A NEW Baby!

Although I do not work in Labor & Delivery right now, I do miss the babies and laboring mothers. And then Mamorena come to Refilwe a few weeks ago to work with the Infinite Family programme. She moved here and is alone, so I was called when she went into labor this past weekend. We took her to the hospital, which was an adventure all in itself. Nobody knew where the hospital was because in South Africa you have to book your delivery and she was prepared to go to the hospital near the place where she was staying before she came to Refilwe. We did make it and there was not too much drama in the Kombi. Unfortunately, I was unable to go into the labor ward with her but I was able to go pick her up on Sunday after she delivered and helped give the baby her first bath. The precious baby girl is named Mosa (which means Mercy in English). Above, are picture from her first day home, her first day of life! Baby Mosa, Mosa and her mother Mamorena, and the lovely face after her bath with Auntie Amanda. How beautiful and precious is new life!

GARDENS, Gardens, Gardens.

A huge focus of the home care workers (HCWs) right now is establishing food gardens. The government wants to promote sustainability and not only fix problems temporarily. We have accessed seeds through Mayford (a local seed company just up the road from Refilwe) and are distributing them to the communities where we work. I went with the HCWs one day at Sunnyside to see the food gardens they have helped establish and the number was 28! These pictures were taken at Sunnyside. The top picture shows (from left) Ida and Ivonne, both HCWs with one of the community members and her garden. The bottom picture is one of the other food gardens in the same community. Although it is winter now, they are still able to grow some vegetables, including Spinach. We will continue to work at this project until 100% of the houses in the communities where we work have some type of food garden.

The QUARTER Sandwich

The Quarter Sandwich...I have heard about this since my arrival. And I have also heard of many versions of this sandwich. They have now started selling them at the Tuck Shop at Refilwe, so I decided to try one for lunch the other day. It is anything but healthy. I did find that it tasted quite nice, but indigestion generally follows. Basically, it gets its name because it is a quarter of a loaf of bread (white, unsliced). Then they dig out the inside and place archor (unripe mango slices in a vinegar/chili sauce), french fries, palony (which is a slice of pink fake meat, kind of like a type of salami), cheese, viennas (hot dog) and/or a Russian sausage. Add salt (yes, more salt!), vinegar, and chili sauce, put the lid back on and ta da! The Quarter Sandwich.