MY SEMESTER IN SOUTH AFRICA: Cow Manure: More Useful Than You Might Think

The weeks are going by quicker, and the weekends even more so. Looking back each week sometimes it’s hard to know where to start, but I’ll do my best. I was actually kind of sick this week…nothing serious, just an incredibly annoying runny nose, sore throat, and a bit of a cough, enough to knock me out for a couple days. Although I was supposed to go to clinical twice this week, I ended up skipping a day to stay home and rest, which I hated doing, but my mother’s words, “it’s in the better part of wisdom” kept running through my head, so I just went with it. On Wednesday, when I actually got to go to the clinic, I was able to help out with some blood draws, which I was very much looking forward to. Doing blood draws and giving injections are really the only “skills” (so to speak) in community health, as much of it involves assessment and a whole lot of teaching. Therefore, whenever we get to do blood draws it’s a very exciting experience. In the two that I was able to do I didn’t mess up, blow through any veins, or stick anything with the needle that wasn’t meant to be stuck, so that was good. It is certainly a surreal experience however drawing up HIV/AIDS blood into vials, and being so close to contaminated needles. More so than the blood itself, it is mind-numbing to see face after face, person after person, coming in to get their blood drawn, and knowing that each of them has HIV/AIDS, a horrible, debilitating, life-threatening, humiliating, painful, stigmatized, incurable disease…and the more I see them as people rather than patients, the more difficult it will become, but the kind of difficult I feel like I need to experience.

Besides clinical, there really wasn’t a whole lot that happened in relation to school this week. We were able to have a prayer walk on Thursday night in which we went to various rooms and buildings on the campus and prayed for what would take place in those places, the conversations that would occur, the people who would be serving or teaching us, and overall that God would move in mighty ways in everything said and done throughout this semester. It was a wonderful night, and a great time of recognition for what the Lord can do and will do as we walk with Him through this life, lifting everything up to Him in prayer.

Each weekend we have some sort of excursion we go on, and this weekend was quite exciting. We went on a “Zulu field trip” to Ecabanzini, where we stayed for a day and a half and learned all about traditional Zulu culture. The site where we stayed was absolutely beautiful, and we were split up into groups to stay in different “huts” for the night. We learned about the structure of their homes, the way the huts are organized, the way they use cow manure to make their own methane gas (which basically never runs out, as the cows never run out of dung to provide). Along with this ingenious use for cow manure, there was another use for it that we learned about: cleaning the floors. Because of the material their floors are made of, when they get dirty, you can’t simply clean them with water, because it just turns to mud. Because of this, they take cow manure, and cover the floor in a thin layer, which takes the dirt away and “cleans” it. That’s actually not all you can do with cow manure…there’s more! Due to the fact that they just feed their cows grass and not all the nasty things we do, the manure is actually an antiseptic, and they use it to put on baby’s umbilical cords to keep them from getting infected. True story.

Well, along with playing with cow dung, we got to have a wonderful Zulu meal, practice some Zulu dancing, hang out with Zulu cows (which slept in a corral right outside where we were sleeping…I basically woke up to mooing cows), make pottery, bead jewelry, learn how to “stick fight,” and attempt to speak Zulu with the Zulu people dressed up in their awesome traditional outfits. Needless to say, it was quite the experience! So, after leaving on Saturday afternoon, we got back to campus and had about an hour to eat and get cleaned up before heading off to Durban to go to a professional rugby game! It was the Sharks against the Lions, and we all dressed up in Sharks colors (basically black and white), and the Sharks won! It was so great! I’d never really seen rugby before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I felt like I somewhat understood what was going on, which is not true of many sports out there for me.

After a long Friday and Saturday, Sunday arrives, and although it is a day of rest, it was pretty packed as well. I went to the same church I’ve been going to in the morning, and it once again was wonderful…so wonderful that I decided to go back again Sunday night. So I had a few hours in the afternoon to get some work done, but then I headed right back to church…and it was neat because they actually asked the APU people to sing a couple songs, so I ended up singing a song in church, which was exciting. I have never felt so welcome and comfortable in a church before…and like everyone in there loves me. It’s fantastic. God is good, and He’s teaching me more and more about the Holy Spirit. I feel like sometimes in the states (or at least in the churches I’ve been to) there is an emphasis on God the Father and Jesus the Son, but then the Holy Spirit doesn’t really get much attention…well, that is not the case here, and I love it!