Despite the implications of Friday the 13^th, today was beyond wonderful. We met up at Univen at 0800 and piled into the two cars to head to the village. We arrived a bit before 0900, and Anita, Cassie, Miriam, Kwathiso, and I found our Home Based Care group sitting by the bridge between Tshapasha and Tshibvumo. Sid, Styles, Elly, and Joe headed out to do some recruiting for the Business group and to make some connections, as we have found Sid does best, while the women had the first meeting with the Home Based Care group. We found out that these women, who come from several villages around there, are absolutely selfless and are pretty much strictly volunteers. They saw a need for helping folks in their homes around not only Tshapasha, but in 9 other surrounding villages, and banded together to care for them with zero training or funding. We even heard a story of them walking down the road one day, and being summoned into a home where a woman was giving birth. They assisted her in the delivery and then contacted an ambulance to take her, as well as her newborn, to a clinic to receive care. We were also told that they once saved a man who they were visiting who was a diabetic. He did not answer his door when they knocked to do their weekly visit, and they broke down his door with a shovel and found him unconscious. They found some concentrated squash which they fed to him, and essentially saved his life. We were also told that they have expanded their care to children, and have a place where they cook for them, help them with their homework, and clothe them after school. Luckily, for this project, they receive a tiny bit of funding from the Social Development Department, although they had said they had not received any money in the past 5 months. Many of the children they serve are orphans, or their mother has died and the father does not do the best job caring for them. Again, I cannot express how amazing these women are, and how much they do for their communities.

The women of the group had a lot to attend to, and were concerned that the people they care for would be wondering where they are, so we wrapped up the meeting after an hour or so. We planned to meet again on July 25^th, at which time we will go 2-on-1 (one UVA female student and one Univen student per home care worker) to shadow them/help them for a few hours. We think that this will give us some real perspective on their needs and issues. We headed back to the Chief’s home to meet up with the rest of the team, as well as two of the male villagers (one of which used to be the Chief before his brother came back and took over. Long story.) to hike to the water source. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on. We found the water source and Sid did some troubleshooting. We then decided to keep hiking to find a waterfall that they wanted to show us. Despite the hike being pretty strenuous, it was well worth it. We took a lot of pictures, took in all the scenery, and headed back to town to debrief.

We found out that Sid, Joe, Elly, and Styles had a pretty productive morning while we were in our meeting, and have two groups set-up for Monday morning. Sid also did what he does best: Network. We all look forward to what the next week brings, after we get to enjoy some time at Kruger of course. As of right now, we’re relaxing, having some South African wine, and feeling happy that the week has gone as well as it has, despite some turbulence along the way.