So I have not been the best about
blog posting, but I think that now we are on a more set schedule it will be
better.
Today was my second day at my
internship and I cannot be more excited to work here for the whole semester. I
will be working with the Cease Fire Program, which is associated with a
community center that also provides computer services, printing abilities, hot
meals and off-site addiction treatment facilities. They also have a dispensary to provide
medicine and wound dressings for the elderly who cannot wait in the long clinic
lines. The people I have met so far that I will be working with are so
incredible and passionate about the work they do with at-risk community
members, I can’t help but smile just writing about it.
So far, I have been helping
community members with their Curriculum Vitaes (CV), as many do not have access
to a computer or the resources to properly format their information. The people
range from young women who are applying for their first job, to former gang
members looking for new lease on life.
Yesterday, I visited the off-site treatment
facility for at-risk members called Camp Joy. The woman who I traveled with is
a former gang member herself and is dedicating the work that she does now to
help others get clean. She taught a class to a group of 18 or so men about how
to properly communicate what they are feeling to better increase their chances
of staying sober.
There were people at all different
stages of their sobriety, members who had been there for a few days to a few
weeks to the final days of their program.
I had the pleasure of talking to a man, not much older than myself, who
had completed the program once before but had relapsed a year or so ago. He
told me that his life had become too good, he had a great job working with his
older brother, his mom trusted him again and he had a great girlfriend. And
then he relapsed. Time had gone by and he lost all the goodness that had
brought value into his life. His younger sister was no longer speaking to him,
and their relationship brought him great joy, his mom cried every night and his
girlfriend walked out on him. He then told me he was living in a pipe and knew he
could not continue down the substance abuse path like he had before. So he quit
cold turkey.
Now this young man has been clean
for over a year and is a leader to other men going through this process who do
not always have the strength to carry on with treatment. This is why we are in
Cape Town. To hear the stories of those often hidden under humility. I can
hardly wait to see what these next three months will bring.
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