16, August, 2005

Today I met moses. We went to Prokorus after doing some errands with Charlie. We were standing outside by his car eating our lunch from out of the trunk. Allison noticed this little boy standing by a fence and he was just starring at us. He had a timid look and looked like he was trying to blend in with the fence. At first I thought he was a girl because he was wearing a pink beanie. Allison’s heart broke for him right away, she gave him half of her sandwich. We went inside to go to a woman’s AIDS support group. It was amazing that these woman would let us into their group and I was also surprised to see how many showed up. There were about 8 women. One of the women was small and very skinny. My heart broke for her immediately. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. I was making up that she wasn’t the type of woman that would show up to a support group. She looked very weak and when she talks, she sort of sways from side to side like she was drunk or something, but she isn’t, she is just weak. Deb, she came into the meeting and did a good job of sort of facilitating the meeting with someone translating in Xhosa. That is the primary language in Kayamandi. Deb went around the room and asked the women questions about their health. She is very informed about the virus, being positive herself, and she knew all the right questions to ask. Surpisingly, the women were very responsive. The woman I was interested seemed anxious to tell her story. Apparently she just came in to Kayamandi from the Eastern Cape (12 hours away). A lot of people migrated from the Eastern Cape because there are no jobs there, we are in the Western Cape. Anyway, she said her husband had the virus and kicked her and her 2 sons out. She is staying at a friends house who doesn’t really want her there. Deb asked her if she has been to the clinic yet. The woman said she had and that she was going back, most likely to get referred to the AIDS clinic for meds. STATISTIC: 14,000 people a year in Kayamandi get diagnosed with AIDS in which 50 percent of them are woman. Most of them find out when they are pregnant or when they get sick. Kayamandi has about 30,000 people in a very small square mile radius. Anyways, I found out this lady was Moses’s mother! The boy in the front that Allison gave her sandwich to. He looked about 7 years old but he is actually 10 years old and has never been to school. Allison broke for the boy, I for the mom and Charlie who came into the pic later had both of them on his heart. We went to the school to see if we could get Moses enrolled. Charlie met with the principle and some teachers. I think he asked about 3 teachers if they would take this 10 year old boy and the third one who happened to be a friend agreed to take him. Charlie is really hooked up with resources here in Kayamandi and in Stellenbosch with the Afrikans (white people). God has created favor for Charlie and he is like the middle guy between the blacks and the whites. So, now that Moses was going to school, we voted for the team to buy his school uniforms and supplies. Moses hung out with us that day. He is a very quite boy. He doesn’t speak English, but he is still very shy. He was wearing a dirty pajama top for a shirt and an old sweater and his pink beanie. When we took his beanie off, Charlie noticed that he had some sort of fungus going on top of his head. It kinda looks like ringworm. You could tell he was liking the attention and the food, but he was very still and didn’t play. That day, I also grew a special place in my heart for a woman named Nozuco. She is so afraid and looking for love. I hear there is a strange story about her and her boyfriend and I know she is dying to be saved. We’ll see how that goes.