UBUNTU "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Lao Tzu

It's noon and I find myself sitting on a hard, wooden bench surrounded by strangers who are all waiting to have x-rays. I'm at Baragwanath Hospital, a.k.a. hell on earth. Amanda and I have been here since 9am and it looks as though we will spend the afternoon here. They took her cast off for x-rays, then sent us to walk about a mile to the next building - she nearly collapsed from pain and I hijacked a wheelchair and didn't care too much about the consequences - the doctors here seem to be a bit insensitive to pain. There is an older woman lying in front of me on a makeshift stretcher and there is a mat lying on top of it. The mat is old and torn in many places - dirty from the former patient who needed it. All I can hear are shuffled feet of patients who stare through me like zombies. They all carry gatorade bottles attached to tubes that disappear under their gowns or clothing. The bottles look to be filled with urine or blood and sometimes a combination of the two. The ill and desperate sit outside in the sun, fanning themselves in lines, waiting to be checked into then be sent to another building to wait in another line to continue the vicous cycle and if they are lucky, they might be seen by the end of the week and if they are really lucky, told to come back to wait again tomorrow. While they wait on the curbs, stretchers with patients roll by as everyone waits to see if the patient will fall off the stretcher because going from building to building is like crossing an off road motorcross site. An old man, barefoot and dirty in an open gown comes and begs for money while the inmae from the correctional facility rolls by in his bright orange jumper with his fee shackled in chains to the wheelchair. The smell of humid air and body odor bring my mind back to Amanda as I smile at her from across the room. It is Valentine's Day, and my heart broke just a little.