Feb. 12. 2007…Internship Site-Mahou Centre

First day at Mohau Centre and I loved it. Found out that it has almost an identical setup to Africa Revolution’s orphan homes. I will have the opportunity to do group therapy and individual therapy with the 45 children that live there. Out of those 45 children 80% of them are HIV+, most of them are under the age of 5, and Mohaus end result is trying to reunify them with distant relatives. The Centre is on Kelafong hospital grounds (this is the only government hospital in this area of South Africa and they specialize in HIV/AIDS patients). Spent most of the day in the waiting room of Kelafong Hospital with a 1.5 year old boy who fractured his leg earlier that day at 7 AM and when I was relieved by a caregiver at 6 PM he still hadn’t been seen by a doctor. While I was waiting there with him I was looking around and there were just tons and tons of people. Some bleeding from the mouth, some bent over with cramps of some sort, some with broken appendages, etc. I just couldn’t believe what was happening right in front of me. All I would see the doctors doing was applying more gauze to the bleeders and tell the others to be patient. This poor little boy I couldn’t even get him food or water for fear that they would call his name while we were away fetching food/water. If we would be away when his file was called then he would be put to the back of the line and we could be there nearly a day and a half. I am really excited overall about my experiences I am going to get there. I believe it is going to open me up to worlds of knowledge that could not even imagine.