Projects

There have been a few project ideas that I've had since the beginning of my service that are finally happening. It's funny how things work like that here in the Peace Corps. Part of me wishes these things would have started 6  months or even a year ago, but development work doesn't always work that way and can be a really slow process. Regardless I have the support for them now and I am excited to see my ideas transpire.

This past Tuesday, Valentine's Day,  I had my first Wellness Support Group Meeting for the Clinic Staff. Machaneng has a high rate of HIV/AIDS  like the rest of the country. This can cause a major strain on workers, especially on the clinic staff. With the high rate comes a high rate of patients coming in for treatment. This can cause a lot of stress especially since the clinic is understaffed. This becomes even worse when a worker gets sick. All of this stress can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms and unproductivity. A wellness group can help to support workers in this area. With my degree in Exercise Science I have some knowledge on how to cope and deal with stress in healthy ways and I have some resources on various aspects of healthy life style living. I thought starting up a Wellness Support Group, where the staff can learn about healthy life style living, healthy outlets to deal with stress and anger, eating well balanced and nutritious meals, and just having a supportive group to blow off some steam in a healthy way would be beneficial to the clinic staff. I also know that not only is there a huge problem with HIV/AIDS in Machaneng but there is also a problem with obesity, high blood pressure, hypertension, and diabetes. These diseases become worse when coupled with HIV/AIDS.  If some leaders in the community learned more about these other diseases and how to counteract or reduce their risk of getting them the village of Machaneng could become a healthier community. I came up with idea back when I first came here and even tried to have a couple meetings but just didn't really have the support to keep it going. Fast-forward to now, I have a new counterpart who has an interest in exercise and wellness which allows this idea to become a reality. The first meeting went pretty smoothly. Only a couple people showed up from the clinic staff, but that is better than none. We did an icebreaker and then talked about what wellness is and the purpose of a wellness support group. I had them fill out a survey on the various aspects of wellness and their lifestyle habits. I hope after we've had some meetings I can have them refill out the surveys to see if their scores have improved or changed. We also discussed what would happen in future meetings and how this is their group so in order for it to be meaningful and effective they have to take ownership in the group. This is very important because I will be leaving in a few months, and if no one takes ownership then the group will die off when I leave. The plan now is to meet every day around 5pm to do some sort of aerobics or exercise like running or yoga and then once a week we would have a 30 minute lesson before the workout on some aspect of wellness (like nutrition, stress relievers, meditation practices, mental health, anger management etc). Eventually  once the group is solid and meeting regularly I hope we can put on some sort of event in the community like a wellness day or a 5k walk/run or something  in that vein of thinking.

Another project I have going on is reinstating health talks in the morning at the clinic. Most clinics in Botswana take advantage of the patients waiting to see the doctor, nurse or whatever they are there for and try to give a health talk of some sort. It's actually a pretty good idea, because you have a captive audience who isn't really going anywhere since they are just sitting and waiting. Machaneng Clinic hasn't done health talks with the patients in years because they say the patients don't want to be lectured to or don't listen to what they tell them. To be more engaging I decided to use some STEPS Videos (STEPS for Life is an organization out of South Africa who produces videos all over Africa and the films are translated into many of the African languages, each video deals with some sort of HIV/AIDS issue and are used to promote discussions in a community) and see if the patients would be more willing to listen. Who doesn't like watching a movie?? I had talked about this with my previous counterpart, but once again she just didn't seem interested or willing to help me. I brought the idea up to my new counterpart, Interview, and he loved it!! So after a few meetings of planning and going over with him how to do a screening we were ready to screen a film. On Wednesday I got to the clinic nice and early to make sure the DVD player and TV were working. Patients were trickling in, and I think a little confused as to why there was a TV set up in the middle of the clinic. We showed the short 7 minute film and then tried to have a discussion. The audience said they didn't really understand what the video was about and wanted to watch it again. The particular film I decided to show was actually filmed in Botswana, so I think that caught their attention. After watching it the second time the patients were more talkative. The whole discussion took place in Setswana, and my Setswana skills aren't great so I was glad to have Interview and the Senior Health Education Counselor there helping with the screening. They took over facilitating the discussion portion. Originally I had planned on the discussion portion to only last 10 minutes but it ended up lasting about 30, which is awesome! Later in the afternoon I met with Interview and Blackie (the Senior Health Education Counselor) and they filled me in on what was discussed. Interview thought it went really well and can't wait to show some other films. I also hope we can come up with some other creative ways to disseminate information to the patients in the waiting area, but this is definitely a great start!

It's a nice change to be busy again and feel like I am doing something and making a difference. It makes such a different to have someone who is excited to have me around and wants to make use of my knowledge and skills. I just didn't have that support with the last counterpart. The new counterpart is a refreshing change.

I am leaving tomorrow to use up my last days of vacation time before I have to go back on "lock down" in March. I am going with another volunteer and her friend from home to Durban and St. Lucia, South Africa, Lesotho, and Mozambique. I am really excited for this trip. Lesotho is supposed to have some of the most beautiful mountain ranges and I get to experience it on a horse!! The rest of the trip will be spent working on my tan, enjoying the beaches and ocean(I get to mark off a new ocean --I've never seen the Indian Ocean before), and eating some good seafood!!  Will post about the trip when I get back in March.