November 7, 2007

Today we had a site visit at Elizabeth Donken Hospital (EDH). EDH is a public psychiatric hospital and we were given a tour of their different wards. It was out of this world. The only way to describe the hospital is to compare it to a prison. Patients are locked in their wards (for their safety) but the wards are musty and smell of urine. The only things in the room are beds that are bolted to the ground, and the linens on the beds. They have isolation rooms which were about the size of Mandela’s jail cell on Robben Island. Patients were crying and banging on doors, the paint on the walls were ripped and chipped from patients peeling it off. I couldn’t imagine sending someone, particularly a psychiatric patient to that hospital.

After the visit, we had a quick hour long roof party where all of us went to the roof to tan! It was one of the most beautiful days we have had in PE! After our relaxation hour we hopped on the Kombi and went to take our political science final. It was very easy and I felt very good about my essays when leaving the classroom! One down…two to go!

Katherine and I went for a walk when we got back, we did the route to Pick ‘N Pay and we did it in 45 minutes (a new record for us!) We had a nice chat and the time went by fast! We came back and we grabbed Ashley and Alex and went to Nandos to get dinner! Then we all came back and watched the History of the Miss South Africa pageant as we ate dinner! At 9:00 we all went to Toby Joes for two for ones and Ladies Night! We sat around talking and laughing and then the dancing began! We danced until 1:00am before the last group of us decided that it was time to go home and get some rest! Our German friends met us at Toby Joe’s and they were on the dance floor dancing with everyone until we all left as well! It was a fun night! As we were walking back, a car almost hit us…but Brenna went all traffic cop on the car and directed traffic and the rest of us pedestrians across the street! This was probably the highlight of my night!