The third and final part to a clinical day spent at Ethembeni is my favorite part of the day! After home visits, we get dropped off at the Family Center, which is just a house in the middle of a residential area. It was converted into a daycare center for kids with no parents, or kids whose parents are affected by HIV in some way.
Young kids (about age 1-5) stay there all day and are watched by caregivers. Older kids (about age 5-17) come over after school to do homework and play. All of the kids are fed lunch, and I believe dinner as well.
The center is a great place for these kids because it's safe, they're well taken care of, and they have mentors that help them with homework and life skills. I was told that they have about 70 kids enrolled to come to the center, but I've never seen more than about 30 there at one time.
There's not really anything particular for us nursing students to do when we go there. We just get to play with the kids! The caregivers are happy for the break, and the kids love new faces (as well as all the stuff we carry in our scrubs pockets). We stay for a few hours until someone comes to pick us up around 3:30.
Getting to know these kids has been one of the biggest highlights of my semester! They are incredibly cute and just want to be loved. They never run out of energy to play duck, duck, goose and soccer, be spun around over and over, or climb up the slide again and again. It's definitely been a workout keeping up with them!
I've fallen completely in love with 3 kids in particular at the center. From the very first day, this little boy wouldn't let me put him down.
He is the most adorable boy ever! He's about 2 years old, and he loves to cuddle in your arms when you hold him. He would never answer me when I asked "Ubani igama lahko?" so I just found out his name today. His name is Dinangwe, but they call him Tokelo. I'm going to miss holding him so much!
The next kid that I fell in love with is one of the school-aged kids. Her name is Andiswa and she's 6 years old.
My first day at the center, I was sitting on the ground with wild kids climbing all over me, and Andiswa just quietly curled up in my lap. All she wanted to do was sit there and let me hug her. The next week, as soon as I walked into the yard, she ran over and gave me a huge hug! She had remembered me! She wouldn't leave my side that day. I was surprised that she wanted so badly to stay with me since most of the kids her age just wanted to do their own thing. I played with her the rest of the day, and every other day that I went. I'm going to miss Andiswa the most out of them all. She's such a beautiful, happy girl!
The last kid that I fell in love with is Andiswa's little sister, Akhona.
Akhona is 2 and extremely malnourished. She is super skinny and as light as a feather. She's been improving a lot in the last few months, though. In November, she couldn't even stand, but today she walked all over the house while holding onto my hands! She can even climb up the slide now! Even though she may be smaller than the other kids, she still has quite a personality. She talks up a storm, and she's extremely smart. When we were doing medical assessments on her today, she watched me use an otoscope to look in her ears, then grabbed it from me to play with. To my surprise, she put it right back in her ears herself! I think she's going to be a nurse one day. I'll miss her a ton, and I hope that she's able to continue getting stronger and gaining more weight!
I'm really going to miss all the kids at the Family Center. I'm hoping to hear lots of stories about them from the APU students who come to South Africa in the fall!
Word of the Day: "Woza" (wo-zah) means "come"
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