October 30, 2007

Today is the five year anniversary of my emergency appendectomy! Five years ago today, Mom didn’t believe me when I told her that I was literally dying and in the most extreme pain that I have ever been in. She brushed it off as cramps or “it’s just gas.” It wasn’t until I told her that I was driving myself to the emergency room at 4:00 in the morning that she realized that I was serious. I arrived at the hospital and by 8:00am, I was in the operating room!

Now that the stroll down memory lane has come to an end…I woke up this morning and I had to get ready and professional, because I was teaching class today. I got to the classroom forty-five minutes early to write things on the board but the room was locked. I stood outside waiting for everyone to arrive and unfortunately I didn’t get to do the board things for class, but it went well anyway. I taught the class for an hour and a half about domestic and collective violence and overall it went well. After class we came home and Carrie and I walked to the Boardwalk where we bought Robeez shoes for a bunch of people at home that Carrie had collected a list from. Then we went jewelry shopping and I bought a necklace and a very pretty bracelet for R100 (not too bad!) and I found a chain for my tanzanite necklace that I bought in Cape Town. I was pretty excited because it was a good deal and now I will be able to wear it on the airplane ride home, rather than keeping it in my carry on. I came home and I worked on some homework, then Alex came in the room and told me and Katherine to get up and go run in the ocean with him! So I put on my suit and we walked to the beach and ran into the ocean! It was a little cold at first but we got used to it after a bit! We stayed out there for fifteen minutes and I went back to the beach after a huge wave swept me up and dragged me across the bottom of the ocean half-way to shore! My stuffy nose that I had all day was cured with the salt water…now it just really itches! I still feel crummy today with a cold, but better this than what everyone else has. Six of the ten of us have gotten a stomach virus and within the last two days they got sick and it lasted 24 hours. This morning it attacked our apartment with Ashley and it moved to Katherine later this afternoon. Carrie and I have been decontaminating everything in the apartment. We have alcohol wiped every surface possible (computers, microwaves, door handles, light switches, telephones, etc) and I hope that I don’t get it. I don’t want to be sick at clinical tomorrow and I don’t want to get sick this weekend when we go to the Wild Coast.

I talked to Brooke today for a long time and it was nice talking to her! I can’t believe that will see her and everyone else in a month from today! It’s crazy how fast the time is flying here! Our finals are in two weeks and I have two more papers to write and then I am done for the semester! I registered for classes for the last time yesterday and I got all of the classes that I wanted. I only have class on Tuesdays (from 1-4 then 6-9) and Wednesday night (from 7:30-8:30). The rest of the week will be filled with work and filling it in with clinical hours for my Capstone course. I am very excited for it! Well, I think that its time to go to bed and try to get some rest before my last week of clinicals!

October 29, 2007

This morning I woke up and I felt absolutely crummy! I thought that I had a temperature because I was so warm and uncomfortable. I had a headache and just felt terrible…but I stuck it out and went to class because I had to give a presentation in Mental Health. I sat through a long class of presentations, DVD lecture, and a guest speaker. Then Katherine, Carrie, and I grabbed lunch and headed to the computer lab to work on homework. I think that I stood waiting for a computer to open up for about fifteen minutes. Ick! I can’t stand going to there because it is always so darn hot and busy! I worked on my class presentation tomorrow and then we went to music class. It was a better class today because some of the songs were fun to listen to, and Lestie let us out of class early (one fifteen minutes, but it was better than nothing). I came home and just felt lazy, so I made a quick dinner of apples and bread, they worked on homework. I met with Denise about my presentation for tomorrow and now I am going to bed at 9:45pm! I will probably read for a bit, but I am exhausted!

October 28, 2007

This morning I didn’t want to crawl out of bed…first of all, I was so sore and bruised on my backside and my shoulders were a tad tender from getting sunburned. I managed to crawl out of bed and made it to breakfast with everyone. It was so nice eating with everyone, it felt like we had known our “family” for much longer than three days. We would talk, laugh, banter, and tease each other! I would have loved to have stayed for a few more days, and it would be so nice to be able to go back to visit them! After breakfast was finished, Brian herded us into the buckey to go to Mine’s house to meet everyone. On the drive we saw a zebra in the field! We arrived at Mine’s and a few more people joined us in the buckey, then Brian took us on a game drive where we saw five different species of animals. We saw black wildebeest, springbok, blesbok, redharted beest, and one other type of deer. We returned to Brian and Colleen’s after an hour drive.

At Brian and Colleen’s we all walked to the dam and we were going to have a picnic lunch there. Nine of us climbed onto this floating raft (it resembled a diving platform that wasn’t anchored) and we started to paddle out around the dam. We didn’t get very far, but it ended up with us all jumping in with our clothes on and we went swimming! We treaded water for about twenty minutes and swam together! It was cold but a bunch of fun! We finally swam to shore and went to dry off in the sun. We ate our lunch of sandwiches and juice. Then around 12:30 we rode the buckeys back to Colleen and Brian’s to change and we took a few pictures with our host family then we drove back to Mine’s to go to the van to leave. It was bittersweet leaving the farm and waving bye to Robert, Colleen, and Brian with the dogs sitting by the fence as we drove away. I felt that I really got to know them and that we were saying goodbye to family.

We went to Adelaide to visit the hospital and take a tour. As we were walking through the general ward, we saw the young girl from Friday who was brought by ambulance for her burns. It was so nice seeing her there and knowing that she was being cared for. I saw her and waved, and she waved me into the room and I walked up to her and she pulled the blanket off of her legs to show me and Denise her dressings on her legs. She also had a maintenance IV running with antibiotics which was nice to see. She motioned that she was in very little pain. I was very relieved to see her in the hospital, because I thought of her often this weekend.

After the hospital visit, we left to go home to PE. We came home did the picture swapping, journal updating, and ordered pizza! It was a very fun weekend that was very relaxing and cured the homesick bug for the time being!

October 27, 2007

We woke up this morning and had what Marcus used to refer to as a “farm breakfast” with the whole family. Brian (Colleen’s husband) joined us and we had a very nice meal with everyone. The quote of the trip was when Brian yelled to the kitchen for someone to please bring the tea to the dining room, then he looked at us and said, “That is the nice thing about Africa, we can still have servants!” He meant it in a nice way and he takes care of his help and farmhands, providing them with a home on the property and with work, but they way he said it was shocking. After breakfast we all climbed into the back of the buckey and stood up and held onto the bars as we cruised to Mine’s house where we met everyone else. At Mine’s house we joined the rest of the group and we drove in the buckey to the club where we met with more families. The club is the tennis club that everyone is members of. All of the farms are about fifteen minutes from each other and they don’t get to see one another often, so they created a tennis club (complete with newly refinished tennis courts) and a barn with a pub where they host parties and dances. The women play competitive leagues on Wednesdays and everyone gathers at the club on Saturdays for dinner and games all day. They can go and play whenever they feel like hitting a few balls around. It was very neat!

We gathered a few more people and we went to Barry’s farm to watch the sheep be sheered. Barry explained the sheering process and he introduced us to his team who all sheer, and sort the wool. We were able to watch the team sheer some of the sheep by hand and then the tossing and sorting of the wool. It is amazing how those who were sheering can keep the pelt (if you call it that) of wool in one piece. Then to sort it, a person tosses it and throws it across the table and the sorters divide it up into the different parts of the sheep. It was very interesting watching the whole process happen.

After the sheering, we went on a drive through the mountains. We all piled into the buckey (along with Louisa and Libby, one of the little farm girls and her friend from boarding school) and we began a two hour drive! It was so much fun! The only problem was that we kept banging into the metal bars and it left bruises on our hips and butts! We were driving through the cattle pasture and we got stuck in the mud! We had to have the other buckey come and try to pull us out at well as four girls were pushing! We all were laughing but eventually Gary got his buckey out of the mud and we all climbed back in. After the drive we all stopped at Gary’s house (Louisa’s dad) and as we were talking to him, he told us that he played Rugby for England and for the Springboks, and he was on the 1995 team that won the World Cup. So when we were in his house (which was absolutely gorgeous and huge!) we saw all of his old rugby jerseys and all of his pictures taken during the game and other rugby collectables! It was so neat!

After leaving Gary’s we went to Eleanor’s school to listen to her students sing songs that they had rehearsed to perform for us. We sat in the shad and listened to half a dozen songs and then went into the one-room school house where Xhosa students age seven to fourteen attend classes to learn to read and write. After the school tour we went to Eleanor’s house for lunch and the best chocolate cake dessert that I have ever eaten! After everyone’s bellies were full we went to the barracks were the Boers stayed during the Frontier Wars. It was interesting walking around the fort and taking pictures. After funny poses and lots of laugh about velvet car seat covers, and mangers, which led us to sing Christmas songs (particularly “Away in a Manger”) we went back to the club. We played badmitton without a net, went on the teeter-totters and played many round of mafia! We taught our host families how to play. Norma, Candace, Mine, and Nandi all joined in and they held their own during the games! We had another braai complete with our favorite fried bread and of course, there were wonderful desserts! Around 10:00 Brian gathered our house up and took us home so we could shower and get ready for bed! Laura and I were a little more talkative tonight and we read for a bit before heading off to bed.

October 26, 2007

This morning we were awake and downstairs of Langerry to catch our van at 8:00am to leave for Post Retief in the frontier of South Africa. We were riding high class with a 23 passenger van (compared to the 14 person Kombi we generally travel in!) each of us could spread out and actually sit comfortably…except for the broken air conditioning and the excessive heat! We stopped in Grahamstown to visit the African Musical Instrument Factory. We were able to see how instruments were made that are traditionally used in South Africa when playing music. We listened to four men play the marimbas and they put on a good show for us! We left Grahamstown and went to Bedford to see the gardens that are on tour. We met two of our hosts for the weekend, Mine (pronounced Mi-nay) and Colleen. We walked through the gardens and all of the flowers were so beautiful! I took tons of pictures for Mom to enjoy! After we went to the gardens we went to where there was a cricket field that held a championship game. We were able to walk onto the field and they we stopped in the pub (a converted old mill) for a glass of wine for R5 (or roughly $.75). After our tour of the grounds, we went to the farms. They were quite a ways out of town, we drove through the mountains for an hour on gravel roads until we arrived at Mine’s house for a braai. We met the other three families who we would be staying with (Colleen’s family, Eleanor’s family, and Michelle’s family). As we were waiting for supper to be served Colleen came into the sitting area that we were in and asked if anyone knew anything about burns, because one of the farmhand’s daughters were burned by the bonfire. No one made an effort to get up and go to the kitchen, so I went (despite my lack of experience with burn patients). I got into the kitchen, thinking that it would be a minor burn that a cold compress and Tylenol could cure…I was wrong. There was a thirteen year old girl shaking and crying on a bench in the entrance to the house, with burns and blisters all up the inside of her right leg, starting at her ankle and going up to her thigh and on her left ankle she also had many burns. The blisters were very large, and some were the size of an egg. Carrie came back into the kitchen and she went to get Denise. Denise came, while Carrie and I went to find gauze and dressings to cover the open blisters to prevent infection. We found gauze, surgical tape, and an antibiotic ointment to put on the open sores. Denise dressed the wounds and Carrie and I handed her things and rubbed the young girl’s back. She didn’t speak English so we did the best to calm her. We gave her meds for the pain and tried to help her relax. The ambulance came an hour later and took her to the hospital in Adelaide.

We spent the rest of the night dancing (Kasy and I taught everyone the Cotton-Eye Joe dance) and eating a delicious dinner with amazing dessert! Finally, around 11:00 we piled into Colleen’s car and we went to our “home” for the weekend. Laura and I shared a room (Robert, Colleen’s 21 year old son was kicked out of his room for us to share) and we literally fell asleep as soon as our head hit the pillows! We were so darn tired!

October 25, 2007

This morning we had yet again, a clinical with Smokey! She was in a better mood today and we were able to see more patients and interesting cases, but for the majority of the time we sat in the back of the room and just watched for six hours!

Two o’clock could not come soon enough and we were in the kombi back to Langerry. When we got back, a few of us walked to the daily market and they had the statue that I wanted! I was so excited and I got it for a good deal! I also bought a large tapestry with a two giraffes on it. It is large enough to make a twin quilt out of, so I will be busy sewing over Christmas break (Grandma, and Papa, I just volunteered you for helping me to tie the ties again…just like last time I made the quilt!). I made a poor attempt to work on homework before post conference for clinical. Then at 6:00, Carrie, Alex, Ashley, Brenna, Katherine, and I went to Gondwanas for two for one cocktails and appetizers! Carrie and I split our favorite strawberry colada and ordered nachos to share. We also decided that we should try a new drink so we chose a chocolate drink called, “Death by Chocolate” it was like a milkshake with alcohol…much better than a Dairy Queen ice cream treat! After we ate, we went to Captains for trivia. Only Kyle and Q were there, and they were very excited to see us to help out with the questions. We started the night with an interactive game of guessing heads or tails by indicating our choice by putting our hands on our heads, our “tails” or one of each to represent the two coins being flipped. Carrie won and she got us a pitcher of beer! It was a great way to start out the night! We rocked trivia (well at least the first half because that is when us girls left) and we were able to answer all of the questions but two! Whenever we knew it our faces would light up and we would get excited and Kyle would just pass the score card down to us to write the answers! At the halfway mark us girls decided to come back to pack our bags for our weekend away. It was a good day!

October 24, 2007

This morning Leslie and I were at a new clinical site. We are still working in the Mental Health clinics, but at a different location within the city, rather than outside closer to the townships. We worked with “Smokey” as she is known among our group because she sits at her desk and chain smokes while patients come in to see her. If she has a patient who is very upset, she will offer them a cigarette to calm their nerves. That would never happen at home! It was in interesting day in which we got to see the difficult side to healthcare; the side where you have to call and refer and jump through hoops to get anywhere. The process makes it very difficult for a patient to receive the help and treatment that they need. It was frustrating watching Sister B. (aka Smokey) have make call after call to help just one patient be admitted to a long-term care facility. We also made a visit to casualty (the emergency center) and that was an interesting experience all in itself. It is so strange watching different healthcare professionals (even nurse to nurse) not be in open communication and working as a team to provide care for a patient, it is an “every professional for themselves” philosophy here.

We were at clinical until noon and we came back, grabbed lunch, and headed to campus for our senior sem class. We had class presentation on our papers that we wrote so we were done with class early! I came back and immediately started on my teaching plan for next week when I have to lead and teach class. I went down to the desk of Langerry around dinner time, because we have a security system now in place. The doors will now lock automatically and we need a swipe card to get in and out of the building. Pretty high-tech! I have spent the remainder of the night working on homework and getting ready for tomorrow!

October 23, 2007

I woke up this morning and I had a nice long email from Alexa! It was so nice hearing from her and she made my day by sending a picture that I made for her in our freshman year (only have knowing each other for a few months!) Thanks for the smile Lex! Class was pretty uneventful, we had our Public Health class and Edith from the NMMU Nursing Department came and spoke about alcohol abuse and violence. We were done with class at noon, so we decided to do a quick run for a few groceries. No worries though I didn’t have to buy milk and I didn’t have my big backpack for things to get squished. I stocked up and planned my meals for this week and next week and we were on our way! Of course it had to be windy and it was so difficult to walk the last block because that is where the wind is the worst! I ate some lunch and Katherine, Ashley, Brenna, Kasy, Laura and I went to the daily market to see if they had anything good there…no such luck! One guy said that he will get me a statue that I had been wanting and looking for and he would bring it on Thursday…I guess I’ll just have to go back to check it out then. I came back and worked on homework and my two class presentations for next week. I made good progress and before I knew it, it was time for dinner (I made pasta salad with celery, chicken, green peppers, and cheese with Italian dressing!). I worked on the homework a little longer and then it was time for be!

October 22, 2007

Happy Birthday Beth!
Today I woke up and had to get ready for my long day of classes. We had our mental health lecture via DVD and I was able to get the reading for next week completed during the video! It was very productive! Then after class Carrie, Ashley, Alex, Katherine, and I went to grab a bite to eat before heading off for our two and a half hour break between classes. I stopped at the International Office to exchange a shirt that we were given and then I went to the computer lab. It was a sauna in the lab and of course there were no computers, so I had to stand around for ten minutes waiting for one to open up. One finally did and I planted myself at the computer for two hours to type my music paper. It was a successful time in the computer lab because I wrote the entire paper and the best part is that it is due in two weeks! Check that off of the list of things to do! At 2:30 we met Lestie and her husband and we made our way to the Townships for our music class. We went to the house of Dudley Tito a famous musician in Port Elizabeth and we sat in his back shed with this group as they played township jazz music. There was a base player (who’s base came from Sweden as a gift after he lost his leg), and trumpet player, Dudley who plays the saxophone, a drummer (who was my favorite because of his facial expressions when he played), the pianist, and a vocalist. They played many different songs, some in English, and others in Xhosa. The base player told us that the group had been together for over thirty years, and they teach people in the townships how to play the instruments. The also perform concerts in the surrounding area. It was fun sitting there listening and before I knew it, a dozen children were standing outside of the door to listen to them play. They would tap their feet along and watch the musician’s fingers dance along their keys and strings. We sat with the group for an hour and a half, and then we had to head back home. When we did leave there was a large crowd gathering to listen to the music. It was so neat just sitting there watching them sing and rehearse for no occasion other than enjoying the music and playing their instruments. We came back home and I worked on homework the rest of the night! Then, at 10:00pm I was craving bran muffins, so I threw some in the oven and I can’t wait to eat them tomorrow! Now, its time for bed with a little Harry Potter on tape!

October 21, 2007

This morning was an early morning (I went to bed at 2:00am and woke up at 6:15am!) but fortunately I was able to fall back asleep until 9:30am! The first thing I did was peak out of my window to see if the market was set up, since it has been cancelled for the last three weeks. It was up and running! After getting dressed and grabbing breakfast, Carrie, Katherine, Ashley, Brenna, Kasy, Laura, and I walked to the market to do a little shopping! Well…a “little” shopping is an understatement because I stocked up on gifts for myself and others! Carrie and I had to take a break to bring our purchases home and to have lunch, then we went back out for more! I was very excited because I bought three paintings! One is huge and so pretty! It is yellow with three women painted on it carrying baskets on their heads! It is so bright and colorful! The other two paintings are black, white, and grays, which are a little more practical and can match with walls much better! I also was very excited to buy a plaque of a township, and the houses are made from the aluminum of pop cans! I have been looking at them since I have gotten here and I finally bought one! We spent a good chunk of our day at the market and showed off our purchases for each other! I packed my gifts into a duffle bag for my carry on and it all fits (barely). After everything was packed away, I worked on homework for the rest of the afternoon.

October 20, 2007

Today is the 2007 Rugby World Cup taking place in France. The South African Springboks are playing against England. We were all excited all day long waiting until 7:00 when we could leave to go to Captains. To keep myself preoccupied with things, Katherine and I went for a nice long walk in the morning to the pier. We wanted to go a little further, but the wind was terrible! They don’t call it the windy city for nothing! We came back and went up to the roof, where I enjoyed the sunshine and listened to Harry Potter on tape! That is living the life right there! I spent the rest of the afternoon working on research critiques for my presentation and other papers that I have due this week. Then around 6:00 we started getting ready for the big game! All of us were decked out in our Springbok attire…green and yellow! We went to Captains at 7:15 to get our table which Alex reserved for us earlier in the week! It turns out that we had the best table in the entire bar! We were front and center which was perfect because the bar was packed! Everyone came out (including Denise) and Q, Tusie, Mava, and Garret were also out with us at our tables. We were an hour and half early for the game, so we ordered some dinner and drinks to wait! It was so much fun waiting for the game to start because they had the pregame show on TV and the atmosphere was festive and everyone was excited for the game to begin! A group of guys dressed head to two in rugby attire went onto the stage to start singing and chanting to get everyone hyped up! It was a totally different experience than what you would find in a sports bar in the states on the night of a big game. These people live and breathe rugby and they were so proud of their country and their team. At 9:00 the National Anthem was sang and everyone in the bar stood up to sing and we all sang along as well since we had learned the song in music! Right before the game started, we all celebrated with a springbok shot! The game began and everyone was cheering and clapping! It was so much fun sitting there surrounded with everyone who was cheering and into the game. The Springboks were the first to score and were ahead the entire game (usually only by three). It was so intense when England would score and was catching up. England had attempted a try (or the equivalent of a touchdown) but it they were out when he tried to cross the line. It was an intense few minutes as they refs were reviewing the play and many people were yelling at the TV screen. Brenna, Laura, and I were excited during this part because they zoomed in on Prince Harry sitting in his box seats! One of the perks of playing against the England Roses! In the last two minutes of the game, the Springboks were winning 15 to 6 and everyone was screaming and clapping! Then when the game was over, people were jumping up and down, beer and champagne was being sprayed everywhere! People were hugging, high-fiving, and dancing on tables! It was so exciting! We ended up going to Ultimate Sports after the excitement in Captains wore down and we danced the night away celebrating with all of Port Elizabeth! On the walk to Ultimate Sports and home after the night was over, the streets were crowded with people, cars were driving by honking and screaming with big flags hanging out of their windows! Everyone was so happy and excited! It was so much fun being able to be a part of the excitement and celebration and to be in South Africa with they won the Rugby World Cup!

October 19, 2007

So this morning was a morning that I could actually sleep in since I didn’t have class today. I didn’t set my alarm and was going to allow myself time to catch up on sleep. Apparently, my body has a new found internal alarm clock that seems to go off everyday at 6:30am. I tried to go back to sleep, but there was no use, I rolled over in bed and what do I see but Carrie also awake and rolling her eyes at how early we both woke up. We figured that since we were up we might as well start our day. I did a little bit of computer work and at 8:00 Carrie and I decided to go to the 7/11 to buy milk and bread. As we were walking we saw dolphins in the ocean and we decided to walk down on the beach to get a better view. We took off our flip-flops and walked on the sand down to the water. We watched the dolphins from a distance and walked along the beach enjoying the beautiful morning. It was warm and there was no wind…just a sunny morning. It is mornings and days like this that I just want to stay here forever! As Carrie and I were walking on the beach we came across two large jellyfish washed up on shore. We got really excited so we ran back home to get our cameras and binoculars. We brought Katherine with us and we took pictures of the jellyfish (or what Carrie referred to has “my squishy”) and we watched the dolphins. When I looked through the binoculars at the dolphins I was able to count when they would surface, and there were fourteen of them in the water! It was so amazing being able to watch them swimming in the ocean! We came back to the room and I put on my swimming suit and went up to the roof to get some sun. Carrie joined me and I was listening to Harry Potter as I was tanning and I took a quick catnap on the roof enjoying the sun! When I came back downstairs to work on homework it was only 10:45 am and I still had so much of my day left! I worked on two of my papers and my poster presentation and at 1:30 five of us went shopping! The psychologist from one of the clinics lives next door to us and offered to take us to the mall whenever she went there, so she called earlier today and said that she was going for a few hours. I bought two new belts, brown flip-flops, and a green shirt for the rugby game tomorrow. Tomorrow is the rugby world cup and South Africa is playing England tomorrow and we have a table reserved at Captains to watch the game on the big screen! All of us bought green shirts to wear for the big game! We came back from shopping and I have been working away on more homework! It has been a very productive day today! I hope that this early rising thing will continue when I get home to Minnesota!

October 18, 2007

This morning was the start to a long day at the clinic. I roomed patients and distributed medications for three hours, and at 11:00 we were done for the day. The problem was that our ride wasn’t coming until 2:00 to pick us up. So Leslie and I had a long lunch and we talked with the sisters and for the last two hours we were pharmacists and counted out prescriptions for the patients that are coming to the clinic next week. When I came home after 2:00 I had a quick snack and then we post-conferenced for clinical as a group. I spent the evening doing homework and working on the many papers and projects that are coming up next week.

October 17, 2007

This morning we has clinical and Leslie and I were at the mobile clinic again, and today went so well! We understood the filing system, I was able to chart, distribute meds and council patients who needed education on coping mechanisms, and how to deal with their diagnosis and symptoms. It was such a great day and an overall good learning experience. I got to be a “pharmacist” and count meds, write prescriptions on the packages, and double check meds and their administration. The morning went by very fast, and before I knew it we were leaving to head home for lunch. I grabbed a quick lunch and then we were on our way to NMMU for our political science class. Our class today was very interesting and we discussed Burton and Azar’s theories in South African conflict. I really enjoy our professor and the material that she teaches on. She is very unbiased and she explains all angles of an issue and she can explain things so well and can help us to relate to the material. We came home from class and I began research for one of the papers and projects that I have coming up (I have three in total due within the next week and a half). I will be busy with homework and research these next few days, but thankfully I have the weekend to work on things. For dinner, Alex, Carrie, Katherine, Ashley, Denise, and I went to Gondwanas and the weather was nice for us to sit on the patio to eat. Dinner was very good and Carrie and I ordered a strawberry colada and it was one of my personal favorites of the trip! We came home and I have been sitting in my room doing research ever since. Not too much to report and nothing exceptionally interesting happened today!

October 16, 2007

In exactly a month from today I will be done with classes for the semester! This is an exceptionally wonderful feeling because I had to take my public health midterm exam! I thought that it went very well, there were only 21questions with 2 essays that I had to complete, and I left the class with a good feeling. Hopefully the score will be nice and high! Our public health class was the only class we had today, so the rest of the afternoon we had to ourselves! Katherine and I went to Spar for groceries and on the way back, I remember thinking that this was the first time that grocery shopping didn’t make my blood pressure skyrocket! Well, I guess I thought that way too soon, because as we were a block from home, I felt something wet on my back. I figured that it was just the condensation from the sprite zero that I bought, but as we got to Langerry, my entire back was wet and my jeans were soaked through with some form of liquid. I reached behind my back to hold the backpack away from my back and I could feel a pool of liquid in my backpack. By the time I got upstairs I was dripping a trail and when I finally made it to my kitchen, I learned that it was milk! I was not a happy person, I emptied everything out of the bag and ran into the bathroom to strip off my clothes to throw in the bathtub to wash the milky-sour smell out of my clothes and backpack. I just can’t win on grocery shopping day!

After the spilled milk crisis was averted, I worked on homework the rest of the afternoon and Alex came in with good news…he was found a website where we could watch The Office season 4! We watched the first episode together and I am so happy that Pam and Jim are dating! Yay! Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was pretty low key, I made spaghetti casserole for dinner and just relaxed for the night!

October 15, 2007

This morning I was awake at 6:00am…what was up with that!?! I went back to sleep for another hour then hopped in the shower. I had the best of intentions to actually study this morning before class, but of course I got distracted and I didn’t do that at all! The test went very well, except the wording could get very difficult to understand and by the time I got to question 60 (out of 85) I began to lose my focus! My focus wandered the rest of the day and I couldn’t concentrate the rest of the day in the library to study for my public health midterm tomorrow! Brenna and I ended up talking for an hour and then we went and got coffee before our music class. Music was long as usual, but the video we watched was more interesting that most classes. We came back from NMMU and I have been doing homework and studying for the night! I ate the last of my pasta that I made for dinner, and I have discovered a new found love for green peppers! Now, it’s a little more work and then bedtime!

October 14, 2007

This morning I woke up and was all ready to go to the market! I had money to spend and my list of gifts to buy. Katherine, Ashley, Carrie, and I bounced down the stairs and as soon as we stood in the doorway to outside and we all stopped like we ran into the glass windows…the market wasn’t out there! We went to talk to Bongiwe and she said it was too windy for the market, so Carrie and I went to the daily market to have a look. I bought a gift for Brooke as well as statues for myself of a person thinking and a carving of a giraffe! I was really excited about my purchases! I spent the afternoon studying for my mental health mid-term. But of course I got a little distracted by captioning pictures and checking emails. I talked to Dad on Skype and it was a surprise to have Mom call my flat to talk! We were able to talk for about a half hour and it was very nice! In the evening all of the girls came into my room and we played the Mental Health Jeopardy game that I made as a review for the test! Creating the game was my way of studying and following the study guide that Denise gave us. It was very successful and everyone had a great time! I worked on a video that I am making, listened to a little Harry Potter on my computer (I love that I can listen to the books when I am sitting around and working!). Then it was bedtime!

October 13, 2007

This morning was the morning we woke up and I heard Carrie yelling for me to go out on the to balcony! I ran out there and saw in the ocean across from our flat half a dozen dolphins swimming and surfacing in the water! Every one and a while I could see their dorsal fin pop out of the water as they swam closer to Summerstrand! We took the sighting to be a good sign that we would see many animals on our safari today! At 9:00am,we met our tour guide and safari driver, Peter, and he drove us to Addo Elephant National Park. When we arrived at Addo, Peter began to give us the history of the park, which was enclosed in 1931, and it enclosed 11 elephants. That number has increased to over 400 elephants in the park today, and in the 76 years of the park’s existence, only two have escaped from the park. Peter explained that the families of elephants are led by a matriarch who passes along her wisdom to the senior daughters who will form their own families when they have grown. Elephants eat 200-300 kilograms of vegetation every day and they can drink 200 liters of water each day. Since they are taking in all of this food, each day they can produce 75 kilograms of waste! We had an amazing view of an elephant right off of the bat and it was right outside of our van. Their trunks are incredibly flexible and they have 60,000 muscles in their trunk alone (that’s right, I didn’t mistype, 60,000!) We drove through the park for about three hours and we saw over 120 elephants, many were in groups by the water, either politely waiting their turn to have a drink, splashing around, or wrestling beside the water. It was so much fun watching the babies trying to get in and out of the water! They would slip in and out and as they walked away with their mothers they would lose their footing and slip around! We also saw other animals like the leopard tortoise, kudu, many warthogs, and a dung beetle! I took too many pictures of the animals but it was well worth it because all turned out amazing! On one of our stops in the elephant park we sat and watched the elephants in the water and one came up to the van. It was so darn close! Then all of a sudden we looked at two came running across the road right next to us, but we didn’t even hear them, that is why elephants are called the silent giant! For this reason, elephants are part of the Big 5 animals in South Africa. The Big 5 in South Africa is not based on the size of the animal, rather hunters have created a list of the animals that are the most dangerous to hunt. The other animals on the list other than elephants include, the buffalo (the most dangerous), lions, leopards, and rhinos. During our day on the safari we saw four of the five (all but the leopard)!

Around 1:00pm we left the park for the restaurant for lunch. We ate a quick lunch and then we headed to Scotia, a private game reserve to see more of the animals. We (Denise, Katherine, Laura, Kasy, Brenna, and I) began the safari looking for as many species of animals as possible. We saw the warthogs, and wildebeest, kudu, Red Hartebeest (or the bikini bottoms as they can be referred to because of their tan legs and white bottoms!), the cape cobra (which slithered across the road), a yellow mongoose, ostrich, wild pig, impala, porcupine, springbok, and buffalo. As we were driving across the planes, we saw seven zebra grazing on the grass, we were able to stop and take pictures and after a few minutes they galloped away from us! It was so beautiful watching them. A fun fact that many people don’t know about them, #1 their stripes are unique to each zebra, and #2 they have black and brown stripes! After the zebra we went up a hill and saw a dozen giraffe eating from the treetops! We were able to get up close and take lots of pictures. Peter told us about the giraffes and we learned many things, such as giraffes have seven vertebrae in their neck (just like humans) and they never lie their heads on the ground (even to sleep) because their necks aren’t strong enough to lift it up again! When giraffes walk they don’t want with the opposite front and back foot but with the same together, and their tongues are 18 inches long! We continued on the drive and we came across two hippos lounging in the water! Hippos are herbivores, but they are responsible for the most human deaths caused by an animal because they will trample people if they are in the way and their mouths are very strong that they will clamp down on people when they are swimming or tip in a canoe! Luckily these two hippos were content to be in the water! They looked like rocks just standing their nice and still with only small parts of their bodies sticking out! The next animal that we came across was a rhino and we were able to get very close to him. I never really felt scared on the safari, until Peter told us that the rhino could tip the safari van over if he wanted to! It was a little nerve wrecking but he just kept eating away! When he ate looked just like a vacuum moving along the floor, inhaling the food!

After seeing the rhino we went to the camp area and we had tea and fried bread then we were back in the truck heading to the north part of the park to see the lions! On the drive we stopped by the pond to see Steve the crocodile, who we learned eats everything that comes into his pond, including the reserve owner’s dogs! We went up to the North Park and as soon as we started into the gates we saw the three young lions! There were two females and one male and all three are 20 months old. We were able to get very close to them, and it was a little freaky when the male lion would look right at the camera and almost stare you in the eye! One of the females was a little skittish and every time we would come closer to her she would get up and move away. Before we left the male gave a big yawn and I got a nice picture of him! It looks like he is roaring at us! We continued on in search for the male and father of the three young lions. We found him running through the savannah and we followed along side of him and we would pull ahead of him to watch him run toward us. We followed him down a hill, where he stopped for a few moments to pose in the setting sun (absolutely perfect!) and we drove along side of him down to where the springbok were feeding. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see him feed but it was fun watching him on the prowl. He walked along side of the safari truck and was within two meters of us and Peter told us not to make any sudden movements. It was very quiet and everyone held their breath to watch him! He came to a stop at the bottom of the hill where he laid down in the grass to entertain us for the next half hour. We watched him lick his giant paws and clean his front legs. He would yawn for us, almost like he was posing, and would look right at the camera. He was so beautiful as he sat there with the sun setting on him. His mane was so neat as if it was combed, and it would blow lightly in the breeze. It was so incredible sitting there watching him and being so darn close to him in nature. There was no glass separating me from the lion and yet he just sat there looking back at us and not caring that flashes on cameras were going off every two seconds! We decided to move on and try to find the last lion in the park, the three year old female. We found her along the Addo fence line accompanied by two male lines on the Addo side. So today we saw seven lions, four male, and three female! This female has been at the reserve for eight months and is still a little skittish of the trucks, so she would get up and move quite frequently when other trucks would arrive in the area.

The sun was beginning to set so it was our cue to leave for the camp to eat supper. We arrived and we were greeted with wine and other drinks from the bar. We sat around the bonfire sipping wine before dinner was ready. After twenty minutes of sharing and comparing safari stories we were served our meal of mashed potatoes, impala, chicken, carrots, peas, gravy, and fried bread. It was extremely delicious and I enjoyed the impala! We were served dessert and soon we found ourselves back in the safari truck driving in the dark of night through the reserve! Peter would shine his light so we could see animals and we saw a red hartebeest very close (almost too close…we almost ran him over) and before we knew it we were out of the reserve and piling into the van to come back to PE. I have now loaded my pictures and updated my blog. Tomorrow’s task on a study break is to label all of my pictures, but for now, I am wiped out…it’s bedtime!

October 12, 2007

This morning was absolutely beautiful! I immediately put on the swimsuit and went up to the roof to lie out in the sun and study! It was so warm and it was a welcomed change in the weather! Laura, Katherine, and Carrie came up and joined me for an hour and a half of studying and talking. Around lunch time we decided to go to Dulce for lunch and to study. The lunch turned into more talking than studying…but it was well worth it! I had a lemonade-chill drink with a cappuccino muffin! We stopped at a few shops in the Boardwalk before coming home and I bought a gift for someone special! We came home and I spent the rest of the afternoon studying for mental health. I was antsy studying and I was sick of just reading through my notes and the book, so I decided to be creative and to make a Jeopardy game for everyone to play and study with! Carrie called “the little professor” but it actually helped me study and focus on what was the most important information and key concepts! I am most proud of the titles to the categories because I tried to be clever and creative! I was telling Dad about it last night and he just started laughing at me and thought that I was such a dork…but then he joined in helping me brainstorm the title for the final Jeopardy question! Before going to bed I wrote a few postcards and emails! I was surprised to see emails from friends back home who I haven’t heard from in a while. Tomorrow morning is going to be a ton of fun because we are going on a safari! I can’t wait!

October 11, 2007

This morning Leslie and I were dropped of at West End clinic where we worked for six hours meeting with patients, discussing how they have been, and administering medications. It was a nice day because I was able to see many different types of clients and it was a good experience. We met with the psychologist at the clinic for about and hour and talked about the healthcare system and his role in the clinic. We took our lunch break and after lunch we sat with one of the nurses to do paperwork, organize medications, discuss substance abuse in South Africa, mental illness, and nursing school! She found our college experience and classes to be very interesting and different than what she had gone through when she went to school in South Africa. After clinical, we had our post conference, and it was difficult to concentrate because the weather was sunny and there was a windsurfer out on the ocean outside of the window. Finally, after post conference five of us went walking to get out and be in the sun. After we came back, the power was out (go figure, since it has been going out every day this week for about an hour and a half), so we decided to go to Nandos for dinner! We had spicey rice and lemon and herb chicken! Very yummy and only $3.00! We sat around the apartment and worked on homework, and then we went to Captains for trivia and a few drinks! Everyone was there (which was nice, compared to last week) and we jumped in on the last few trivia questions for the night. Laura and I decided that a double vodka and sprite zero is our new favorite drink and is cheaper than anything there! We all sat around chit-chatting and laughing and decided that we wanted to go dancing…but of course Toby Joe’s was lame so back to Captains we went for another half hour of chatting. We came back to the flat and heated up left over Nandos for a snack and we were off to bed!

October 10, 2007

This morning I woke up and was not in the greatest of moods, but after a quick breakfast and throwing my hair in a ponytail I was feeling a little better. We began our mental health clinicals today and Leslie and I went to the clinic where we were then brought to a mobile clinic to dispense medication and injections (the clinic nurses did this) and do quick assessments on the patients. During my two hours of patient contact, I saw about 15 patients. It was like an assembly line…line them up in the waiting room, shuttle them to the open chairs, grab the chart, unstaple the med packets, check the dosage, a few questions, send them to injections, and they were on their way. I would document in their chart and the whole process would start over again with the next patient. I felt a little overwhelmed with the charting because we literally were handed a chart and told to start calling patients. What made it the most difficult was when the patients would be talking to me in English and then they would quickly switch to Afrikaans and back to English! I do not like the language barrier at all. It gets to be so frustrating when patients and nurses talk amongst themselves and I can’t understand what they are saying and what they are laughing at. I feel like I am just hovering in a corner observing what is going on around me, when I am supposed to be actively participating. It’s just something that I don’t think I will ever get used to.

After clinical, we had a fast lunch and we were on our way to Senior Sem and of course it was raining outside! What is with our crummy weather!?! Ugh! It is supposed to be spring here, but I feel like I am in a Minnesota Fall (except I heard MN is having much better weather!). Class was very interesting, we discussed the basic human needs theory and how that was the root of apartheid. It was interesting and hopefully I understand it because I have to write a paper on it! We were done with class an hour early and then off to the computer lab to finally print my civil commitment paper that is due. That got finished and on the drive home we noticed that the stoplights were out…which meant that back at home there was no power! Thanks PE and their energy saving plan right at 4:00, prime time for traveling home from work/school! So, rather than reading mental health, Carrie and I sat on the balcony and she micro-trimmed my hair because I had horrible split ends and I cannot wait until December for Jean to do it (sorry Jean…I do have an appointment made for when I get home, but I just couldn’t make it until then!). I have spent the rest of the night doing homework and then the girls and I took a fun quiz for a break! Now, it’s an early to bed night because we have clinical again early tomorrow!

October 9, 2007

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad*Happy Birthday Ashley!

This morning Carrie and I were awake and moving at 6:50am! It is Ashley’s birthday today so we pulled out our birthday sign and blew up balloons and we crept into her room to hang it on the wall for her to see as soon as she sat up in bed! It’s a good thing that she is a heavy sleeper! Carrie made French toast for breakfast for the birthday girl and the rest of the apartment, then unfortunately we had to go to class! We saw the crazy Kombi driver who took us to school yesterday (it was a creepy ride…not only did it take us 25 minutes to get to class, the driver took a packet from his pocket and consumed a mysterious white powder, plus the kombi was just a pile…ripped seats and wooden boards holding the windows up) and he tried herding us into his kombi again this morning, but thank goodness another one pulled up and we hopped in there instead! We had a class discussion for an hour and a half and then finished watching the movie Outbreak. On the elevator we were talking and a girl in there asked if we were from the States and we said yes, and she asked us where we were from, and we told her Minnesota. She immediately smiled and said that she was from St. Cloud! She freaked out when we told her that we went to CSB/SJU! What a small little world! We all crammed into a kombi and we were home by 1:00! It is all rainy here today and very cold, I am very jealous of the beautiful weather everyone is having back in Minnesota!

We braved the rainy elements this afternoon and went to visit David at the Backpackers to book our travel plans in Durban! He worked everything out with us and booked a car and our backpackers for us…and the grand total for a car and rooming for a week is…$200! Not bad at all! We were hoping to do the entire trip in less than $500 and it looks like we definitely will do just that! After we were done talking with him it got be very excited to do the traveling!

Moving on…after I got back to our flat, the power in all of PE went out for almost a half hour! We felt that we were in the stone ages because we always spend the afternoon on our computers doing homework and we weren’t able to! But finally it came back on and we were able to get ready for Ashley’s surprise birthday party!

At 6:00pm the whole group (minus Brenna and Ashley) went to Primis to wait and surprise Ashley after she was done getting her hair done. At 7:00 (the hairdresser was running a tad behind) she finally came down all gussied up and we surprised her with all of us sitting and waiting for her! It was a bunch of fun and we all ordered drinks and great meals! Then we came back home and we surprised Ashley with purple (her favorite) and pink cupcakes and we all sang Happy Birthday! Q and Mava were even here to help us celebrate and it was a good time!

October 8, 2007

Today was the beginning of a long day. We had our Mental Health class, which means that we sit for three hours watching a DVD lecture, which is directly off of the power points and from the book, which also means that I get good “list making” time! I organized my VAT purchase list for when I get to the Jo’burg airport, as well as made a list of the groceries I want my mom to have at the house for when I get home, and I made a list of the things I had to do for the night, and I wrote a rough draft of a letter! Very productive morning I’d say! After class we had three hours until our music class, so I went to the computer lab and took notes for the next two mental health classes and read the journal articles I had to read for class. Music class was from 3:00-5:00 and I was dreading it as usual, but it actually was a very pleasant class today! We learned about and listened to Protest Music, and it was very interesting! I stayed awake and I didn’t look at my watch every five minutes! When we were walking to the kombis after class there were monkeys swinging in the trees and running along the sidewalk! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, since it is so strange seeing animals I see at the zoo running wild and within reach! When we came back home, I spent the night on my computer doing homework and I got all caught up and ahead in my classes. Laura, Kasy, Leslie, Christy, and I all sat down together to plan our trip to Durban, it was successful and we agreed on travel dates and places we want to stay at and things we want to see and do!

October 7, 2007

We woke up to pounding rain, beating against the roof! This was not a good way to start the morning because we had a tree top zip line adventure planned. We all crawled out of our beds and went out our rooms for breakfast. We had cereal and granola, oranges, eggs, and toast! It was very delicious! After eating breakfast we had an hour before we were due to leave, so Tonya, Alex, Leslie, and I played a game of hearts. In our last round I had a ton of hearts and the Queen of Spades. I had been getting trick after trick, and it was the last time around and my lead and I only had the Queen of spades…when I took the trick and started going through my cards I realized that I “shot the moon” so all of my points when to everyone else and I won the game! It was pretty exciting, especially since earlier in the game we were talking about how hard it was to shoot the moon! Anyway, we all ran in the rain to the Kombi and we made our way to the Tree Top Canopy Tour. We got there and we were given rain coats and we went through the harnessing process all over again. This time we were given thicker gloves, because their brake system is different from the one at the waterfall zip line…we had to stop ourselves with our hands! At the other place we had a handle bar that we pulled down to break and stop but this time we had to drag our hands and pull down with our palms to stop. This was a little tricky because it was very wet and rainy, so there was a few times that Johnny (one of our guides) had to pull the emergency break on us so we could stop before crashing into the platform and the tree! We went on ten different slides through the canopy in Tsitsikamma. It was raining the entire time, so we didn’t get to see too many birds and we didn’t see any monkeys, but there was one bird a Knysna something. It was a green but when it flew from a branch to a different tree it had beautiful red wings! It was so cold by the time that we were done and our jeans and shoes were sopping wet! It was so nice to be back in a warm Kombie without a wet raincoat. We drove back to where we were staying and we had lunch. Then we all went to change into warm and dry clothes, which means that I wore my pajama sweatpants, my new polar fleece that I bought, and socks with flip-flops! It was quite a comfortable drive and I read my book the entire time. I would sit there and look at how many pages that I read and I was amazed to look at my watch and see that we had been driving for an hour and almost home to PE!

When we arrived back in PE we all went into our rooms and put on comfy clothes, I brought out my slippers and got all cozy and situated with my computer and I spent the rest of the day blogging, adding pictures to my site, and checking emails. I called home and talked to Mom and Dad, and I also got to talk with Marcus and Aunt Sue and Uncle John as they were stopping over on their way home to Omaha! After we got off of the phone we went on Skype and we got to see everyone at home! It was so nice seeing everyone!

October 6, 2007

Happy Birthday Mom!
This morning we woke up and headed off to the Tsitsikamma National Park for a short two-day stay. Denny was our driver again, which meant that it would take us an one and a half hours to get there, rather than the full two hours! We made it to the Tsitsikamma Falls Adventure Park where we were going to stay for the night, and Greg (the owner), brought us to the bunk house and we were able to choose which rooms we wanted. Greg reminded me of Mr. Tikalsky because the looked the same…and they have the same name! Seven of us girls all piled into one room with two sets of bunk beds and three twin beds. I slept on top of a bunk with Brenna, Kasy and Ashley were below us, and Christy, Laura, and Katherine were in the three bed. After we picked the beds and dumped our bags, we went to meet Greg in the equipment room to get our harnesses for the waterfall zip line. Greg and Elliot, his partner, got everyone fitted and suited up in the harnesses and off we went with our hardhats, and gloves to the slides. Greg did a quick demonstration of how to operate the zip line (such as starting, stopping, breaking, emergency breaks, and what to do incase you got stuck in the middle of the slide). Lucky me, I was the first to go! It was a great time! We went over a stream and then we passed over three waterfalls. It was very peaceful swinging along the line, and I never felt scared or thought that I was going to fall. We went on eight different slides: 1.) Kejabooms was 96 meters long, 2.) Amber Pool was 89 meters long, 3.) Lizard Rock was 85meters long, 4.) Gravity Junction was 41 meters long, 5.) Otter was 94 meters, 6.) Rock Pigeon was 165 meters, 7.) Puff Adder was 211 meters and was the longest slide of the day and we weren’t allowed to use breaks as we were crossing, and 8.) Gravity Junction again to cross back on the other side of the waterfalls.

When we got back from zip lining lunch was ready to be served. We had chicken chowmein and it was delicious. After lunch, the clouds started to come out, so we grabbed our fleeces and we hopped in the Kombi to drive to the National Park for a hike. When we got to the park we were told that the hiking trail to the suspension bridge was closed due to a fire, so we were not able to walk very far. We did find a trail that led down to the water and we started climbing the rocks and waves were crashing all around us. Carrie and I really wanted to go into a cave to take a picture, but that required some skills due to the timing of when the waves would come crashing into the area. We had to time it in between waves so we could hop from rock to rock because when the tide came in the rocks get covered by the water! We ended up making it across, and Brenna, Kasy, Laura, Ashley, and Katherine followed! We all were posing in the cave for Brenna to take a picture and all of a sudden a huge wave came into the cave (in the meantime, the waves would fall four to five feet short of where we were standing) and this wave had a lot of power because it came right up to us and buried our feet in water! After a few screams and lots of laughing the picture was taken and we all had to time the jumps back to the larger rocks! We spent two hours at the park and then made our way back to our Backpackers to get ready for dinner. While we waited for the fire to get hot, a bunch of us sat in front of the fireplace reading and warming up. For dinner we had a braai with every sort of meat that you can think of! Alex and Christy were in charge of cooking the meat while the rest of us got other food ready. We all ate as a group and it was delicious! After dinner we all sat around and talked. We decided that it would be fun to play mafia, so I taught everyone how to play (Alison Frank would be so proud of me!). We played four rounds of Mafia and of course we all got a little too competitive! We had to call it a night before anyone else lost their tempter over the heated game! We crawled into bed and all said goodnight. I woke up twice in the middle of the night and had a flashback to my first year of college because Christy woke me up with her snoring!

October 5, 2007

This morning I had my meeting with Denise about my clinical evaluation and all went well! Carrie and I were in gloomy moods and she looked at me this morning and said, “I think that it is an apples and bread morning.” So I got the pan out and the ingredients and started cooking! It was a delicious way to start the morning. Then the rest of the day was spent on my bed doing homework. I worked on my online course for literally all day and the assignments are almost completed! We took a break around noon to walk to Spar, a new grocery store we haven’t been to, to go grocery shopping! First of all, it was way closer tan Pick ‘n Pay and it was way nicer! Much better selection of food, they had everything on my list, and it was so much quieter and calmer! I didn’t feel like I was in a zoo running from aisle to aisle dodging shopping carts! I stocked up on all of the essentials and we made our walk back home. I was in a cleaning mood today so I organized and cleaned our refrigerator as well as organized the cupboards (I am my mother’s daughter). I made spaghetti casserole for lunch and had the leftovers for dinner with some fresh baked cheesy bread from the grocery store. We had quite a few breaks during the day, the topic of discussion was high school sports and our coaches we had when we were in high school. There were quite a few good stories and laughs! I packed my bag for our night away in Tsitsikamma tomorrow and now it’s off to bed!

October 4, 2007

This morning we had our Mental Health clinical orientation. All of us piled into the Kombi and started the drive to the five different sights. The first that we went to was a private institution, which had beautiful gardens surrounding the big white house which was the hospital. We were given a tour and it was very nice and organized. There weren’t lines of people and crowds waiting to be seen. Unfortunately I wasn’t placed at this site and I was a little bummed, but no matter where I am placed it will be a great opportunity! We visited four more sites, all of which are public clinics and I was given my two placements. We will be working two days a week for two weeks at one site and then for another two weeks to the same thing but at a new site, in order to experience different venues of mental health. After our morning of hopping around PE, we came home for lunch, and a 45 minute nap before heading to St. George’s private hospital. At the hospital we were given a tour of the different units to compare it to back home as well as the public sector. We went to a medical/surgical floor, the ICU, maternal health ward, and the trauma center. It was very interesting to talk to the nurses on the floors andhear their insight about the healthcare system in South Africa as well as how the hospital operates. From the sounds of it, doctors and nurses do not have the best working relationship, especially in comparison to home. I think that it would be very frustrating to work as a nurse in South Africa, not only because of the patients you are seeing, but how doctors and nurses interact. After the hospital tour we had a post conference session and the rest of the day was ours. I made apples and bread for dinner and it was a huge hit and everyone had to sample it, which didn’t leave much for me, but it was still yummy! We got ready to go out for the night. We started at Captains for trivia, but it was empty! Then we decided to go to another bar to listen to their live music, but there was a R30 cover charge, and I was feeling particularly cheap tonight and didn’t want to spend $4.50 to get in and not like the music. So we went back to Captains for a bit, then Laura and I decided that we were in grumpy moods so we walked back home to just have some quiet and alone time. So I have been sitting here trying to just relax and enjoy some time to myself, which is generally a difficult thing to do when sharing a two bedroom apartment with three other people!

October 3, 2007

This morning we had a clinical site visit at the Motherwell clinic in the Motherwell township. The kombi was an hour late picking us up…flashbacks of our first day waiting for the kombi to take us to NMMU and coming an hour and a half late. Well, we finally made it to Motherwell and we met with one of their doctors on staff and he explained how the clinic operates and gave us a tour. The clinic serves 400-500 patients each day with TB treatment, HIV/AIDS and ARV medication, medication and injection dispersion, mother and child visits, a labor and delivery ward, and an antenatal clinic. It was a very well-run and organized clinic. We were able to see a four hour old baby in the labor and delivery part of the clinic! After the clinic visit was over we went back home to grab a quick lunch and change for our political science class. We were doing presentations on our papers in class. Katherine and I went first and talked about the Freedom Charter and the importance it has had in South African history. It was a nice feeling being able to hand in the paper and be done with it! We came back to Langerry where I had the best of intentions to do homework…but instead I started organizing our travel plans for in November. Then Didi and Alex came into our room to see if we wanted to go to a jazz club to listen to Didi’s friend play. Carrie and I said, “What the heck!” and we got ready and went out for a glass of wine and listened to her play. It was so much fun! We met a few new people; the music and company were very pleasant! We stayed for about an hour and a half and then Carrie and I walked back home to attempt a little more homework!

October 2, 2007

We started our morning with a wet and long Kombi ride to NMMU for our Public Health class. I am sick of the gloomy weather these last four days! Class was actually very pleasant today, although the topic was a little depressing (Bioterrorism and Disaster Preparedness) and we watched the first half of the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman, Renee Russo, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Patrick Dempsey…quite the cast! After class, Carrie, Katherine, Ashley, and I went to Pick ‘n Pay for much needed groceries…however that was a huge disappointment because they didn’t have seven things on my list! There was no Coke Light, popcorn, mozzarella cheese, pretzels, chicken, green peppers, braeburn apples, granola, and eggs! What is up with that! Those are pretty basic things at a grocery store! Oh well, it just put me in a crabby mood and to top it off I went to take money out of the ATM and it said that I had insufficient funds, however I checked my banking things and I have plenty of money in there! Oh well, it was a good day to just come back and throw on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt to just sit and write a paper. I spent literally the whole night writing a civil commitment paper on the process of involuntarily committing a mentally ill patient into an institution. I’m living the life! The highlight of my night was helping Erin brainstorm her Halloween costume for her last year at Madison! I also got to chat with Brooke online (finally), we have been playing message tag for the last few days it was nice talking to her and hearing about grad school and life in Lonsdale!

October 1, 2007

This morning it was back to reality as I had to wake up at go to my 9:00am class! It was a start of a very long day because we had our mental health class (which fortunately was over two hours early) and then our music class. In between classes Katherine and I planned our Freedom Charter paper for our political science paper. We then went to the computer lab where I had no trouble at all finding a computer. I parked myself at the computer for the next 2 ½ hours where I took notes for mental health for next week’s class. By the end of the 53 slides I took notes on, I had the worst writers cramp and a permanent pen imprint on my right hand’s ring finger! Our class all met Lestie (the music professor) at 2:30 because we were supposed to have an outing for class at the house of a musician, Dudley Tito. Due to the crummy overcast weather we had to cancel the trip and had class instead. I am beginning to blame everyone back home who has been asking me about the weather because up until this weekend it has been beautiful with only one rainy day…now after talking to a bunch of people this weekend and having them all ask what the weather was like, I didn’t knock on wood when I bragged about the beautiful sunshine! Katherine and I spent the evening after class writing our paper and it was completed by our deadline of 9:27pm! All ten pages are complete after spending almost 5 hours working on it off and on between dinner and checking email! It was really exciting tonight because Brad was on Skype and he sent me a message! I called him up and we talked for five minutes or so! It was nice talking to him and quite a pleasant surprise! Now I think that I am going to go and finish my Jodi Picoult book and get cozy in my bed because I can hear the rain outside…just one of those comfy nights!

September 30, 2007

Well today was an absolutely boring day! I was able to sleep in this morning (the first time in over a week) and I immediately started updating my blog! I wrote my journal entries to give everyone the details of the Cape Town trip. I spent literally the entire day sitting on my bed typing away to give the details of the trip! I think that there is an imprint of my backside on my mattress! I also captioned my pictures for the weekend, so I am up to date with all of my Cape Town adventures! I worked on a little bit of homework after the blog was updated then called it an early night by reading another chapter in a book for fun! Carrie and I talked for a bit and before I knew it, it was almost midnight!