September 5, 2007

We had our Emmanuel clinical today and when we got to the container it was closed and no volunteer was in sight! We congregated in the front yard and waited with the NMMU students. Sledge (one of the nursing students from Botswana) came up and did a little handshake with Laura and I, and we told him how he blew us off on campus last week when we waved to him, we told him that we though he didn’t want to associate with the “International Americans” but he just laughed and said that we should have gone over to him to yell at him for being rude! On the walk to our patient’s house he was asking Laura and I all about the U.S. He told us that he wanted to go to Mississippi to see the “big river” but when we told him that it started in Minnesota, and that I have been to the headwaters, he quickly changed his mind about where he wanted to visit! He kept asking us about fishing and if you could fish in the river or other places, and what types of fish there were. He couldn’t believe that people actually can fish on ice in the winter and that we bring houses onto the lakes to fish and that we are able to drive cars on the ice too! We finally made it to the house (we actually found it…who would have thought that we could find it all by ourselves!) but no one was home. So we walked to another house where our patient could have been, but she was not there either. We learned from a family member that she went to the clinic, which means that she would be gone for quite some time. So we made the hot walk back to the container and we sat in groups and talked about health concerns with the NMMU students and discussed different clinical experiences that we both have had.

We left the site early today and came back home for a quick shower, lunch, and then we were off to NMMU for our African Politics class. We met our professor and she was so nice! The class was very enjoyable and she made studying the history and politics of SA very interesting. Rather than lecturing about the development of the ANC, the NP, Freedom Charter, and Steve Biko, she told it as a story with the notes and details outlined for us. I think that I am going to like that class and despite it being three hours, I probably won’t dread it as much as I thought I was going to! By the time we came back home it was time for dinner and a quick run to the friendly liquor store across the street! You can’t beat $3.00 bottles of wine! I am my mother’s daughter! I worked on a little homework, and then later we are going out for drinks because it’s two for ones at Toby Joes! We learned our lesson last week so it will be a quieter night rather than a full out party!