September 3, 2007

This morning we were up and ready to go for clinical at our other township site. We were in the townships by ourselves (no NMMU students for Mondays) and we were paired up within our group. Christy and I were together and we had Devona (our Kombi driver) as our translator for the morning. The Kleinskool townships is much more rundown compared to the clinical site that we go to on Wednesdays. The houses are only four years old, but they look like that were constructed decades ago. All of the house have flush toilets, but they have never been hooked up to the plumbing. Quite upsetting considering the facilities are available, but no water to connect to. When we first arrived in the townships, we were told that Mondays are the most difficult mornings to do public health clinicals in a township, because many people are hung over or still drunk from the weekend. We soon learned this first had from a man who would follow us and repeatedly ask us to come to his house to assess his asthma. He would stumble up the road and would assure us that we were safe in his neighborhood and that we are always welcomed. Christy and I met with our client and we have a fairly good idea of what we want to do as our interventions and education for her next week.

After clinical, I went back home to change, and five minutes later we were on the road to NMMU to work in the computer lab and get ready for music class. Lestie had a guy who sings in the choir come and teach us the South African National Anthem, as well as attempting to teach us the click song. I did not to well with either! There are three different clicks, all of which have different sounds, and all of mine (if I can even do it) sound the same. It was frustrating because you are trying to read Afrikans, Xhosa, Zulu, and doing the clicks when singing the Xhosa parts of the song. I knew the English words that were the last two lines of the anthem. We (Ashley, Katherine, Laura, Kasy, Alex, and I) came back home and went to Primi’s for pizza. It was different pizza…not much sauce and very thin crust (almost like a tortilla shell) but we tried mozzarella cheese with feta and avocado, and a chicken and tomato pizza! Both were delicious, and later I learned that it is even better cold! I, was able to talk to Dad on Skype and I called Mom when she was at Kathy’s! I got to talk to lots of family when I called Kathy’s because they were having an end of summer party! Molly answered and we chatted at PE life, then it was passed to Grandma, Jane (and I was reminded that Chrissy starts Kindergarten tomorrow), Mary, Kathy, and finally Mom! It was so nice being able to hear all of them and to talk to all of them in one phone call! The rest of the night was spent doing homework, definitely not as much fun as they were having at Kathy’s house!