kfm said they were using us to film and record an advert for them. They would have us on a bus as if we were on a school trip and the radio would be on and we would have to pretend to be having a mini party on said bus. There were goody bags on the seats but we weren't allowed to look in them until they said. We all got on the bus and found seats, and were told to shut up so they could quickly do a sound check. The video is what they filmed. Watch the video then read on :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgyFseDCBHw



So we were actually going to a Beiber concert. Now I'll admit, I don't like Justin Beiber I think he's an egotistical fool and if I'd know we were going to a concert of his, I probably would have said no. But it was too late, we were on the bus, I was trapped! But in the end I really enjoyed it. The girls were so excited and happy it was an honour to share that with them. We were very close to the stage, they'd spared no expense on the tickets, we were in the first block, if you tried to go further forward you would have been on stage. He was late coming on-or at least he took his time: it said it started at 7.30, the support acts were over by about 7.30 and he didn't come on until 8.40ish. Some of the younger ones (some of the under 14's had been allowed to come) were falling asleep on the pile of coats we had and the adults were beginnig to discuss how late we would wait until we had to take them home as some of them had school the next day. All of a sudden all the lights on the stage went from off, to bright white and they all flashed up. Kids that had been asleep were awake and upright in miliseconds. I've never seen anbody become so alert so quickly! From 8.30 until it ended at 10.30, I had to girls alternating who was sitting on my back or shoulders so they could see. One girl is 12 and the other 13. Now they're both shorter than average but they did weigh enough! And they were so excited I nearly fell over several times because they were bouncing around so much! Another bonus was watching the social workers and my manager who I'd only seen in a professional setting before, dancing and jumping around like 10 year old girls, almost as excited as their charges! It was very funny!

So all in all, I had a very nice night, even if I would have chosen a different performer!

Much thanks to 94.5Kfm for organising it, and to the Home for letting some volunteers go and be a part of that with the girls. They've never been to something like that before and will (almost certainly) never get to be that close again if they manage to get tickets to something like that. It was a real treat!