It's a funny world we live in.

What an absolute whirlwind of a week. Emotions have been flowing as I’ve witnessed some of the most heart wrenching things I’ve ever seen. The body and mind are exhausted from a decent week of hard work, but that makes this experience all the more rewarding.

A couple days this week we (medical dream team we call ourselves), went into bulentente and myundu villages to give medical care and advice to those who can’t reach it. We went door knocking again with a backpack full of supplies and treated a variety of things. It was super encouraging to see one of the ladies again that we visited last week and treated a very infected wound. When we saw her this week, her wound was almost fully healed and looked incredible for the short period of time it had been. You’ve got to take the small victories in a land like this, because a few doors down we came across a family with many sick children. When we arrived, all the children cane up to us and stared. One in particular came over and stood between my legs, he looked into my eyes and I could see all the pain and anguish in his. This little child, 5 or 6 years old, has been through what no child should ever have to go through. After chatting with his grandpa, we soon found out that he has aids and had run out of his medication. They would have to walk for 5 hours to the medical centre to go collect some more, where they may have already run out for the month anyway. To make matters even more heartbreaking, this gorgeous boy has lost both his mum and his dad in the last 2 years. I couldn’t help but just embrace him and give him all the love I could give in that moment. We decided we would go get his medication and deliver it back to them the next day. Which I find hard to believe how easy it was for us to go do, but how incredibly difficult it would have been for them to do. I will never take something like transport and healthcare for granted again.

This week the majority of the house were struck with a bout of sickness. A virus spread and the volunteers were dropping like flies, running for the toilet or a bucket to spew. Luckily enough I managed to stay well clear! Which was shocking seeing as how many of us are in a small space sharing everything! By the end of the week there were only four of us that hadn’t been struck. I’ve had the chance this week to go to the women’s group in a village down the road from us. We helped them to make bracelets to sell at the markets and gave them some western ideas of things to make, like jewellery that they could sell too. I’ve also got to do a few decent shifts at the school where we spend hours in the sun, working up a good base tan for NZ summer!

Whenever we get home from a days work, there are a bunch of children waiting for us at the gates to our place. As exhausted as we are when we get home, they wait for hours for us so a couple of us stay out and play with them till it gets dark. We’ve taught them the haka, played footy, done skipping and just play games. A couple mums have come and just dropped off a few month old babies to their siblings who are only 9 or 10 themselves. No wonder kids here grow up so resilient and brave. The way some of them are held, we can’t help but take them and give them a cuddle. One baby fell asleep in my arms and was the most beautiful bubba, I just wanted to keep her! It’s been an incredible week here in Africa. Looking forward to celebrating 22 years on this planet this weekend!