Process Recording #2 - so what did I actually do in Bulembu?

In the community center
In the school
In front of the clinic

I may have lost a few of you after that last novel of a blog post, but I promise they'll be MUCH shorter from now on. Here's a quick sketch of what I was doing during my month in Swaziland:
- My first two weeks were medically focused. I worked in the clinic in Bulembu for about a week. Also during that week, I was able to go up into the more rural villages surrounding Bulembu with one of the nurses who does home-based care and work with her in that capacity. I also was able to spend a few days traveling south to a city called Siteki with another nurse from Bulembu, where we volunteered in a private hospital in their version of an emergency room. On our way to Siteki, we also spent some time in two different government hospitals. I was able to be exposed to numerous healthcare contexts within Swaziland, providing a great canvas for comparison.

(The month I spent in Swaziland was broken up by 2 weeks spent in Mamelodi, South Africa, which I'll talk about in my next post)

- I spent a chunk of time in Swaziland helping in Bulembu's Christian school. The curriculum they use in the school is a self-paced English curriculum. The self-pacing is necessary because orphans come into the school at all different ages, education levels, and times of the year. I was able to spend one-on-one time reading and conversing with 10 of the newer students every morning for 2 weeks. These were students struggling with their English speaking and reading skills. I absolutely loved getting individual time with these kids because not only was I able to get to know them but I was also able to notice some learning challenges and developmental drawbacks specific to each child that their permanent teachers will be able to intentionally work with them on. I also got to spend my afternoons helping in the community center, which is a care center established to provide a safe place for the village kids (who are not orphans) to go during the day while their parent(s) are at work. Before the community center was established, these kids would likely be either locked in their house or out of their house to fend for themselves during the work day.