Leaving Mtuba

So in my final hours with the organization, Ive started to find my place, and truly enjoy the work the organization is doing. Today, without asking anyone, with my new found, im leaving, so it doesn't really matter, boldness, I hoped in a vehicle and went out to one of the units. Computer education, I have found, is the same in every language! Perfect, not only that, but my hours of surfer the web and clicking refresh, finally came in handy. The students, many of whom have never seen a computer before, think that I am a computer goddess. (good thing I'm leaving now) It was great to see though. This organization is doing great things for students. It is going out and relating to the students, and trying to educate, the most important thing you can do in an epidemic such as this. It is a shame that I could not have seen this earlier on, and been more a part of this. While I may have seen a lot of the office, and lot of my computer screen, I have also met alot of students who are getting answers to their questions about sex, HIV/AIDS, that they cannot get elsewhere. Now, I am actually sad to leave. Now, I actually want more time to experience the students and the work the organization is doing. Weird, to actually feel any sort of connection to this place and these people. I havent forgotten my critiques, I have simply learned that I was placed where there were problems, perhaps in hopes that I could magically fix them, just with my presense, perhaps because thats the easiest place to put someone when you dont want to deal with them, who knows. Tomorrow is the election, and then on Thursday, I will help with an education class in the morning, before I head back to Durban. To do some serious amounts of writing, and serious amounts of playing, and live up the last bit of my time in South Africa.
This past Sunday, I worked a 14 hour day. We arrived in a community at 730, gave a presentation in hopes of bringing the mobile units to them, then moved to another community, where we had set up the units. Over 200 people came and waited for the next 12 hours to be seen my the councelors and nurse. The clinic closest to them (45 minutes away) was out of medication, and they were going to sit for as long as we were willing to stay, and we stayed until we had seen every last person. While it was a long day and I arrived home after 11, to a very worried family, it was great to see the organization supply a much needed service to the community. While it was done in the most half-hazard way I have ever seen, I am beginning to understand something. These people were willing to wait 12 hours to be seen by the nurse. It doesnt NEED to be a time of arrival, enough staff to tend to the patients, really any sort of organization at all, because they are there, which is WAY more than these people had before they showed up. Africa style. Lesson learned. It will be sad to leave here, Mtuba, an Africa, but I know its time, and I know I'll be back.