Durban

A ROOM WITH A VIEW...

Sawabona (it means “hello” in Zulu)! Durban is like the “Miami of South Africa.” It is hot, hot, hot! We’re talking 90+ degrees almost everyday…which is why I instantly got a sunburn by the second or third day here. But it is gorgeous! A tour along the beachfront reveals palm trees, busy boardwalks and a variety of high-rise hotels and retro-style flats boasting crystal blue views of the Indian Ocean. As I am typing this entry, I am actually sitting outside on my veranda overlooking the entire city while listening to Feya Feku (a South African trumpeter reminiscent of Miles Davis). The view is spectacular! On an interesting side note, the gracious owners of the guest house where I am staying tell me that Alicia Keys stayed here last year when she came to Durban to launch an HIV/AIDS clinic in Wentworth ( a predominately colored community) . And I can see why…. The place is nestled away atop a hill surrounded by lush flora and the friendliest pets you’ll ever meet (Alaska, BlackJack and KitKat). Besides the mosquitoes that have nearly devoured me, it is a tranquil paradise!

HITTING THE COURT...

I arrived in Durban after a long flight from the US… and a quick overnight stop in Johannesburg. I came here to profile a Washington-based NGO called Peace Players International . The group primarily works with youth (under the age of 15) to teach them basketball. Most of the kids have never played before since football (soccer), rugby and cricket are the most popular national sports.

Winding through the hilly terrain with PPI’s Director of Operations Andrew Gordon (an Adams Morgan native and my tour guide extraordinaire), shows just how extensive the program has become. Every couple of miles (or kilometers), he would stick his hand out of the car window to point out a basketball court that the organization has built. After several years on the ground, PPI reaches more than 2,000 children (of all racial backgrounds) in 40 schools, with a staff of about 70 local coaches. But their work extends far beyond the court. Coaches offer life skills workshops on a range of topics from leadership to etiquette and nutrition. A large part of this educational component focuses on HIV/AIDS awareness. This is critical in a province like KwaZulu Natal, which has evolved into the epicenter of the epidemic with the highest HIV prevelance rate (antenatal) in the country at nearly 40 percent.

“We learn how to protect ourselves,” Minenhle Shandu, 13, said of the program, which teaches kids how to cope with relatives that are HIV positive, along with other practical skills and information about how the disease is transmitted. “We can’t do sex if we are under 18 years old.”

Minenhle, who aspires to be the next Michael Jordan (check out his pose with the ball in the above photo), is one of dozens of children that I met during my tour through several townships over a two-day period, which began with stops in Lamontville and Umlazi (South Africa’s second largest townships outside of Soweto). Most of the children, who ranged in age from 12-16, said that they knew very little about HIV/AIDS or felt uncomfortable talking about it prior to being involved in the PPI program. But many of them admitted that they knew someone in their community who had the disease. In fact, some of the students are AIDS orphans. At Ngongomusa Primary School in Umbumbulu, a rural area about 45 minutes outside of Durban, Principal Thandiwe Shabangu said that approximately 50 percent of her students have been orphaned.

“There is a high rate of dying here [from HIV/AIDS],” she said. “It has caused many of them to go to orphanages or be adopted by their aunts or grandmothers, because they have no mother.”

In spite of the daunting circumstances, hope abounds. That was evident on a warm Wednesday afternoon in Molweni, a sprawling township dotted by houses that are spread across lush, green foothills. I concluded my visit at a basketball practice with some of the PPI coaches and staff. As I watched them play a pick-up game, I thought about the kids that I had interviewed. Their hoop dreams? To “pass the ball” of knowledge about HIV/AIDS to other children like them. That’s something to watch from the sidelines……

STARING DEATH IN THE FACE...

I have done a number of stories on AIDS. And I know people who are HIV-positive. But I have never come face to face with someone who is dying from it.

So when I entered the home of a woman, in her mid-late forties, who was in stage three of the disease, my eyes were instantly drawn to her gaunt face and arms, which were almost as thin as a curtain rod. Her home was no bigger than a walk-in closet that one may find in a master bedroom of a typical suburban Washington McMansion. Plastic shopping bags hang from the roof “to catch the rain water”, she later explained.

When I enter her bedroom, she was crying out in excruciating pain…but somehow, she still manages to show me a slight smile when I grasp her hand. She is one of Gloria Shabalala’s patients from Inanda Community Hospital. Gloria makes the rounds regularly to about 40 patients in this community toting a bag full of medicines and supplies . On this visit, she provides the woman with vitamins and electrolytes. But one thing that she can’t deliver is ARV’s (antiretroviral drugs).

“The ARV’s are free… but getting there is not,” Shabalala explained, stating that there is limited transportation to get to the nearest hospital that is located several kilometers away. Furthermore, she tells me that there is a wait list of at least nine months or more for many patients to obtain ARV’s. And even if the woman were able to take the drugs, she would need to have proper nutrition. Since she lost her job and disability grant, she can’t afford to buy food and often goes hungry. Much of the burden has fallen onto her 13-year-old son who helps to take care of her.

It is a disturbing predicament. But the situation is also challenging at King George Hospital in Durban. It is a tuberculosis hospital where doctors are starting to see an increase in the number of patients who have contracted drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, known as MDR (multiple drug resistant) or XDR (extensively drug resistant). Because it is untreatable with first-or second-line drugs, many patients, specifically those who contract XDR-TB, often die within a short period of time. HIV positive patients have become especially vulnerable to this co-infection. Dr. Iqbal Masters, who runs the ward, said that 70 percent of his TB patients are HIV positive.

“ I am a bit pessimistic about how MDR/XDR is going to do…especially with HIV fueling it, probably the situation is going to get worse,” Masters explained.

I hate to think about it…but it is likely that many of the patients that I saw will probably die prematurely. So what happens next? According to Thembinkosi Ngcobo, head of Parks and Recreation for the Ethikweni District (which includes Durban and the surrounding municipalities), they may not have a place to be buried. About 98 percent of the cemeteries in the municipality are filled to capacity. There is only one open cemetery, he explained. Because of the shortage, many graves are being recycled. Remains are exhumed after ten years and reburied deeper into the ground in order to make more room for other bodies to be interred above on the same plot. Cremation is also becoming an essential alternative, though most local residents are against it for religious reasons. Ngcobo said that AIDS-related deaths are likely to blame for the high mortality rate within the district, with 80 percent of the burial victims between 25-35 years old.

“Every weekend we have to go to funerals,” said Ngobo, who lost his older brother to the disease 10 years ago. “We may not be able to say and know for sure… but it is common knowledge that the majority of young people are dying because of HIV/AIDS. I only hope that once as a country we admit that , we will be able to stand up and deal with the problem decisively.”