Last night our sleep was interrupted by
calls from our alarm system at home in England. Most likely they were false
alarms but today I am suffering from lack of sleep.
Nevertheless we have done some preparation
with Moses and Allen for meetings to discuss disability and HIV with local
families, this included some training in facilitation skills, so we will see
next week how much they have learned. In the afternoon we went with Rev Moses
to TASO, the AIDS support organisation and received a warm welcome from
Ambrose, the assistant counselling coordinator. They have a nice building there
but also do lots of outreach work and we saw the bikes that are used to deliver
ARV medications to families and heard about the counselling and treatment
services they provide. They have some child-friendly facilities and staff so we
think they will be a good option to help our clients. They readily work in
partnership with other organisations and NGOs and have good stocks of
medication. Where they lack a bit is in testing facilities; even fairly basic
AIDS monitoring tests (CD4 counts) have to be sent to a regional centre for
analysis. I’m not quite sure where they get viral load counts done, but I don’t
think it’s a routine. They even have a palliative care team for the dying.
In contrast to yesterday it’s warm and
sunny and birds are variously singing or squawking. I wish I had a book to help
me identify them.So far the crowned cranes over the way are the only ones of which I’m certain but we’ve seen versions of crows, sparrows,
swallows, storks, eagles, kites, ibis, wagtails and many less familiar
varieties. We’re in a mountainous area and some of the views are marvellous.
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