My Time in South Africa

During the summer of 2017, I was lucky enough to be able to take a two week missions trip to Port Shepstone, South Africa.  During this time, my eyes were really opened to the culture that we saw across the ocean.  We are used to having anything that we need available to us whenever we want it, but that most definitely was not the case there.  My main purpose while I was there was to assist at a day care and after school program at a place called the Khula Creche.  We did a variety of different things such as sing songs, teach these preschoolers and kindergartners basic English, as well as simple math.  Here is a picture of me in the middle as well as a few others from my team teaching the kids the actions to one of our american songs.

We also were given the opportunity to feed nearly 200 grade school kids after school at this same location.  If it were not for this program, most of these kids might not have gotten a meal that day.  

Every day that we got to hang out with these kids and just play around with them and have fun overflowed my heart with joy.  Just reminiscing about those moments makes me really want to go back as soon as I can, and hopefully someday I can go visit them again.  

While we were there, we also visited a care centre where they had 40 patients that were infected with HIV/AIDS.  Because the percentage of this disease is so high in this area, there are so many people that go untreated because they are not able to afford the care.  It was very special that we could go in, talk to the patients, hold their hands, sing songs, and love on each other.

This is by far the best trip that I have ever taken and some of the best experiences that I might ever experience in my life.  I am beyond grateful that I had the opportunity to go, and I cannot wait to be there again.

Coronavirus in South Africa

Currently COVID-19 is affecting every part of the world, and Africa is no exception.  According to Amogelang Mbatha, an author for Bloomberg, they however have not been hit as hard as other countries or continents.  As of Sunday, April 5, 2020, there were 1,655 people that were infected with the disease, and a surprisingly low number of eleven deaths.  On this day, they were on day 10 of a three week lockdown.

Similar to a lot of other countries, the South African government expects the number of confirmed cases to go up as more tests are being administered.  I found it cool that they have nearly 10,000 field workers that are putting themselves at risk and are checking up on people in their homes and at mobile testing centers.  As of Sunday, they had already conducted 56,873 COVID-19 tests.  They are also following suit of other countries by having factories that normally do not manufacture ventilators, start making them so that they can increase the capacity of medical equipment needed.  Denel Chief Executive Officer Danie Du Toit said in a statement, "We are still in the early stages of the project, but we are optimistic that this local initiative will help to alleviate the dire need for medical ventilators that are required in great numbers at both public and private hospitals."

To me, it seems like they still have a lot coming their way.  I thought that we got hit by this virus late, relative to China and Europe at least.  Compared to the United States, they are still in the early stages of how COVID-19 is going to affect their country.  I hope that they continue to follow in the footsteps of these countries that have been dealing with it so that they will see what is needed in order to overcome it.  Based on my calculations, 0.003% of South Africa's population has been infected, while in America 0.112% have tested positive for Coronavirus.

Mbatha, A. (2020, April 5).  South Africa Coronavirus Cases Increase by 70 to 1,655.                    Retrieved from Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-                05/south-africa-coronavirus-cases-increase-by-70-to-1-655