Thursday 14 June 2007- Day Thirteen

Today my partner and I started out fieldwork process. Thabo was able to provide us a guide that took us the sixth avenue clinic. Her name is Mmapitso, a resident of Alex, who volunteers for a local NGO, The Research on Human Rights, Environment, and Development Initiative (RHREDI). The three of us set out walking towards the clinic after convincing Thabo that the distance probably wasn’t a problem. The distance was not a problem, the wall we had to climb posed a bit of a challenge though. The wall is, at it’s lowest point, slightly higher that waist level. At its highest point, the wall is taller than I am. In an exercise of full disclosure I should admit that I am exceedingly clumsy and awkward. Needless to say, my first trip over the wall was less than graceful. The reason for the wall is that the road is not level and thus the wall acts a barrier to prevent accidents. The wall also acts as a barrier to health access to women.

The sixth avenue clinic services a number of pregnant women and women with young children. The Sixth Avenue clinic has two clinicians that see on average 200 patients per day. The facilities look like a run down veterinary clinic. In the lobby, the overwhelming majority of the patients were women and children. There were maybe five men in the clinic. Sister Sebina also told us that the clinic hosts a support group for HIV positive women.

We also were lucky enough to find a local NGO, RHREDI that is extremely active in the community. The organization provides free training in HIV and AIDS education as well as computer literacy courses. RHREDI has been successful in placing about 25 women in local health clinics and one woman in a teaching position in a local school. This NGO runs on no budget and has a meager 400 rand grant that covers the rent. Something that several people kept saying is “We are the government”. I take this to mean that the community is not waiting for services to be provided from top down sources, rather they are mobilizing to advocate for their own needs.

On a completely different note, for dinner tonight I went to the mall with two other friends. We had called Rose Taxi (the company we always use) and were waiting outside. We see a cab pull up and I notice that the driver is leaning into the back seat. I assume that he is cleaning out the back so we go around and open the front passenger side door and the rear driver side door. It turns out the man was not cleaning out his back seat; he and his female companion were moving things in to the back seat. We must have stood there for a good two minutes before the situation sunk in. Sometimes I’m pretty slow on the uptake.