EIL Intercultural Learning

I have been TOLD to keep on blogging! So I have set up another blog for while I am in SA and working on my thesis on HIV & AIDS and Nutrition....here is the link...http://bit.ly/9S9he7...

That is it from me!!!

Paul, Emily, Maeve and Gill will be starting their blogs soon. Looking forward to reading them, and hanging out with Paul & Jill in Stellenbosch on their project!

Thanks again EIL for everything!!!!

A few days ago I was talking nutritional therapy with a guy who told me that he never gets sick, bar a strange case of swollen glands etc. that wiped him out for a few days....if he is positive he may not get any other symptoms for approximately 10 years. Initial stage (acute retroviral syndrome) Acute retroviral syndrome is an illness with symptoms like mononucleosis. It often develops within a few days of infection, but it may occur several weeks after the person is infected. Symptoms may include: Abdominal cramps, nausea, or vomiting. Diarrhea.

I have just booked my flights to Cape Town!! So happy!! July the 8th I head off, I think the World Cup final is on the 11th....

As part of my research I plan to shadow nutritionists from the:

Treatment Action Campaign,

Desmond Tutu Foundation,

Medecins sans Frontieres, 

Red Cross South Africa

and the local clinics and hospitals in and around Cape Town...

I met Marion Finucane and John Clark for lunch last week, they run an organisation called Friends in Ireland (www.friendsinireland.ie) and they are very passionate and do incredible work in the Eastern Cape with positive children and children affected by HIV. I am thinking about going and working with them for a year or two, which would be an incredible experience, living in rural South Africa.

Just last week, Ciara and I began a HIV & AIDS Certificate. AIDS West (Galway) are facilitating it and a team from the Terrence Higgins Trust are delivering it. It is a three month course and will give me my very first qualification in the area. Like the HIV & AIDS training the GAP participants received from Dtalk last June before we went to Africa, I loved every second of it, I NEVER talk in class but you could not shut me up!!  

I am a great believer in alternative medicines. Anyone that knows me, knows my stance on the pharmaceutical industry. I am a nutritional therapy student, who believes in homeopathy, herbal remedies... I could go on. However, the introduction of ARVs has been instrumental in the treatment of HIV & AIDS.

Unfortunately though, not enough people have access to the medications.

...that there is a connection between HIV and other STIs/STDs*? That your risk of contracting HIV is higher if you have an STI/STD...

Some STIs e.g. syphilis and herpes can cause irritation, breaks or sores of the skin. These can provide a route for HIV to enter the body during sexual contact.

There is also a risk for transmission even when an STI e.g. chlamydia or gonorrhea causes no breaks or open sores. These infections can stimulate an immune response in the genital area that can make HIV transmission more likely.

Ricky (1977-1992), Robert (1978-2000) and Randy (1979) were three brothers from Arcadia, Florida. All three were haemophiliacs who were diagnosed with HIV in 1986. It is thought that the boys had been exposed to the virus through the transfusion of blood products administered to treat their haemophilia.

When I chat with people about the prevelance of HIV & AIDS in Africa, usually their first response is to suggest that Africans are more promiscuous than Westerners.