Take a few min's of your day to think!!!

Today was a public holiday here in Durban, so I went to the Respite Unit (Aids Hospice) to take one of the patients out for a milkshake. It was a pleasant experience because Nonclancla has started to recover and is now on ARV medication, we hope she can go home in the next week. I have noticed that, it is not just the illness that is killing people within the Respite Unit, it is being surrounded by death its self. Try and imagine laying in a bed next to a young woman who is similar in age to yourself. You share stories and laughter with each other, you talk about what you will do when you get home, how proud you are of your children, you become close friends. Over the next week you notice your friend has become weak and delirious, you give words of strength, but it is not enough because early the next morning you are woken by care staff lifting her dead body on to a metal trolley to be taken to the chapel. That same day another patient is brought in to the unit and is given the only spear bed, which is the bed in which your friend passed away. You can not begin to strike a friendship because you are still shocked and also the new girl is gasping for life. You try and turn away from the noise of her Sharpe breathing, but the new girl is really trying to survive, using everything she has got, even hidden under the covers with your fingers in your ears you can feel the pain she is suffering to stay alive. Only two days have gone by and you are disturbed again by the sound of the care staff moving the new girls body on to the metal trolley. Just imagine being surrounded by this for weeks. Knowing you are in the best place you could be because the care you are receiving is second to none, the staff at the respite unit have not only helped you to eat well and get out and about, but they have supported you to get the drugs which will allow you a long and healthy life. Imagine the feeling of joy and happiness such support will bring, but at the same time imagine the fear that will scar you forever seeing so many people die around you, that fear is enough to kill someone. The place of full recovery is with family, surrounded by the ones who love you, that is where the true healing begins.
I am not going to shout my beliefs at you because Evey one thinks differently and in my eyes and everyone is right. All i will say is that I do not believe in god, this is just how i am. I believe that when people take a few moments of silence within them self's and concentrate on truly wanting a person to recover from what ever it is they suffer from it helps. Each day this week I have sat and held the hand of two ladies, one who died on Saturday and one who is very weak and will die very soon. I believe that simply holding a person and putting your every thought in to them feeling safe and comfortable works. I have seen the relaxation flood through a person when they realise you are there and you are there wholey for them, so please weather you believe in a God or not, just take a few minutes out of your day to think about those who suffer in the world and really put all you energy in to it because it works.
I feel my work at the Respite unit is helping a great deal so thank you very much to all those who helped me to reach South Africa. Ideas are evolving all the time, I have noticed that young people within town ships do not have opportunities like we do in the UK and because of this lack of mutual interest many young people turn to alcohol, this often results in unsafe sex and the spread of HIV. This is just one combination, there are hundreds more that lead young people to infection. Working in a place where people are at the end result of these situations has made me realise that the problem lies way back in the teenage years. I believe that if teenagers are exposed to positive, active, enthusiastic and disciplined situations through mutual interests like sport and art, they learn through experience's which scar their memory with a positive message for life. Unlike the youth in the UK, the teenagers here have absolutely no chance of a message like this being delivered. They live in the perfect setting for learning about wild life, they have all the natural facilities for almost every sport except Skiing, the inspiration for being creative is endless, but there is no money to train those who teach how to use all this and that is where the message about HIV needs to be pushed home, when people are young and impressionable.
Tomorrow I am going to widen my traveling experience a little more, I am heading to a country called Lesotho. Lesotho is a country of its own in the centre of South Africa. I will be meeting 2 other people at the boarder of Lesotho then we will trek for 2 days in to the mountains hopefully we will find our way to a small village in the mountains where the Sutu people live, we will spend a day with them and then head back to South Africa. I am sure next week I will have a lot to tell you, Not only am i going to experience another culture and have time to reflect, but I'm going to get the Lord of the Rings adventure in the mountains woo hoo. Love you all Ben