Paige's a busy week

A lot has happened since my last blog post. I am now getting into the flow of Tafelsig and feel much more comfortable there. Last week I was working in Child Health with Sister Jasmina which I absolutely loved. I got to weigh and measure the height of all the tiny humans (sorry for stealing your phrase Maria!) and give them their Vitamin A drops and take their temperature if they were sick. Then I talked to their mother or father and wrote down the symptoms/complaints then referred them to the doctor. I just found out Wednesday that Sister Jasmina is getting moved to another clinic which is super sad because she was one of my favorites. Hopefully I’ll get to stay in contact with her though, since her sister works at the orphanage I plan on doing my activist project at.

I spent this current week alongside Sister Perin in Family Planning and maternal health. While I wouldn’t say pap smears are as glorious as cute little babies, I still enjoyed the department. I even gave my first contraceptive injection! A good ole stickeroo in the butt. That was pretty exciting.

This weekend was really cool. We spent it on a beautiful olive farm in the countryside (an olive farm that was out of olive oil, might I add). Everyone that I met there was amazing. I was especially impressed by my new friend named Moses. We sat next to each other on the bus ride there. He considers himself a ‘Human Rights Expert’ from Malawi, and after he told me all about his projects he’s been working on there, it was easy for me to agree that he was in fact an expert like he said he was. He advocates for child rights which is really important since forced youth marriage is a very big issue in Malawi. He was even involved in the process of changing the legal age of a child from 15 to 18 years which was a crucial step in the progress of human rights for the country.

Moses was just one of the many inspiring people I met during my 3 day stay on the farm. Meeting everyone was definitely my favorite part of the weekend, and probably one of my favorite memories since arriving in Cape Town. I found that I learned more about human rights through my breakfast conversations with Andy (Botswana), Moses (Malawi), Spha (Eastern Cape), and Raymond (Cape Town) then I did in the actual workshop. That’s not to say the workshop wasn’t beneficial, because it definitely was. I just found that hearing everyone’s stories first hand was a very interesting way to learn about each individual country and its issues regarding human rights. I found the activities within the workshop to be helpful as well, especially the one that distinguished between specific definitions that pertain to human rights. I liked how the workshop wasn’t a lecture—it was very interactive and engaging. It was especially nice to meet other people who had a similar interest and passion for human rights and social justice.