I have been so bad about keeping up on this… but I promise after this update I will give you short and sweet blurbs about the happenings and observations of the day!!
Since I last wrote, I have definitely felt more of the essence of Cape Town. This city is so amazing and beautiful in so many ways! I adore the multi-cultural aspect of this place and the sense of pride everyone has for this country. It is also interesting to learn about different perspectives about the
apartheid reign and the time since it ended. There is still extreme poverty and subtle/not so subtle segregation but all in all, they are moving forward—which is great.
Some activities that I have done with the group are: Touring the township of
Langa and visiting a medicine man aka “Healer,” experiencing a traditional African Braai (barbeque) at
Mzoli's, the
V & A Waterfront, the Vangard mall with some coworkers, Hiking to the top of
Lion’s Head, partying with the local’s until 5AM,
Wine Tasting, and touring the southern part of the Cape—including a bike ride to
Cape Point with another wine tasting!!!!!
I was going to try and pick a favorite, but it is too difficult. Each event is so unique and special in its own way. I LOVE the V&A Waterfront especially at night—when it lights up it is breathtaking! Seeing the whole city and as far as you can see of the ocean from on top of a mountain was incredible—something everyone should experience! The hike was not easy but totally worth it! Bike riding to the end of the Cape was also wonderful! There are amazing beaches and you can spot sunken ships in the ocean by looking for a pooling of water (which turns white). On that trip we also saw some more penguins, wild ostrich, naughty baboons along the road – they will steal anything, its pretty funny, breaching whales, and some animal that is the equivalent of a deer in CO (in my mind at least)!!! The wine here is great, as they have the perfect environment for growing grapes in a valley along Table Mountain. It is similar to California (Napa Valley) I guess.
Moving on to work… I love my clinic and the people I work with! Everyone has been extremely welcoming and helpful! My first impression was impressive in the fact that women pretty much run the clinic!!! From the first day, my supervisor of sorts, Anthea, has taken me under her wing. She makes sure that every day counts and that I am experiencing as much as possible related to nursing.
I started out in the administration part of the clinic, learning how to check people in, finding/filing charts, scheduling, etc… pretty mundane but a great place to get introduced to the clinic. I think it is important to learn every aspect of the “business” when entering a new environment.
The next week, I moved on to the injection room/ER. It isn’t even close to what you are thinking, which you will see when I snap some photos. The sisters (what they call nurses) are awesome! They let me do as much as I feel comfortable doing which includes: drawing blood, pregnancy testing, HIV testing, TB (tuberculosis) testing, Hb (hemoglobin) testing, giving injections of medication, and performing ECG’s. It usually takes an intern a while to be comfortable doing this all on their own but they say I learn fast! Although I haven’t had the proper training to do any of these things—I am in Africa—that is why I am here. This is the way I learn! It’s great ☺ I also know that what I am learning here may not be relevant when I return in the fact that most of the hospitals and clinics in the US are much more advanced ie. Different ECG machines, different ways of testing for HIV and Hb etc… But it is eye opening to see such a different culture of medicine—in a way more unconventional yet still functional. It is different to see mostly everything done WITHOUT computers!! For a person like me (Generation Y or the Millenial’s) it almost sounds undoable! But, they do it and it works.
Now, I can elaborate on the facilities and the differences there, but I am not sure it would be appropriate because it may come out as criticism, so if you want to know, just ask me!
I think I have given you enough for now. I attached some more links for photos and if you have any questions or want me to write about something specific, let me know!! Until then… totseins!! (Goodbye in Afrikaans)!!!
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