From South Africa with Love

Cape Town Pictures

2010-05-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

I said that I would put up pictures from Cape Town a long time ago, but I never ended up going to an internet cafe to do it. I'm so sorry! I have some time today though, so I'll show you lots of pictures from the adventures I had in Cape Town!

Table Mountain dominates the landscape

We stayed at a college called the Bible Institute (BI) in the small town of Kalk Bay, which is about 30 minutes away from Cape Town

BI is only 150 meters away from the ocean! This is the view from the dining room.

We took the train any time we wanted to go into Cape Town on our own. It was really nice to have a station so close to BI.

We went to the Waterfront several times to eat or shop

We took a tour of a nearby township called Langa. It has a lot of government housing, but also many rundown shacks.

We hiked to the top of Table Mountain one day. It was a really difficult hike- an hour and a half of climbing up a rocky staircase. But it had the most beautiful view from the top!

We took a ferry to Robben Island...

...the prison that housed hundreds of political prisoners during apartheid...

...and Nelson Mandela's jail cell.

We also went to the Cape of Good Hope

We went to Simon's Town (near Kalk Bay) where there's a colony of 3,000 African Penguins!

A few of us went to a concert by the Cape Town Philharmonic. They were wonderful!

We also had the opportunity to pet a cheetah

Half of the time that we were in Cape Town, we stayed in people's homes in the township of Ocean View. Sarah and I stayed with the Daniels family. They were so incredible! I miss them.

The last great adventure that I had was shark cage diving! That's me on the top.

One of the 6 sharks that we saw

Cape Town was an incredible experience. It was extremely different from our time in Pietermaritzburg, but I was so glad that we were able to spend a long amount of time in both places. I miss them both so much!

Shark Cage Diving!!!

2010-05-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted anything. It's been really busy since we got to Cape Town. I did a homestay with one other student for the last week in a township called Ocean View. The family we stayed with was wonderful, and it was really hard to say good-bye to them today.

Also, yesterday I went shark cage diving!!! I went with 7 other students to Gans Baai, which just so happens to be the great white shark capital of the world! It was such an incredible experience! I wasn't scared at all! We saw about 6 sharks total, and the biggest one was 15 feet long!

We leave for home on Wednesday. I seriously can't believe my time here is almost over. It's really bittersweet. I'm going to be sad to leave this amazing country, but I'm very excited to see all of you wonderful people very soon!

Phrase of the Day: "hoe gaan dit?" (oo ghan dit) means "how are you?"

Cape Town!

2010-04-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, it’s been a while since my last post. I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to keep you updated on everything I’ve been doing. I was extremely busy the last three weeks and I didn’t have internet connection most of the time. We’ve finally settled down in our new home in Cape Town, so I’m able to blog once again.

I’ll try to catch you up on the last 3 weeks as quickly as possible:

3 weeks ago…
We nursing students turned in our big senior papers and did presentations on them. It was such a huge relief to be done with it! We spent the entire next day playing cards for literally 6 hours straight as a form of stress relief!

Easter Sunday wasn’t quite the same as I’m used to, but it was still nice. Apparently Easter isn’t a very big deal in churches here in South Africa. My church didn’t really do anything different that Sunday except start an hour earlier. I was a little disappointed that Easter wasn’t really mentioned much in the service. But after church, the Activities Committee threw a big Easter celebration at AE. We had a delicious brunch with all the wonderful breakfast foods I’ve been missing, and then games afterward. It was very fun!

2 weeks ago…
The following morning we woke up at 4:30 am to leave for our safari and Zulu experience! We spent the entire week about 4 hours north of Pietermaritzburg on safari and living in mud huts! It was such an insane but amazing week!

My birthday was that Tuesday, and I was on safari the entire day! It was so wonderful! I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. We went out in the safari jeeps 3 times during the day, so I was able to see elephants, hippos, giraffes, zebras, and impalas. Then we had a birthday party in the evening!

The next day, we went to a private game reserve and saw cheetahs! We were able to drive really close to them (they were about 15 feet away!) and we even saw one chase after an impala! It was so exciting!

In the afternoon, we traveled to the Zulu village to get a completely different experience. We stayed way up in the hills in an extremely isolated village. We slept on bunkbeds in round mud huts, used an outhouse, and had to carry our own water to the shower to fill the shower bucket. It was very different than anything I had ever done before.

The first night, a bunch of the neighbors came over in traditional Zulu outfits and danced for us. The next day, we went on a hike. The local medicine man showed us some of the plants he uses in his practice, and some neighboring ladies showed us their technique for making beaded jewelry. We also learned how to stick fight and use spears and slingshots! On our last day, we helped cover one of the huts with a final layer of mud. We had to mix the mud with our feet and use our hands to smear it onto the walls!

1 week ago…
The day after we got home from our safari and Zulu experiences, we had to pack up our rooms to move across the country to Cape Town. Unfortunately, many of us got sick that day from some sort of bug we caught at the Zulu village. I was one of the unlucky ones. I was so dehydrated from vomiting all day that I had to make a quick trip to the emergency room to get an IV. After 30 min of fluids, I was well enough to go back home. Another girl was nice enough to pack for me, so by the time we got on the buses the next morning, I was feeling much better.

We spent the week traveling across the country in a very nice charter bus. We slept in different hotels every night, and made a few stops during the day. 46 people went bungy jumping at the highest bungy jump off a bridge in the world! (I chose not to do that.) We also took a tour through the underground Cango Caves and visited an ostrich farm! I got to feed an ostrich and sit on one! I never in my life thought I would ever do that!

We arrived in Cape Town on Thursday, April 15. I love it already! It’s so beautiful with the ocean on one side and Table Mountain on the other! It’s strange to be in a big city after being isolated for so long at AE. But it’s very fun.

We’re actually not staying in the city, though. We’re staying at a tiny Christian college called the Bible Institute of South Africa in the small fishing town of Fish Hoek. It’s on the other side of the cape, about 30 minutes from downtown Cape Town. It’s right on False Bay though, so the water is literally across the street from us! It’s beautiful! There’s a train station (like the metro) 5 minutes’ walk down the street, and we’ve taken the train into downtown Cape Town every day so far.

Today we went to Hillsong for church! I didn’t even know there was one in South Africa, but apparently there’s a big one in Cape Town! It was pretty fun, but definitely not the type of church I’m used to.

Well that sums up pretty much everything I’ve been doing. I’m sorry I’m not able to put any pictures on here, but the internet is very limited and we’re not allowed to upload pictures. I’ll probably only do one or two more posts since I’ll be home in less than 3 weeks, but check back in a few days and I may have put up a couple pictures by then!

Word of the Day: I’m no longer in an area where people speak Zulu, so I’ll be learning Afrikaans from now on!! I’m really excited about it! So for the rest of my posts, I’ll teach you Afrikaans. Today’s phrase: “baie danki” (which literally sounds like “buy a donkey”) means “thank you very much.”

Greys Hospital

2010-03-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Things have been slowing down quite a bit over the last couple weeks here in Pietermaritzburg. We had our last nursing lecture on Friday, so all we have left is our senior seminar paper (the big paper every senior at APU has to write before graduating), a community nursing final exam (on the Saturday before Easter- how horrible is that?!), and two presentations. I've been working on my senior sem paper all day, so I'm taking a short break from it right now to post this.

The non-nursing students have been going to their service sites for the past 3 weeks. They go out pretty much every day of the week, from 8:30am to 4:00pm. Since we nursing students are done with clinicals, we get to stay here at AE. It's a strange reversal- instead of nursing going out to clinicals while everyone else stays at AE, now nursing are the only ones here. It gets kind of lonely during the day with only 6 people here instead of 53!

This past week has been pretty fun. On Wednesday, our nursing professors took us to the nearest hospital, Greys Hospital.

It's considered a specialty hospital, so you only go there if a doctor has referred you to see a specialist.

It's not much different than the hospitals in the US.

The nurses dress quite differently, though. They don't wear scrubs like we do. Instad, they wear white dresses and white hats, just like nurses used to a long time ago! We definitely stuck out in our blue scrubs, just like we do anywhere we go.

It's a pretty big hospital, but even so, most of the rooms are 6 beds to a room! I couldn't believe it! That was one big difference from the US, where even 3 in a room is very uncommon.

The highlight of the trip was going to the Neonatal ICU. There was a doctor there who was teaching medical students, and he gladly let us join them. They were trying to diagnose a 4-day-old baby who was born at 34 weeks. He has a multitude of problems and deformities, but the biggest issue is that he doesn't have very much brain tissue. Most of his skull is full of fluid instead of brain.

It was sad to see him and know that if he survives, his life will be anything but normal. It made me wonder why God makes some babies like this, and some are born completely normal and healthy. But then he looked up at us with his adorable baby eyes, and I knew that God still has a purpose for his life. He gave me so much joy just from looking into his eyes! We stayed with him as long as we could, and we learned a ton from the doctor in the process. It was a really great moment that I won't forget for a long time.

Now I need to get back to writing my paper, so I'll post some more later on.

Word of the Day: "lalela" (la-lay-la) means "listen"

Thank You!

2010-03-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

I got some mail today from the wonderful ladies at Glendora Friends Church! Several of you mentioned that you read my blog, so I just wanted to say THANK YOU!!! It was really fun to get the cards from you, and I felt so encouraged and loved after reading each one.

The envelope full of cards was handed to me whle I was sitting in my nursing class, while we were taking a quick break. I had fun opening the cards in class in between lectures, and then later on during the day. You ladies brough many smiles to my face throughout the day. : )

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your constant prayers and support. I feel so blessed to be remembered by you while I'm half a world away. You are such incredible women and I hope to be half as great as you one day. I love you all!!!

Word of the Day: "manje" (mon-jay) means "now"

Ethembeni Family Center

2010-03-23T05:51:00.001-07:00

Today was our very last day out in the community as nursing students. It was also our very last day at Ethembeni, which is really sad! I've fallen in love with that clinical site, especially with the Family Center, which I'll tell you about now.

The third and final part to a clinical day spent at Ethembeni is my favorite part of the day! After home visits, we get dropped off at the Family Center, which is just a house in the middle of a residential area. It was converted into a daycare center for kids with no parents, or kids whose parents are affected by HIV in some way.

Young kids (about age 1-5) stay there all day and are watched by caregivers. Older kids (about age 5-17) come over after school to do homework and play. All of the kids are fed lunch, and I believe dinner as well.

The center is a great place for these kids because it's safe, they're well taken care of, and they have mentors that help them with homework and life skills. I was told that they have about 70 kids enrolled to come to the center, but I've never seen more than about 30 there at one time.

There's not really anything particular for us nursing students to do when we go there. We just get to play with the kids! The caregivers are happy for the break, and the kids love new faces (as well as all the stuff we carry in our scrubs pockets). We stay for a few hours until someone comes to pick us up around 3:30.

Getting to know these kids has been one of the biggest highlights of my semester! They are incredibly cute and just want to be loved. They never run out of energy to play duck, duck, goose and soccer, be spun around over and over, or climb up the slide again and again. It's definitely been a workout keeping up with them!

I've fallen completely in love with 3 kids in particular at the center. From the very first day, this little boy wouldn't let me put him down.

He is the most adorable boy ever! He's about 2 years old, and he loves to cuddle in your arms when you hold him. He would never answer me when I asked "Ubani igama lahko?" so I just found out his name today. His name is Dinangwe, but they call him Tokelo. I'm going to miss holding him so much!

The next kid that I fell in love with is one of the school-aged kids. Her name is Andiswa and she's 6 years old.

My first day at the center, I was sitting on the ground with wild kids climbing all over me, and Andiswa just quietly curled up in my lap. All she wanted to do was sit there and let me hug her. The next week, as soon as I walked into the yard, she ran over and gave me a huge hug! She had remembered me! She wouldn't leave my side that day. I was surprised that she wanted so badly to stay with me since most of the kids her age just wanted to do their own thing. I played with her the rest of the day, and every other day that I went. I'm going to miss Andiswa the most out of them all. She's such a beautiful, happy girl!

The last kid that I fell in love with is Andiswa's little sister, Akhona.

Akhona is 2 and extremely malnourished. She is super skinny and as light as a feather. She's been improving a lot in the last few months, though. In November, she couldn't even stand, but today she walked all over the house while holding onto my hands! She can even climb up the slide now! Even though she may be smaller than the other kids, she still has quite a personality. She talks up a storm, and she's extremely smart. When we were doing medical assessments on her today, she watched me use an otoscope to look in her ears, then grabbed it from me to play with. To my surprise, she put it right back in her ears herself! I think she's going to be a nurse one day. I'll miss her a ton, and I hope that she's able to continue getting stronger and gaining more weight!

I'm really going to miss all the kids at the Family Center. I'm hoping to hear lots of stories about them from the APU students who come to South Africa in the fall!

Word of the Day: "Woza" (wo-zah) means "come"

Catching Up

2010-03-22T03:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I'm sorry it's been a while since I posted anything. It's been a crazy week! I'll try to just catch you up a little on what's going on in my life right now.

I was supposed to go backpacking in the Drakensberg mountains with the rest of the nursing group last Wednesday and Thursday, but I got sick and had to stay behind at the base camp. I've been recovering since then, and finally today is the first day that I've felt comepletely normal again. : )

This was me trying to decide if I felt good enough to go on the hike. A few minutes later, I was certain that I couldn't do it.

Things are wrapping up here in Pietermaritzburg right now, and it's making me really sad. Where did the time go? I can't believe that we've already been in South Africa for two whole months now! I'm not ready to move on to Cape Town yet. AE feels like home, and I'm not ready to leave it behind. It's going to be really sad to start thinking about moving on. At least we still have 3 weeks left here to enjoy it!

This is the last week of nursing classes, which is exciting. We have a lot of assignments and projects piling up that we'll need to work hard on for the next several days, though. I'm only 4 pages into my 15-page senior sem paper, and it's due in 2 weeks. I'm starting to get nervous about it now. Please pray that we'll stay focused and not feel too overwhelmed!

I've also been kind of homesick lately. I think it's because I was feeling sick, and so all I wanted was to be in my own home. I'm past that now, but I've still been thinking about home a little more than usual the past few days. Looking at pictures makes me feel better though. It's hard to balance thinking about home and at the same time trying to live in the moment and enjoy every second that I have in South Africa.

I am still very glad to be here and I'm having so much fun with the new friends that I've made here. We've become a family of 57, and I'm so thankful for the group that God put together for me to share this experience with!

Word of the Day: "Ngiphuma eMelika" (ghee-poo-ma e-mel-ee-ka) means "I'm from America"

Ethembeni

2010-03-13T06:58:00.001-08:00

The second clinical site I visited was Ethembeni (pronounced et-em-benny).

Ethembeni is located in the township of Mpophomeni, an extremely rural area. Many of the homes are simple mud huts, and the people living there walk everywhere they go.

There are tons of chickens and goats wandering around everywhere! Here's Brianna with one of the roosters that hangs out in the yard at Ethembeni.

There are 3 parts to this clinical site. First, the main Ethembeni building is a small hospice that can hold 4 patients. It's not a hospice like in the US, though. The patients are only there temporarily to get better, and they go back home after they've recuperated and gained their strength back.

We didn't spend much time with these patients when we were at the site. However, I was able to talk with one of them each day that I went. Her name is Zodwa. She is really sweet and told me all about her kids. During my most recent visit with her, she said she gets to go home next week! I'm very excited about her improvement. Here's a picture of us together.

The second part to Ethembeni is home visits, which is my favorite part! There are only 2 nurses working at the site, Sister Kathryn and Sister Louise. All the rest of the workers are volunteers. Some are from the church that runs the whole organization, and the others are Zulu women from the community. For the home visits, each Zulu volunteer gets paired up with either Sister Kathryn or one of the church members, and we students join one of the pairs.

We drive out to the patients' homes to visit them. Each Zulu vounteer is assigned to 8 patients. On Tuesdays, we go to all 8 homes and talk with the patients for a long time. On Thursdays, we only go to 4 homes, and we give them food that is donated from the church. We also have a short Bible study and prayer time. We then go to the other 4 houses the next week.

The home visits are really interesting because you never know what to expect! As I mentioned earlier, the area is very rural. The first day I went out on home visits, we went up in the hills where the houses are tiny huts made of mud and sticks. I couldn't believe that people actually live in them!

We had to drive on narrow, bumpy, dirt roads to get to some of the houses.

For one of them, we parked on the street, got all the food out of the truck,

and then hiked about a quarter mile along a narrow pathway through mud and thick bushes just to get to the house. It was quite the adventure!

We also visited a "child-headed household" that day, which means that both parents have died (most likely from HIV) and now the oldest child is left to take care of the younger ones. They were all at school when we visited, though. We found out from one of their neighbors that their house had been broken into early that morning, and most of their possessions had been stolen. I couldn't believe that someone would do that to a bunch of kids!

Another home that shocked me was basically a one-room log cabin. It had an outhouse a few feet away. There was one double bed, a tiny stove, and a small refridgerator in the house, plus a few things stacked up against the walls. That was it!! I couldn't believe that anyone could live with so little.

The adult wasn't home, but there were three young girls sitting on the floor, happily coloring and drawing. I was amazed that they could live in such a tiny, sparse place, yet still be so seemingly content. I will never have a right to complain about anything ever again after seeing how happy those girls were with so little.

Another home that was about the same size of this cabin, but was built by the government and so was much more structurally sound, had 15 kids living in it, all taken care of by one lady! The house had 2 double beds, a bunkbed, a table and chairs, and a small bathroom. The lady said that the kids sleep all over the beds, and on all the floor space as well. Wow.

We get to play with lots of kids during our home visits. At one home, the caregiver was an 80-year-old lady who was taking care of her 45-year-old mentally challenged daughter, her 22-year-old HIV & TB infected granddaughter, and two 5-year-old boys with way too much energy, one of them being her orphaned great-grandson, and the other was an abandoned neighbor. I couldn't believe the stamina of this granny!! I have no idea how she's still standing, let alone taking care of 4 people who are completely dependent on her for everything! The boys were at least able to entertain each other (and Chelsea and me) by playing together outside.

At another home, we met a 2-year-old girl who was so incredibly smart! She chatted nonstop throughout the visit. I found myself wondering what type of future she'll have. If she's able to get an education, then she will definitely do something incredible with her life.

On my most recent day at Ethembeni, one lady we visited served us hot mealies, which is just like corn on the cob. She was so generous in feeding us even though she had very little food to begin with. Another lady had a garden in her yard, and she excitedly picked some ripe peppers and gave them to us. These ladies barely have anything, yet they are still so generous and willing to share whatever they have.

I have learned so much just from visiting these people at their homes. Ethembeni has definitely had the biggest impact on me so far in the trip. I have no right to ever complain again because I have been so incredibly blessed. I just hope that I will always remember these lessons.

This post is getting too long, so I'll talk about the third part of Ethembeni, the family center, in a separate post.

Words of the day: "umama" (oo-mama) means "mom," "ubaba" (oo-bah-bah) means "dad," and "ugogo" (oo-go-go) means "grandma"

More Monkey Madness

2010-03-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

I know I just posted about monkeys, but today was an exceptionally crazy monkey day. I just wanted to share a couple more stories about the monkeys with you.

When I woke up this morning and opened my curtain, there was a monkey sitting on my window sill looking inside my room! It was quite the surprise! He watched me for a minute, then jumped down to go play with two other monkeys that were wrestling in the grass.

I kept watching them for several minutes, even though I was supposed to be on my way to class. There was about 5 monkeys total just playing and having fun right outside my window! It was a great thing to wake up to.

A few hours later, we went outside to work in groups for our class. We had to do a drama about our experience in South Africa so far. We decided to do the skit outside because it was such a nice day. Part of the skit was about the monkeys and how they go into our classroom during class. While the skit was still going on, two girls suddenly noticed some monkeys sneaking into our classroom right at that very moment! It was so funny!

Some of the boys chased the monkeys out and we went back to the skit. When it was over and the teacher started talking again, my friend noticed that the door to her chalet was wide open, and there were some monkeys lurking around it. She started walking over there to close the door when we heard glass breaking inside the chalet!

Several people rushed down there to get the monkey out immediately. It took them a few minutes to get him out because he felt trapped and started to panic. After they got him out, they found that he had broken a glass container that had tea bags and sugar in it, but that was all the damage. It definitely made for an interesting class time!

Word of the Day: "inkawu" (een-ga-woo) means "monkey"

Monkeys

2010-03-03T11:27:00.000-08:00

Being in South Africa, we've seen a lot of different animals than the ones in the US. The very first animals we noticed were a ton of monkeys!

They live on the AE campus, and they're as pesky, annoying, and dangerous as the bears at Quaker Meadow! Well, maybe not quite as dangerous as a bear, but they are dangerous.

It sounds funny to people in America, but the monkeys really are a big problem here in South Africa. They love to break into our rooms to steal our food, poop on our pillows, and just make a mess.

We have to keep our windows closed any time we're not in the room or else the monkeys WILL come in. One side of my window has a plastic screen over it, so I thought it would be safe to leave that side of the window open. I was wrong.

I was sitting in the hallway outside my room one day painting my toenails with the screen side of the window open, when I suddenly heard a noise inside my room. I quickly peeked my head inside and saw a monkey sitting on the top of our bunkbed, with another monkey climbing in the window. As soon as they saw me, the one inside climbed up to the top of the screen and paused, waiting to see if I was actually going to come inside and chase them off or not. I stood up and walked towards them, so the monkeys quickly squeezed out through the top of the screen and ran away. We've kept our window closed from then on.

Other girls in my chalet haven't been quite as fortunate. Monkeys have come into their room while they were in class, and they stole a lot of food out of one girl's care package! One time they took a bunch of chocolate, popcorn, and energy drinks!! I can't even imagine what a monkey high on an energy drink would be like! Another time they came into that same room and were eating the same girl's chocolate bar as she walked in. They dropped the half-eaten chocolate on the window sill as they made their escape.

The next day they broke into a different room in my chalet. They opened one girl's unopened package of gummy bears and ate all of them. When the girl walked in, she smelled the gummy bears, which made her want to eat some, so she was very upset to find the empty bag on her desk next to her laptop covered in monkey footprints.

Needless to say, the monkeys are menaces around campus. Not only do they steal from our bedrooms, but they also love to walk into the dining hall and steal sugar packets and fruit!

Monkey happily eating a stolen sugar packet

Monkey with a stolen banana

They also love to break into the trash cans outside our chalets and scatter trash EVERYWHERE! This is why they remind me of the bears at QM.

They hope to find food inside, which they are lucky enough to find quite often.

They also like to interrupt our nursing classes by climbing into the classroom through the windows! This has happened twice! It's a fun distraction for a second, but then we start to fear for our safety. We've kept the windows closed more recently.

The reason we're scared when the monkeys suddenly show up is because they often attack people. Most of us have had at least one encounter with the monkeys where we were close to being attacked.

I was almost attacked one morning on my way to breakfast. I was minding my own business about to walk up the stairs to the dining hall, when all of a sudden, a monkey appeared on the landing just inches away from my head! It crouched down and leaned towards me like it was about to jump on me, so I turned around and ran down the hill away from it. A sound from inside the dining hall scared the monkey away, so then I was free to walk inside and eat my breakfast unharmed. I hope to never come that close to a monkey attack again.

We've started keeping mace in our chalets so we can spray the monkeys if they come inside or try to attack someone. The staff of AE also have a paintball gun on campus for the purpose of shooting the monkeys.

In just one day, we went through 500 paintballs! And even after all this, the monkeys still haven't learned their lesson. Any day that the sun is out, we're guaranteed to see dozens of monkeys around campus.

Word of the Day: "qaphela" means "beware" or "danger." Q is the third and final click for you to learn. It's the one you would typically imagine when you think of clicks in a language. You make the sound by suctioning your tongue off the roof of your mouth. Qaphela sounds like "tk-a-pel-ah"

Mason's Clinic

2010-02-28T02:57:00.001-08:00

One of the reasons I was so excited to come to South Africa with APU was that I'd get to do clinical hours here for my nursing degree. I've always been interested in international health care and the differences between American nursing and nursing in other countries.

My missions trip last year to Haiti and the DR gave me a taste of what nursing and medical care is like in developing countries. Now, South Africa is allowing me to experience nursing in yet another country that is completely different from the US. I hope that I'll be able to use all that I'm learning and seeing in these different cultures to be a better, more culturally-aware nurse in the future.

We've been doing clinicals two days a week for a month now here in South Africa, and so we've logged 65.5 hours so far. We need a total of 78 hours for our time here, so were almost done! (And that means that I have A LOT of catching up to do on my blog!) The 6 of us nursing students rotate between 4 different clinical sites, with 1 to 3 students at each site at a time. The sites vary greatly in their size, purpose, and function, but they're all very interesting and great places to learn. Right now I'm going to tell you about the first site that I went to, Mason's Clinic.

Mason's Clinic is located east of AE in the rural hills above Haniville. The area is extremely poor, and there are tons of crude shacks built hastily on the hills.

The streets in the area have no street signs or markers, so you have to just memorize the way to get there based on landmarks. There are a lot of goats and cows wandering around in the area outside the clinic since it's in such a rural neighborhood.

I spent two days at Mason's with 2 other students, Brianna and Lauren. The first day I was with Sister Mhlongo (the nurses are called "sisters" in South Africa, which is based off the British nursing system). The patients that came to her had general, acute illnesses or problems. The patient would come in and sit down in a chair, and Sister Mhlongo would talk to him or her in isiZulu to find out what the problem was. She would then translate for me and explain to me what we could do for the patient. Next, she would choose the appropriate medication to give the patient and let me fill out the label and dosage. She also let me explain to the patient how to take the meds, since most of them spoke a little English. Then that patient would leave and the next one would walk in right away.

Patients don't have appointments at these clinics. They just show up early in the morning and wait in line half of the day until the nurse can see them. They usually spend at least 4 or 5 hours just waiting. I've had a really hard time understanding this system since it seems so unfair to the patients. The clinics in Haiti were exactly the same way, and it didn't seem fair to me then either.

In the afternoon, I sat in with Sister Carson and Brianna. They were simply handing out HIV meds to the patients or relatives of patients that came to collect them. This happens every Thursday. We then got picked up at 3pm.

On my second day at Mason's, I visited several different areas of the clinic. It's a really small facility made up of an old house and a modular building. (The modular is in the background of this picture of some kids at the clinic.)

There are 3 main sections to the clinic: acute illnesses (where I was the first day), HIV, and TB/chronic illnesses. On Tuesdays, there is also an antenatal room where pregnant women can go for check-ups.

I started out in the HIV section with Sister Gasa. We did basically the same thing as I did with Sister Mhlongo- assess the patients and find out what their chief complaint is, then give them meds to fix it. Nurses in clinics here are allowed to function like doctors. They can diagnose and prescribe meds, whereas in the US, only Nurse Practitioners can do this.

After tea time, I joined Sister Carson, my favorite nurse at Mason's. She is a wonderful teacher and loves to give us hands-on experience. (This is Sister Carson with another student, Chelsea.)

Notice the shoulder epaulets that Sister Carson is wearing. These indicate that she is a nurse. RNs wear maroon ones, the equivalent of LVNs wear white ones, and nurse aids don't wear any at all. The different bars indicate what specialty training she has received. Black is general nursing, green is community, and yellow is maternity. You'll also notice that she's not wearing scrubs (she usually wears a skirt, not pants). Nurses just wear a collared white shirt and a blue skirt or pants. That's their uniform.

Sister Carson was doing the antenatal section that day. I love anything to do with babies and maternity, so I wanted to see what she was doing. She let us feel for the baby inside the womb, measure the size of the patient's belly, and listen to the baby's heartbeat with a simple plastic cone. It was very fun!

The afternoon was very slow because there weren't many patients left to be seen. Most of the nurses and counselors were just sitting around chatting or braiding each other's hair, so I learned how to braid cornrows by watching them! We finally got picked up at 3, an hour earlier than we were supposed to leave.

I really enjoyed Mason's Clinic. It reminded me so much of the clinics in Haiti and the DR that I felt homesick for those places and the rest of my missions team. Working at Mason's also made me realize that I need to work a lot harder at learning to speak isiZulu!

Phrase of the Day: "Igama lami uBethany" (ee-gah-ma la-mee ooh-[your name]) means "My name is Bethany"

Downtown Pietermaritzburg

2010-02-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

After visiting the lions, we drove through downtown Pietermaritzburg. There are a lot of pretty brick buildings, but overall, the city looked a little run-down. I was pretty surprised.

We drove past several statues of important people, but the most interesting one was a statue of Gandhi.

We found out why there's a statue of him in the city when we stopped at the train station.

On June 17, 1893, Gandhi got on a train at this very station. He had purchased a first-class ticket, but he wasn't allowed to take his seat since he wasn't white. He refused to go to a lower class, so they kicked him off the train. This experience is what started his passion for active non-violence.

I don't know very much about Gandhi, but I do know that he was very influential and is highly respected. It was a crazy feeling to be on the same train platform that he had once been on. I never imagined that I would even be in the same place that he had once been, let alone in the very place that changed the course of his life!

We found out a few days later that Gandhi's family had been scattering his ashes in Durban that very same day that we were at the train station because it was the anniversary of his death. I felt even more amazed at this coincidence! Now I want to find out a lot more about Gandhi's life and what he did after he left South Africa.

Word of the Day: "Nxese" means "sorry" X is another click. This one is the same as the noise you would make if you were calling a horse. Nxese is pronounced nt-es-ay.

Lion Park

2010-02-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

After the Birds of Prey, we went straight to the Lion Park. I was really excited to drive through the park, where wild lions roam free. We had heard that the last 2 semesters who went in had lions attack their cars! I really hoped that that would happen for us too. It would be such a neat thing to see!

Needless to say, I was very disappointed when I found out that we weren't going to drive through the park. The two big vans that we have are being rented, and if lions did attack us and scratched or damaged the rented vehicles, then we would have to pay a lot of money. To be on the safe side, our CLCs decided that we wouldn't drive in.

The guards at the entrance gate did let us get out of our cars and walk up to the fence though! It was so much fun, and probably better than driving through in cars!

The guards let us stand right next to the fence, and when the female lions saw us, they slowly started slinking up to the fence. It was so neat to see them walk like that!

After they came to the fence, the males decided that they would come see what all the fuss was about. We had about 4 males and 5 or 6 females come right up to the fence. They walked back and forth in front of us as if just as excited to see us as we were to see them!

It was such an amazing feeling to be literally inches away from lions! I crouched down so that I was at eye level with them. They were such beautiful creatures!

They seemed so gentle and harmless because all they were doing was walking back and forth, just being friendly.

One of the males yawned right in front of me, just like my cat at home does. He had much bigger teeth though!

I really wanted to touch one, but I was scared. When I saw the guy next to me stick his fingers through the fence and touch one without the lions noticing, I decided that it was safe for me to do it too, so I did. I stroked her back after she passed by me, and she didn't even notice. She was so soft and smooth, just like my dogs!

I took a lot of pictures and videos of the lions. It was definitely my favorite moment in South Africa so far. I don't think I'll ever forget how powerful, terrifying, and yet beautiful, the lions were.

Word of the day: "ingonyama" (een-gohn-yah-ma) means "lion"

Birds of Prey

2010-02-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

Our first weekend field trip was on Saturday, January 30. It was a four-part trip. First, we went to a Birds of Prey sanctuary. Second, we went to a lion park. Third, we drove through downtown Pietermaritzburg and stopped at the train station. Then, on our way back to AE, we drove to the top of a hill and stopped at a beautiful lookout where we could see all of Pietermaritzburg and the surrounding area. It was a long, exciting day! Right now, though, I'm just going to talk about the birds.

The Birds of Prey Sanctuary houses about 50 different species of vicious birds. (South Africa has over 80 species of birds of prey total!) Most of them have been injured in the wild and are simply recovering at the sanctuary.

We got to walk around the grounds and look at all the birds for a while. There were owls, hawks, falcons, eagles, storks, and vultures, just to name a few.

After walking around, there was a show for us to watch. They brought out 5 different birds and let them fly around in front of us. The lady running the show was really funny and told us a lot of interesting information about each type of bird. She demonstrated some of them catching food in the air, and one bird walked around by our feet and found food that had been hidden between people's shoes! It was quite interesting.

We then ate our packed lunches at some picnic tables, and afterwards, we watched the vultures eat their lunch. It was a crazy thing to watch!

The vultures were so mean and picked on each other. They kept nipping at each other's necks while waiting for the food. One even flipped another over on its back by the neck! It was so crazy!

When the food finally did come, they all fought over each other's pieces and played tug of war with every piece until all the food was gone. Then they were perfectly civil with each other since they weren't hungry any more. I had never seen anything like it before.

After watching the vultures, we packed up and headed off to our next adventure, the lion park!

Phrase of the day: "Ubani igama lahko?" (oo-bon-ee ee-gah-ma lock-o) means "What is your name?"

Zebras!

2010-02-17T00:17:00.000-08:00

Now that you know all about the boring, daily stuff that goes on in South Africa, I'll start posting about all the fun and exciting moments I've had here so far.

My first exciting moment after starting classes happend on the first nursing day off (Wednesday, Jan 27).

I had spent the entire morning and afternoon working on homework assignments for my online research class. By the time I finished, everyone except nursing students were in one of their required classes, so 4 of us nursing students decided to go for a walk through the game reserve next door.

During our walk, we saw a lot of pretty trees,

and flowers,

and several monkeys hiding in the trees along the path (can you find one on the right?)

After about 10 minutes of walking through the reserve, Lauren and Chelsea suddenly stopped and said, "Shhh!" Brianna and I hurried up to them to see what they found. I was expecting a whole gang of monkeys which we didn't want to disturb so that they wouldn't chase after us. Instead, I was surprised to see this:

ZEBRAS!!!!!!!

None of the other students had seen any zebras yet, even though lots of students jog through the reserve every morning. It was such an exciting thing to find 2 zebras casually eating some grass, only about 30 yards away from us!

We slowly and quietly walked closer and closer, careful not to disturb the zebras. We were able to get really close to them, probably about 10 feet away!

Suddenly, another zebra appeared in the trees to our left and stood watching us for a while. It eventually walked over to where the other 2 were standing and nuzzled with the baby for a little bit. It didn't seem very comfortable with us being so close though, because it kept looking straight at us every 30 seconds or so.

We decided we should leave, and then one more zebra started coming out of the woods over on our right!

We watched for a few more minutes, then realized that it was almost dinner time. We started to hurry back to the AE campus, when suddenly a whole gang of monkeys appeared in the middle of the road, blocking our path!

I haven't shared much about monkeys yet, so let me just tell you that they are very dangerous and not nearly as friendly as they look. They enjoy attacking anyone who gets too close, and they seem to like chasing girls more than boys. In fact, one almost attacked me just this morning on my way to breakfast! Needless to say, we were scared.

We grabbed some big sticks in an effort to scare them away

but then a random man suddenly came jogging past us. We warned him that there were monkeys ahead, but he said, "Oh don't worry about them!" and just kept on jogging. We ran closely behind him, and sure enough, the monkeys scattered when they saw him, and we all passed safely by.

We made it back to dinner without any further incident, and with some great stories to tell!

Word of the day: "Ngiyakuthanda" (ghee-a-coo-tahn-dah) means "I love you"

A Day in the Life at AE

2010-02-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

In case you were wondering what daily life is like for me here in South Africa, I'll tell you!

We keep a vey busy schedule, and in fact many people are feeling exhausted already after only 3 1/2 weeks. The classes are intense because we finish them in just 6 weeks (because the second half of the semester is focused on community outreach). That means we're already halfway done with the main academic portion of the semester!

Weekdays are full of classes and clinicals, homework, and a little bit of fun.

Weekends are full of field trips and attending a local church, homework, and a little bit more fun.

Meals are always at the same set times. Breakfast at 7:30am, morning tea at 10:30am, lunch at 1:00pm, afternoon tea at 4:00pm, and dinner at 6:00pm.

Classes are different for everyone because there's 3 classes that are required, plus 5 different electives to choose from. For nursing, we have 3 nursing classes plus 2 of the required ones. My schedule goes like this:

Monday: Chapel, History & Culture of SA, Community Health, Ethics. Then a little break. Then Zulu at night.

Tuesday: Clinical from 7:30am to 4:00pm.

Wednesday: Free day! No class!! (But everything is due on Wednesdays for our online Research class)

Thursday: Clinical plus Post Conference.

Friday: Chapel, then Ethics until 4:00pm.

Saturday: As I mentioned, we go on field trips almost every Saturday. We've done a lot of fun ones already, which I'll do separate posts on soon.

Sunday: We can choose between 4 different local churches to attend in the morning. I really like going to them because it gives us a way to connect with the community, as well as a glimpse of South African culture. So far I've been to a predominantly White church and two predominantly Indian churches. All were very welcoming and very glad to have us. They were pretty similar to "typical" American churches, so I felt very comfortable at all of them.

It's a pretty easy routine to get used to, but it's also very demanding. I feel like we're always in class or on the go, but I'm not complaining. Our classes only last for 6 weeks (except for a couple that are 10 weeks), and who else gets to go on such amazing field trips every weekend? I wouldn't trade this experience for anything!

Word of the day: "Angizwa" (on-geeze-wah) means "I don't understand"

Pietermaritzburg

2010-02-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

The morning after our long day in Johannesburg, we went back to the airport for one last flight. We flew for a short hour from Johannesburg to Durban. As soon as we got off the plane, we were struck by a wall of heat and humidity. We could definitely tell that it was summer here in South Africa!

We then drove for an hour from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, marveling at the lush green countryside the entire way. We were thrilled to see signs welcoming us to African Enterprise (the name of the campus that we're staying at while in Pietermaritzburg), because after such a long weekend of traveling, we were finally "home"!

The campus is absolutely gorgeous with pretty white buildings on green hills, all surrounded by tall trees, a waterfall, and a stream. There's also plenty of wildlife, from the four cats that are pets of the permanent staff, to the dozens of wild monkeys that have become a huge nuisance on campus. (I'll write a whole separate post about the monkeys soon.) The campus is also located right next to a game reserve where we can go running or hiking whenever we want. We often see a family of zebras there!

There are 5 buildings that house the students from APU, and each building is split into 2 chalets (top floor and bottom floor). My chalet is called Festo (named after Festo Kivengere, but I have no idea who he is). My roommate is Brianna, who is also a nursing major. We get along really well, and I'm very glad that we're roommates!

The weather in Pietermaritzburg is wonderful. It's usually sunny and warm with blue skies and white fluffy clouds. A couple days a week, though, a summer storm suddenly blows through. The rain doesn't usually last longer than a few hours, so it's not too bad. Right now, though, there's a heat wave going through because it hasn't rained in several days. It's been in the 90s since about Friday.

All of our meals are cooked for us by the wonderful staff here at AE. They've been really good so far. The best, though, is tea time! We get a tea break twice a day- in the morning and in the afternoon. There's always Rooibos and Ceylon tea, coffee, and hot chocolate to choose from, along with a delicious snack of either muffins, gingerbread, cookies, donuts, or cinnamon rolls. Most of them are homemade! I never liked tea before coming on this trip, but now I look forward to tea time every single day! It's so wonderful to have a break during our classes when we can just sit and talk with friends and enjoy something scrumptious!

Alright, I think that's enough about the campus for now. Here's a few pictures so you get an idea of the paradise that I'm living in for the next few months!

The dining hall

My chalet (the bottom floor)

The view from my bedroom window! (That's a waterfall in the left corner!!)

The waterfall outside my chalet

The prettiest building on campus, the Prayer Chapel

This campus has already become home to me. I absolutely love it here!!!

Word of the day: "Cha" means no. The pronunciation is really tricky though, because a c in Zulu is a click! (There's 3 clicks total, all with different sounds.) For the c click, put your tongue behind your teeth and suction it backwards. It makes a "tah" sound. "Cha" basically sounds like "tah-a"

Soweto

2010-02-03T02:46:00.000-08:00

The day after we landed in Johannesburg, we went on an all-day tour of Soweto, the most well-known township in the country.

Our tour guide was a hilarious lady named Alina who lives in Soweto herself. She told us a lot of great information from a personal perspective.

We made several stops along the tour, including Maponya Mall that was recently built by the first millionare in Soweto...

...Kliptown, where the new post-apartheid government is now memorialized...

...the famous squatter shacks that people build illegally because they have nowhere else to live...

...Regina Mundi Church, which played an important role in the Soweto Uprising of 1976...

...we drove by Desmond Tutu's house and Nelson Mandela's house...

...we ate lunch at Alina's restaurant (which is part of her house), and some local kids danced for us...

...we saw a memorial for the Soweto Uprising of 1976, where hundreds of protesting youth were killed by the police...

...and finally, we visited the Apartheid Museum.

We saw so much in one day that I am still processing it all. It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. I had no idea that Soweto was that big and had such a variety of people and houses. I didn't expect that people would be proud to live there, but they are. They have been through so many struggles and are still going strong, and that really spoke volumes to me.

Seeing those shacks was definitely moving as well. I realized that I have been given so, so much, and that I need to use those blessings in some way to help people who don't have the privilege that I have. I'm now struggling with trying to figure out how exactly God wants to use me and the things He's given me.

Also, after seeing all the atrocities of apartheid in the museum, I can't believe that South Africa is as peaceful as it is today. I'm amazed that those who were oppressed were able to forgive, at least somewhat, and move on with life rather than demand justice. South Africa is definitely a great example to the rest of the world.

Word of the day: "yebo" (yay-bow) which means "yes"

Journey to Africa

2010-02-03T02:18:00.000-08:00

53 APU students met on East Campus at 2:30 in the morning, Wednesday January 21, 2010. Most of us didn't sleep the night before because there wasn't really time. I had started packing at about 12:15am, and with the help of my wonderful mother, managed to finish just in time to leave for school. It was cold and drizzling as we waited to load the buses and say goodbye to friends and family.

Several of the nursing students who had just returned from being in South Africa last semester came to see us off. They had cards of encouragement for each one of us new nursing students. I was so appreciative of their support and encouragement to us. It really meant a lot to me that they came!

We flew that morning from LAX to Dulles in DC. For the first time in my life, I slept during the entire flight!

After a couple hours in Dulles, we boarded South African Airlines and began a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg! They gave us 3 meals during the flight, and we each had our own individual TV screens to choose from several movies. Unfortunately, the movies didn't work during the first 8 hours of the flight, so I slept pretty much the entire time.

We stopped for an hour in Dakar, Senegal to refuel, but we weren't allowed to get off the plane. It was nice to have that short break in the middle of the flight. I watched a movie during the second half and slept some more. By the time we landed in Johannesburg at about 6pm, I felt like I could keep on flying for several more hours! It hadn't felt long to me at all!

It was so exciting to land in South Africa. We met Reg, the director of APU's South African campus. We sent our big luggage with Philip, one of the drivers for the semester. He drove it 5 hours south to Pietermaritzburg while we stayed at a hotel in Johannesburg for the next 2 nights.

Word of the day: "Ngiyapila" (ghee-a-pee-la) means "I'm fine"

P.S. Many of the pictures I'm posting on the blog were taken by other people in the group, not by me.

Where to Begin?

2010-02-03T01:36:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything exciting yet. There's been a lot happening to tell you about, but I just didn't know where to begin! I've been trying to decide what the purpose of this blog should be. To share all the adventures of my time here in the jungles of Africa? Or to talk about my nursing experiences in a new country and new culture? Or to tell how God is working in my life? Or a mixture of all three?

I think I've decided on the mixture idea. I don't tend to be a very deep person, so I apologize ahead of time if you're expecting me to talk about things deeper than what I see on the surface. I like to experience things like a child- wide-eyed and excited, then think about the deeper aspects later on.

I have a lot to catch you up on from the past two weeks since I left the US. I'll do a separate post on each experience so that you have short segments to read when you have time rather than having to sit down and read one long post all at once. Enjoy!

P.S. My goal is to teach you a new Zulu word or phrase in each post so that you can learn something new, and I can remember what I've been taught!

The last post's was "sawubona" (saw-bone-a) which means hello, or literally "I see you/I acknowledge you."

Today's word is: "Unjani?" (oon-john-ee) which means "How are you?"

My view as I type this!

Sawubona!

2010-01-31T05:39:00.000-08:00

Hello from Pietermaritzburg, South Africa!

APU's study abroad Spring 2010 group arrived safely in Pietermaritzburg exactly one week ago. It feels like we've been here a lot longer than that though! We've already done so much and seen so many things that I could go home today and be happy with the trip!

But there are so many more places to go and adentures to have, not to mention many classes and clinicals ahead. I have already learned so much from the people here, from the nurses, and from the cultural sites we've been to. I can't even imagine how much more I have to learn and to grow in the months ahead!

I can't wait to share everything that I experience with you as God moves in and through this wonderful group of students that He has blessed with the privilege of a lifetime. Check back frequently to see what's going on here in South Africa!