Durban, Rugby, The WaySide, and Zip-Lining? Yebo!

Sorry again for the lack of updates, I have been a busy little bee. On Thursday the 17^th, I was at Caprisa for my clinical site. It is located in a rural area called Vulindlela and it is a HIV/AIDS center for research. I was assigned to Sister “Lucky” for the day. She was nice but not too keen on having a student with her for the day. She explained that she had not gotten a lot of sleep the past few nights because she is preparing to move to a new province in two weeks. Lucky for her, there were only like 8 patients that came in before first tea and then she was able to lay her head down on the desk. She actually fell completely asleep and I was twiddling my thumbs for a good while. I did not want to sneak out because it would’ve woken her up and I knew that she needed to sleep. But eventually I slipped out and was able to take a walk down the road and just get a breath of fresh air with Kristina. I know I have mentioned this before, but I find myself becoming more and more overwhelmed by the sheer number of HIV+ people that walk in. And the magnitude of it all just becomes draining. So a simple walk down a dirt road and under a beautiful blue sky, was just what I needed.

On Saturday the 20^th, we went to Durban for the day. In the morning we went to uShaka which is a waterpark and marine world. My mother instilled in me at a young age that waterparks are dirty, so I opted for just the marine world haha :) We were able to see some seals, penguins, and a fun dolphin show. The dolphin pictured below is the largest dolphin in the world that is in captivity. Afterwards we went outside the park and walked down to beach. We had our packed lunches and enjoyed the sea breeze.

In the evening, we went to a rugby game! It was the KwaZulu-Natal Sharks vs. the Free State Cheetahs. Even though I had no clue how the game was played, I still had a blast! It was just so great to be in a big stadium, cheer with a bunch of crazy fans, and to eat a good hot dog with “tomato sauce.” It started raining during the game and the stadium awning leaked a little on us, but it was still a great game and the Sharks came out winning 24-9, yebo! (yes)! Haha :) hopefully we can make one more rugby game before we leave because I really enjoyed it. Below is a picture of the beautiful stadium as well as a picture of Amanda, Jessie, and I before the game with our war paint on:

Sunday the 21^st, I went to church with Kelly and Sandy who has been working 33 years for AE and is just super sweet. Sandy's church, the Christian Fellowship, is maybe a 10 minute drive from AE. It is mainly an Indian congregation with a few black families. The service was long and sometimes difficult to understand because of the accent. But everyone was very welcoming and so happy to have us visit. After the service we went to Pastor Chris’ house in Blackridge with Sandy, her son Jared, and another couple from the congregation. Chris made us a great Indian meal with all kinds of yummy spices. It was so nice to be in a home and to sit around a real dining room table together and just chat about life. We were able to ask them what their experience was like during the apartheid and it was very interesting to hear their perspective since I have only heard accounts from whites or blacks. Below is a picture of Kelly and I with Sandy in the black shirt, Sandra (Pastor Chris’ wife) in the white and black, and two other ladies from the church.

After lunch, we drove to Jika Joe informal settlement, which is about five blocks from the church. It is an extremely poor area –close living quarters, mud houses, tin roofs… totally the slums with just a few government 10x10 houses up the street. There is one water pump that they all share which was actually installed just couple of years ago. The Christian Fellowship church comes to Jika Joe every Sunday to sing songs and provide lunch to approximately 150 children. They started this ministry, called the WaySide, for the children about 2 years ago and every Sunday a different family from the congregation volunteers and prepares food out of their own money for up to 150 children. Pastor Chris and his wife have been coming every Sunday since the start. We had only about 70 children show up for the day, but it was beautiful to see their smiling faces and to sing along with them. They call it the WaySide ministry because they meet the children on the road that is on the way to church and they meet them on the side of the road under the shade of a huge tree. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of even for a little bit and it certainly turned out to be my favorite Sunday thus far. We are planning on going back two more times before we leave for Cape Town in April and I am really looking forward to it.

Tuesday the 22^nd, I was back at EastBoom Community Health Clinic with Alex and Callee. All three of us were assigned to work the Sister in charge in the antenatal unit. We saw maybe 4 patients before we were interrupted by this doctor who comes in once or twice a month and acts as a consultant. He invited us to follow him as he made his rounds to each unit. He checked machines to make sure they were functioning properly and checked to see if certain medical supplies were short or missing. But he mainly quizzed each sister and on-site doctor about their policies and protocol on how they documented, assessed, diagnosed, and treated patients. He corrected them a lot more than I expected he would have to. He also saw a couple of patients himself and taught the sisters and I quite a bit. So it was quite a blessing to learn from him for a day.

On Wednesday the 23^rd, our evening class was cancelled so I was able to go out and explore a little bit with our RA Sarah Jane and five other friends. We went to Howick Falls, had lunch and did a little shopping. It was so nice to get off campus, see something new, and just to shop, I love shopping :) It was good to get to know Sarah Jane a little more as well. She was born in SA but grew up in Botswana and then went to boarding school in Zimbabwe. It is her first semester working with AE and she is just great. Below is a picture from the “query” or lookout point.

On Thursday the 24^th, I was back at EastBoom. This time I was assigned to the pediatric unit with Callee. Our sister was very nice and she let us do all of the assessments and all the documentation. It was great to learn how they documented everything and get some practice on their Road To Health Card (health documents specific for Sub-Saharan Africa which I wrote a paper on). She taught and walked us through the first couple of patients but then basically let us run the show. When the patients only spoke Zulu then our sister would translate and if they spoke English, then she would only add her two cents when needed. She showed us how to use their booklet with all the protocol for how to assess, classify, and treat certain cases properly. The flowchart showed what questions to ask to see if they had any danger signs and to define their classification. It was a little bit of a struggle at first but after we had multiple cases of the same thing it became easy to handle without the use of the flowchart. By the end of the day we were properly diagnosing and prescribing the medication without having to look at the chart or ask the sister. We saw two different children with ringworms which was interesting because I have never seen that before. It was a good day with lots of hands-on experience. I really appreciated that the nurse took the back seat today and let us run the show while she overlooked all that we were doing. You definitely learn more doing things rather than watching things.

Today we went zip-lining at the Karkloof Canopy Tours. I was excited but, I was a little nervous too because I am not the biggest fan of heights. But it was still super fun and we had a really beautiful view of the valley below us. There were eight slides total with the longest one being 135 meters long. Definitely fun, but nerve-wracking when you had to land. After we landed at the fourth platform, we stopped for a break and our guides provided us with a snack -apple juice and a "Chomp" or chocolate covered wafer. Below is a picture of part of our group enjoying our yummy snack.

This week I will be back at Mason’s clinic which I am looking forward to because I really enjoyed the sisters that worked there, Sister Thandi and Sister McKay. Hopefully I will be able to work with them both. We only have two weeks of clinical left which is crazy -time is really flying by quick! After clinicals are over we have a community project to work on, which I will probably be doing at Ethembeni with Kristina and Kelly. We will also be working on our big senior seminar paper for our ethics class. I am looking at writing about young international adoptees and psychiatric issues that typically evolve in adulthood. My professors liked the idea and I really think it will be interesting to research. Next Saturday there is nothing set in stone or planned. I am hoping that we will be able to go to a local game reserve and see some giraffes or go shopping at a big market in Durban...crossing my fingers that maybe we'll get to do both! :)