Zebras, Birds, and Ghandi :)

Sanibona! ("hello" to more than one)

Sawubona ("hello" to one) literally means "I see you." So in response to this people say, "Yebo, Sawubona" meaning "Yes, I see you." I find it very neat that the Zulus greet others by actually acknowledging their existence, that they are human. I had my first Zulu class last Wednesday night so that's where I got this little lesson from but oh man, what an fascinating language! They have three different clicks and trying to incorporate them into the middle of words is totally difficult. But when you hear the Zulu people speak, the clicks sound so natural and its just really awesome.

Thursday I was back at East Boom. This time I was in the PMTCT unit (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission). PMTCT is a program that is set up for HIV+ pregnant women. Labs are drawn to check certain levels. If the expectant mother has a CD4 count that is below 350 then she is placed on ARV treatment. But before she can see the doctor to receive her ARV treatment, she must first attend three classes or counseling sessions about how to handle HIV as well as ARV treatments. The expectant mother is asked to bring someone who she can trust to come with her to listen in on and participate in these classes. Only after she has completed these classes with her support can she make an appointment with the doctor to start her ARV treatment. My nurse, Sister Hadebe told me about how it is a problem sometimes because once mothers find out their CD4 count is low then they never come back to the clinic because they are basically afraid or embarrassed. Sister Hadebe was a great nurse and I learned a lot. She was able to help me successfully draw my first vial of blood ever -so that was definitely exciting :)

Friday we had class all day but in the evening a group of 17 of us were finally able to get off campus. Our resident director, Janet, turned 23 so we went out to celebrate her birthday. We went to this little bar/restaurant called Keg & Hedgehog. So that was super nice to get out and have some fun. Janet is the second one from the right.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6 and went on a morning hike with two of my chalet mates. We were lucky enough to find two "zeb-bras!" They were having their morning breakfast on the side of the road on the way to the trail.


I love the zebras, can you tell?

I might be over-doing it with the zebra pictures but they are just so cute! Here's just one more, and I promise that will be it:

After our morning hike we left with the whole group to go to Birds of Prey Wildlife Sanctuary. It was pretty neat -they had all kinds of birds: owls, vultures, eagles, hawks, falcons, storks, etc. They train some of the birds too so that was neat. Below is one of the trained owls:

Here is the trainer with a falcon that they rescued and trained:


After our day with the birds, we drove around Pietermaritzburg (PMB) and saw some historical sites. We stopped at the PMB train station. This station is famous because Mahatma Ghandi states his experience there "changed the course of life." Ghandi was a lawyer and had just left England for South Africa to assist one of his clients. Ghandi recalls that on June 7, 1893, seven days after his arrival in South Afirca, he was traveling from Pretoria to Durban and was kicked off of the first class train at the PMB train station because of his race. He spent the night at the platfrom in PMB "shivering" and "afraid." He stated that his "active non-violence begain from that date." Below is a picture of the train station:

And here is a statue of Ghandi in PMB:

After our Ghandi experience we drove up to a beautiful lookout where we could see all of PMB and it was just gorgeous. Here is a picture with Kristina and the beautiful view behind us:


Sunday we went to a small church in the city. The church is located in the heart of a big Hindu community so the whole congregation is made up of Indians that were orginially Hindu. It was a good service and interesting to hear their message about how we can have a personal relationship with God because of Christ and that we do not need to worship idols. After church I spent the day laying on the grass in the sun next to the waterfall reading a book for fun. It was so nice to just relax and take a mental break from nursing studies.

Today we had classes and tomorrow I have clinical again. I will be going to Ethembeni ("Place of Hope") which cares for those who are really poor and really sick by going to their houses and providing them food and spiritual care. So I am excited to experience something new :) They are keeping us busy here but it is so good. I feel extremely blessed to be here. To learn from such amazing people and to be surrounded by such beauty and history. I am just so excited every day that I wake up and I haven't really felt that in a long time.

Sawubona!

Sawubona! (Hello in Zulu!)

We made it to African Enterprise! Beautiful place, beautiful staff. I am so so blessed to be living here for the next 10 weeks! God's beauty is everywhere -I feel like I have to pinch myself every five minutes so that I know that I'm not dreaming. AE has a ton of land -including some beautiful waterfalls. I'll have to post some pictures of those later when it stops raining -it's been cool and rainy since Sunday, which is quite enjoyable after the hot and humid Saturday we had. Here is a picture of Kelly and I at the entrance to AE after our hike in the rain:

This building is the main hang out. Our dining hall is in the middle. The windows on the far right are our classrooms and the last window on the very left is the library. It's on a little hill and our chalets are just down the hill.

When we arrived on Saturday, we were greeted with these tribal dancers on the lawn in front of the dining hall. It was a great welcome and it was so fun to hear them all sing together in Zulu.

You can see the brick-like buildings in the back, those are the chalets like the ones that we live in. They are fun and remindful of my days in the SPU dorms. There are four rooms within the chalet, each with bunk beds, so that means we have 8 girls per chalet (except my chalet has 7 because we have one girl who is rooming solo). The eight of us share a bathroom that has 2 showers, 2 toilets, and 3 sinks. It works out nicely. Here is a picture of my bedroom on the first day trying to get it all organized with my roommate Mary Bette, so excuse the mess.

AE is surrounded by a game reserve so there are these beautiful hiking trails that go throughout the reserve and I'm just loving it! There are zebras, impalas, reedbuck, bushbuck, blue duiker, and monkeys. It's amazing having such animals for neighbors!

The zebras are my favorite -they are so cute and it's crazy how close they will let us come to them! I love love love it!

Yesterday (Monday) we had class from 8 until like 3. We like offically met our instructors. Dr. Wendy Hall and Sister (Professional Nurse) Glenda Tuckell. They are absolutely wonderful and so fun. They are both from Zimbabwe but have lived and worked in South Africa for 30+ years. Our classes we take with them are Ethics and Community Health in South Africa. We just had an introduction in both classes but I already feel like I'm learning a lot. We had "tea and eats" twice during the day -it was lovely, and I know I will miss those breaks when return to America. We got our clinical assignments from our instructors and I was placed in the EastBoom Community Health Center. It sees about 1000 patients per day. And it has different units for like everything -L&D, chronic illness, ARV (anti-retroviral -for HIV+ patients), mother and baby, pediatrics, etc. Here is a picture of Mary Bette and I this morning at 7:00am just before leaving for our clinical.

I ended up gettting placed in the mother baby unit with a wonderful professional nurse (SA has 3 levels of nurses, professional is the highest -they can diagnose & prescribe). She was Indian but from South Africa. She has been licensed for 16 years. We did head to toe assessments on the mother and baby. It was a challenge for me to remember all that I had learned when I was in my maternity rotation and working at St. Joseph's in Orange. My nurse was a fantastic teacher though and very patient with me. The room we had was tiny and dirty. Supplies were limited and things were reused often if they were not "visibly soiled by blood." We saw babies from 6 days old to 8 months old. A lot of teaching was done because mothers were not properly caring for their babies. Incorrect formula to water ratios, not cleaning the umbilical cords, putting too many clothes on the baby/overheating the baby, not sanitizing the baby bottles, etc. Teaching was also done about prevention of pregnancy.

And over half of the mothers that came in were HIV+. Babies with HIV+ mothers had to have DBS testing - 3 drops of dried blood sent to the laboratory. Results would not come back until 3 weeks later. Babies were then started on Bactrim (to help prevent infections such as bronchitis or pneumonia) and Multivitamins (to increase their immune system) prophylaxis until the results came back. If the results come back positive, they would be started on ARVs and if negative, they could stop the prophylaxis meds.

Many referrals were made for the mothers to go to the other units for baby immunizations or for ARV treatments. It was very interesting and I learned a ton. I felt like I was asking a question every other minute. I am excited to keep learning and I'm just feeling so blessed. I am just so grateful for this experience. Tomorrow I have my History of South Africa class as well as my Zulu class. And I am hoping to make a trip to the local mall -I've heard it's a lot like American malls so that should fun.

Jo-burg!

Hi, Just a quick note just to let you know that we arrived in Johannesburg safely! The flight was long and I only slept maybe 2-3 hours out of the 21 hour total flight time. Jet lag does not seem bad, I feel pretty adapted to their time already. Friday we woke up early and went on a tour of the cities of Johannesburg and of Soweto today. Johannesburg is really industrialized and well-developed. Soweto stands for South Western Township which is on the outskirts of Jo-burg. It is where all the coloured people were sent to live during the apartheid because only white people were allowed to stay in Johannesburg. Soweto is a large region and approximately 4 million people live there. There are some really poor neighborhoods within it as well as really rich areas. I had always imagined Soweto to be extreme poverty but it was not like what I pictured. They have lots of “matchbox houses” –which are small yes, but seem well-built compared to what I have seen in Ghana. They have two bedrooms and a living room. The toilet and running water are outside. Typically 2-3 generations live in them. There are also government condos and townhouses within Soweto too which cost more money.

All within Soweto we were able to see Nelson Mandela’s house, Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s house, the Hector Pieterson Memorial, the Regina Mundi Church, as well as the Apartheid Museum. Hector Pieterson was shot and killed during the 1970 uprising against the aparthied government. The government was forcing education to be taught in Afrikaans and English 50:50, regardless of what children spoke at home. South Africa has 11 distinct languages and the Afrikaans language was seen as the white supremest language. Hector Pieterson was only 13 years old. He is the one below being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo, an 18 year old schoolboy who went into hiding after being harrassed by the police after the photograph was released. Mbuyisa hasn't been seen since 1978.

The Regina Mundi Church was a refuge at one point during the apartheid for coloured students that were protesting. The police actually came in the church and fired at them –injuring quite a few. The Apartheid Museum was gigantic and showed the history of the apartheid as well as a Nelson Mandela exhibit which showed his hand in stopping the apartheid. The day was busy, but full of learning. I have lots of questions still about the history here, so I am excited to start our History of South Africa class on Wednesday. Here is a picture of Kelly and I in Soweto:

Tomorrow we leave Johannesburg and fly to Durban. From Durban we will drive about an hour and a half to African Enterprise campus where we will be staying for the next 10 weeks in Pietermeritzburg. I'm excited and ready to settle in and unpack my bags!

What's The Plan?

"You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand" -John 13:7

In this life, we have an incomplete view of God's dealings, seeing His plan only half finished or underdeveloped or just plain confusing. God's dealings within my own life will not be understood until I stand in the magnificent temple of eternity where I can finally have the proper perspective to see everything fit gracefully together.

I'm sure most of you know the story: I applied to the nursing study abroad program in South Africa, I was officially accepted, a week passes and then I find out that every acceptance was re-called. So I re-applied only to later find out I was officially rejected. So from April 15th, 2010 until September 15th, 2010, I buried myself under a rock, pretending that I was ok. But for those five months, I wrestled with negative thoughts about myself as a person, as a student, as a nurse. For five months, I prayed to align myself with His will. For five months, I wanted to forget about it. For five months, I tried to just trust in Him. Then on September 15th, I got the call that I was officially re-accepted to the program after one girl decided to drop from the program and not go. I think maybe He wanted me to be broken before I could come here but I'm not sureand I won't ever fully know until I finally stand in front of Him to ask.

And now I am here, after two weeks of intensive courses (90.5 clinical hours, 15 lecture hours, and 2 tests); I am less than two days away from finally leaving for South Africa -the place I've been dreaming about since I first entered APU back in 2007. All I can say is that I'm grateful for what God has planned for me. And I am ready to jump on that plane, I am ready for the adventure, I am ready to learn, I am ready to be stretched, I am ready to be uncomfortable, and I am ready to serve Him and His beautiful children in South Africa.