Canoe Race, Kresh and Hosptals

     Today we woke early and were out of the house by 5:30 AM to see the start of the Dusi Canoe Race.  This is a 60 year old, 3 day race (with legs like the Tour de France) that utilizes what we call "kayaks" and involves both paddling and running across land with the kayak on your shoulders.  Part of the course runs through deep rural areas.  There used to be trouble with people accosting the contestants, but since they have included some charities in these areas that are supported by the race, things have gone more smoothly.
     Today we all went in different directions.  Jamil started off in the tracheostomy clinic.  There is a Red Cross program aimed at teaching tracheostomy home care to parents of pediatric patients.  Larissa spent the entire time in that clinic interviewing the mothers, playing with the children, and again using the camera as a means of understanding the thoughts of the children.  Jamil, then went to the neonatal ICU to spend time with Dr. Graham Ducais, who I had met with in April.  Graham is a gifted teacher, impassioned about working in the public sector, and giving excellent care with limited staff and resources.  He is most proud of a milk bank, opened within the past year as a result of years of his pushing for it.  It is remarkable how dedicated and sacrificing are many of the physicians we have met.

     I went back to the Edendale Valley to visit a kresh or daycare run by a black pastor I met at the meeting of the all black Rotary Club.  We drove through impoverished neighborhoods and turned down an unpaved alley with wandering goats and chickens.  There, in a relastively small, dilapidated house, the pastor's wife and a few volunteers cared for 75 children.  The first transient arrivals arrive at 6 AM and the last leave at 7 PM.  12 of the children sleep there with a volunteer because they have nowhere else to go.  The kresh receives no government funding and relies on meager donations to support itself.  I gave out the smaller shoes that I had brought as well as some balloons.  Like children everywhere, they smiled, waved and were delighted with the attention and the gifts.  The larger of the 60 pairs of shoes I brought will be distributed at an elementary school.
     We had lunch at Hennie's Rotary Club where we were welcomed enthusiastically.
     Tomorrow, we leave for our R & R at a bush camp in a game reserve, 3 hours north in Zululand.  Since there is no internet in the bush, my next writing will be on Monday.