Anyway, back to the clinic. I usually try to go first thing in the morning because this is when they are the busiest. There is a TB clinic on one side and general medical care on the other side. People will starting lining up by 6am if not earlier to get in to see either a doctor or nurse practitioner. I'm told that sometimes people start lining up as early as 4am.
It is a very overwhelming place to walk into, especially being a white women driving up in a car. I've learned to just smile and say "good morning", the clinic is not very big, maybe the size of a gymnasium with some rooms around the sides and a large waiting area in the middle. There is a gate you need to walk through with a security guard, which is the same man every day. More about him later. As you walk in all you can hear is hundreds of people talking and lots of children running around and babies crying. There are literally at least 100 people in the waiting room every time I come in to check on the students.
I usually find the students either in the immunization/sick room. This is where they triage sick children along with give immunizations, all in the same room, all sharing the same air and probably germs. The equipment they have is so old I'm shocked they still work. The scale alone looks like something my parents had when I was growing up. As a small thank you gift I had the students bring digital thermometers, the nurses (they are called sisters here) were so thrilled and I quickly found out why, all they have is mercury thermometers that take forever. I actually had to teach the students how to read it since they had not been exposed to them before. The other places they work is in the family planning on Tuesdays and on Mondays in the antenatal testing unit. Both of these areas are just basic rooms with one exam table on it that may or may not have the paper sheet replaced before or after your visit.
Teen pregnancy is very high here as well as pregnancy in general. Lots and lots and lots of young children and babies in this township. There is a big push for safe sex and getting tested for HIV, actually there is a campaign going on in all of South Africa to "know your status" with free testing sites all over the place. The students have been getting a lot of practice with family planning and are a little frustrated with the lack of prenatal testing they get, there is no ultrasound machine.
It's hard to explain unless you are here just how poor the people in the townships are and how hard the sisters work each and every day with very little. The clinic will see at least 2-3 hundred people in one day and most of the time they do not have a doctor or a nurse practitioner, they have the sisters who are registered nurses, but have to call for an ambulance if there is anything more urgent than typical childhood diseases, colds, etc.
Back to the guard at the gate. He is an older gentleman, probably in his 60's who wears a knit cap and jacket regardless of the temperature. He is so friendly and we share pleasantries every time I come in, he has gotten to know me and lets me know where the students are. On my way out the other day I asked him how he was, he told me with a smile I'm doing well. I then asked him how his weekend was and he told me "not very good, they shot my son and he died". Like an idiot I had to ask him twice to be sure that I heard him tell me very calmly that his son was shot. He explained that he was robbed, put up a struggle and was then shot and killed. He was 25 years old. All through this I wondered how the heck he was there and still smiling, doing his job and asking me how I was doing. It occurred to me that he couldn't afford to not work regardless of the reason and that is why he was there, guarding the gate. I walked away with a heavy heart and wished there was more I could do.
pictures on the bottom are from the excursion...this is informal housing in Soweto.
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