Becca’s blogging about the week
Everyday is jammed pack with things for us to do and we get up so early everyday to do these things that when we are done in the evening we just want to go to bed. So i left off on Saturday when we went to Tsitsikamma. It was absolutely beautiful!! It was in mountains of trees and canyons! The first thing we did was go
bungee jumping ….obviously i did not go bungee jumping but 4 girls from the group did! It was fun to sit at the lookout point and watch them go over the ledge especially since we had binoculars! Then we went to monkeyland which was actually a lot of fun. It was a caged in forest so that the monkeys could not escape but we were able to walk around inside with a tour guide. The monkeys were running free and they would run up to us and cross our path so we got a lot of really cool photos. The tour guide was also really funny so that made it good too. Then we went to birds of eden which was just like monkeyland only the top of the forest was enclosed as well. We saw some really beautiful birds there too! Then we went back to the hotel and i ended up rooming with elayne since it was only two to a room. Then the people who ran the hotel gave us a bunch of raw meat and some potato salad and we had to cook the meat on an open stone grill thing. It was a lot of fun just laughing and sitting around. It was very cold though.
The next day we started out going zip lining which i was terrified of at first but after the first few lines i was ok. The waterfalls were really pretty and i even got some video of it. Then we went to tsitsikamma national park to eat lunch and it had a beautiful view of the Indian ocean. the waves here are as tall as i am!!! That’s why south africa is the surfing capital of the world!! Then we went to the elephant sanctuary to play with the elephants. I got to walk with one while he wrapped his trunk around my hand and i got to hug his trunk for a picture and play with his ears and all sorts of cool things. I even got the trainer to open up his mouth and had courtney take a picture while i brushed his teeth!! I am definitely going to win my dentist’s competition!!!! It was the perfect ending to the trip!
On Monday we went to the hospitals here for the first time. All the equipment in there is from the 1960s!! it’s really sad the equipment that they have to deal with. I met this really cool nursing student named Hanli who offered to give us a tour of the hospital. We got to see the OR, the ICU, the ER, and the oncology unit. The oncology unit is known as the florence nightengale ward becuase it’s literally that old and you can tell from the way it is set up that its from world war one!! Of course in the middle of the tour, the clock struck 10am which is tea time here and everyone stopped what they were doing and went to have tea!! Tea time is a half an hour here so it’s a nice luxury that we americans are not used to but we have to bring it back with us!!! we all laugh at them and they don’t understand why we don’t have tea time!! Hanli also offered to hang out with us one night and show us what the students at NMMU like to do so that should be fun!! after that we took our hour lunch break at 12pm which is also very nice and then went back to the room to sleep!
The next day we went to more clinics to observe how it works. I got to do a few assessments and listen to lungs but nothing too exciting. There are not TB masks much less any negative pressure rooms to put the patients with TB so we have all come into contact with it by now. I just hope that that gives you some idea of how far behind these people are in the health care system and how desperate they are!
On Wednesday we went back to the same clinics and we did the same thing as before. We had patients come into one exam room two at a time to speed up the lines of people out the door!! The nursing students from NMMU that we were working with took us to a local cafe during their half an hour tea break (i just can’t get over that. they literally kick patients out the door when it’s tea time!!) and we tried some samoosas which is a traditional dish here. I also tried something that the other student had brought and i don’t know what it was but it made my eyes water and my nose run!! When we were finished at the clinic we hung around with the nursing students for an hour and asked them a lot of questions about their culture and they asked a lot about ours. For example they asked me if i had a fake ID since i am under age to drink because they said in the movies everyone has a fake ID in america!!! We learned a lot of interesting things. When we were talking about the different racial groups in south africa they told us that the joke among them is this: The perfect life is to marry an Indian women, make american dollars, drive a german car, eat chinese food, and live in south africa. Then they said that the worst life is to: marry an american women, make indian dollars, drive a chinese car, and eat german food!! It was really funny. They think american women are very strong and independent but that we spend a lot of money!!! After that the weather was so nice and hot that we all went down to the beach for the afternoon!! It’s like all of a sudden its hot here which is a nice change from the cold!!!
Today we went to go and do home based care. We only went to two homes because we spent two hours driving around trying to find the homes but it was ok. Then we had tea at one of the ladies house and we had cook sisters (which are kind of like doughnuts with coconut on them) and curry bunnies (which are biscuits that are studded with curry, onions, and beef). They were all really good. For the rest of the day we plan on napping (because we are all soooooo tired) and then Hanli and a few other nursing students are coming to pick us up and take us to a local bar. It should be a lot of fun. Tommorrow we leave for the farm that we are staying on for the weekend. Two weeks down and two to go!!! –Becca