Last day in Cape Town and South Africa!! This is the craziest. We woke up early and went to Jooste to say our last goodbyes to Estelle. We brought her chocolates and talked for a while, and it was so nice. I’m going to miss her; she was the cutest thing ever! Then we headed to the consulate to pick up Miles replacement emergency passport—talk about being last minute. Luckily it was there waiting for him, or that would have been bad news poor Miles. On the way into town, there were some underwear shops that we stopped in and checked out, and then headed to Green Square Market. We had a funny little incident here—one of the sellers were asking us wehre we were from, and Miles said “From far far away”, and he asked again, so Miles stuttered out “Canada” instead of the United States, because the sellers tend to give us US tourists a lot higher prices and give us more trouble. The guy looked at us confused, so Miles said, “you know, Vancouver, Winter Olympics??” it was the funniest thing. He still didn’t know what we were talking about…
After our craft shopping, we drove back to Vangate mall across from our house to pick up some spices that Joan used in the koeksisters that we wanted to make sure we had. We used the internet for a bit, and picked up a few other things we wanted. On the way out, we ran into Colleen—the lady from the beginning of our trip that gave us the historical tour of Cape Town. I was so glad, because I liked her a lot and wanted the opportunity to see her again before we left. It was so great.
We got home and prepared to go out on the town (: lol not that seriously, but we wanted to go to Camps Bay. We went to this cute little restaurant called Paranga for dinner. It was very lovely. For our starter, we had Ostrich with blueberry risotto; Miles told me this was my revenge opportunity lol. Ostrich is quiet yummy though. For dinner I had this amazing fruit and vegetable salad that was amazingly light and healthy tasting. It was so good because firstly I love food like that, and I haven’t had it for like 11 weeks! I’ve only eaten heavy foods, so it was incredible and I felt so good afterwards. It was a nice little goodbye Cape Town dinner. I can’t believe that tomorrow is my last day here. I’m sort of in shock.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Last Work Day
Today was our last working day in G.F. Jooste hospital. How crazy is that? And there was nothing going on. All of the surgeons were either sitting in the waiting room in theatre talking with nothing to do, or were up in the staff lounge doing the same thing. So, we left early. We were just sitting there anyhow. We got pictures with Estelle, the site supervisor for us at Jooste, and with uncle as he dropped us off for the last time. We are going to go back tomorrow quickly to give Estelle some chocolates and to say goodbye to a couple other people we were fond of before we leave Cape Town for good. I can’t believe that this ten week stint is nearly over. I have two days until I leave for home. I am so thrilled, yet sad at the same time. I think I’m more excited though, than anything else.
Miles and I headed to pick up our rental and went to our final meeting with Avril and Marion. We had such a nice time; I am going to miss them! They are picking up some of the new students at the same time as Miles and I have to be there for our flights, so we will say our final goodbyes there at the airport. After our meeting, we went to the waterfront and had dinner at this restaurant called Melissa’s; it was so good! Anella, a former intern that I met with before I came, had told us this was one of her favorite spots. It was incredibly good—she was so right. We tried to look for a few world cup things for Miles’ sister (she decided to ask him for something two days before we left…) but had no success. Upon arrival home, Miles told me he hadn’t even started packing yet!! So, me being the nice one (: hehe I went over and helped him. That went late into the night, but we (or I) finally finished and had an amazing sleep.
Miles and I headed to pick up our rental and went to our final meeting with Avril and Marion. We had such a nice time; I am going to miss them! They are picking up some of the new students at the same time as Miles and I have to be there for our flights, so we will say our final goodbyes there at the airport. After our meeting, we went to the waterfront and had dinner at this restaurant called Melissa’s; it was so good! Anella, a former intern that I met with before I came, had told us this was one of her favorite spots. It was incredibly good—she was so right. We tried to look for a few world cup things for Miles’ sister (she decided to ask him for something two days before we left…) but had no success. Upon arrival home, Miles told me he hadn’t even started packing yet!! So, me being the nice one (: hehe I went over and helped him. That went late into the night, but we (or I) finally finished and had an amazing sleep.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Prayer Call hehe
When we got to work this morning, Miles told me that he was awoken at 6:20-ish am by prayer call, and I realized that I have never spoken about it!! Because there is such a heavy Muslim population here in South Africa, some parts of town have loudspeakers on the outside of buildings that are very loud and make it known when it is time to pray. The man that comes over the loudspeaker is almost chanting in Arabic, and I believe it’s a recording because five times a day when it’s prayer time, the same exact chant comes over the city. It’s quite annoying actually. There isn’t even a loudspeaker in our neighborhood (it was banned lol)—the closest one is like a three minute drive away and you can STILL hear it!! We can hear it in the hospital while we work too. I would die if it was next door to my house.
Across the street, the Vangate mall is Muslim owned, so ever restaurant in the mall has to be strictly halaal, which pretty much means Muslim-friendly or non-pork serving. It’s surprising that huge chain restaurants will change their menus for the sake of running their business in places like this, but they do. At one of our favorites, Mugg & Bean, instead of serving bacon on certain items in their menu, they serve “Macon” in Vangate, and truthfully, Miles and I have absolutely no idea what that’s even supposed to mean. It sounds gross though so we avoid it haha.
Since nothing too eventful was going on in orthopedic surgery besides plate and screw removals, we decided to peak into general surgery. A man was already on the table when we arrived. He was a 76 year old man that had had his leg amputated a few years prior to the operation because of sepsis. He was getting a debridement done, and then was stitched back together. I guess whenever you have an amputation done because of something like sepsis, they periodically cut open the leg where it looks infected, and burn all of the infectious or possibly infectious areas away to keep it ‘clean’ and then stitch him back together. It sounds terrible. His whole leg came off in the amputation too—he didn’t even have a nub, it was chopped off from the hipbone, so when I first came in I actually thought they were operating on his lower abdomen.
After the debridement was complete, the gynecologist came in to do some evacuations—he actually had three lined up but we only watched one. I didn’t even know what that meant before the surgery. I had to ask the doctor who explained to me that after a miscarriage, they have to remove all of the blood clots, tissues, and ‘debris’ left behind to avoid infection and sepsis. It was kind of sad to see, but I think it was interesting and good for me to experience at least once. The rest of the day was quite dull and uneventful.
Miles came over after work again, and Joan made us curry (the first one I have had since Durban, and it’s slightly different), rootie, and homemade salsa. It was SO yummy! She’s such a good cook, and she’s so cute! Miles and I were peering over her shoulder trying to learn how she was making everything and she explained it all to us in detail. She so goofy and sweet, I’m going to miss her a lot!
Across the street, the Vangate mall is Muslim owned, so ever restaurant in the mall has to be strictly halaal, which pretty much means Muslim-friendly or non-pork serving. It’s surprising that huge chain restaurants will change their menus for the sake of running their business in places like this, but they do. At one of our favorites, Mugg & Bean, instead of serving bacon on certain items in their menu, they serve “Macon” in Vangate, and truthfully, Miles and I have absolutely no idea what that’s even supposed to mean. It sounds gross though so we avoid it haha.
Since nothing too eventful was going on in orthopedic surgery besides plate and screw removals, we decided to peak into general surgery. A man was already on the table when we arrived. He was a 76 year old man that had had his leg amputated a few years prior to the operation because of sepsis. He was getting a debridement done, and then was stitched back together. I guess whenever you have an amputation done because of something like sepsis, they periodically cut open the leg where it looks infected, and burn all of the infectious or possibly infectious areas away to keep it ‘clean’ and then stitch him back together. It sounds terrible. His whole leg came off in the amputation too—he didn’t even have a nub, it was chopped off from the hipbone, so when I first came in I actually thought they were operating on his lower abdomen.
After the debridement was complete, the gynecologist came in to do some evacuations—he actually had three lined up but we only watched one. I didn’t even know what that meant before the surgery. I had to ask the doctor who explained to me that after a miscarriage, they have to remove all of the blood clots, tissues, and ‘debris’ left behind to avoid infection and sepsis. It was kind of sad to see, but I think it was interesting and good for me to experience at least once. The rest of the day was quite dull and uneventful.
Miles came over after work again, and Joan made us curry (the first one I have had since Durban, and it’s slightly different), rootie, and homemade salsa. It was SO yummy! She’s such a good cook, and she’s so cute! Miles and I were peering over her shoulder trying to learn how she was making everything and she explained it all to us in detail. She so goofy and sweet, I’m going to miss her a lot!
Shoulder Reconstruction & "Spaghetti"
I’ve noticed that I have gotten into the habit of not wearing a seatbelt in most cases because almost no cars have seatbelts (or functioning ones) in the back seats. In our rental I always wear a seatbelt, but other than that I never can because I am in the back seat. It’s crazy the things that change when you are elsewhere; at home I am a seatbelt Nazi.
Today was my exciting orthopedic surgery scrub in day, and my surgery was so cool!! As soon as I arrived I was sent to scrub in, and we were doing a shoulder reconstruction surgery. The patient had chronic and constant dislocations so he needed his shoulder muscles to be moved around so that it would keep his shoulder bone in the proper place. I learned how to properly scrub in sterilely and then we started the operation. The surgeons I worked with, Dr. Rowe (aka “boss”) and Earnest were amazing. I have observed them over the past little while and really really like them. Earnest finished his internship in January and was trained by Dr. Rowe, so they have had a long relationship. Dr. Rowe is very praiseful and consistently complimented Earnest on his work during the procedure, which I think is great and much needed in order to build confidence in your abilities. I think that most tend to point out all of the mistakes instead of all of the strengths, which doesn’t help at all. So, I was really happy about how this was working out.
For most of the procedure I was holding a tool that held the muscles back so that Earnest could work and see in the area below it. I also held a tool that they put around the head of the shoulder bone to keep it in the correct place while they were preparing the muscles and tendons around it. My arm was SO sore because of the amount of force I had to exhibit for the tool to do the job it needed. The procedure was about two or three hours long, so my arm was dead that night. As they were progressing in the surgery, they would point out what they were working on and show me what everything was, and let me feel and help out. It was so cool. I also helped with the flushing and suctioning of the blood coming out of the open wound, among tons of other things. I also discovered that cauterizing muscles and tendons is the worst smell in the world.
During the procedure I accidentally became unsterile. I did this because my face mask was coming up and getting into my eyes and without thinking I used my forearm to pull it down a little bit, but my mask is unsterile so I had to rescrub in the middle of the surgery to continue. I thought Dr. Rowe would be mad, but he joked that this would just give me more scrubbing practice. After the long surgery, I helped Earnest stitch the muscles into place, and then stitch the man’s shoulder back together. It was so cool being this close to the procedure. Both Earnest and Dr. Rowe praised me for my help and good work afterwards as well, which was so nice of them to do.
The next patient was a 14 year old boy who needed his wrist to pretty much be stretched and repositioned, which is too painful to do awake. This is called a reduction. So, they brought him into surgery where they can put him to sleep for ten minutes to do the procedure. Earnest let Miles do the work. It required a lot of strength and my arm was exhausted so I was happy that Miles was doing it and not me. He was told what to do, and did it perfectly. Then Miles put the pop on, which he never did in orthopedics like Lauren and I did, so it was good experience for him.
The last surgery was an ankle reconstruction surgery, and a bad one. The man had broken his tibia and fibula two years ago from jumping out of a building running away from the owner or something like that. He was put into a Hoffman exoskeleton and then had surgery to get the bones fixed, but something went horribly wrong in the process because the bone is worse now than it was when he first broke it. It was noticeably broken; the bone was practically pushing out of his skin, and the x-ray was horrendous. It was going to be a long and gruesome operation. Miles scrubbed in for this one as well. To get this man sorted, they broke the other bone completely in half so that the only thing connecting his foot to his body was skin. They had to remove all of the bone that had tried to grow over the past two years, as well as the pieces that had become septic or dead, and then shorten it to be put back together. While trying to remove all of the bone growth and sepsis, it was easier position wise for them to bend the foot practically behind the leg so that the bone was fully exposed. The foot should obviously never normally be able to reach the point it did, so it was totally weird to see. It was incredibly grotesque but very interesting. Miles was still in surgery when uncle had arrived to pick us up, and he couldn’t leave in the middle; he was helping! So I left with uncle and Miles was going to be picked up later when the surgery was complete.
Miles was dropped off at my house when he was done and told me all about the rest of the procedure that I missed. It apparently took a long time to get the bone fixed enough to put back into place. One they finally did, they had to put a plate and nails in to secure it all. Earnest has the biggest arms I have ever seen; he looks like a rugby player, and apparently while trying to reshape the plate, he snapped the wrench in half. Who does that?!? I have never heard of anybody being able to do such a thing, and everyone in the operating room was in shock that he actually did it. How crazy is that. But, they found something else to do the job, and then secured the plate in his leg. At the end, his leg ended up being quite a bit shorter than his other, but that’s the only way they could fix it. All of the good bone they took out of his leg was kept for bone grafting if he might need it later. What a crazy operation.
During the day, I talked with the radiology technician a bit because he immediately recognized that we were from the States through our accents and told us that he has been to Oregon. I was really curious why he went to Oregon out of everywhere more famously world know to visit, so I asked and he had quite an interesting story. He worked for adidas and was doing a conference there (the adidas headquarters is in Oregon) because they were trying to get the South African soccer team to be sponsored by adidas instead of Nike as they currently were. He also apparently won an award for best presenter in the company or something along those lines, and I found out he is one of the inauguration speakers for the World Cup. Is that not the craziest run-in ever?? Who would have thought I would meet somebody like that in Cape Town’s gang yard hospital surgery theatre. You truly never know who you will run into.
For dinner, Joan told Miles and I that she was making spaghetti and I was sooo excited. Anything “American” sounds so incredible since I haven’t eaten anything of the like for practically three months. Miles was just as excited as I. When we sat down at the table, there was a pot of spaghetti as well as a pot of rice…Joan served us rice with spaghetti on top. Even foods we are familiar with come in such an unfamiliar way here haha. Oh, South Africa...
Today was my exciting orthopedic surgery scrub in day, and my surgery was so cool!! As soon as I arrived I was sent to scrub in, and we were doing a shoulder reconstruction surgery. The patient had chronic and constant dislocations so he needed his shoulder muscles to be moved around so that it would keep his shoulder bone in the proper place. I learned how to properly scrub in sterilely and then we started the operation. The surgeons I worked with, Dr. Rowe (aka “boss”) and Earnest were amazing. I have observed them over the past little while and really really like them. Earnest finished his internship in January and was trained by Dr. Rowe, so they have had a long relationship. Dr. Rowe is very praiseful and consistently complimented Earnest on his work during the procedure, which I think is great and much needed in order to build confidence in your abilities. I think that most tend to point out all of the mistakes instead of all of the strengths, which doesn’t help at all. So, I was really happy about how this was working out.
For most of the procedure I was holding a tool that held the muscles back so that Earnest could work and see in the area below it. I also held a tool that they put around the head of the shoulder bone to keep it in the correct place while they were preparing the muscles and tendons around it. My arm was SO sore because of the amount of force I had to exhibit for the tool to do the job it needed. The procedure was about two or three hours long, so my arm was dead that night. As they were progressing in the surgery, they would point out what they were working on and show me what everything was, and let me feel and help out. It was so cool. I also helped with the flushing and suctioning of the blood coming out of the open wound, among tons of other things. I also discovered that cauterizing muscles and tendons is the worst smell in the world.
During the procedure I accidentally became unsterile. I did this because my face mask was coming up and getting into my eyes and without thinking I used my forearm to pull it down a little bit, but my mask is unsterile so I had to rescrub in the middle of the surgery to continue. I thought Dr. Rowe would be mad, but he joked that this would just give me more scrubbing practice. After the long surgery, I helped Earnest stitch the muscles into place, and then stitch the man’s shoulder back together. It was so cool being this close to the procedure. Both Earnest and Dr. Rowe praised me for my help and good work afterwards as well, which was so nice of them to do.
The next patient was a 14 year old boy who needed his wrist to pretty much be stretched and repositioned, which is too painful to do awake. This is called a reduction. So, they brought him into surgery where they can put him to sleep for ten minutes to do the procedure. Earnest let Miles do the work. It required a lot of strength and my arm was exhausted so I was happy that Miles was doing it and not me. He was told what to do, and did it perfectly. Then Miles put the pop on, which he never did in orthopedics like Lauren and I did, so it was good experience for him.
The last surgery was an ankle reconstruction surgery, and a bad one. The man had broken his tibia and fibula two years ago from jumping out of a building running away from the owner or something like that. He was put into a Hoffman exoskeleton and then had surgery to get the bones fixed, but something went horribly wrong in the process because the bone is worse now than it was when he first broke it. It was noticeably broken; the bone was practically pushing out of his skin, and the x-ray was horrendous. It was going to be a long and gruesome operation. Miles scrubbed in for this one as well. To get this man sorted, they broke the other bone completely in half so that the only thing connecting his foot to his body was skin. They had to remove all of the bone that had tried to grow over the past two years, as well as the pieces that had become septic or dead, and then shorten it to be put back together. While trying to remove all of the bone growth and sepsis, it was easier position wise for them to bend the foot practically behind the leg so that the bone was fully exposed. The foot should obviously never normally be able to reach the point it did, so it was totally weird to see. It was incredibly grotesque but very interesting. Miles was still in surgery when uncle had arrived to pick us up, and he couldn’t leave in the middle; he was helping! So I left with uncle and Miles was going to be picked up later when the surgery was complete.
Miles was dropped off at my house when he was done and told me all about the rest of the procedure that I missed. It apparently took a long time to get the bone fixed enough to put back into place. One they finally did, they had to put a plate and nails in to secure it all. Earnest has the biggest arms I have ever seen; he looks like a rugby player, and apparently while trying to reshape the plate, he snapped the wrench in half. Who does that?!? I have never heard of anybody being able to do such a thing, and everyone in the operating room was in shock that he actually did it. How crazy is that. But, they found something else to do the job, and then secured the plate in his leg. At the end, his leg ended up being quite a bit shorter than his other, but that’s the only way they could fix it. All of the good bone they took out of his leg was kept for bone grafting if he might need it later. What a crazy operation.
During the day, I talked with the radiology technician a bit because he immediately recognized that we were from the States through our accents and told us that he has been to Oregon. I was really curious why he went to Oregon out of everywhere more famously world know to visit, so I asked and he had quite an interesting story. He worked for adidas and was doing a conference there (the adidas headquarters is in Oregon) because they were trying to get the South African soccer team to be sponsored by adidas instead of Nike as they currently were. He also apparently won an award for best presenter in the company or something along those lines, and I found out he is one of the inauguration speakers for the World Cup. Is that not the craziest run-in ever?? Who would have thought I would meet somebody like that in Cape Town’s gang yard hospital surgery theatre. You truly never know who you will run into.
For dinner, Joan told Miles and I that she was making spaghetti and I was sooo excited. Anything “American” sounds so incredible since I haven’t eaten anything of the like for practically three months. Miles was just as excited as I. When we sat down at the table, there was a pot of spaghetti as well as a pot of rice…Joan served us rice with spaghetti on top. Even foods we are familiar with come in such an unfamiliar way here haha. Oh, South Africa...
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Throwing Up & Maid Drama
I had the most horrible night! I suddenly woke up at 3am for some reason and never fell back asleep; I fell asleep at 6:45 and have to wake up at 7 so I’m not even going to count that. I just couldn’t fall asleep for the life of me, so I laid in bed restless for all of those hours. I was so tired the whole day because of it too. Horrible.
Orthopedic surgery was very entertaining today. The first operation required fixing the tendons in a lady with stab wounds all over her body allegedly from her boyfriend. She had wounds on her wrist and palm that were operated on today, and then got stitches removed from the wounds on her thigh, breast and arm. I can’t imagine how painful the palm is going to be during the healing process; that is most certainly a defense wound. She was put into a cast that covered almost all of her fingers so that they could heal properly and still function correctly. If she had full movement, it would have been pointless for the tendon repair surgery. The second surgery Miles actually scrubbed scrubbed in for. It was an ankle reconstruction. It was really interesting to watch and he had fun as well. He got to drill screws into the bone to secure the placement, helped hold the skin and tendons back while the surgeons repaired things, etc. That was the last surgery we saw; sometimes it take hours to complete one operation, so in such cases we don’t get through very many a day. I get to scrub in and assist with surgeries tomorrow. I’m pretty excited! I hope I get to do a cool operation.
Later in the evening, Joan made “viennas” or hotdogs for dinner, and if you know me, you know how I feel about those. They were the longest hotdogs I have ever seen, and she gave me TWO of them! With eggs, bread and avocado. Talk about a South African meal. Anyways, I couldn’t not eat them, especially since she was sitting at the table with us. Ugh. I felt like gagging even seeing them on my plate. But, I had to try, so I poured a huge amount of chutney sauce (my options were mustard or chutney sauce—fabulous…) onto my plate to try my best and disguise the taste and smell as I attempted eating them. I was pretty proud of myself—I got through one of them without gagging too visibly, but still had a whole one more to eat. I took a deep breath, cut a piece off of the second hotdog, dipped it in chutney and put it in my mouth. As I bit into it, I was greeted by a hard something against my teeth and that was pretty much the end. Joan was talking to me during this time, and I nodded while I was trying not to let anything come out of my mouth, got around the corner, and booked it to the bathroom. I made it just in time to throw it all up. When I came back to the table, I couldn’t even be courteous and try to finish the second one.
I took a nice bath a couple hours later, and gave myself a lovely pedicure. I did my toes up and started on my nails, which I will finish another night. I am trying to do things to distract me and take up my time so that I don’t think about home too much. It’s worked pretty well so far. Joan and I had a nice conversation for a good while as well, and then we got ready for bed.
Earlier this week, I forgot to mention something that happened. While I was getting ready to go to dinner with the gang and Marion and Avril, I was looking through my suitcase for a particular top that was nowhere to be found. I ended up emptying my entire suitcase with no luck, and was baffled as to where it could be. I asked Joan if she had seen or washed it and asked Lauren if she remembers me wearing it here. I couldn’t remember when the last time I had seen it was. Neither Joan nor Lauren remembered ever seeing it, so I texted (or sms’ed as South Africans say) my host mom Zola from Durban asking her if I had forgotten the top, and her response left me jaw dropped. She told me yes, that Zodwa (our maid) told her that I gave it to her. First of all, I loved that top, and second of all, Zodwa spoke not one word of English, so how could that exchange have possibly gone down? Whenever I needed to talk to her, I had to tell one of the boys to translate it into Zulu for me and vice versa. She also did my laundry the night before I left and gave it all back to me the morning I was leaving, so I was frantically packing and assuming she gave me all of my clothes….apparently not. I was so angry!! I think I was most angry about the fact that she lied, and then just stole my shirt. I couldn’t believe it, and still can’t.
Orthopedic surgery was very entertaining today. The first operation required fixing the tendons in a lady with stab wounds all over her body allegedly from her boyfriend. She had wounds on her wrist and palm that were operated on today, and then got stitches removed from the wounds on her thigh, breast and arm. I can’t imagine how painful the palm is going to be during the healing process; that is most certainly a defense wound. She was put into a cast that covered almost all of her fingers so that they could heal properly and still function correctly. If she had full movement, it would have been pointless for the tendon repair surgery. The second surgery Miles actually scrubbed scrubbed in for. It was an ankle reconstruction. It was really interesting to watch and he had fun as well. He got to drill screws into the bone to secure the placement, helped hold the skin and tendons back while the surgeons repaired things, etc. That was the last surgery we saw; sometimes it take hours to complete one operation, so in such cases we don’t get through very many a day. I get to scrub in and assist with surgeries tomorrow. I’m pretty excited! I hope I get to do a cool operation.
Later in the evening, Joan made “viennas” or hotdogs for dinner, and if you know me, you know how I feel about those. They were the longest hotdogs I have ever seen, and she gave me TWO of them! With eggs, bread and avocado. Talk about a South African meal. Anyways, I couldn’t not eat them, especially since she was sitting at the table with us. Ugh. I felt like gagging even seeing them on my plate. But, I had to try, so I poured a huge amount of chutney sauce (my options were mustard or chutney sauce—fabulous…) onto my plate to try my best and disguise the taste and smell as I attempted eating them. I was pretty proud of myself—I got through one of them without gagging too visibly, but still had a whole one more to eat. I took a deep breath, cut a piece off of the second hotdog, dipped it in chutney and put it in my mouth. As I bit into it, I was greeted by a hard something against my teeth and that was pretty much the end. Joan was talking to me during this time, and I nodded while I was trying not to let anything come out of my mouth, got around the corner, and booked it to the bathroom. I made it just in time to throw it all up. When I came back to the table, I couldn’t even be courteous and try to finish the second one.
I took a nice bath a couple hours later, and gave myself a lovely pedicure. I did my toes up and started on my nails, which I will finish another night. I am trying to do things to distract me and take up my time so that I don’t think about home too much. It’s worked pretty well so far. Joan and I had a nice conversation for a good while as well, and then we got ready for bed.
Earlier this week, I forgot to mention something that happened. While I was getting ready to go to dinner with the gang and Marion and Avril, I was looking through my suitcase for a particular top that was nowhere to be found. I ended up emptying my entire suitcase with no luck, and was baffled as to where it could be. I asked Joan if she had seen or washed it and asked Lauren if she remembers me wearing it here. I couldn’t remember when the last time I had seen it was. Neither Joan nor Lauren remembered ever seeing it, so I texted (or sms’ed as South Africans say) my host mom Zola from Durban asking her if I had forgotten the top, and her response left me jaw dropped. She told me yes, that Zodwa (our maid) told her that I gave it to her. First of all, I loved that top, and second of all, Zodwa spoke not one word of English, so how could that exchange have possibly gone down? Whenever I needed to talk to her, I had to tell one of the boys to translate it into Zulu for me and vice versa. She also did my laundry the night before I left and gave it all back to me the morning I was leaving, so I was frantically packing and assuming she gave me all of my clothes….apparently not. I was so angry!! I think I was most angry about the fact that she lied, and then just stole my shirt. I couldn’t believe it, and still can’t.
West Coast
It is officially one week until I will be standing at the Sea-Tac airport in good old Seattle. Ahh (: Today we had plans with Gregg to head out to the west coast. He wanted to take us to a town called Langebaan, to a “restaurant” called Strandloper. Strandloper is pretty famous to Capetonians. It is a seafood eatery right on the beach waterfront; the tables are all dug in the sand, and you sit on makeshift rock chairs with your feet in the sand and eat a nine course meal. Everything they feed you is fresh out of the ocean right in front of us, and is cooked on ‘grills’ that are built into the sand around the tables. It sounded cool when he described it, and I was really excited, I just wasn’t quite expecting the way he arrived to ‘fetch’ (how South African of me :) us.
He arrived in a ‘bus’ (once more, how South African of me hehe ;) that holds seventeen people, and it was FULL minus one seat left for me. I was most certainly not expecting him to bring his whole gang of friends—I thought it was just going to be him, Miles and I. How wrong was I. The drive took about an hour and a half, but was fun. Everyone he brought was so nice and very funny, so we pretty much laughed the whole way there. When we arrived, we were all so hungry and ready to eat. The owners were expecting us, so quickly brought us to our table. The first course had just been cooked, so we arrived right in time and were able to start eating immediately.
Everything was amazingly delicious. All of the seafood was the best I have ever eaten. They also had homemade bread with every course and that was amazing as well. After the ‘meal’ was done, we had the finale of homemade coffee and koeksisters, which was fabulous as well. It was such a beautiful perfect day too, so the overall day was incredible. We were all SO full and ready to head back, so we did. The car ride home was definitely a lot quieter than the way up there, but it was relaxing and nice. We dropped everyone off, and Miles and I went to Gregg’s house to wait for traffic to die down before he took us home. Traffic here is terrible sometimes, and can take hours to get somewhere that would normally take half an hour. While waiting, we headed to Café Caprice in Camps Bay (Gregg lives up the road, in Camps Bay as well), and had drinks and dessert—this was quite a few hours after eating. And then home we eventually went. We had a very lovely day today.
He arrived in a ‘bus’ (once more, how South African of me hehe ;) that holds seventeen people, and it was FULL minus one seat left for me. I was most certainly not expecting him to bring his whole gang of friends—I thought it was just going to be him, Miles and I. How wrong was I. The drive took about an hour and a half, but was fun. Everyone he brought was so nice and very funny, so we pretty much laughed the whole way there. When we arrived, we were all so hungry and ready to eat. The owners were expecting us, so quickly brought us to our table. The first course had just been cooked, so we arrived right in time and were able to start eating immediately.
Everything was amazingly delicious. All of the seafood was the best I have ever eaten. They also had homemade bread with every course and that was amazing as well. After the ‘meal’ was done, we had the finale of homemade coffee and koeksisters, which was fabulous as well. It was such a beautiful perfect day too, so the overall day was incredible. We were all SO full and ready to head back, so we did. The car ride home was definitely a lot quieter than the way up there, but it was relaxing and nice. We dropped everyone off, and Miles and I went to Gregg’s house to wait for traffic to die down before he took us home. Traffic here is terrible sometimes, and can take hours to get somewhere that would normally take half an hour. While waiting, we headed to Café Caprice in Camps Bay (Gregg lives up the road, in Camps Bay as well), and had drinks and dessert—this was quite a few hours after eating. And then home we eventually went. We had a very lovely day today.
Hard Day
I was so excited for the opportunity to sleep in! I have rarely gotten to do so here, plus I had such a late night last night that I wanted all the sleep I could get. Whenever you want to sleep something always wakes you up early, so of course, Joan called super early in the morning (the house phone is right next to my bed) to let us know that she was on her way home to make us a big breakfast. That part was nice, but dang it about her waking me up! Lauren crawled out of bed soon after I did, and Joan arrived shortly after that, and started on her cooking. She is so cute. Miles came over in pajamas (he wasn’t feeling the morning time as much as I wasn’t) She made us a big South African breakfast and we all got to talking and lost track of time. When I decided I would check the time, we needed to leave in forty minutes for the airport, so we all scrambled to get ready. I pulled on my lulu lemon sweats and Miles’ UW sweatshirt, Miles threw some jeans on, Lauren grabbed her bags, and out we went (:
Lauren drove for the last time on the left side of the road in South Africa to the airport, but that’s so grim. She drove HERSELF to the airport; what a lovely goodbye. Miles and I are driving ourselves to the airport as well, and it just seems so wrong and incomplete. Anyways, we returned our rental and went through to check-in with Lauren, and then said our goodbyes right before she went through security. We stayed to watch as she walked through security and into the terminal area, and boy, that was probably the worst feeling I have felt in a long time. It was horrible to watch her leave knowing I still have to stay for another week. She will be reunited with her friends and family and I will be waiting for my turn thinking about it. Auh!!
As we walked away, I thought about my departure. I am thrilled to come home; it’s been so long and I miss everyone terribly, but at the same time, I will have such mixed emotions, just as I did when I was preparing to come here. I will be so excited and happy and anxious, but then sad to leave this amazing place that I will likely not return to for a long time, not to mention all of the great people I met along the way that I may never see again. And the adjustment was quite difficult for me, yet I’m comfortable with most things now and have to come back. I don’t know. Saturday is going to be an interesting day; I will probably be just as much a disaster as the day I left for my journey, the day I’m departing my journey. I have never experienced so many emotions at one time as I have these past 11 weeks. I hope people understand, because if not they probably think I’m bipolar and crazy.
When Miles and I returned back to Joan’s, we were kind of down from experiencing all of those emotions at once as well as from saying goodbye to our month-long friend. We went to Lauren and my room; I laid on my bed, and Miles laid on Laurens and we sat and just talked for a while, still pretty down at this point. Joan came in soon after and told us that we were going to have a braii that night with her daughter Renee and her husband Ronnie. We couldn’t believe it because Lauren never had a braii and wanted to before she left. How convenient for us to have one the afternoon she leaves. Miles and I went to the grocery store to get some things for Joan, and it was packed!! There were SO many people in there. They were like vultures over the recently restocked items and I won’t even discuss the lines for the bakery and checkout. It’s nothing like you can even imagine in the States. I will never complain about the grocery store being packed back home ever again.
While Joan was seasoning the meat, Ronnie turned on the rugby game. Rugby is one of the most popular sports in South Africa, and it was a final between two rival South African teams; the Bulls and the Stormers. Miles and I were pretty much quarantined to the living room to watch it as well. Before it was halftime, the power suddenly went out in the whole house, and Ronnie went ballistic because that meant it shut his game off too. He ran to the kitchen to check the box, but it wasn’t the house, it was actually the whole Vanguard Estates area, including the huge mall across the street. This apparently happens A LOT in South Africa randomly for a few hours here and there. It stayed out for three hours this time, so it was good that we were having a braii because we wouldn’t have had anything to eat if we were planning on cooking.
We all huddled outside by the barbeque thing because when it gets dark in Cape Town, the temperature drops dramatically and very quickly. It gets FREEZING at night, and with the power out, it was even more noticeable. The meat took a while to cook, and just as it finished and we were sitting down to eat, the power came back on! How crazy is that. While I was waiting for the food to cook, I was in bed trying to keep warm, plus I was so tired from not getting much sleep. After I ate, I went back to bed because I was still pretty cold (I am forever cold) and still tired. Miles came into the room and was doing something that I don’t remember haha and I apparently fell asleep at 8:30! This wasn’t really a good thing because we had plans for the night! A very famous music artist in South Africa named J.R. was coming to a club called Galaxy, which is just down the road from us that we were going to attend. He is famous for creating a song that has basically become the World Cup anthem. It’s just really fun and everyone goes crazy when it comes on; we thought this would be super entertaining. After the J.R. event, we were supposed to go with Gregg to a yacht party. Well…..
I suddenly woke up at midnight because I heard a noise that I thought was somebody breaking into the house via my bedroom window (the crazy things your mind concocts when you are half asleep), but was actually Miles taking his clothes off of the hanger in my closet. He was getting into his pajamas to climb into Laurens bed; he had fallen asleep while trying to write his thesis, so gave in and got ready to sleep for the night at my house. I’m not sure why we never went out—he could have easily waked me up and we could have gone, but it just never happened. I went back to sleep pretty much immediately, and slept for a full twelve hours in total. I bet you believe I was exhausted now.
Lauren drove for the last time on the left side of the road in South Africa to the airport, but that’s so grim. She drove HERSELF to the airport; what a lovely goodbye. Miles and I are driving ourselves to the airport as well, and it just seems so wrong and incomplete. Anyways, we returned our rental and went through to check-in with Lauren, and then said our goodbyes right before she went through security. We stayed to watch as she walked through security and into the terminal area, and boy, that was probably the worst feeling I have felt in a long time. It was horrible to watch her leave knowing I still have to stay for another week. She will be reunited with her friends and family and I will be waiting for my turn thinking about it. Auh!!
As we walked away, I thought about my departure. I am thrilled to come home; it’s been so long and I miss everyone terribly, but at the same time, I will have such mixed emotions, just as I did when I was preparing to come here. I will be so excited and happy and anxious, but then sad to leave this amazing place that I will likely not return to for a long time, not to mention all of the great people I met along the way that I may never see again. And the adjustment was quite difficult for me, yet I’m comfortable with most things now and have to come back. I don’t know. Saturday is going to be an interesting day; I will probably be just as much a disaster as the day I left for my journey, the day I’m departing my journey. I have never experienced so many emotions at one time as I have these past 11 weeks. I hope people understand, because if not they probably think I’m bipolar and crazy.
When Miles and I returned back to Joan’s, we were kind of down from experiencing all of those emotions at once as well as from saying goodbye to our month-long friend. We went to Lauren and my room; I laid on my bed, and Miles laid on Laurens and we sat and just talked for a while, still pretty down at this point. Joan came in soon after and told us that we were going to have a braii that night with her daughter Renee and her husband Ronnie. We couldn’t believe it because Lauren never had a braii and wanted to before she left. How convenient for us to have one the afternoon she leaves. Miles and I went to the grocery store to get some things for Joan, and it was packed!! There were SO many people in there. They were like vultures over the recently restocked items and I won’t even discuss the lines for the bakery and checkout. It’s nothing like you can even imagine in the States. I will never complain about the grocery store being packed back home ever again.
While Joan was seasoning the meat, Ronnie turned on the rugby game. Rugby is one of the most popular sports in South Africa, and it was a final between two rival South African teams; the Bulls and the Stormers. Miles and I were pretty much quarantined to the living room to watch it as well. Before it was halftime, the power suddenly went out in the whole house, and Ronnie went ballistic because that meant it shut his game off too. He ran to the kitchen to check the box, but it wasn’t the house, it was actually the whole Vanguard Estates area, including the huge mall across the street. This apparently happens A LOT in South Africa randomly for a few hours here and there. It stayed out for three hours this time, so it was good that we were having a braii because we wouldn’t have had anything to eat if we were planning on cooking.
We all huddled outside by the barbeque thing because when it gets dark in Cape Town, the temperature drops dramatically and very quickly. It gets FREEZING at night, and with the power out, it was even more noticeable. The meat took a while to cook, and just as it finished and we were sitting down to eat, the power came back on! How crazy is that. While I was waiting for the food to cook, I was in bed trying to keep warm, plus I was so tired from not getting much sleep. After I ate, I went back to bed because I was still pretty cold (I am forever cold) and still tired. Miles came into the room and was doing something that I don’t remember haha and I apparently fell asleep at 8:30! This wasn’t really a good thing because we had plans for the night! A very famous music artist in South Africa named J.R. was coming to a club called Galaxy, which is just down the road from us that we were going to attend. He is famous for creating a song that has basically become the World Cup anthem. It’s just really fun and everyone goes crazy when it comes on; we thought this would be super entertaining. After the J.R. event, we were supposed to go with Gregg to a yacht party. Well…..
I suddenly woke up at midnight because I heard a noise that I thought was somebody breaking into the house via my bedroom window (the crazy things your mind concocts when you are half asleep), but was actually Miles taking his clothes off of the hanger in my closet. He was getting into his pajamas to climb into Laurens bed; he had fallen asleep while trying to write his thesis, so gave in and got ready to sleep for the night at my house. I’m not sure why we never went out—he could have easily waked me up and we could have gone, but it just never happened. I went back to sleep pretty much immediately, and slept for a full twelve hours in total. I bet you believe I was exhausted now.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Lauren's Last Day
Since today was Lauren’s last day in Cape Town, Miles and I wanted to let her decide everything about how her day would go. She decided to skip out on work because it was such a beautiful day, and it wasn’t predicted to be. It was predicted to be cloudy and stormy, but she was a lucky lady and it was a perfect day, so it was decided we would go and take advantage of that. We also had our car, so we all slept in for a little over half an hour, and that may sound silly, but it was amazing! Haha I felt like a brand new woman. Our first destination was the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
It was so beautiful! I love Botanical Gardens and thought it would be nice like they usually are, but it was stunning, and it’s even winter here! The garden was huge, so we made it through most of it, but not its entirety. It was very lovely, and I’m glad we fit it into our schedule; I wanted to go but wasn’t sure if we would make it. The good thing about today is that we were hitting all of the spots on our list that we hadn’t gotten to yet, and weren’t sure if we would. We had a beach on our list called Llandudno that was supposed to be amazing that we wanted to check out, so we went (:
The beach pretty much looked like a larger version of Clifton Beach, that we went to last week. You had to take a little path down to the beach, and it was secluded and lower than the road, so not a lot of wind reached it, and it had big boulders all around it where the ocean wasn’t. It was nice, but I prefer Clifton because it’s smaller and more private. While we were here, it started to rain just a little bit, so we only took pictures and headed on our way to Hout Bay, the last place on our list that was unvisited.
There wasn’t really anything to see in the town, so we just did a quick drive through and went to find something to eat. Nando’s was still on the to-do list and there was one close by in Camps Bay. Nando’s is actually a Portuguese chain restaurant found in Europe as well as here. It is famous for its peri-peri (very hot spice) chicken and Lauren hadn’t experienced this yet. After that we drove around and found one of Cape Town’s largest malls, Canal Walk, to look around in. Lauren wanted to make sure she bought everything she wanted to before leaving. It was a pretty humongous place, comparable to Gateway mall in Durban. We even saw a Seattle Coffee Co in there! I couldn’t believe it! I had to take a picture of that one. Miles also spotted a Cinnabon, and that’s one of his favorite places, so we stopped there as well. It reminded me a bit of home.
We came back to Athlone, which is about 20 minutes outside of downtown Cape Town, and went to Vangate Mall which is across the road from where we stay to get flowers for Joan as a goodbye present. When we arrived home, Lauren finished her packing, and then later in the evening we met up with Gregg for a crazy Capetonian last night out (for Lauren, anyways).
Before meeting up with Gregg, we went back to Camps Bay to have dinner. It was nice to sit down and just talk on her last night here. Once we finished, we met up with Gregg at a club called Knoxville. It is kind of an underground club, I think. I say this because Gregg told us to meet him at Ocean Basket, which is a chain seafood restaurant here, and we were quite confused. We figured he must just be eating, but when we got there, the restaurant was pretty much empty and there was a lineup outside of the door. That was very strange, and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We found out that the club is above Ocean Basket, but it isn’t markated anywhere. You must just have to be in the know to find this one.
Knoxville was fun, but a little too crowded for my taste. I hate always being moved around because people are trying to get by and then you always get accidentally knocked around etc. I would just rather do without. It was also a smoking club, which I hated as well. The smell of the smoke all around me made my stomach and head hurt. I was definitely ready to head to the next place. I liked it much better at the second club we went to. It was called Fez Vaudeville, and it was more central than Knoxville, which is closer to Camps Bay. Fez was very fun, and the atmosphere was quite a bit different. All of Greggs friends that had joined us at Knoxville eventually ended up at Fez with us, and they were a lot of fun as well. It was just a very enjoyable night. I think it was a good ending for Lauren.
We didn’t get home until 4:30 am though, and I was pretty much exhausted. I don’t think Miles and Lauren were as tired as I was because they had been drinking. I was just trying to keep awake on my own the whole time. The loud music was helpful, but it was still a challenge when I would have rather been crawled in my warm and comfortable bed (: When we left Fez, Miles was trying to convince Lauren (and I as the driver) to go to another club for a little bit, called the Bronx. It is a famous gay bar, so that made Miles quite interested, and Lauren had never been to a gay bar, and they are apparently supposed to be really fun. I just wanted to get home to bed, but it was eventually decided that we would drive by and see how it looked; it was Lauren’s last night and I couldn’t really say no to whatever she wanted to do. Miles had her convinced that she wanted to go if it was still a huge party inside. I was crossing my fingers that it had died down and we could just go home. Miles went inside to check for us, and it was my lucky night!! We headed back to the house, and bed hasn’t felt so good in a long time.
It was so beautiful! I love Botanical Gardens and thought it would be nice like they usually are, but it was stunning, and it’s even winter here! The garden was huge, so we made it through most of it, but not its entirety. It was very lovely, and I’m glad we fit it into our schedule; I wanted to go but wasn’t sure if we would make it. The good thing about today is that we were hitting all of the spots on our list that we hadn’t gotten to yet, and weren’t sure if we would. We had a beach on our list called Llandudno that was supposed to be amazing that we wanted to check out, so we went (:
The beach pretty much looked like a larger version of Clifton Beach, that we went to last week. You had to take a little path down to the beach, and it was secluded and lower than the road, so not a lot of wind reached it, and it had big boulders all around it where the ocean wasn’t. It was nice, but I prefer Clifton because it’s smaller and more private. While we were here, it started to rain just a little bit, so we only took pictures and headed on our way to Hout Bay, the last place on our list that was unvisited.
There wasn’t really anything to see in the town, so we just did a quick drive through and went to find something to eat. Nando’s was still on the to-do list and there was one close by in Camps Bay. Nando’s is actually a Portuguese chain restaurant found in Europe as well as here. It is famous for its peri-peri (very hot spice) chicken and Lauren hadn’t experienced this yet. After that we drove around and found one of Cape Town’s largest malls, Canal Walk, to look around in. Lauren wanted to make sure she bought everything she wanted to before leaving. It was a pretty humongous place, comparable to Gateway mall in Durban. We even saw a Seattle Coffee Co in there! I couldn’t believe it! I had to take a picture of that one. Miles also spotted a Cinnabon, and that’s one of his favorite places, so we stopped there as well. It reminded me a bit of home.
We came back to Athlone, which is about 20 minutes outside of downtown Cape Town, and went to Vangate Mall which is across the road from where we stay to get flowers for Joan as a goodbye present. When we arrived home, Lauren finished her packing, and then later in the evening we met up with Gregg for a crazy Capetonian last night out (for Lauren, anyways).
Before meeting up with Gregg, we went back to Camps Bay to have dinner. It was nice to sit down and just talk on her last night here. Once we finished, we met up with Gregg at a club called Knoxville. It is kind of an underground club, I think. I say this because Gregg told us to meet him at Ocean Basket, which is a chain seafood restaurant here, and we were quite confused. We figured he must just be eating, but when we got there, the restaurant was pretty much empty and there was a lineup outside of the door. That was very strange, and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We found out that the club is above Ocean Basket, but it isn’t markated anywhere. You must just have to be in the know to find this one.
Knoxville was fun, but a little too crowded for my taste. I hate always being moved around because people are trying to get by and then you always get accidentally knocked around etc. I would just rather do without. It was also a smoking club, which I hated as well. The smell of the smoke all around me made my stomach and head hurt. I was definitely ready to head to the next place. I liked it much better at the second club we went to. It was called Fez Vaudeville, and it was more central than Knoxville, which is closer to Camps Bay. Fez was very fun, and the atmosphere was quite a bit different. All of Greggs friends that had joined us at Knoxville eventually ended up at Fez with us, and they were a lot of fun as well. It was just a very enjoyable night. I think it was a good ending for Lauren.
We didn’t get home until 4:30 am though, and I was pretty much exhausted. I don’t think Miles and Lauren were as tired as I was because they had been drinking. I was just trying to keep awake on my own the whole time. The loud music was helpful, but it was still a challenge when I would have rather been crawled in my warm and comfortable bed (: When we left Fez, Miles was trying to convince Lauren (and I as the driver) to go to another club for a little bit, called the Bronx. It is a famous gay bar, so that made Miles quite interested, and Lauren had never been to a gay bar, and they are apparently supposed to be really fun. I just wanted to get home to bed, but it was eventually decided that we would drive by and see how it looked; it was Lauren’s last night and I couldn’t really say no to whatever she wanted to do. Miles had her convinced that she wanted to go if it was still a huge party inside. I was crossing my fingers that it had died down and we could just go home. Miles went inside to check for us, and it was my lucky night!! We headed back to the house, and bed hasn’t felt so good in a long time.
Orthopedic Surgery
Today is officially the two month date since I’ve been here, even though it’s been nine weeks rather than eight. Ah, almost time to go home!! In regards to work, we got to observe in orthopedic surgery today, which was really cool. Funnily enough, we scrubbed in and I looked over to see the patient because I recognized the x-ray, and it was a girl that we saw twice during our time in orthopedics. She was 17 and had jumped off of a bridge (don’t know the behind story), and bruised her right leg, and snapped both bones in her left leg, which required surgery. We put a “splint” on, made of plaster the first time she came in, and the second time we just checked that it was still on and okay before her surgery. I was kind of glad that I was familiar with this case, and it was so cool to see her surgery.
Although the girl had her leg sliced open in three places, she wasn’t put to sleep! I couldn’t believe it. She had one of those metal things attached to the bed with a blanket over it, restricting her view of the surgery. But, she was awake and conscious listening to all of the drills and smashing noises going on, with a clear view of the x-rays being taken while the doctors worked on her leg. At some points, she was even singing along to the music playing on the radio in theatre. I was in shock. Besides that, it was quite an intense, long and interesting operation.
She needed a plate put into her leg with a few extra screws, because she had snapped both her tibia and fibula and different places. There was a large incision down the front of her leg, probably 10-12 inches in length, another incision on the left side close to her ankle about six inches in length, and a very small incision by her right ankle, about two or three inches long. The operating room looked like a mechanic shop because of all of the drills, tools and screws in tool boxes on the sterile table ready for use. The surgery lasted about two and half hours because of the difficulty of getting both broken bones into the correct positions with the nails and plate. This took quite a while, and quite a bit of fiddling around to get it correct. The doctor had to take some nails out and replace them in slightly new positions to secure the bone in place. It also took a bit to get the plate in the correct position, but with the help of the handy radiologist and her x-ray machine he got it in the right place and screwed it into the bone.
Once he had washed the incisions out, stopped the bleeding with a tourniquet, located the breaks and cut off the jagged edges of the bones, put some screws in, added the plate to the right place and secured that with screws and washed the incision once more, he started to stitch her back up. Because of her breaks and the positions of them, the surgery was a little bit difficult and took a bit longer than they had expected. To stop the bleeding, they put a tourniquet on her thigh, and towards the end of the surgery, they had to take it off because it had been on for too long. This made it even more difficult to finish because her leg was constantly bleeding and they had to consistently wipe it away. But, they eventually got it all squared away and started to stitch her back up.
The incisions they had made were quite large, so they were gaping at this point from all of the work they had done inside with holding the skin back and open. To get the incision to close nicely, they had to first stitch the tendon and muscles down, stitch the skin together as much as they could, and then staple the skin together to keep it that way. The top incision was the only one they used staples on. They were able to get the other two incisions closed by stitching the inside first, and then stitching the skin together. I thoroughly enjoyed this surgery, and was excited to see the next one that would be taking place shortly.
On our break, we decided to have some tea. Across the street from the hospital is an elementary school, or primary school as it is referred to here. Their school bell is terrible and on multiple occasions we have all thought, and Miles has accurately put it into words, what it sounds like. The first time he did it was hilarious. The school bell rang, and he said “Prison break! Just kidding, Manenberg primary school”. Manenberg is the city that the hospital is in, and it’s pretty much a gang town. That is why we see so many trauma cases and drug usage etc. Anyways, the school bell literally sounds like a prison break. It’s the most terrible thing I’ve heard in a long time. So, that’s that we listened to while having tea; it was exquisitely lovely.
The next patient needed a metal rod put in the whole length of his leg for purposes of a knee surgery. This was a bit more brutal of a surgery. To get the rod in the length of the leg, the doctors had to first put this huge tool in that was the length of the leg, but about triple the thickness, just to open a space for the rod to fit, and then they had to hammer the rod down, and it was loud!! Metal to metal hammering is super loud and clings in a way that would have made me pass out if I was the patient. I can’t imagine listening to that happening to me! Anyhow, the doctors pushed his leg off of the bed so that it was dangling, which is apparently a good position to hammer the rod in. They just had to use a lot of force and it looked pretty bad. We had to leave before the surgery was over, but it was pretty interesting as well.
The three of us headed to the airport after work to pick up our rental for the weekend. Lauren leaves on Saturday, so we wanted a car to do a few things before that. How boring would it be to be in such a beautiful place, but to sit in the house on your last few days there? While we were waiting for the rental to be ready, we went into the airport to introduce Lauren to a very popular chain restaurant called Wimpys here. Miles and I ate there a lot in Durban; I think it is more prevalent in that area. They have the best milkshakes ever, and we wanted Lauren to try one before she left. We got our car, and went home to get ready for the evening; we were having dinner with Marion and Avril on the waterfront.
To get to the restaurant, we had to walk through the Victoria Warf mall, and on the way I had an incident occur that has never before happened to me and I am ashamed to say has now. So as we are walking, I notice a handbag in a store through the front glass window. It was on the right side wall of the store if you were to look straight in, and I am walking away from that direction or to the left. The bag was on the bottom shelf on the right side wall, so I am walking forward, but looking straight back at the wall trying to figure out what it says on the handbag. As I am walking, suddenly I am forcibly stopped, and as I turn around to see what it is, it’s a trashcan!!! I was so busy looking behind me that I totally ran into a huge trashcan with my full body. I obviously couldn’t walk anymore because the trashcan was blocking my way, so I turned my head forward (where it should have been in the first place), and place my hands out in front of me to catch my fall, or so I thought, and gripped the sides of this massive trashcan. I immediately started laughing as hard as I’ve laughed in a long time; how ridiculous is it that I just ran into a trashcan in the middle of the mall that is as visibly tall as my waist? Lauren has said that we are all picking up each other’s worst qualities and I am starting to agree. Miles loses everything, Lauren is super clumsy, and luckily they haven’t noticed a pass-on from me!
Avril and Marion chose the cutest restaurant to have our final dinner at; Salero. It had a lovely view of the water, but it was pouring rain, which was unfortunate. We still had such a fun evening full of laughing and enjoyable conversations. My trashcan incident was a forbidden story lol. I’m going to miss our group! I can’t believe Lauren is leaving. It’s going to make things so hard for me; the last week is going to be terrible. I’m going to be in such anticipation and want nothing more than to get home.
Although the girl had her leg sliced open in three places, she wasn’t put to sleep! I couldn’t believe it. She had one of those metal things attached to the bed with a blanket over it, restricting her view of the surgery. But, she was awake and conscious listening to all of the drills and smashing noises going on, with a clear view of the x-rays being taken while the doctors worked on her leg. At some points, she was even singing along to the music playing on the radio in theatre. I was in shock. Besides that, it was quite an intense, long and interesting operation.
She needed a plate put into her leg with a few extra screws, because she had snapped both her tibia and fibula and different places. There was a large incision down the front of her leg, probably 10-12 inches in length, another incision on the left side close to her ankle about six inches in length, and a very small incision by her right ankle, about two or three inches long. The operating room looked like a mechanic shop because of all of the drills, tools and screws in tool boxes on the sterile table ready for use. The surgery lasted about two and half hours because of the difficulty of getting both broken bones into the correct positions with the nails and plate. This took quite a while, and quite a bit of fiddling around to get it correct. The doctor had to take some nails out and replace them in slightly new positions to secure the bone in place. It also took a bit to get the plate in the correct position, but with the help of the handy radiologist and her x-ray machine he got it in the right place and screwed it into the bone.
Once he had washed the incisions out, stopped the bleeding with a tourniquet, located the breaks and cut off the jagged edges of the bones, put some screws in, added the plate to the right place and secured that with screws and washed the incision once more, he started to stitch her back up. Because of her breaks and the positions of them, the surgery was a little bit difficult and took a bit longer than they had expected. To stop the bleeding, they put a tourniquet on her thigh, and towards the end of the surgery, they had to take it off because it had been on for too long. This made it even more difficult to finish because her leg was constantly bleeding and they had to consistently wipe it away. But, they eventually got it all squared away and started to stitch her back up.
The incisions they had made were quite large, so they were gaping at this point from all of the work they had done inside with holding the skin back and open. To get the incision to close nicely, they had to first stitch the tendon and muscles down, stitch the skin together as much as they could, and then staple the skin together to keep it that way. The top incision was the only one they used staples on. They were able to get the other two incisions closed by stitching the inside first, and then stitching the skin together. I thoroughly enjoyed this surgery, and was excited to see the next one that would be taking place shortly.
On our break, we decided to have some tea. Across the street from the hospital is an elementary school, or primary school as it is referred to here. Their school bell is terrible and on multiple occasions we have all thought, and Miles has accurately put it into words, what it sounds like. The first time he did it was hilarious. The school bell rang, and he said “Prison break! Just kidding, Manenberg primary school”. Manenberg is the city that the hospital is in, and it’s pretty much a gang town. That is why we see so many trauma cases and drug usage etc. Anyways, the school bell literally sounds like a prison break. It’s the most terrible thing I’ve heard in a long time. So, that’s that we listened to while having tea; it was exquisitely lovely.
The next patient needed a metal rod put in the whole length of his leg for purposes of a knee surgery. This was a bit more brutal of a surgery. To get the rod in the length of the leg, the doctors had to first put this huge tool in that was the length of the leg, but about triple the thickness, just to open a space for the rod to fit, and then they had to hammer the rod down, and it was loud!! Metal to metal hammering is super loud and clings in a way that would have made me pass out if I was the patient. I can’t imagine listening to that happening to me! Anyhow, the doctors pushed his leg off of the bed so that it was dangling, which is apparently a good position to hammer the rod in. They just had to use a lot of force and it looked pretty bad. We had to leave before the surgery was over, but it was pretty interesting as well.
The three of us headed to the airport after work to pick up our rental for the weekend. Lauren leaves on Saturday, so we wanted a car to do a few things before that. How boring would it be to be in such a beautiful place, but to sit in the house on your last few days there? While we were waiting for the rental to be ready, we went into the airport to introduce Lauren to a very popular chain restaurant called Wimpys here. Miles and I ate there a lot in Durban; I think it is more prevalent in that area. They have the best milkshakes ever, and we wanted Lauren to try one before she left. We got our car, and went home to get ready for the evening; we were having dinner with Marion and Avril on the waterfront.
To get to the restaurant, we had to walk through the Victoria Warf mall, and on the way I had an incident occur that has never before happened to me and I am ashamed to say has now. So as we are walking, I notice a handbag in a store through the front glass window. It was on the right side wall of the store if you were to look straight in, and I am walking away from that direction or to the left. The bag was on the bottom shelf on the right side wall, so I am walking forward, but looking straight back at the wall trying to figure out what it says on the handbag. As I am walking, suddenly I am forcibly stopped, and as I turn around to see what it is, it’s a trashcan!!! I was so busy looking behind me that I totally ran into a huge trashcan with my full body. I obviously couldn’t walk anymore because the trashcan was blocking my way, so I turned my head forward (where it should have been in the first place), and place my hands out in front of me to catch my fall, or so I thought, and gripped the sides of this massive trashcan. I immediately started laughing as hard as I’ve laughed in a long time; how ridiculous is it that I just ran into a trashcan in the middle of the mall that is as visibly tall as my waist? Lauren has said that we are all picking up each other’s worst qualities and I am starting to agree. Miles loses everything, Lauren is super clumsy, and luckily they haven’t noticed a pass-on from me!
Avril and Marion chose the cutest restaurant to have our final dinner at; Salero. It had a lovely view of the water, but it was pouring rain, which was unfortunate. We still had such a fun evening full of laughing and enjoyable conversations. My trashcan incident was a forbidden story lol. I’m going to miss our group! I can’t believe Lauren is leaving. It’s going to make things so hard for me; the last week is going to be terrible. I’m going to be in such anticipation and want nothing more than to get home.
Koeksisters
Lauren in particular was hoping to go to the see and treat clinic or the outpatient clinic as we call it. Today doctors from an organization called TIBB were coming as well. TIBB is pretty much just natural medicine, but not to the full extent of a “sangoma” or traditional healer. These doctors actually attend medical school, just an alternative one, and still prescribe antibiotics etc, but tend to lean more towards cupping to relieve stress, and more natural ways to deal with things besides a prescription. Lauren was interested in seeing what exactly they do, and Miles and I were both willing to tag along. But, we found out that clinic was too small today, and they didn’t want three people in one patient room, so the three of us couldn’t sit in. We headed back to orthopedics for the day instead.
I came back to orthopedics first, and Mitchell immediately put me to work. He was about to start doing new dressings on a woman, and then put a cast on. Instead, he delegated the task to me. I cleaned and dried the wound, wrapped it, and then started on the cast. It was pretty fast paced, but I was glad for that. Miles and Lauren came in soon after that. Throughout the day, I took out more sutures, did some more casts and removals, and most interestingly, took out pins.
In certain breaks, an exoskeleton brace is put on, which is called a Hoffman. It’s pretty much horrible. There are usually about eight pins that are through your bone, and stick out way past your skin, and are stabilized with a huge metal contraption around the leg. I have seen quite a few, and have even assisted in changing the dressings on these patients, but never got to see the pins removed. Today was our chance. Miles helped Mitchell loosen the extremely tight brackets on the contraption that were holding the pins in place, and then he also assisted in unscrewing the pins from the bone and out of the leg. Mitchell asked if I wanted to take on out, but I just couldn’t. I felt too bad, because the patient, although given pain medication, was still in visible agony. I just watched instead.
After work, we had our weekly meeting with Marion and Avril. We talked for quite a bit and had a lot of fun, and then did a quick “workshop” that Avril had set up for us. She had blood pressure straps for us to practice correctly reading the “machine”, and suturing tools as well. It was good practice and it’s always so fun to spend time with them. We always have such an enjoyable time, sometimes not even talking about anything in particular. I just adore them. Uncle came to pick us up and brought us all back to Joan’s house because we were going to get a lesson from Joan on how to make koesisters, an Afrikaans tea doughnut that are to die for.
Making the koesisters was quite a process, but a very fun one. We were in the kitchen from about 8 to 11 at night. While we were waiting for the dough to rise, we talked and laughed away. Joan’s niece Megan and her son Jeremy were both there as well, so it was quite a group of us. We learned some funny Afrikaans words, learned how to make Joan’s fairly famous koesisters, laughed and joked, and then ate some yummy final products with tea before bed. It was such a lovely night (: Hopefully I can glean the same results back home when I attempt them.
I came back to orthopedics first, and Mitchell immediately put me to work. He was about to start doing new dressings on a woman, and then put a cast on. Instead, he delegated the task to me. I cleaned and dried the wound, wrapped it, and then started on the cast. It was pretty fast paced, but I was glad for that. Miles and Lauren came in soon after that. Throughout the day, I took out more sutures, did some more casts and removals, and most interestingly, took out pins.
In certain breaks, an exoskeleton brace is put on, which is called a Hoffman. It’s pretty much horrible. There are usually about eight pins that are through your bone, and stick out way past your skin, and are stabilized with a huge metal contraption around the leg. I have seen quite a few, and have even assisted in changing the dressings on these patients, but never got to see the pins removed. Today was our chance. Miles helped Mitchell loosen the extremely tight brackets on the contraption that were holding the pins in place, and then he also assisted in unscrewing the pins from the bone and out of the leg. Mitchell asked if I wanted to take on out, but I just couldn’t. I felt too bad, because the patient, although given pain medication, was still in visible agony. I just watched instead.
After work, we had our weekly meeting with Marion and Avril. We talked for quite a bit and had a lot of fun, and then did a quick “workshop” that Avril had set up for us. She had blood pressure straps for us to practice correctly reading the “machine”, and suturing tools as well. It was good practice and it’s always so fun to spend time with them. We always have such an enjoyable time, sometimes not even talking about anything in particular. I just adore them. Uncle came to pick us up and brought us all back to Joan’s house because we were going to get a lesson from Joan on how to make koesisters, an Afrikaans tea doughnut that are to die for.
Making the koesisters was quite a process, but a very fun one. We were in the kitchen from about 8 to 11 at night. While we were waiting for the dough to rise, we talked and laughed away. Joan’s niece Megan and her son Jeremy were both there as well, so it was quite a group of us. We learned some funny Afrikaans words, learned how to make Joan’s fairly famous koesisters, laughed and joked, and then ate some yummy final products with tea before bed. It was such a lovely night (: Hopefully I can glean the same results back home when I attempt them.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Dignity
We were able to observe in the high care unit this morning. Our first contact was a head nurse, and he was great. He gave us a pretty good briefing about what goes on in the ward and what was going on momentarily. HCU was only an eight bed unit, so it was quite small. It was pretty slow as well, so we took a tea break; one of our first since being in Cape Town. What a change from Durban! When we came back from our tea break, rounds were happening with some sixth year students (med school is only six years here) and a Belgian doctor, Dr. Allard. We spent a lot of time speaking with him. He was amazingly intelligent, being the keynote speaker for quite a few worldwide trauma surgery conferences, as we found out. It was a really great day at the hospital even though it was slightly slow. Soon after we got home, we received a surprise visit from Marion and Avril. It was nice to see them and we had a lovely little chat. My mommas are so cute (:
Something struck me yesterday when we were taking the taxi back home from dropping our rental off. There was a billboard on the side of the freeway that was in the townships that was advertizing moving out the townships, and said something along the lines of moving from township to dignity. I was left in shock thinking about what that was really saying about these people in utmost poverty.
I feel like dignity is something everyone strives for. Even those in poverty in the United States strive to keep their dignity in any way that they can. There’s something so different about poverty in a third world country. And this sign almost symbolized how stripped of dignity this particular population was. There’s something about the amount of desperation that’s exhibited that I have never witnessed anywhere else, all that is strived for is utmost and bare necessities. In the States I feel like even impoverished populations still want superficial possessions because that’s what everyone in the States wants. Here, it’s not about superficial items or having the newest thing, it’s about pure survival. It’s such a boggling and heavy topic to ponder about, myself coming from such a rich place in the world and not quite able to wrap my mind around the idea of sheer need, and the absolute struggle to sustain life. It’s something I will never know the true feeling of, and I am blessed for that. But at the same time, I feel such deep sorrow for what I witness and leave behind here for my plush life back home.
Something struck me yesterday when we were taking the taxi back home from dropping our rental off. There was a billboard on the side of the freeway that was in the townships that was advertizing moving out the townships, and said something along the lines of moving from township to dignity. I was left in shock thinking about what that was really saying about these people in utmost poverty.
I feel like dignity is something everyone strives for. Even those in poverty in the United States strive to keep their dignity in any way that they can. There’s something so different about poverty in a third world country. And this sign almost symbolized how stripped of dignity this particular population was. There’s something about the amount of desperation that’s exhibited that I have never witnessed anywhere else, all that is strived for is utmost and bare necessities. In the States I feel like even impoverished populations still want superficial possessions because that’s what everyone in the States wants. Here, it’s not about superficial items or having the newest thing, it’s about pure survival. It’s such a boggling and heavy topic to ponder about, myself coming from such a rich place in the world and not quite able to wrap my mind around the idea of sheer need, and the absolute struggle to sustain life. It’s something I will never know the true feeling of, and I am blessed for that. But at the same time, I feel such deep sorrow for what I witness and leave behind here for my plush life back home.
High Care & The Gatsby
We didn’t end up going out last night—Miles and Lauren were exhausted and I was actually feeling the same way. Plus, we had work in the morning and the thought of not being able to keep my eyes open for it sounded horrid. And even though I got enough sleep, I woke up late! I woke up like five minutes before uncle was supposed to pick us up to Lauren asking me if I was going to work today haha. I responded a confused yes until I realized that I didn’t wake up to my alarm, or more like I turned it off and kept sleeping….So I had literally five minutes to get myself together, and of course the only day I’m actually running late uncle shows up five minutes early!! Every morning he greets us with six loud and annoying car honks which make me groan EVERY morning. And he doesn’t even wait two minutes before he’s off honking again—how impatient! It takes a long time to get out of the house in South Africa too! You have to unlock the door in the house to get to the front door, then unlock the front door and lock it behind you, then unlock the gate door and lock that behind you as well. South African locks are also very “old school”, Victorian secret-jewelry-box looking, like you see in all of the movies. It seriously takes three minutes alone. So he’s honking away and I’m still scrambling around the house trying to get myself together, and Lauren went to start opening all of the locks to give me some extra time to get ready, when she finds uncle out of the car trying to ring our doorbell. Come on!! He is SO impatient! Lol it drives me crazy sometimes, and he was EARLY! To top it all of. Urgh.
We were headed to high care for the day, but when we arrived, we were informed that they were pretty understaffed and asked if we could come back tomorrow. We agreed, and went back to orthopedics. Mr. Smith was gone as he told us last week, but the person he was replacing, Mitchell, had returned from leave and we got to work with him. He was quite interesting; very outgoing and talked a lot! It was a pretty eventful day as well. Lots of casts needed to be removed and put on. We saw an interesting case where a young man had a gunshot wound to his humorous, and needed a cast to help the bones heal together (with the bullet still lodged). Mitchell put the plaster on and then pressed his arm really hard before the plaster was dried to get the bone back in place. He sent the patient for another x-ray when the cast was dry to check out the bone placement, only to have it come back worse than before he started! Mitchell shrugged it off and said that he was rusty from being on leave!! TIA man….(this is Africa!). So, he cut the cast and had to restart. He re-plastered the patient and tried to reshape the placement and sent him for another x-ray; this time it looked quite nice. Another man came in with a broken knee, and Mitchell had to press the side of the knee in and the other side of his leg in as well, trying to push the bone back into place, and the patient was shaking and screaming in pain; it makes me wince so much whenever I see him try to fix the bone position. I can only imagine how painful it must be.
The man from last week with the incredibly horrible smelling infected ankle wounds was back to get his dressings changed. It didn’t smell as bad, but it still cleared the room and was very gross. He was in and out quite quickly, lucky for us. There were quite a few patients in to get their stitches removed, so Lauren and I both took a lot of stitches out today. I actually like doing this, so it was exciting for me. Miles wasn’t at work again today. He wasn’t sick anymore, but he had to go to the U.S. Consulate to get an emergency passport issued. The airline was never able to locate his passport after they told him they found it, and the consulate wasn’t able to find it either, so he needed a new one to get home. Miles picked us up a little early because it was our last day with the car, and our first stop was to pick up a Gatsby (:
Just like every place you go, there is one signature food. In the states it is hamburgers or hotdogs etc, in Durban it was bunny chow (curry in a bread bowl), and in Cape Town it’s a Gatsby. A Gatsby is the most ridiculous sandwich in the world. It is HUGE and has everything you can imagine on it. We didn’t get the ones with everything on it, we got a smaller one that was recommended to us. The one we got had steak, eggs, cheese, French fries, lettuce and sauce. And the “chips” or French fries aren’t on the side; they’re literally ON the sandwich. So ridiculous, but since we are here, we had to try it once. It was the weirdest thing, and I felt like a big fat greasy man eating it haha. I only had like two bites, but never again!
After our sickening sandwich, we went downtown to the green square market, which is just a large cobblestone walking area of craft markets downtown. Miles and I got to see a ton of crafts in Durban, but Lauren hasn’t gotten to experience very much, not to mention buy much, so we wanted to take her before we had to return the car. We found a lot of good things and had lots of fun looking around together. We dropped the car off at the airport, and took a taxi back. Joan ordered pizza, and then the four of us watched Grey’s Anatomy together. I felt kind of at home, and it felt pretty good, but it made me miss it that much more. Lauren and I walked Miles half way home (he lives down the street, a two minute walk), and then we came home and got ready for bed.
While Lauren was in the shower, I had a small breakdown. I miss home so much sometimes, and I just got overwhelmed in that emotion and cried. It’s so unbelievably hard to be this far away from all of my friends and family, and my ‘own’ life. Sometimes it makes me feel like I have nobody, and I just want to feel like my friends and family care about me and miss me, and are interested in how I feel and what I’m doing while I’m here. I was just left feeling really lonely, empty and ready to come home. And I know I only have less than two weeks left, but that makes it hard too; I’m anticipating it so much! I really am enjoying my time here, but nothing compares to home, and I’ve been gone for so long. It’s not that I’m not taking everything in; I’ve learned so much and have grown incredibly from this experience, it’s just time for me to come back. I can’t wait. So I prayed and put it all in the Lord’s hand and felt great comfort; all of that emptiness was filled.
We were headed to high care for the day, but when we arrived, we were informed that they were pretty understaffed and asked if we could come back tomorrow. We agreed, and went back to orthopedics. Mr. Smith was gone as he told us last week, but the person he was replacing, Mitchell, had returned from leave and we got to work with him. He was quite interesting; very outgoing and talked a lot! It was a pretty eventful day as well. Lots of casts needed to be removed and put on. We saw an interesting case where a young man had a gunshot wound to his humorous, and needed a cast to help the bones heal together (with the bullet still lodged). Mitchell put the plaster on and then pressed his arm really hard before the plaster was dried to get the bone back in place. He sent the patient for another x-ray when the cast was dry to check out the bone placement, only to have it come back worse than before he started! Mitchell shrugged it off and said that he was rusty from being on leave!! TIA man….(this is Africa!). So, he cut the cast and had to restart. He re-plastered the patient and tried to reshape the placement and sent him for another x-ray; this time it looked quite nice. Another man came in with a broken knee, and Mitchell had to press the side of the knee in and the other side of his leg in as well, trying to push the bone back into place, and the patient was shaking and screaming in pain; it makes me wince so much whenever I see him try to fix the bone position. I can only imagine how painful it must be.
The man from last week with the incredibly horrible smelling infected ankle wounds was back to get his dressings changed. It didn’t smell as bad, but it still cleared the room and was very gross. He was in and out quite quickly, lucky for us. There were quite a few patients in to get their stitches removed, so Lauren and I both took a lot of stitches out today. I actually like doing this, so it was exciting for me. Miles wasn’t at work again today. He wasn’t sick anymore, but he had to go to the U.S. Consulate to get an emergency passport issued. The airline was never able to locate his passport after they told him they found it, and the consulate wasn’t able to find it either, so he needed a new one to get home. Miles picked us up a little early because it was our last day with the car, and our first stop was to pick up a Gatsby (:
Just like every place you go, there is one signature food. In the states it is hamburgers or hotdogs etc, in Durban it was bunny chow (curry in a bread bowl), and in Cape Town it’s a Gatsby. A Gatsby is the most ridiculous sandwich in the world. It is HUGE and has everything you can imagine on it. We didn’t get the ones with everything on it, we got a smaller one that was recommended to us. The one we got had steak, eggs, cheese, French fries, lettuce and sauce. And the “chips” or French fries aren’t on the side; they’re literally ON the sandwich. So ridiculous, but since we are here, we had to try it once. It was the weirdest thing, and I felt like a big fat greasy man eating it haha. I only had like two bites, but never again!
After our sickening sandwich, we went downtown to the green square market, which is just a large cobblestone walking area of craft markets downtown. Miles and I got to see a ton of crafts in Durban, but Lauren hasn’t gotten to experience very much, not to mention buy much, so we wanted to take her before we had to return the car. We found a lot of good things and had lots of fun looking around together. We dropped the car off at the airport, and took a taxi back. Joan ordered pizza, and then the four of us watched Grey’s Anatomy together. I felt kind of at home, and it felt pretty good, but it made me miss it that much more. Lauren and I walked Miles half way home (he lives down the street, a two minute walk), and then we came home and got ready for bed.
While Lauren was in the shower, I had a small breakdown. I miss home so much sometimes, and I just got overwhelmed in that emotion and cried. It’s so unbelievably hard to be this far away from all of my friends and family, and my ‘own’ life. Sometimes it makes me feel like I have nobody, and I just want to feel like my friends and family care about me and miss me, and are interested in how I feel and what I’m doing while I’m here. I was just left feeling really lonely, empty and ready to come home. And I know I only have less than two weeks left, but that makes it hard too; I’m anticipating it so much! I really am enjoying my time here, but nothing compares to home, and I’ve been gone for so long. It’s not that I’m not taking everything in; I’ve learned so much and have grown incredibly from this experience, it’s just time for me to come back. I can’t wait. So I prayed and put it all in the Lord’s hand and felt great comfort; all of that emptiness was filled.
Table Mountain
Miles is still sick today, but decided to come with us anyhow. Today was Table Mountain day. I wasn’t looking forward to this too much because of the possibility that I would have to hike it. The hike is supposed to be quite gruesome—a three hour hike straight up the mountain side. I’m not a hiker to begin with, so that would probably be the death of me. I wanted to take the cable car up and down instead of hiking one way, and since Miles wasn’t feeling too good, that was the place. But, when we arrived, the wind was blowing so strong that the cable car was shut down. I was really disappointed about this, and Miles and Lauren decided that we should hike it. It was a ten minute walk to get to the start of the hike, so we all started on our way, I very reluctantly. We got to the official start point of the hike, and it took me about ten minutes to finally be convinced/pressured to come. We walked straight up these horrible rock “stairs” for about five minutes when Miles told us to stop. I turned around, and he asked me if I was sure I wanted to do this, again!! I had already begrudgingly agreed at the bottom and was already starting to regret that decision, when he asked me again. Obviously I wasn’t going to enjoy the hike at all, and I wasn’t even sure if I could do it. He wanted to check again that I was prepared for this hike, and I was really frustrated, so finally decided that I would just wait for them at the bottom. The cable car might not even be working by the time we reached the top, which would mean we would have to hike all the way back down as well. I was most certainly not able to do that, if I could even get all the way to the top in the first place. So, I just hung out for the hours that they hiked. We were already quite high up and could see the whole city anyhow! I got fabulous pictures from where I was. It would have been cool to see the city from the very top, but something I could live without. I kind of wish the cable car was functioning, but it IS winter and Cape Town is very famous for its crazy winter winds, so what could I do?
I found out that the cable car WAS still closed when they arrived at the top, so they had to hike all the way down. I’m glad I didn’t have to do that; not sure if I would have made it. They were both SO incredibly sore that they could barely walk when I picked them up. I of course was totally fine hehe. While they were hiking, I met up with Gregg at Café Caprice for a little bit before we went to pick them up. We brought them back and had lunch and let them relax for a while. After lunch, we walked down the street and had ice cream at a place called Sinnfull. It was really good. On the way back to the car, a man had a metal wire tied between two palm trees on the beach and was walking across it! He was even doing a one legged dance on it and spinning a bicycle wheel. Then he lit a branch on fire and rubbed it all over his body and put it down his pants without hurting himself all on the wire seven feet above the ground. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. Miles and Lauren were practically dying at this point, so I drove them home so that they could shower and rest before deciding what the next move is; we might come back to hang out with Gregg, but we will see how the two mountain climbers are feeling first.
I found out that the cable car WAS still closed when they arrived at the top, so they had to hike all the way down. I’m glad I didn’t have to do that; not sure if I would have made it. They were both SO incredibly sore that they could barely walk when I picked them up. I of course was totally fine hehe. While they were hiking, I met up with Gregg at Café Caprice for a little bit before we went to pick them up. We brought them back and had lunch and let them relax for a while. After lunch, we walked down the street and had ice cream at a place called Sinnfull. It was really good. On the way back to the car, a man had a metal wire tied between two palm trees on the beach and was walking across it! He was even doing a one legged dance on it and spinning a bicycle wheel. Then he lit a branch on fire and rubbed it all over his body and put it down his pants without hurting himself all on the wire seven feet above the ground. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. Miles and Lauren were practically dying at this point, so I drove them home so that they could shower and rest before deciding what the next move is; we might come back to hang out with Gregg, but we will see how the two mountain climbers are feeling first.
Winelands
Today we drove out to see the wine lands. Cape Town is supposed to be quite famous for their amazingly scenic vineyards and their award winning wines. We were told it is a must-see when visiting Cape Town. The main wine lands area is called Stellenbosch, with a few little towns surrounding it. The first stop we made was to a winery called J.C. Le Roux. We have all fallen quite in love with their exquisite champagne; a South African exclusive, so we were really excited to find out that there was an actual vineyard here for us to go to. The tasting was very nice, and we found a sparkling rosé that we really liked as well. The vineyard was so chic and hip; it was so much fun to come here. There was a demonstration while we were here that was entertaining as well—one of the men cut the top of the bottle of champagne off with a huge sword! It was my favorite spot out of the whole day. The next stop was a place called Waterford. We had heard about their wine and chocolate tasting, as well as their beautiful Mediterranean-esk feel. When we drove in, we all gasped at how stunning it was. It was extremely beautiful and ornate and just stunning; the building, the vineyard and the land around it—everything! I wasn’t particularly fond of this place in terms of wine, but it was nice. The only thing that went wrong was that I got my first bee-sting/bite here! It was on my leg, and it hurt really bad! I never knew how much it stung lol. My leg swelled up quite a bit around the bite or sting, whatever it was, and it hurt for quite a while. Not so fun.
We headed into one of the smaller towns surrounding Stellenbosch called Franschhoek, a coined French town. It was really cute and quaint. We tried to visit a winery called La Petite Ferme that was recommended to us, but tastings were already closed, so we went across the street to a place called Cabriere. This was definitely not my cup of tea; I didn’t like this place at all. Lauren and Miles ended on a good note, but I was glad to leave. We were all a little hungry at this point, and decided to grab something to eat. We found a cute little place called Café Bicccs that we had lunch at. It was quite good, and we were satisfied. We drove home, and tried to decide what to do for the rest of the evening; it was still pretty early. We wanted to do something low key, and I had the idea of a movie. Movies are really cheap for us to see here, and I haven’t seen a movie in 8 weeks, so it sounded good to me. Everyone else agreed, so Miles and I went to the internet café to see what was playing.
Date Night was the only thing that looked good, so we all went to movie theatre at the casino to watch it. We brought Megan, Joan’s niece along with us, and it was so nice to see a movie and feel ‘normal’ and at home. It kind of reminded me of how much I miss home though, so I went to sleep a little sad about that, but it was okay. I only have two weeks left, and I have no choice but to make it, so I guess I will!
We headed into one of the smaller towns surrounding Stellenbosch called Franschhoek, a coined French town. It was really cute and quaint. We tried to visit a winery called La Petite Ferme that was recommended to us, but tastings were already closed, so we went across the street to a place called Cabriere. This was definitely not my cup of tea; I didn’t like this place at all. Lauren and Miles ended on a good note, but I was glad to leave. We were all a little hungry at this point, and decided to grab something to eat. We found a cute little place called Café Bicccs that we had lunch at. It was quite good, and we were satisfied. We drove home, and tried to decide what to do for the rest of the evening; it was still pretty early. We wanted to do something low key, and I had the idea of a movie. Movies are really cheap for us to see here, and I haven’t seen a movie in 8 weeks, so it sounded good to me. Everyone else agreed, so Miles and I went to the internet café to see what was playing.
Date Night was the only thing that looked good, so we all went to movie theatre at the casino to watch it. We brought Megan, Joan’s niece along with us, and it was so nice to see a movie and feel ‘normal’ and at home. It kind of reminded me of how much I miss home though, so I went to sleep a little sad about that, but it was okay. I only have two weeks left, and I have no choice but to make it, so I guess I will!
Play Day
This is Lauren’s last weekend here! I can’t believe she is leaving next Saturday already. I feel like she just got here. This also means that Miles and I leave in two weeks! I have enjoyed my stay, but have to admit that I can’t wait to get home. Nothing compares to your own home, and boy do I miss it!! I am anticipating it very heavily, which is kind of bad, but I really can’t help it. I’ve been gone for quite some time and am ready to have my life back.
Work was nice. Today was Mr. Smith’s last work day before he was done and the person he was working for would return from leave. It was interesting that we got to spend this day with him. Miles was home sick—I don’t know what’s wrong with him but I feel bad and hope he gets over it quickly! We have so much to do this weekend before Lauren leaves and we have no other time to get it done. When Lauren and I arrived to orthopedics, Mr. Smith told us that he was casting the one patient in front of him and then leaving for the day. Friday’s are half days for all South Africans, but this was way earlier than a half day, it was only 9am! He told us to come back Monday and that there would be stuff for us to do. Lauren and I didn’t know exactly what to do. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful sun and warm weather, and get on with our weekend and busy itinerary!
It ended up working out perfectly. There is a beach we kept hearing about called Clifton Beach that is just before Camps Bay. It is supposed to be amazing, and pretty secluded. There are four sections to it, so we decided we would find out about this talked up place. We picked Miles up and headed straight there. The entrance to the third section (the one we wanted to see in particular) was a small barely visible, poorly displayed staircase just off of the side of the road that wound through the houses there. We decided to go for it, and walked all the way down behind the backs of houses and ended up coming out of the stairs onto the beach. It was the most amazing place ever!! It was down a lot further than the road, so cliffs surrounded the sides of the beach—it was kind of like a little gully in between the cliff peaks. There were big rocks all on the beach and the waterfront and view were amazing. Nobody was on the beach but us, so it was all private, and simply stunning. Since we were down below “street level” in this little gully type beach area, we didn’t feel the wind, which was great! The sun can be shining in Cape Town and it can be fairly warm, but once the wind gets going, it becomes freezing, which isn’t a good thing to feel when you are in your bathing suit at the beach wanting to feel the warm sun rays. It was perfect!!
I was so happy!! We all set our towels out to soak up the lovely sun. Miles decided that he wanted to tan in his boxers so that he got a bigger tan, which was so funny. Lauren and I snagged some funny pictures of him while he wasn’t paying attention. We were there for a good three or four hours I would say. It was so warm and simply perfect. I was really happy to be in the sunshine. We also booked tickets to go on the Robbin Island tour, so when it was time to do so, we packed up our things, got in the car, and drove to the waterfront. The ferry ride is half an hour each way to Robbin Island. I was getting a little seasick, so I was glad when we finally touched solid ground. The first part of the tour was a bus ride all around the island. The second part was a tour through the maximum security prison where Mandela and other political prisoners were kept. It was really interesting and helped me to understand the role that politics played in everyone’s lives, and how that influenced the apartheid and conditions in jail. It also helped me realize what people went through for ‘freedom’ or the idea of it anyhow. This part of the tour was guided by an ex-political prisoner, which I found very interesting. It was overall very educational and I’m glad I went. The ferry ride back was a lot less smooth and made me quite sick. Before we were going to go out to dinner and do something fun, we all decided to go home and take quick naps. I was hoping it would make me feel better as well.
Sooo….my twenty minute nap turned into my bedtime sleep (: It was 7pm when I started my nap…and I didn’t wake up until 5:30 the next morning! It really sucked to be up that early in the morning. So much for going out though hehe
Work was nice. Today was Mr. Smith’s last work day before he was done and the person he was working for would return from leave. It was interesting that we got to spend this day with him. Miles was home sick—I don’t know what’s wrong with him but I feel bad and hope he gets over it quickly! We have so much to do this weekend before Lauren leaves and we have no other time to get it done. When Lauren and I arrived to orthopedics, Mr. Smith told us that he was casting the one patient in front of him and then leaving for the day. Friday’s are half days for all South Africans, but this was way earlier than a half day, it was only 9am! He told us to come back Monday and that there would be stuff for us to do. Lauren and I didn’t know exactly what to do. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful sun and warm weather, and get on with our weekend and busy itinerary!
It ended up working out perfectly. There is a beach we kept hearing about called Clifton Beach that is just before Camps Bay. It is supposed to be amazing, and pretty secluded. There are four sections to it, so we decided we would find out about this talked up place. We picked Miles up and headed straight there. The entrance to the third section (the one we wanted to see in particular) was a small barely visible, poorly displayed staircase just off of the side of the road that wound through the houses there. We decided to go for it, and walked all the way down behind the backs of houses and ended up coming out of the stairs onto the beach. It was the most amazing place ever!! It was down a lot further than the road, so cliffs surrounded the sides of the beach—it was kind of like a little gully in between the cliff peaks. There were big rocks all on the beach and the waterfront and view were amazing. Nobody was on the beach but us, so it was all private, and simply stunning. Since we were down below “street level” in this little gully type beach area, we didn’t feel the wind, which was great! The sun can be shining in Cape Town and it can be fairly warm, but once the wind gets going, it becomes freezing, which isn’t a good thing to feel when you are in your bathing suit at the beach wanting to feel the warm sun rays. It was perfect!!
I was so happy!! We all set our towels out to soak up the lovely sun. Miles decided that he wanted to tan in his boxers so that he got a bigger tan, which was so funny. Lauren and I snagged some funny pictures of him while he wasn’t paying attention. We were there for a good three or four hours I would say. It was so warm and simply perfect. I was really happy to be in the sunshine. We also booked tickets to go on the Robbin Island tour, so when it was time to do so, we packed up our things, got in the car, and drove to the waterfront. The ferry ride is half an hour each way to Robbin Island. I was getting a little seasick, so I was glad when we finally touched solid ground. The first part of the tour was a bus ride all around the island. The second part was a tour through the maximum security prison where Mandela and other political prisoners were kept. It was really interesting and helped me to understand the role that politics played in everyone’s lives, and how that influenced the apartheid and conditions in jail. It also helped me realize what people went through for ‘freedom’ or the idea of it anyhow. This part of the tour was guided by an ex-political prisoner, which I found very interesting. It was overall very educational and I’m glad I went. The ferry ride back was a lot less smooth and made me quite sick. Before we were going to go out to dinner and do something fun, we all decided to go home and take quick naps. I was hoping it would make me feel better as well.
Sooo….my twenty minute nap turned into my bedtime sleep (: It was 7pm when I started my nap…and I didn’t wake up until 5:30 the next morning! It really sucked to be up that early in the morning. So much for going out though hehe
Orthopedics
We were finally able to work in orthopedics today. I worked with a lady doctor named Dr. Pohl, and that was nice. Miles and Lauren paired up with a different doctor, who I sat in with for a while. He was great as well. We all just saw patients and their x-rays and decided what to do with each case. Sometimes it was a cast for the first time, sometimes it was re-casting, surgery, or just finishing up their ‘treatment’ and getting their casts removed. Clinic only lasted the first part of the morning, and then the doctors pretty much left. The only people left were they practitioners in the pop (plaster of paris) room. It looked really interesting, so I was excited to get to work here. The regular plasterer was on leave, so the retired plasterer, Mr. Smith was contracted to work in his stead. He was the cutest old man I’ve met in a long time, and I’m so glad I got the pleasure of working with him. He was also so amazing at his work. I can understand why they missed him when he retired. We helped him do casting/remove casts for some of our time there, and then he let us do a cast on our own. Lauren did most of it, but I helped some. There were four patients waiting for sutures to come out, and I’ve done this before, so I did some of them and then taught Lauren how to do them as well. That part of pop was great, but then something not so pleasant happened.
A man came in with a temporary cast needing his bandages changed, and he had never shown up for his previous appointment to do so I guess, so he was far overdue. He had surgery on his ankle/leg, and as he was unwrapping his bandages, the most horrible smell filled the room. Every patient that was near cleared the area, as well as the other practitioner. It was horrible. I tried to stand as far away as I could as well, and even resorted to using my mask for part of the time. When the bandages were finally removed, I was in shock. Both sides of his ankles that had been operated on had gaping wound holes where the skin had failed to rejoin and heal. They were bloody with pus and were pretty much infected and rotting. It looked terrible and smelled the same way. One of the practitioners put a bowl on the floor and filled it with pretty much surgical body sanitizer and alcohol and made him put his foot in it. I winced at the thought; I can’t imagine how much that would hurt. As he lowered his foot into the solution, he was crying and shaking in pain. The practitioner took a cup and poured the solution all into the wounds to clear them out as best as he could. Once this was finished, he had the guy sit on the table so that he could further sanitize it. I guess the patient had stitches that were also supposed to be removed, but the holes in his ankles were so gaping that he left them in. He took sanitizer and poured it into the gaping wounds, and then packed them and put a new temporary cast on. It was terrible. But I guess it made for a busy and interesting day.
We had our weekly meeting today with Avril and Marion and it went really well. We ended up just chatting and laughing for the majority of the time, which was fun. I really like them, and am so happy about the improvement from Durban and Cape Town in terms of directors. We were with them for about three hours, and then decided to go to Cubana. We found out that they have one in Cape Town too! This is the place Miles and I visited a few times in Durban. We wanted to take Lauren, so we went straight downtown, kind of got lost, but eventually found it. Our food was so yummy and we had a really nice time. Miles is kind of sick, so we went home after this so that he could rest and hopefully feel better for the rest of our busy weekend.
A man came in with a temporary cast needing his bandages changed, and he had never shown up for his previous appointment to do so I guess, so he was far overdue. He had surgery on his ankle/leg, and as he was unwrapping his bandages, the most horrible smell filled the room. Every patient that was near cleared the area, as well as the other practitioner. It was horrible. I tried to stand as far away as I could as well, and even resorted to using my mask for part of the time. When the bandages were finally removed, I was in shock. Both sides of his ankles that had been operated on had gaping wound holes where the skin had failed to rejoin and heal. They were bloody with pus and were pretty much infected and rotting. It looked terrible and smelled the same way. One of the practitioners put a bowl on the floor and filled it with pretty much surgical body sanitizer and alcohol and made him put his foot in it. I winced at the thought; I can’t imagine how much that would hurt. As he lowered his foot into the solution, he was crying and shaking in pain. The practitioner took a cup and poured the solution all into the wounds to clear them out as best as he could. Once this was finished, he had the guy sit on the table so that he could further sanitize it. I guess the patient had stitches that were also supposed to be removed, but the holes in his ankles were so gaping that he left them in. He took sanitizer and poured it into the gaping wounds, and then packed them and put a new temporary cast on. It was terrible. But I guess it made for a busy and interesting day.
We had our weekly meeting today with Avril and Marion and it went really well. We ended up just chatting and laughing for the majority of the time, which was fun. I really like them, and am so happy about the improvement from Durban and Cape Town in terms of directors. We were with them for about three hours, and then decided to go to Cubana. We found out that they have one in Cape Town too! This is the place Miles and I visited a few times in Durban. We wanted to take Lauren, so we went straight downtown, kind of got lost, but eventually found it. Our food was so yummy and we had a really nice time. Miles is kind of sick, so we went home after this so that he could rest and hopefully feel better for the rest of our busy weekend.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
I can SO cook in South Africa
So, I was supposed to be in orthopedics today, but that didn’t end up happening again. Actually, nothing happened today. I honestly didn’t do anything. Except finally get money (:
Both of my debit cards somehow got demagnetized, leaving me with unworking cards and no access to my money for almost two weeks. Finally the bank did something for me and had me go to one of the South African banks where they had money waiting for me. Yayy. I was SO happy. I had been on the phone with the bank every single day for the past week and a half, and I was very very tired of it. As soon as I came home with money in hand, Joan looked at me and said “OoOo, this girl is happy!!” and I really was. I’m not surprised that she could see it all over my face.
Miles, Lauren and I finalized our plans for the weekend today as well. Lauren is leaving a week before Miles and I; her internship was only a month’s time, so she’s leaving next weekend, which means we need to get everything done that we want to do THIS weekend. We made a list of everything we still needed to do, and planned out exactly when we are going to do it all. It felt good to be organized. We picked up our rental today, and then went to get ingredients!
We three decided we wanted to do something for Avril since she was having a very stress filled week. To be all American, we decided we would make her cookies. We found a recipe with South African friendly ingredients, and headed to the grocery store in search of the necessary items. It took us a while to find them all, but we were eventually successful and came home to start cooking. We ran into a couple of problems with metric conversions….and our cookies were pretty much a flop. So, we decided to make cookies with the recipe that was on the back of the chocolate chips (that took forever to find, and then they weren’t even really chocolate chips). The recipe worked, but they were “South African” cookies, which are quite different than what we consider cookies. We ended up going to the store and buying more ingredients to make banana pudding just in case. Since the second batch of cookies worked out, we gave her those and the banana pudding, plus a card we found for her. At least it wasn’t a complete disaster…haha
Both of my debit cards somehow got demagnetized, leaving me with unworking cards and no access to my money for almost two weeks. Finally the bank did something for me and had me go to one of the South African banks where they had money waiting for me. Yayy. I was SO happy. I had been on the phone with the bank every single day for the past week and a half, and I was very very tired of it. As soon as I came home with money in hand, Joan looked at me and said “OoOo, this girl is happy!!” and I really was. I’m not surprised that she could see it all over my face.
Miles, Lauren and I finalized our plans for the weekend today as well. Lauren is leaving a week before Miles and I; her internship was only a month’s time, so she’s leaving next weekend, which means we need to get everything done that we want to do THIS weekend. We made a list of everything we still needed to do, and planned out exactly when we are going to do it all. It felt good to be organized. We picked up our rental today, and then went to get ingredients!
We three decided we wanted to do something for Avril since she was having a very stress filled week. To be all American, we decided we would make her cookies. We found a recipe with South African friendly ingredients, and headed to the grocery store in search of the necessary items. It took us a while to find them all, but we were eventually successful and came home to start cooking. We ran into a couple of problems with metric conversions….and our cookies were pretty much a flop. So, we decided to make cookies with the recipe that was on the back of the chocolate chips (that took forever to find, and then they weren’t even really chocolate chips). The recipe worked, but they were “South African” cookies, which are quite different than what we consider cookies. We ended up going to the store and buying more ingredients to make banana pudding just in case. Since the second batch of cookies worked out, we gave her those and the banana pudding, plus a card we found for her. At least it wasn’t a complete disaster…haha
Never Been Burnt..Just Kidding
I worked in casualty again today. The plans for working in other wards weren’t official yet, or Estelle still had to finalize everything, so I came back for one day. Estelle is the cutest thing ever; I am so glad that she is our hospital contact. She is so sweet. Nothing exciting happened, just the same old things that I saw last week. Lauren got to go work in triage with the nurses (she’s just finishing nursing school), so that was cool for her, and Miles stuck around with me. During the mid-morning, Miles remembered that he wanted to put his earrings back in (the ones that he “took” out Friday morning), and since things were pretty slow, we went to go do that. In one of the kitchen areas close to where we keep our things, there is a hot water “maker” I guess you would call it. I was pulling the lever to pour hot water into a mug so that Miles could somewhat sanitize the earrings before putting them back into his ears, and water splashed out and burnt my right hand a little bit. This scared me, I jumped and in response my left hand sort of threw the mug into the air and the boiling water came down and splashed ALL over my left hand ): I was screaming and half laughing at the same time. I was only laughing because earlier that morning, there was a burn patient in the ward, and I was telling Miles that I’ve never really been burnt before. Obviously this wasn’t as serious, but it was still ironic.
Miles’ ears had already started to close because his ears are quite newly pierced. And, he also sucks at putting earrings in (especially the backs!), so he couldn’t really get them in. I helped practically re-pierce them, and put the backs back in for him. But, at least we got them. Soon after this once we returned to casualty, Lauren came in telling us that she had been informed that there was a substance abuse lecture going on, pretty much starting right then, so we headed up to the auditorium to check it out. Drugs are quite a huge issue here, which is why we thought it would be good to attend. The lady presenting was helping the hospitals introduce and implement a new ‘program’ to help prevent drug abuse rather than treat it. They were going to try and do screenings for at risk patients, to help prevent abuse of non-users by informing them of the harms that it can do, and get help for casual users to assist them out of using and also informing them of the risks of use. I think it was a start in the right direction, even though tackling the huge problem isn’t going to be an easy thing and efforts won’t make a dent at the beginning.
It was so nice and sunny and beautiful today, which made me very happy. Even when the weather is nice outside though, the hospital is still always FREEZING. I freeze my butt off almost every single day, and there’s nothing I hate more than being cold. I try to layer up but I still seem to be cold almost without fail. I need a better solution..
Miles’ ears had already started to close because his ears are quite newly pierced. And, he also sucks at putting earrings in (especially the backs!), so he couldn’t really get them in. I helped practically re-pierce them, and put the backs back in for him. But, at least we got them. Soon after this once we returned to casualty, Lauren came in telling us that she had been informed that there was a substance abuse lecture going on, pretty much starting right then, so we headed up to the auditorium to check it out. Drugs are quite a huge issue here, which is why we thought it would be good to attend. The lady presenting was helping the hospitals introduce and implement a new ‘program’ to help prevent drug abuse rather than treat it. They were going to try and do screenings for at risk patients, to help prevent abuse of non-users by informing them of the harms that it can do, and get help for casual users to assist them out of using and also informing them of the risks of use. I think it was a start in the right direction, even though tackling the huge problem isn’t going to be an easy thing and efforts won’t make a dent at the beginning.
It was so nice and sunny and beautiful today, which made me very happy. Even when the weather is nice outside though, the hospital is still always FREEZING. I freeze my butt off almost every single day, and there’s nothing I hate more than being cold. I try to layer up but I still seem to be cold almost without fail. I need a better solution..
Wilderness Barbie Day 3: Safari Momma
On our last day, we woke up nice and early again and had breakfast at the hotel. We got the car all packed and drove for quite a while before arriving at our final destination before home; the Botlierskop Private Safari Reserve. It was SO beautiful! I had expected to find a rundown building where we checked in before heading onto the Safari vehicle, but I was completely wrong. It was the most beautiful resort I have seen in a long time. The lodge was right on a small lake, with the most amazing view. Further on the hill were guest accommodations that Avril and Marion told us were just as stunning. I couldn’t believe it! We came into the warm building to find a wooden fire drawn out of the huge fireplace in the sitting room for us, as well as a tray of tea cups and hot water. It was a little chilly that morning, so we all huddled around the warm fire and had our tea (and hot chocolate) before the Safari started; it was so lovely (:
Once it was time to depart, we went outside to the nicest safari vehicle I have ever seen haha. This was going to be amazing. We were also given blankets (who would have thought!) to wrap up in since it was quite chilly and the whole vehicle was wind-exposed. We drove up the mountain side into the reserve, which we found out was I believe over 300 acres of land; SO huge! It was beautiful though, and had the most amazing views. We all took so many pictures that our cameras were practically dead at the end of the safari. We also saw a lot of animals; rhinos, giraffes, antelope, elephants, wildebeest, bonteboks, zebras, elands, bushbucks, impalas and kudu. We got to get super close to all of them as well, which made for fabulous pictures. The rhino were HUGE, and it was so cool to see them up close, as well as the giraffes! The giraffes were very tall and walked right over to our vehicle, so we got amazing pictures of them as well. After all of this, we drove back to the lodge to switch vehicles before going to see the Lions on the other side of the mountain reserve. The vehicle was a lot taller, and had metal doors that rose really high so that we were more protected. The ride was pretty scary, because it was so bumpy and the vehicle was so high and wasn’t as smooth as the first safari vehicle. The lions were surrounded by a huge electric and barbwire fence. As soon as we got through, we saw the bone remains of an animal lying in the grass; that’s a little scary! The guide seemed to know exactly where to go, and headed for the back of the lions area, and found all three of them lazing in the shade under some shrubs. As soon as we pulled up, one of the lions growled at us, and practically pounced. I think I screamed and jumped, but I was so scared that I don’t know if that recollection is accurate; seems like something I would do though haha. The lions were feeding, half sleeping and cleaning each other intermittently. We were really close to them, so we got a lot of good pictures of as well. That concluded the animal portion of our safari.
When we returned to the lodge, lunch was already being prepared for us (it was included in the package), and it was pretty gourmet. Our ‘first starter’ was mussel soup with homemade fresh bread. It was so yummy. Our ‘second starter’ was salad with fresh fruit in it---strawberries and pineapple, two of my favorites. That was so good too! Then for our entrée, ham and mushroom pasta, which was also so good, but way too much food! We were all SO stuffed, but dessert was still coming—South African malva pudding. None of us were able to finish anything, but we had a great time talking and eating and enjoying the view. I was so not ready to hop into a packed car and head home after this, but it was time to do so.
The drive home was six hours long, and the three of us quickly fell asleep with full stomachs like little babies. I think Marion fell asleep too! Poor Avril; she asked for gum so that she would keep occupied while we all slept haha. I had quite a nice little nap if I do say so myself. But, I was definitely glad to be home when we arrived; my butt was practically numb from sitting for so long. I took so many pictures and can’t wait to show you all!! Goodbye Wilderness Barbie/Safari Momma…Diva Barbie is officially back again (:
Once it was time to depart, we went outside to the nicest safari vehicle I have ever seen haha. This was going to be amazing. We were also given blankets (who would have thought!) to wrap up in since it was quite chilly and the whole vehicle was wind-exposed. We drove up the mountain side into the reserve, which we found out was I believe over 300 acres of land; SO huge! It was beautiful though, and had the most amazing views. We all took so many pictures that our cameras were practically dead at the end of the safari. We also saw a lot of animals; rhinos, giraffes, antelope, elephants, wildebeest, bonteboks, zebras, elands, bushbucks, impalas and kudu. We got to get super close to all of them as well, which made for fabulous pictures. The rhino were HUGE, and it was so cool to see them up close, as well as the giraffes! The giraffes were very tall and walked right over to our vehicle, so we got amazing pictures of them as well. After all of this, we drove back to the lodge to switch vehicles before going to see the Lions on the other side of the mountain reserve. The vehicle was a lot taller, and had metal doors that rose really high so that we were more protected. The ride was pretty scary, because it was so bumpy and the vehicle was so high and wasn’t as smooth as the first safari vehicle. The lions were surrounded by a huge electric and barbwire fence. As soon as we got through, we saw the bone remains of an animal lying in the grass; that’s a little scary! The guide seemed to know exactly where to go, and headed for the back of the lions area, and found all three of them lazing in the shade under some shrubs. As soon as we pulled up, one of the lions growled at us, and practically pounced. I think I screamed and jumped, but I was so scared that I don’t know if that recollection is accurate; seems like something I would do though haha. The lions were feeding, half sleeping and cleaning each other intermittently. We were really close to them, so we got a lot of good pictures of as well. That concluded the animal portion of our safari.
When we returned to the lodge, lunch was already being prepared for us (it was included in the package), and it was pretty gourmet. Our ‘first starter’ was mussel soup with homemade fresh bread. It was so yummy. Our ‘second starter’ was salad with fresh fruit in it---strawberries and pineapple, two of my favorites. That was so good too! Then for our entrée, ham and mushroom pasta, which was also so good, but way too much food! We were all SO stuffed, but dessert was still coming—South African malva pudding. None of us were able to finish anything, but we had a great time talking and eating and enjoying the view. I was so not ready to hop into a packed car and head home after this, but it was time to do so.
The drive home was six hours long, and the three of us quickly fell asleep with full stomachs like little babies. I think Marion fell asleep too! Poor Avril; she asked for gum so that she would keep occupied while we all slept haha. I had quite a nice little nap if I do say so myself. But, I was definitely glad to be home when we arrived; my butt was practically numb from sitting for so long. I took so many pictures and can’t wait to show you all!! Goodbye Wilderness Barbie/Safari Momma…Diva Barbie is officially back again (:
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wilderness Barbie Day 2: Dandy Dangling
We awoke to find out that Avril’s sick mother had passed during the night. Lauren, Miles and I felt terrible. The night before during our games we were discussing how awful it would be if she died while we were away for the weekend, and were hoping with all of our hearts it wouldn’t happen that way. We insisted that we should return home, but she insisted that she stayed; she said she needed to clear her mind and prepare to deal with everything, so we hesitantly agreed. We had breakfast and on our way we were.
The first stop today was the Tsitsikamma canopy tour. We were going to zip-line through a huge jungle’s canopy in Africa. How cool is that? It was so much fun, and very cool. The guides were very friendly and helpful, and we all enjoyed ourselves a lot. I’m so glad we got to do it! We were quite high up for the majority of the tour, and it was definitely an adventure to firstly learn how to zip line, and then learn to avoid branches and have fun. I hope I can do that again somewhere cool (: This was only prep for the big upcoming challenge though; the bungy jump!!
The bungy jump is off of the Bloukrans Bridge, which is the highest bridge in the world at 216 meters high, or roughly 708 feet! It is possibly the scariest thing in the entire world. Probably more so when you know you’re about to jump off of it and you go to the lookout and can see all the way to the bottom; mountains surround the bridge, with a river at the bottom that runs right into the ocean. I was absolutely terrified. For some reason I was under the impression that I would be strapped by my chest for the bungy jump….don’t know how I got that idea because you clearly leap off of the bridge tied by your ankles. I had been preparing myself for the chest strap before I even left for Africa….only to have to prepare myself for the ankle in 20 minutes! I don’t remember the last time I felt so sick.
As we walked to the middle of the bridge along a grated walkway attached to the bottom of the bridge, I was getting more and more terrified. It was horrible to look down and see everything below your feet. Lauren was holding onto one of my arms, and we were both clinging to the railings on the other side of us. I felt like I was walking to my death. Nature and I get along SO fabulously. As we arrived, loud music was playing, like we were in a club, clearly to get people in the mood to jump off of a bridge haha. Miles’ name was called to jump first, out of the group of about 25 or 30. Lauren’s was next, and they said they would announce the rest after. They were both panicking, and I was too even though I wasn’t called yet! As Miles was getting his ankles strapped together, I was shaking and getting so scared, and as he leaped off of the bridge, I had to bite my hand to not cry. It was just so wrong to watch him do that!! And as Lauren prepared to jump, I did the exact same thing! It was so hard not to cry as I watched her disappear under the bridge somewhere. I ended up being like 15th to jump. And, before it was my turn, they were gathering up the people that had already jumped to take them back so that the area wouldn’t be too crowded, which would have left me alone without Lauren or Miles. At the pure thought of that, as I was already terrified beyond explanation, I just burst into tears. Luckily, they gave in and let Lauren stay with me. I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t let her stay.
As they were strapping my ankles up in preparation to bungy, I was shaking and getting extremely scared. They walked me to the edge of the bridge until my feet were half way off. My arms were around both of the “experts” shoulders, and all I could do was look down and see how far I had to fall. I began to tell them I couldn’t do it, and they brushed it off and counted down from five, “five, four, three, two, one, bungy!”. I thought they were going to push me, because I clearly couldn’t throw myself off, but they didn’t, so at the end of the count, I was still standing there lol! They said, “okay, let’s try again”, and counted down from five again, and gave me a little push. Because I was so terrified, instead of leaping forward like I was supposed to, I simply went with the push they gave me, and Miles described it looking like the wind simply blew me off; I fell feet first, which isn’t “supposed” to happen. It’s a lot smoother when you actually leap forward head first, because that’s the way the bungy takes you. Instead, I just did a huge flip in mid air. But, I was busy hyperventilating so it’s not like I really noticed anyhow.
It was the strangest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. The bungy twists you around so I could see mountain, sky, river, ocean, bridge all mingled together; I was totally disoriented. Once I reached the “bottom” of the bungy length, it brought me back up, and for a second you feel like you’re free falling because there is no pull from the bungy; the most terrifying feeling ever!! It brought me up a couple more times, progressively lower each time until I was hanging upside down (still hyperventilating by the way) waiting for somebody to lower themselves and bring me back up to the platform. Those few seconds just hanging there felt like an eternity. Finally, a man was lowered down and attached himself to me to bring me back up. I was SO glad to be on solid ground again. I was still kind of in shock and disbelief that I had actually done it, so I ran into Lauren’s arms, as she was waiting for me to do so anyhow. We took the walk back across the long and scary bridge, and ordered our videos and pictures from the jump. I can’t wait to see them!! I probably look absolutely nuts haha (:
We continued on our way to the Knysna Elephant Park. It was a petting zoo of sorts, which was really cool. African elephants are the largest type of elephant in the world, and we got to be right there with them. We were given a bucket of fruit to feed them; the elephants picked the fruit up with their nose from our hands and brought it to their mouth. I didn’t do this—I was a little too grossed out. I can only go so far! Lauren and Miles fed them though, and then touched them and got pictures with them. They were SO huge! I found out that elephants are incredibly smart, and the trainers had them in line. If they did something they knew they weren’t supposed to, all the trainer had to do was make a noise, and they refrained the behavior. It was quite impressive. Our next stop was a lagoon tour on a cruise boat called the John Benn. It took us to the “two heads”; two mountains that come together like heads but have a small pathway between them to get to the other side to more land. The cruise was about two hours and was very beautiful. It was just about sunset time as well, so you can imagine how pretty it was. The five of us also had a really great talk during this time, so it was lovely.
We went to dinner at a famous chain restaurant here called the Ocean Basket. Marion is an avid whiskey drinker, and so wanted one with her meal. The restaurants license had expired, and was in transition from the department to the physical location, and as you may know, alcohol cannot be sold until the license is physically there. Because of this, they were offering free glasses of house wine, but Marion didn’t want wine, she wanted whiskey. She argued with the manager for a while, who at first refused to give it to her because he would get shut down if he sold it to her, so she told him to GIVE it to her instead. He finally gave in, and served it to her in a tea mug so that nobody would know. It was so funny! Tea is very common here, so he brought her the whole set; the tea cup on a saucer, with a spoon on the side and a jar of sugar to go with it. It was hilarious to watch her drink her whiskey on ice out of this cute tea cup. Pictures were most certainly taken.
As we returned to our rooms, Marion let out a huge scream, and stood outside of her door. I hurriedly ran down the hall to see what was going on, and she exclaimed that there was a bird in her room. The other three quickly followed me, as we slowly opened the door to see what was going on inside the hotel room. We found a pigeon just sitting on the floor in front of the beds, with bird crap ALL over the floor, bed, pillows, and blankets. The cleaning lady left the sliding door open, so it must have flown in through the open space. Avril figured the bird to be hurt because it wasn’t attempting to fly out at all. None of us knew what exactly to do; Avril went to the bedside phone and called the front desk for somebody to come and help. A man came in a few minutes later, and tried to maneuver himself around the bird to open the sliding door open some more for it to fly out more easily. As soon as he did this, the bird attempted to fly, and its wings were flapping everywhere. Miles had the bright idea of videoing what was happening, so as soon as the bird flew up, Miles bumped the camera up towards the ceiling, I hunched behind Avril and screamed, Lauren got sympathetic and felt bad for the bird, Marion was in the bathroom peeing at this point, and Avril had a nonchalant comment; it was SO funny. Once the bird was officially out of the room, Avril and Marion were brought to their new room. Another man came to bring them some more blankets, and as he was leaving, Marion said thank you and asked what his name was. He said “Phila”, and Marion responded, “What a dangerous name”. None of us besides Avril understood what was going on at the time, but Avril completely chuckled. Once he was out of the room, they explained that Phila is a very derogatory term for penis in Afrikaans that isn’t used often. This man was Xhosa, so he didn’t know what the joke was either. Oh man, what a long and crazy day.
The first stop today was the Tsitsikamma canopy tour. We were going to zip-line through a huge jungle’s canopy in Africa. How cool is that? It was so much fun, and very cool. The guides were very friendly and helpful, and we all enjoyed ourselves a lot. I’m so glad we got to do it! We were quite high up for the majority of the tour, and it was definitely an adventure to firstly learn how to zip line, and then learn to avoid branches and have fun. I hope I can do that again somewhere cool (: This was only prep for the big upcoming challenge though; the bungy jump!!
The bungy jump is off of the Bloukrans Bridge, which is the highest bridge in the world at 216 meters high, or roughly 708 feet! It is possibly the scariest thing in the entire world. Probably more so when you know you’re about to jump off of it and you go to the lookout and can see all the way to the bottom; mountains surround the bridge, with a river at the bottom that runs right into the ocean. I was absolutely terrified. For some reason I was under the impression that I would be strapped by my chest for the bungy jump….don’t know how I got that idea because you clearly leap off of the bridge tied by your ankles. I had been preparing myself for the chest strap before I even left for Africa….only to have to prepare myself for the ankle in 20 minutes! I don’t remember the last time I felt so sick.
As we walked to the middle of the bridge along a grated walkway attached to the bottom of the bridge, I was getting more and more terrified. It was horrible to look down and see everything below your feet. Lauren was holding onto one of my arms, and we were both clinging to the railings on the other side of us. I felt like I was walking to my death. Nature and I get along SO fabulously. As we arrived, loud music was playing, like we were in a club, clearly to get people in the mood to jump off of a bridge haha. Miles’ name was called to jump first, out of the group of about 25 or 30. Lauren’s was next, and they said they would announce the rest after. They were both panicking, and I was too even though I wasn’t called yet! As Miles was getting his ankles strapped together, I was shaking and getting so scared, and as he leaped off of the bridge, I had to bite my hand to not cry. It was just so wrong to watch him do that!! And as Lauren prepared to jump, I did the exact same thing! It was so hard not to cry as I watched her disappear under the bridge somewhere. I ended up being like 15th to jump. And, before it was my turn, they were gathering up the people that had already jumped to take them back so that the area wouldn’t be too crowded, which would have left me alone without Lauren or Miles. At the pure thought of that, as I was already terrified beyond explanation, I just burst into tears. Luckily, they gave in and let Lauren stay with me. I don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t let her stay.
As they were strapping my ankles up in preparation to bungy, I was shaking and getting extremely scared. They walked me to the edge of the bridge until my feet were half way off. My arms were around both of the “experts” shoulders, and all I could do was look down and see how far I had to fall. I began to tell them I couldn’t do it, and they brushed it off and counted down from five, “five, four, three, two, one, bungy!”. I thought they were going to push me, because I clearly couldn’t throw myself off, but they didn’t, so at the end of the count, I was still standing there lol! They said, “okay, let’s try again”, and counted down from five again, and gave me a little push. Because I was so terrified, instead of leaping forward like I was supposed to, I simply went with the push they gave me, and Miles described it looking like the wind simply blew me off; I fell feet first, which isn’t “supposed” to happen. It’s a lot smoother when you actually leap forward head first, because that’s the way the bungy takes you. Instead, I just did a huge flip in mid air. But, I was busy hyperventilating so it’s not like I really noticed anyhow.
It was the strangest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. The bungy twists you around so I could see mountain, sky, river, ocean, bridge all mingled together; I was totally disoriented. Once I reached the “bottom” of the bungy length, it brought me back up, and for a second you feel like you’re free falling because there is no pull from the bungy; the most terrifying feeling ever!! It brought me up a couple more times, progressively lower each time until I was hanging upside down (still hyperventilating by the way) waiting for somebody to lower themselves and bring me back up to the platform. Those few seconds just hanging there felt like an eternity. Finally, a man was lowered down and attached himself to me to bring me back up. I was SO glad to be on solid ground again. I was still kind of in shock and disbelief that I had actually done it, so I ran into Lauren’s arms, as she was waiting for me to do so anyhow. We took the walk back across the long and scary bridge, and ordered our videos and pictures from the jump. I can’t wait to see them!! I probably look absolutely nuts haha (:
We continued on our way to the Knysna Elephant Park. It was a petting zoo of sorts, which was really cool. African elephants are the largest type of elephant in the world, and we got to be right there with them. We were given a bucket of fruit to feed them; the elephants picked the fruit up with their nose from our hands and brought it to their mouth. I didn’t do this—I was a little too grossed out. I can only go so far! Lauren and Miles fed them though, and then touched them and got pictures with them. They were SO huge! I found out that elephants are incredibly smart, and the trainers had them in line. If they did something they knew they weren’t supposed to, all the trainer had to do was make a noise, and they refrained the behavior. It was quite impressive. Our next stop was a lagoon tour on a cruise boat called the John Benn. It took us to the “two heads”; two mountains that come together like heads but have a small pathway between them to get to the other side to more land. The cruise was about two hours and was very beautiful. It was just about sunset time as well, so you can imagine how pretty it was. The five of us also had a really great talk during this time, so it was lovely.
We went to dinner at a famous chain restaurant here called the Ocean Basket. Marion is an avid whiskey drinker, and so wanted one with her meal. The restaurants license had expired, and was in transition from the department to the physical location, and as you may know, alcohol cannot be sold until the license is physically there. Because of this, they were offering free glasses of house wine, but Marion didn’t want wine, she wanted whiskey. She argued with the manager for a while, who at first refused to give it to her because he would get shut down if he sold it to her, so she told him to GIVE it to her instead. He finally gave in, and served it to her in a tea mug so that nobody would know. It was so funny! Tea is very common here, so he brought her the whole set; the tea cup on a saucer, with a spoon on the side and a jar of sugar to go with it. It was hilarious to watch her drink her whiskey on ice out of this cute tea cup. Pictures were most certainly taken.
As we returned to our rooms, Marion let out a huge scream, and stood outside of her door. I hurriedly ran down the hall to see what was going on, and she exclaimed that there was a bird in her room. The other three quickly followed me, as we slowly opened the door to see what was going on inside the hotel room. We found a pigeon just sitting on the floor in front of the beds, with bird crap ALL over the floor, bed, pillows, and blankets. The cleaning lady left the sliding door open, so it must have flown in through the open space. Avril figured the bird to be hurt because it wasn’t attempting to fly out at all. None of us knew what exactly to do; Avril went to the bedside phone and called the front desk for somebody to come and help. A man came in a few minutes later, and tried to maneuver himself around the bird to open the sliding door open some more for it to fly out more easily. As soon as he did this, the bird attempted to fly, and its wings were flapping everywhere. Miles had the bright idea of videoing what was happening, so as soon as the bird flew up, Miles bumped the camera up towards the ceiling, I hunched behind Avril and screamed, Lauren got sympathetic and felt bad for the bird, Marion was in the bathroom peeing at this point, and Avril had a nonchalant comment; it was SO funny. Once the bird was officially out of the room, Avril and Marion were brought to their new room. Another man came to bring them some more blankets, and as he was leaving, Marion said thank you and asked what his name was. He said “Phila”, and Marion responded, “What a dangerous name”. None of us besides Avril understood what was going on at the time, but Avril completely chuckled. Once he was out of the room, they explained that Phila is a very derogatory term for penis in Afrikaans that isn’t used often. This man was Xhosa, so he didn’t know what the joke was either. Oh man, what a long and crazy day.
Wilderness Barbie Day 1: Ostrich Choo’s
Time for the garden route! Avril picked us up at an agonizing 5:00 am. I think I “woke” up five minutes before she arrived (: lol. More liked rolled out of bed half asleep. We drove to pick up Marion, and had to stop inside for Miles….during his sleep, his earring had lodged itself deep inside his ear hole I guess you would call it. As Avril is a nurse, she pulled out her little handy dandy kit from the trunk and got it out of his ear, but not without some pain and blood. Eeh. She had to push it through the back of his ear. It didn’t look too good, but at least it was out. We drove for about two hours (I spent almost all of that time sleeping), and stopped for breakfast at this cute little place called the Country Pumpkin. Marion and Avril knew everyone, which ended up being a reoccurrence throughout the whole trip everywhere we stopped. It was nice since everyone seems to be friendlier if you’re with somebody they know and adore. We continued on our way, with our first stop being a couple hours later at a place called the Cango Caves. We were booked to go on an “adventure tour”. The caves were amazing. The main large section of the cave used to be used for concerts, which is so cool I think. We had to climb through the CRAZIEST spaces though, as we continued deeper into the cave. One was called the tunnel of love, and you had to walk sideways to squeeze though. Another was called the letter box, and you had to crawl on your stomach to get to it, and then use your arms to push yourself down the small hole into the larger cave space. Another was the chimney, and you had to figure out how to get your body into the tall space, and then climb it to get to the next part of the cave. It was very hot and damp, and wet in some places making it slippery and hard to climb around at times. It was very neat though. The next stop was the ostrich farm.
While we were sitting in the little barn waiting for the guy to finish his explanation about the ostriches, he handed miles three food pellets. Miles looked down at his hand not knowing what to do, and the tour guide says “you get the kiss the ostrich”. Miles howled in disbelief and completely refused, but couldn’t get out of it. We continued outside where we were supposed to feed the ostriches, and check out the dwarfed one (yes, they have a dwarfed ostrich lol). Then it was time for Miles big smooch. He was supposed to pucker his lips inside of his mouth (suck them in), and then put the three pellets in between his lips, while the huge ostrich comes over and pecks them from your face. It was so funny, and he was terrified! The bird ended up pecking his face instead of his mouth two times, which left him with “ostrich scars” hahaha. Since I wouldn’t feed the ostrich, the guide told me I would be the first one to RIDE the ostrich…uh oh…
It took the guy about five minutes to even convince me to stand up out of my seat. Once I did this, he also had to convince me to sit on the ostrich. Two men ran into the ostrich’s caged field, grabbed it by the neck, and put a bag over its face so that it couldn’t see. The ostrich immediately became completely calm and was able to be lead right over to the little “docking” station, where I was supposed to get on. I finally agreed after everyone chanting for me to just do it (urgh), and I climbed on top. The bag was still on top of its head, so he was still very calm and didn’t move. I was supposed to cross my feet under his belly so that I wouldn’t fall, while his wings lied over my thighs. I was also supposed to hold on to the wings and lean back so that I would be safe. I told him that I didn’t want to ride, just sit, and then of course the guide took the bag off of the ostrich’s head, and it backed straight of the docking station, ran in place to get its speed up, and took off in a circle around the pen. Ostrich’s can run up to 80 miles per hour if you weren’t aware….! The two wranglers were holding on and running right beside me for safety. I was in complete shock! I wasn’t prepared to ride the thing, let alone to experience how insanely it ran. I eventually fell off of the side of the thing (the two wranglers caught me and helped me to land on my feet) and I didn’t even know what to do with myself. Everyone was laughing SO hard, and I was half crying, half laughing, holding my face in my hands, as I staggered back to the seating area and straight into Marion’s arms. It took me a while to calm down from that one…I just completely wasn’t expecting it and was in total shock! Lol. After that, everyone teased me that I should buy some “Ostrich Choo’s” for defeating the thing.
We stopped to get lunch, and then arrived at our hotel in a town called “Wilderness”. It was right on the waterfront, and so beautiful. We all wanted to shower and rest for a little bit before we went for dinner. Avril and Marion took us to this cute little restaurant/bar called the Blue Olive. It was really nice and we had a lot of fun together. The bar had crazy decorated cowboy hats all over the place, so we all got suckered into trying them on..and taking cheesy pictures of course. When we returned to the hotel room, we played some word games to keep entertained, and just had fun. It was very enjoyable first night away. Lauren and Miles are both learning that turning a diva Barbie into a wilderness Barbie doesn’t work out so well. Silly guys…thinking I would change (: hehe
While we were sitting in the little barn waiting for the guy to finish his explanation about the ostriches, he handed miles three food pellets. Miles looked down at his hand not knowing what to do, and the tour guide says “you get the kiss the ostrich”. Miles howled in disbelief and completely refused, but couldn’t get out of it. We continued outside where we were supposed to feed the ostriches, and check out the dwarfed one (yes, they have a dwarfed ostrich lol). Then it was time for Miles big smooch. He was supposed to pucker his lips inside of his mouth (suck them in), and then put the three pellets in between his lips, while the huge ostrich comes over and pecks them from your face. It was so funny, and he was terrified! The bird ended up pecking his face instead of his mouth two times, which left him with “ostrich scars” hahaha. Since I wouldn’t feed the ostrich, the guide told me I would be the first one to RIDE the ostrich…uh oh…
It took the guy about five minutes to even convince me to stand up out of my seat. Once I did this, he also had to convince me to sit on the ostrich. Two men ran into the ostrich’s caged field, grabbed it by the neck, and put a bag over its face so that it couldn’t see. The ostrich immediately became completely calm and was able to be lead right over to the little “docking” station, where I was supposed to get on. I finally agreed after everyone chanting for me to just do it (urgh), and I climbed on top. The bag was still on top of its head, so he was still very calm and didn’t move. I was supposed to cross my feet under his belly so that I wouldn’t fall, while his wings lied over my thighs. I was also supposed to hold on to the wings and lean back so that I would be safe. I told him that I didn’t want to ride, just sit, and then of course the guide took the bag off of the ostrich’s head, and it backed straight of the docking station, ran in place to get its speed up, and took off in a circle around the pen. Ostrich’s can run up to 80 miles per hour if you weren’t aware….! The two wranglers were holding on and running right beside me for safety. I was in complete shock! I wasn’t prepared to ride the thing, let alone to experience how insanely it ran. I eventually fell off of the side of the thing (the two wranglers caught me and helped me to land on my feet) and I didn’t even know what to do with myself. Everyone was laughing SO hard, and I was half crying, half laughing, holding my face in my hands, as I staggered back to the seating area and straight into Marion’s arms. It took me a while to calm down from that one…I just completely wasn’t expecting it and was in total shock! Lol. After that, everyone teased me that I should buy some “Ostrich Choo’s” for defeating the thing.
We stopped to get lunch, and then arrived at our hotel in a town called “Wilderness”. It was right on the waterfront, and so beautiful. We all wanted to shower and rest for a little bit before we went for dinner. Avril and Marion took us to this cute little restaurant/bar called the Blue Olive. It was really nice and we had a lot of fun together. The bar had crazy decorated cowboy hats all over the place, so we all got suckered into trying them on..and taking cheesy pictures of course. When we returned to the hotel room, we played some word games to keep entertained, and just had fun. It was very enjoyable first night away. Lauren and Miles are both learning that turning a diva Barbie into a wilderness Barbie doesn’t work out so well. Silly guys…thinking I would change (: hehe
Compassion is the way to go
Today was our last day in casualty. We are skipping tomorrows work to leave for the garden route with Marion and Avril. I have heard that it is amazing. I’m quite excited!! As for the work day, the lady with the insulin overdose was still here, and up out of bed yet again wandering around trying to get out. I found out that before we came in for the morning, the security guard was slacking off and she got out of the hospital and started running away! Somebody finally noticed and went out to get her, but how crazy is that?? An escaped psychosis patient in nothing but a hospital gown and diaper, and this is nothing surprising to anybody working here….I was in complete shock!
The disturbing tik/heroin/dagga addict was still here as well, I’m guessing still waiting for the social worker to figure out her case. And, there was something else very disturbing that I saw today; each bed in the huge room is only separated by a curtain when it is actually pulled out. There was a curtain pulled half way around a bed, put partially exposed to the rest of the room still. A body was lying on a metal wheeled table right next to the bed covered by a blanket. He was dead and just sitting there exposed. I asked the nurses what has happening, and they said it was a suicide and so it was a police case. They had to wait for the police designated personnel to come take the body, however long that would take, so the body just had to wait there. I closed the curtain so that nobody else had to see it; if I was disturbed why was nobody else?
During the very slow day, I turned to notice that a very sickly man had fallen out of bed! That’s quite a far drop, and he was a completely wasted AIDS patient who couldn’t even walk anymore. He was tied to the bed (with a diaper, I might add), and somehow managed to get it undone. He must have slid under the metal railing along the bed because he couldn’t lift himself to climb over the bed; he was way too weak, but skinny enough to maneuver himself under the railing. He had latched onto the bed beside him, and pulled himself under. His hospital gown and diaper had come off on the way down, so he was lying naked on the floor holding onto the poor woman next to hims bed, which had moved completely sideways. Nobody had seen him or helped him yet, so I nudged a doctor to notify them that he needed help—I’m definitely not strong enough to do that on my own. He ran to go get somebody and never came back…?? So I grabbed another doctor and they grabbed a few of the interns to help get this man back into bed. I felt completely terrible. He had a very weak voice and was moaning for somebody to help him, and because it took about ten minutes for somebody to actually get over there, he thought nobody was coming, so he was practically crying. One of the interns came over and held his hand and told him that they were going to get him put back into bed. At that moment, I wish I would have taken more time to listen to him and be compassionate; to actually come over and hold his hand and let him know that we were going to help, and cover him up. He was covering his parts with his one hand towards the end. But, I was busy running around trying to find somebody that could assist him. I wish with all of my heart that I would have been by his side for part of that time.
Fifteen minutes before it was time to leave, a man was rushed into the hospital with a gunshot wound to his calf that had broken his tibia. His clothes were cut off of his body, and the bullet was determined to have come in and out—the entrance and exit wounds were found. So, since it was also determined that he had broken his tibia, they cleaned the wounds, and put him in a cast. He was screaming in agony, and it was quite a quick process. Miles and I were running around frantically searching for everything the doctors needed for the procedure, and then were scrambling to hand everything to the doctors as they asked for it. He was given some pain medicine and was okay, which was good. We were late for uncle though; we kind of lost track of time during all of the craziness. Time for our weekend trip!
The disturbing tik/heroin/dagga addict was still here as well, I’m guessing still waiting for the social worker to figure out her case. And, there was something else very disturbing that I saw today; each bed in the huge room is only separated by a curtain when it is actually pulled out. There was a curtain pulled half way around a bed, put partially exposed to the rest of the room still. A body was lying on a metal wheeled table right next to the bed covered by a blanket. He was dead and just sitting there exposed. I asked the nurses what has happening, and they said it was a suicide and so it was a police case. They had to wait for the police designated personnel to come take the body, however long that would take, so the body just had to wait there. I closed the curtain so that nobody else had to see it; if I was disturbed why was nobody else?
During the very slow day, I turned to notice that a very sickly man had fallen out of bed! That’s quite a far drop, and he was a completely wasted AIDS patient who couldn’t even walk anymore. He was tied to the bed (with a diaper, I might add), and somehow managed to get it undone. He must have slid under the metal railing along the bed because he couldn’t lift himself to climb over the bed; he was way too weak, but skinny enough to maneuver himself under the railing. He had latched onto the bed beside him, and pulled himself under. His hospital gown and diaper had come off on the way down, so he was lying naked on the floor holding onto the poor woman next to hims bed, which had moved completely sideways. Nobody had seen him or helped him yet, so I nudged a doctor to notify them that he needed help—I’m definitely not strong enough to do that on my own. He ran to go get somebody and never came back…?? So I grabbed another doctor and they grabbed a few of the interns to help get this man back into bed. I felt completely terrible. He had a very weak voice and was moaning for somebody to help him, and because it took about ten minutes for somebody to actually get over there, he thought nobody was coming, so he was practically crying. One of the interns came over and held his hand and told him that they were going to get him put back into bed. At that moment, I wish I would have taken more time to listen to him and be compassionate; to actually come over and hold his hand and let him know that we were going to help, and cover him up. He was covering his parts with his one hand towards the end. But, I was busy running around trying to find somebody that could assist him. I wish with all of my heart that I would have been by his side for part of that time.
Fifteen minutes before it was time to leave, a man was rushed into the hospital with a gunshot wound to his calf that had broken his tibia. His clothes were cut off of his body, and the bullet was determined to have come in and out—the entrance and exit wounds were found. So, since it was also determined that he had broken his tibia, they cleaned the wounds, and put him in a cast. He was screaming in agony, and it was quite a quick process. Miles and I were running around frantically searching for everything the doctors needed for the procedure, and then were scrambling to hand everything to the doctors as they asked for it. He was given some pain medicine and was okay, which was good. We were late for uncle though; we kind of lost track of time during all of the craziness. Time for our weekend trip!
Horrific
Casualty was quite busy today. There were so many crazy cases that we encountered, and they were all back to back! A man came into resus with severe seizures. He ended up needing to be tubed. An elderly woman came into the ward, and I’m not sure what was wrong with her other than psychosis. She was screaming and moaning on and on and on, until finally one of the doctors sedated her. If you recall, the patient room is a huge one with around 30 beds, so it can be heard everywhere, and if you can imagine, it’s awful to hear non-stop chaos in such a confined space. There was a woman who had overdosed on insulin, and she wasn’t even a diabetic. Apparently, when you overdose on insulin it usually puts you into a coma and usually kills you, but for some reason, this hadn’t happened to the patient. She just had severe frontal lobe damage and was reverted back to pretty much baby behaviors. She would sit in a chair with her legs up to her chin rocking back and forth, moaning and crying for her mom. Every once in a while she would get up and try to walk out of the door, and the security guard would have to walk her back to her chair as she screamed and kicked and fought. She repeated this behavior literally ALL morning, with no breaks. That type of repetitive behavior is characteristic of a young baby; not understanding that when you repeat the same behavior you most often don’t get a different outcome. The doctors and security guard eventually got tired of this as well, and found a bed for her and sedated her. It was such a nice break!
There was a particularly worrisome case that I found very disturbing. A young girl, only 19 years old, was brought in early this morning by her friend. She was apparently, as her friend told us, a “previous” drug abuser of tik (crystal meth), heroin, and dagga (Afrikaans word for marijuana). She was clearly high out of her mind when she was brought in, and had very apparent brain damage from all of her abuse. We also found out that she had a baby, which is the most horrible part. Nobody knew where it was or if it was being taken care of, whether or not this woman was abusing when she was pregnant etc. In front of this girl, the doctor told the nurse that he wanted a social worker to get contact information for this girl’s mother to find out where the baby is, and to get it taken away and put into foster care because this clearly isn’t a good place for a child to be. This patient was unresponsive to the news, and just blankly stared off into space with a small smirk on her face. It was so eerie. Right next to her was a young boy who was also a tik abuser that had tried to commit suicide by jumping off of a bridge. He must have been caught before the act because he was injury free. I believe he was also waiting for a social worker. The next patient rushed in from the emergency room, and it was quite the sight.
The woman came hurriedly into casualty with a bunch of wrapping around two of her fingers, her hand held up in the air. She said she had an accident and needed to see a doctor. One came over to where the three of us and the patient were standing, and told her to undo the bandage. She told us while unwrapping that she worked in a spinach factory, and had got her fingers in the way while working and they got cut. As she was taking the layers off of her fingers, she was wincing. The last layer was pretty much stuck to her fingers because of all of the blood, and the doctor had to get gloves and try to help her, but she kept wincing and pulling away; I can’t imagine it was a good feeling. Once the bandages were finally removed, we saw the fingers. It was just two of them, fortunately, that had been sliced. The first one was sliced at an angle, so only the top corner was taken off, but her other finger wasn’t so fortunate. Somehow the blade took out a triangular piece of her finger from the side, so there was just a tiny bit of skin on the other side keeping the top portion of the finger attached to the bottom portion. It was horrendous. The doctor guessed that she would have to get them amputated because of the condition of the second finger; if she was to ever bump it on anything, the top piece would probably end up ripping off because of the tiny bit of skin barely keeping it attached. We later found out that she was luckily able to keep her fingers (hopefully!). They stitched them together as best as they could, and told her to come back in a couple days. If they were healing okay, then she could carry on, but if they weren’t, then they could need to be amputated. What a horrible day for her.
The last significant patient was also quite a gross case. She could barely walk, and once on the examination table, spread her legs apart to reveal a humongous ulcer in the crotch. She said that it hurt to pee, to walk, and to touch it. I guessed all of that just from the looks of it; it looked so raw and sore. Eeuuh, yucky. That was the last thing I saw before it was time to leave for the day. How lovely.
There was a particularly worrisome case that I found very disturbing. A young girl, only 19 years old, was brought in early this morning by her friend. She was apparently, as her friend told us, a “previous” drug abuser of tik (crystal meth), heroin, and dagga (Afrikaans word for marijuana). She was clearly high out of her mind when she was brought in, and had very apparent brain damage from all of her abuse. We also found out that she had a baby, which is the most horrible part. Nobody knew where it was or if it was being taken care of, whether or not this woman was abusing when she was pregnant etc. In front of this girl, the doctor told the nurse that he wanted a social worker to get contact information for this girl’s mother to find out where the baby is, and to get it taken away and put into foster care because this clearly isn’t a good place for a child to be. This patient was unresponsive to the news, and just blankly stared off into space with a small smirk on her face. It was so eerie. Right next to her was a young boy who was also a tik abuser that had tried to commit suicide by jumping off of a bridge. He must have been caught before the act because he was injury free. I believe he was also waiting for a social worker. The next patient rushed in from the emergency room, and it was quite the sight.
The woman came hurriedly into casualty with a bunch of wrapping around two of her fingers, her hand held up in the air. She said she had an accident and needed to see a doctor. One came over to where the three of us and the patient were standing, and told her to undo the bandage. She told us while unwrapping that she worked in a spinach factory, and had got her fingers in the way while working and they got cut. As she was taking the layers off of her fingers, she was wincing. The last layer was pretty much stuck to her fingers because of all of the blood, and the doctor had to get gloves and try to help her, but she kept wincing and pulling away; I can’t imagine it was a good feeling. Once the bandages were finally removed, we saw the fingers. It was just two of them, fortunately, that had been sliced. The first one was sliced at an angle, so only the top corner was taken off, but her other finger wasn’t so fortunate. Somehow the blade took out a triangular piece of her finger from the side, so there was just a tiny bit of skin on the other side keeping the top portion of the finger attached to the bottom portion. It was horrendous. The doctor guessed that she would have to get them amputated because of the condition of the second finger; if she was to ever bump it on anything, the top piece would probably end up ripping off because of the tiny bit of skin barely keeping it attached. We later found out that she was luckily able to keep her fingers (hopefully!). They stitched them together as best as they could, and told her to come back in a couple days. If they were healing okay, then she could carry on, but if they weren’t, then they could need to be amputated. What a horrible day for her.
The last significant patient was also quite a gross case. She could barely walk, and once on the examination table, spread her legs apart to reveal a humongous ulcer in the crotch. She said that it hurt to pee, to walk, and to touch it. I guessed all of that just from the looks of it; it looked so raw and sore. Eeuuh, yucky. That was the last thing I saw before it was time to leave for the day. How lovely.
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