Dear Kern River Courier,
It has been a dream of mine to travel to Africa. But when I went, I wanted to get off the tourist path and really connect with the people. After doing much research, I found an international volunteer organization named Cross-Cultural Solutions that would help me achieve my goals.

So, I started by saving all my vacation time for one whole year and took it to volunteer in Cape Town, South Africa. Each program has a fee and with the help of friends, family, people of the Kern River Valley and some fundraising that I did, that soon was accomplished.

For three weeks I worked at Sarah Fox Children Convalescent Hospital taking care of babies from 2 to 8 months of age. They needed a volunteer who was able to cope with children with terminal illnesses or physical disfiguration. To bring a little joy, a little laughter and lots of love and attention to the children. I loved working there.

During my free time I visited the townships where the shacks, shelters and shanty towns are. Saw the Slave Lodge, Nelson Mandela Island, and even learned a little bit of a new language, Afrikaans. The history of South Africa is fascinating and I learned all I could.

About one week before I left Cape Town it erupted in violence. Something that had not happened for 20 years. Looting of shops, homes burned and hundreds of foreigners (refugees) forced to flee their homes. At this time they have millions of displaced people sleeping on the streets and in tents.

Sad and bizarre to see how people in South Africa live, it was scary and interesting at the same time.
After my 44-hour round trip, I could kiss the ground I was standing on when my plane landed.

Will I go again? Maybe next year. I will fundraise again and volunteer in Tanzania or Morocco to work with the children again. I had a memorable African experience and hope to continue it in the years to come.
Sandi Howard
Kernville

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Dear Kern River Courier,
When will the Kern Valley Healthcare District come forward and admit to the problems that have defeated a perfectly good hospital with some upstanding staff?

Now with the Department of Justice as well as Department of Health Services searching for egregious problems that have taken place over many years, the spokesman for the hospital simply says the problems were isolated to one person. How could this be? And with this admission he must agree there are or were serious errors.

But a scapegoat doesn't take away from the fact that the hospital has to own up to the issues of allowing these types practices to exist. There are rules, regulations, and oversight; however, none of this was implemented. It took an outside contractor one year to clean up the skilled nursing facility at a cost which was much more than any regular employee was getting.

Facts are facts; get them, they are available to everyone in the district. Don't rely on the words, rely on the paper trail.
Laura Hart
Weldon

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Dear Kern River Courier,
I am writing this letter to express my own personal views about the HIRA fees proposed by the Forest Service.  

I have attended the meetings and read the letters to the editor about how some folks do not trust the Forest Service and how many people just do not want to pay fees or buy passes to use our recreation areas.  I am not a big fan of government fees either.  But, I do not want the alternative. 

Making the fees go away does not solve the problem. The Forest Service does not have the budget to take care of these recreation areas.  Each year the Forest Service begins with a bare-bones budg)et. 

Then the fires start and what budget they had gets burned up fighting fires. We have been told this for years.

It is my personal opinion that we should be working with the Forest Service to hammer out a Recreation Fee Plan that will be the least offensive and most flexible.
Joe Ciriello
Lake Isabella