first week at work

so. first, apologies for not posting for so long. but you should all be happy that i'm living my life and not obsessed with my blog like some other people i know...just kidding.
i've completed my first full week of work at faith bible school. yay! it's a lot of fun. i'm in the office with sithembile (in charge of the fbs hiv/aids programs), make sallie (the home based care coordinator) and sane (an intern working with fbs until december). she's from zimbabwe but has been studying in winnipeg for the past four years. she's awesome and it's been really great getting to know her. we have a lot of things in common. my projects so far have included organizing their library, writing a report on the peer education training i attended(the peer education coordinator, nomcebo, is out of the office at a different training for 3 weeks), helping make sallie with hbc record-keeping and helping sithembile get ready for an hiv/aids workshop this weekend. a highlight was getting to go on my first hbc visit with make sallie on wednesday.
two reflections on this experience: 1. i wish i understood siswati!!! i'm so impatient with how slow i'm learning this language, when i want to understand everybody and be able to communicate with them right now! but i can introduce myself, say my name and where i stay and where i'm from, and this always brings smiles to people's faces. and usually a flood of siswati at which i can only shake my head and reply "angiva" (i don't understand). 2. i don't know what i was expecting of someone who is hiv+. i guess someone laying in a bed, sweating and moaning and skin and bones. but this woman, although she was weak and wrapped in a big sweater and her hands shook, came and talked with us in the living room, and could move around the house fine. we talked about her reactions to the drugs the clinic gave her, what food will be easy for her to eat and keep down, her worries about her daughter's school fees now that she can no longer sell fruit at the market to earn money. i'm glad to have this more realistic picture of the face of people who are hiv+ instead of some skewed media version. i'm looking forward to many more home visits with make sallie, and also with my gogo tfwala, who is one of fbs' 18 volunteer home-based caregivers.