Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Escalante describes trip to South Africa

Brandi Escalante, daughter of Stan and Cindy Escalante of Gurdon, stays busy while attending Baylor University where she is studying medicine and has just recently been on her second trip to South Africa.

Escalante was the guest speaker at Gurdon's Rotary Club meeting on June 26.

On Escalante's first trip to South Africa, it was part of a mission trip.

However, this time, Escalante's trip was a two-and-a-half week stay as part of the National Youth Leadership Foundation. The majority of the visit was spent in hospitals and clinics seeing how they operated and what it was like for doctors to care for patients in the certain conditions of the area.

Escalante said they visited several different cities in South Africa. "The cities there are so big. One city can have over three million people in it. It doesn't affect the cities beauty. There are so many beautiful places over there. The only thing is you may see a nice beautiful huge house right next to a little shanty. When I say shanty, I mean these people found a couple of pieces of cardboard and made a home."

Escalante said the doctors over there have a tough job because it is so dangerous to work in the hospitals, and the doctors are underpaid.

"One of the doctors on our tour of one hospital made the statement, I would not wash my dog in this place.' I understood why when I saw it. It was very unsanitary and I agreed with his statement," said Escalante.

According to Escalante, Capetown, South Africa has the worst crime rate of any city. One out of every three women are raped.

AIDS is a major health problem and is considered a death sentence due to lack of medicine and health care.

After visiting a rural clinic, Escalante said she saw how out of control the HIV and AIDS problem really was in South Africa.

One clinic was specifically for Tuberculosis (TB) patients. Escalante said, "In South Africa, if you are found to have TB it is most likely you are infected with HIV or AIDS also. In this particular clinic, 70 percent of the TB patients had AIDS."

Escalante said, "I asked one young man if he protected himself during intercourse and he told me no. That in South Africa it was embarrassing to have a condom in your possession. One young man told me what you have to do to become a man. In order to do so you must be with 10 women at the same time. This explains why the HIV and AIDS rate is so high."

Escalante said having AIDS in South Africa is a huge taboo. In the hospitals only 5 percent of the 70 percent would admit they had AIDS.

Escalante said they visited a facility called the Love Life Center.

"It was located right next to a school. I have never seen so many children in one school before in my life.

"The Love Life Center is a place for the children to go after school. They give free pregnancy tests, counseling, free AIDS tests, and try send out a positive message about how children should take care of their bodies.

"While I was at the center, I played basketball with some of the children. I had a great time talking with them. However, they can run really fast."

Escalante said one of the saddest thing she witnessed while there was the baby sanctuary where all the babies in there had AIDS. All the children's parents were already dead or sick. Escalante said they played with some children when they were able.

"It was the first interaction many of these children had seen in a long time if ever," she said.

Escalante said she enjoyed the learning experience and seeing the new sights.

"We went on several safari's a searched for snakes. However, our bus driver had one of the most poisonous snake's in the world in his tent. He slept in the bus the rest of the time.

"It was also interesting because not only did we have to check for snakes, but someone had to stay up all night in our camp in order to keep the lion's out."