Picture
Our final days in South Africa were spent in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve, a humongous wildlife reserve located in KZN. About half of us - including me - stayed in luxury tents (like the one in Harry Potter), and the rest stayed in a decent sized house. We stayed at Mpila Camp, pretty much right in the middle of the park, and there really was no barrier between us and the rest of the park. Seeing animals like Impala, Nyala, Zebra, Monkeys, and Warthogs wandering the camp was common. I even got in a Western stand-off with a giant male warthog...and lost.

Throughout the day, we had several options. There were some walking safaris, game drives, or we could just relax at the park. I went on 2 drives and a walking safari, and most of us also went to St. Lucia Park and spent half a day at iSimangaliso Wetlands.

This experience was absolutely fantastic. Pictures cannot truly express how awesome it was. Seeing the wildlife, gazing at the Milky Way, standing on "Pride Rock", and nearly getting mauled by a confused rhino, are all experiences I know I will never forget. I took a boatload of pictures (mouse over "Blog" and click the "Pictures" link) that you can check out, but keep in mind that these stills don't do this park justice.

This is my last post and if you've been reading, thank you. For me, this was the trip of a lifetime, and I really have enjoyed sharing it. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave it in the "comments" section, or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Sala kahle!

 
A quick note on vaccines - Every research organization we talked to said they were far from synthesizing a true vaccine, because of the nature of the disease. If you're interested, check out the Prezi that I created for class and here are a few links to look at:
Types of Experimental HIV Vaccines
AIDSVAX Journal Article (Wiki link)
STEP/Phambili - Wiki, NYTimes
 
 
Picture
During our stay in Durban, we were able to visit CAPRISA - the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa - both in the heart of Durban and in Vulindlela, a large village located about 90 minutes west of Durban. CAPRISA is most famous for their preventive vaginal microbicide study of Tenofovir gel, a vaginal gel that was shown to reduce HIV transmission by 39%. This gel works as a Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor (NRTI), meaning it blocks the HIV enzyme in charge of converting RNA to DNA. This was a huge step, considering there were really no preventive options against HIV (besides basics like using protection, etc) at the time.

At Vulindlela, we discussed the Tenofovir study but also spent a long time discussing their clinic's focus on circumcision. Circumcision has been found to significantly reduce the risk of HIV transmission. CAPRISA offers circumcisions (for free) to men of all ages and also provides transportation to local schools so boys can get circumcised. Unfortunately, sometimes this can be a double-edged sword and can instill a feeling of immortality, of immunity, and not to use protection. But overall, it has been working well.

The village of Vulindlela was humongous, way bigger than I pictured a village to be. Between wandering the village and interacting with some eccentric locals, it was pretty cool. Check out my pics from Vulindlela here:

 
Picture
During our stay in Pretoria, we were also able to go to one of the most famous landmarks in South Africa - The Voortrekker Monument. It sits atop a hill and the entire city of Pretoria is visible from the top of this building. It was incredible.

For those of you too lazy to click on the wiki link, this monument was built to honor the Voortrekkers (also referred to as the Boers or Voors), the Dutch settlers who had colonized large parts of the Western Cape. This colonization wasn't pretty - they slaughtered and enslaved the native Zulus and Ndebele. They were able to win the wars because of their advanced weaponry and thus they took the land.

Let's think about this. This monument commemorates a group who slaughtered the original Pretorians. Even the name Pretoria comes from Andries Pretorius - the leader of the Voertrekkers. Why would any Black South African want to go there? They don't. We learned that only White South Africans ever go to the Voertrekker monument (besides tourists, obviously). So why is it still up? White South Africans are a minority compared to the Blacks. Should such an insulting monument even be up?

But let's not get ahead of ourselves - the Boers weren't necessarily evil. They didn't want to be in Pretoria; they were being forced out of the Eastern Cape by the British and were trying to survive. This monument doesn't symbolize their brutality; it celebrates their innovation and ability to survive. But is it possible to ignore one while embellishing the other? I personally don't think it's possible to turn a blind eye to such savagery. But it's a matter of opinion.

Check out my pics here: