I have not heard back from the priest. Pity as I was really hoping to do some social/charitable work here. As our friend Corinne says:

ask the Universe and you will receive

I met a lovely medical student called Nikki. She is the girlfriend of Bjorn, on the catamaran opposite us in the marina. She told me about a monthly clinic in the black township and told me they are generally short of volunteers. Today was the day.

I was collected by a dietician and helped set up in one of the community centres. She gave a lecture to about 50 people (mothers and children and 3 fathers!) about bottle feeding babies and how to sterilize and make the formula correctly. Many of the women there have AIDS and breast feeding is not an option for them.

My job was to weigh the children and babies and hand them over to the 3 dietetic students who were measuring their heights. The women and their children then went to the lead dietician and had the measurements put into the laptop. The chart then plotted whether the children were growing and gaining weight correctly. She would then advise them if there was a problem on the correct foods to be giving their children. There was a mobile ambulance unit where 4 doctors were available for consultation afterwards.

Woolworths store give a bunch of food every month for the clinic and they use the food as a type of lottery. Another way of getting the people to come to the clinic. Some of the food is excellent joints of meat and these are given as the “big prizes”. Everyone goes away with something nutritious and the kids are given fruit on the spot too.

The weighing scales were very basic. I am actually considering donating some when I leave. If any one has any ideas as to a hard wearing, enduring and accurate scales, please let me know. For the younger toddlers and babies, I ended up having to weigh myself and then lift them in my arms and subtract that new weight to calculate their actual weight.

The children were the same as children anywhere in the world and I chased them and played with them as I would any child anywhere. Some of the children have AIDS and a few had chicken pox and other skin complaints. I really enjoyed the day. Having said that, I was also very aware that Saoirse is not fully immunized yet so had a long shower before I hugged her in thanks for her health.

All in all it was a cleansing day.

You can see more pictures Here:..