Still Sick

Today, as mentioned above, was originally going to be back at St. Mary’s, but I woke up this morning and was extremely sick; I still have an awful cough, sore throat and stuffy nose from London, my feet are still swollen from the flight, plus are numb now, and I am so tired from the nine hour time difference that I couldn’t even get up. I am wondering if my cold isn’t going away because I am so jet-lagged, that my body hasn’t had the energy enough to fight it off. And the heat here is incredible in comparison to the Seattle and London weather that I am coming from. In the hospitals, we have to wear jeans, closed toe shoes, a dressy top and our lab coats with no air conditioning, and this might be fine for natives, but it is practically killing me. I don’t think that is adding to my case. So, I am home resting today in hopes that I will feel better tomorrow. Dr. Kahn, our medical director, might pay me a visit tonight just to make sure that I am okay.

It started raining last night! I couldn’t believe it, but I was hoping that it would cool down the weather around here; negative. It is still extremely hot, with some added hot rain now. Not the most fun I’ve had. In Africa, it is customary to have a maid if you have money enough for one. My family does, and she is the sweetest girl. She comes three times a week, and has been here the last two days. She doesn’t speak much English, but her nature is very caring, and she has this smile that makes you happy simply by looking at her. My family also just recently purchased a computer, and a man was here setting it up this morning. I’m not sure if they are going to have internet or not. It would certainly be very nice if they got it; it would make getting online a thousand times easier for me. It is quite a challenge thus far. I also have four huge mosquito (I think?) bites on my left arm all by my elbow. They are the hugest bites I have ever gotten in my life, and are by far the most irritating itchy things ever. It has been maybe three days and they are still just as big, and just as itchy. I am trying my hardest not to touch them; Zola gave me some itch cream that worked a tiny bit, but I know that if I scratch them, it will take three times as long for them to go away. I am trying my best! I also just realized that I may not have said much about the house I am staying in. It has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, dining room and garage. It is a good sized house, with quite a large front and back yard. The front yard has an amazing view and beautiful trees and flowers all around. The backyard has steps proceeding up the hill that lead to another house that they own and rent out (or ‘let’ out as the South African and British say), and a swimming pool. It is unkept however, and they refer to it as a pond rather than a swimming pool. The ‘entrance’ to the backyard is with one of those rectangular structures that you find at weddings (I cannot think of the word!) that is covered with a plant that wraps around the top like vines, and grows flowers that hang down. It is very pretty. This morning I went to try and charge the phone they give me to use during the program, and I tried to plug the charger in the wall, and apparently I still needed to use my adapter (you would think not, right?) because the socket ‘blew’ up with sparks and it seared one of the prongs of my charger useless is my guess. Woops. I need to go get another charger today, but I am scared to use that wall plug again. I don’t want it to destroy my adapter; that would be horrible! But it is the only plug in my room. Hmmm

Missing Home );

We will be working at a hospital called King Edwards for two weeks; one week will be spent in the pediatric ward, and one in surgery. This hospital is on the same grounds as the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and because of this, we are able to be ‘enrolled’ students to have access to their medical library and facilities. We had to go finish our temporary enrollment process today, so we did that first thing this morning. We got to see some of the grounds of the university and got a tour of the medical library and related facilities. We will have regular access to computers, which will also be great; it is quite difficult to get internet access because our home stays do not have it, and by the time we get home, there is only half an hour left until the internet café’s close, and it would take us that long to get our things together and get out there. So, this will most certainly be nice. Our driver, Uncle Roy, had an appointment on the North side of Durban, and didn’t have time to drive us all the way to St. Mary’s, which is located on the South side of Durban. He dropped us off at a very large downtown mall called the Gateway Mall, to explore and get to an internet café, while we waited for him to return. The mall was enormous! It has four floors, and each is so big you wonder when the hallways are going to come to an end. We only got through two floors, and then decided to look for an internet café, with success! We were so excited because it had been a while since we had each gotten to get on and update our friends and family, handle some school business, and just feel like we were back at home. Uncle Roy then took us to see the brand new Durban stadium, which is going to be used for the World Cup in June! (Here, they call traffic lights robots, just on a side note.) It is amazingly built and very astounding. It’s stature is extremely large, and has two enormous beams coming from the ground all the way to the middle of the building that you can apparently pay to go up (it’s an escalator/elevator type lift) and view the whole city. I imagine it would be beautiful. The stadium is in a part of town that we haven’t explored yet. It is right by the beach, the Indian Ocean, and lots of neat little shops, hotels, and touristy things to do. There is also a very famous casino and entertainment building in one that is vast and right on the beach that he wanted us to see. We went inside, and it was indeed nothing like I have ever seen before. There was an extremely huge casino, about 20 large restaurants, jewelry shops, clothing stores, clubs, arcade type venues, a playing venue for children, and then of course, out the back of the building, the Indian Ocean beach. We took a look through the huge building, and then Roy wanted us to venture into the casino for a bit. We agreed, and walked around to see it all. We got hungry and decided to try out one of the nice restaurants, which happened to be semi attached to the casino. We drove by Ushaka, which is a very famous marine park and aquarium, where you can do such things as swim with the sharks! I don’t think I am brave enough for anything like that; it will ruin my beach experience for good.

Although I know it’s good for me to have different experiences, I cannot help but be slightly home sick still. I miss my family and friends, and today, I realized how much I missed ‘comfort’ food. Here, they eat a lot of curries (not Indian curries), and everything is good, but it’s not food from home. When we were walking through the big entertainment building, I just wanted to see a restaurant that was familiar, or that had familiar food that would remind me of home; there was nothing. We also got the opportunity to walk through a grocery store today, and we were looking for ‘American’ food that would remind us of home and make us feel more comfortable (when there is absolutely nothing similar in a culture that you’ve immersed yourself in, anything that is reminiscent of your home is fabulous), but there was nothing! Fruit doesn’t do it, because you can find fruit anywhere. They even have Doritos and Frito chips, but in odd flavors that we don’t have. We left kind of disappointed and missing home, but I guess that’s a part of the adventure. There are things that are similar in restaurants, but nothing is the same, and it makes me sad sometimes. I just miss my familiar comfort zone still. The other night, my family ordered pizza, but it wasn’t the same; they didn’t make any of the kinds that are familiar from home, the company wasn’t familiar, and it just didn’t taste the same. I think that’s why I have been calling so much in the early stages of my time away; hearing familiar voices is very comforting and has helped me adjust better, when everything around me is so foreign. But, we had a lovely time today, and tomorrow, it is back to the hospital.

St. Mary's Hospital, First Day

Today was our first day of rotations. We are at St. Mary’s Hospital this week, and were in Surgery Theatre for half of the day, and outpatient rotations for the other. We firstly got a tour of the hospital grounds, and discovered it to be quite small. It is surrounded by a Catholic Church and University. We saw the HIV/AIDS and TB wards, pharmacy, the E.R., outpatient rooms, Pediatrics, which included babies of all age plus an orphanage and ICU, pregnant women waiting to give birth regularly or awaiting c-sections, and post-birth recovering mothers, and the non-emergency patient visitors. That is pretty much all there is to the hospital. I was astounded at how dated and unsanitary the hospital was. There was no hand sanitizer to be found but once, the walls, linens, floors and most things in the hospital were old, worn and dirty. Nobody with spreadable germs, diseases or suppressed immune systems were isolated (if they were, in the case of the ICU, their ‘isolation’ was nothing like ours) , there was hardly any hand washing, mask or glove wearing by the doctors and nurses, and there was also clearly not enough space for anything that needed to take place; there were chairs and benches lined up all outside of the hospital for patients to wait on until it was their turn to see a doctor. Sometimes these patients wait a full day sitting outside and still do not get in to see the doctors, and are left to come back the next day for another chance. Masks in the hospital were rare, and when I asked for one in one section of the hospital, they unlocked the closet, shrugged their shoulders and told me they were out and walked away as if it was nothing. I was absolutely astounded. All hospital records are recorded by hand; nothing is electronically stored like in the United States, and hospitals in South Africa also have to record each and every supply used on all patients. There is such shortage and limitations in terms of updated equipment, amount of equipment and available supplies. During rounds, a patient with gangrene only had a layer of saran wrap placed on top of their bacterial-ridden rotten wound, in a room with 20 beds! Pregnant women in South Africa that are going to give birth ‘normally’ sit in a waiting room pushing their baby out until it is just about to crown, and then are taken to a room to be laid on a metal table. The baby is delivered with no pain medication given to the mother, and is expected to leave the hospital four hours after giving birth. There are also so many patients coming into the hospital to be treated for things you would never find in the United States as well .I do not think we understand nor recognize the amount of luxury and privilege we have access to.

We started our morning with Theatre. There were two c-sections lined up straight away that Miles and I scrubbed in for. The pregnant lady was already in the operating room, fully naked on a metal table. She was told to sit up by the nurse, who held her head forward as far as it would go so that the doctor could give her an epidural, while the other nurses in the room unwrapped the tools for her procedure; that’s terrifying to see the tools going to be used to cut into your own body! The women are given no other pain medication. The nurses started to sanitize her stomach, and then threw the used swabs held by tongs across the room onto some gauze placed on the floor at the foot of the table. Some of the gauze even landed on the bare floor and wasn’t picked up until the end of the procedure, and then the soiled floor wasn’t even cleaned afterwards! It was horrendous to watch. Once the procedure was just about the start, a sheet was placed between the woman’s head and stomach so that she couldn’t see the surgery taking place. The doctor started immediately, and was quite swift and rushed the entire time. He was making incisions (Miles left the room at the epidural; that part always makes him nauseous), and put the scissors down quickly and started using his hands to split the skin instead. He did this, and then shoved his hand down the inside of the incision and the lady howled in pain, and that is when I got nauseous. It was so barbaric to me! I had to sit out for pretty much the rest of that c-section. I stepped in at the end once the baby was already born and the doctor was stitching her back up, and was fine to see the finishing of her. The nurses pushed on her stomach and helped guide the blood out of her crotch onto the metal table. They rolled the new mother onto her side as they wiped her back up, and then rolled her onto a rolling table to be brought to the recovery area. The bloody bandages thrown on the floor had to be picked up and counted, and then thrown into a plastic bag for assumed disposal. I don’t know what happened with the used tools, as Miles and I walked out with the doctor at that point to prepare for the next waiting mother. The proceeding c-section was a little less barbaric, and I saw everything except the doctor pulling the baby out of the womb (I had to leave to find a new mask). This time, I decided to focus my attention on the new born baby. The nurses didn’t give her a bath once she was pulled out, simply wiped her clean, and wrapped her up in a towel to lay on the table they had designated for the babies. They didn’t clean her eyes off either; they let her struggle to unstick them herself. The doctor, Miles and I cleaned up and headed to the outpatient ward for rounds.

I was surprised to find only large rooms with 20 or so beds in them each; there is no such thing as a private or single room. It all happened to be men in the room as well; I’m not sure if they differentiate by gender or if it was a coincidence. Each man was in the hospital for a different reason, and no matter if it was contagious or not, they all shared the room. One man was there recovering from a burn injury extending from one side of his face and head, down to his neck and shoulders. Two men were there getting bed sores treated resulting from being paraplegic. We were told that because drinking and violence are such problems in Africa, many car accidents and shootings take place, leaving many paraplegics. Another was there for a fever, one for a migraine, one from developing celluloses on his ankle and top foot that needing burning and then a skin graft (his wound was covered by one thin layer of saran wrap that was then taken off for the doctor to examine), another from a gunshot wound to his spine, and one awaiting for a social worker to arrive; he was very loopy and allowed to get up from his bed and walk around the hospital where and when he pleased. None of these men had any shoes on, and the condition of their feet was often very poor. We saw another man with TB, and one with HIV, Diabetes and Gangrene eating away his ankle simultaneously that was waiting to see if the condition of his gangrene was bad enough (yet) to require an amputation. His wound was also only covered by one thin layer of saran wrap that was removed as the doctor took a look at it. This is the clinic where I was unable to find a mask, and this was probably the most dangerous for me to be without one. The doctor saw each patient for maybe two minutes, and didn’t explain anything he was doing to the patients. He was accompanied by a nurse who held each patient’s files open and told the doctor the latest on their condition, if they were awaiting some type of procedure, and their medication situation. The doctor then gave “doctors orders” that were signed and to be followed through with (the nurse recorded them by hand in the file), and then he continued to the next patient. After these rounds, it was time for lunch.

The ‘tuck’ shop at the hospital was extremely different from a cafeteria at a hospital in the U.S. Food was actually home cooked, and served by hand onto your plate. Because it was homemade, there were only two options. They even made juice in a pouring container that you would keep at home, and had cups sitting on the side for you to pour yourself a drink. The tables and trays were extremely dirty. On the hospital grounds, there was also a ‘convenience’ store out of a metal storage bin for you to purchase various items. It was the oddest experience for us both. Lunch is an hour long in South Africa, so when we returned, we only had an hour left to our day. There was a woman that came into Theatre that needed an abscess drained, that was apparently very large and on her buttocks, and Miles and I were contemplating scrubbing in. We were going to go check the size and severity of it first before we made a final decision, but as soon as we opened the doors to the theatre, they were sending her back up to her room because she had renal failure. They were going to test her blood and give her some medicine and try again the next day. Maureen, our local coordinator, works at St. Mary’s, so it was very convenient to have a meeting with her straight after our rotation. We talked about the rotations we will be doing for our duration in Durban, about Durban as a whole town, and about our weekly meetings with our medical director, Dr. Kahn. My day was overall very shocking and eye opening; I never realized how little access some have, yet how advanced others are. I have never experienced such ‘repressed’ hospital conditions and it definitely wasn’t easy for me to adjust to, having come from working at Children’s Hospital, one of the most beautifully kept and medically advanced hospitals in the country. I didn’t think a hospital such as St. Mary’s was legally able to keep its grounds; things are very much different here. I think I will have just as hard a time adjusting to the even poorer conditions of the Malakazi Clinic in the Umlazi Township further in my stay.

Durban, South Africa

Everything is so different. I struggled the first night here. As I lied there with everything foreign and nothing familiar surrounding me, I got overwhelmed in my exhaustion and sobbed. I wanted everything that was across the world from me, that I couldn’t have for a whole ten weeks. In the larger scheme of things, that isn’t a long time at all, but in my moment of sorrow, it felt like a time that would never come. Longing for something unreachable is the worst feeling ever. And it had nothing to do with my family; they were the most welcoming and accepting people I could have met. It was just adjusting to being out of my familiar conform zone in every way and wanting so badly to run right back to it. Because I don’t have that option, I know this is going to be an absolutely amazing growing experience for me, and I will cherish the change and knowledge it brings me for the rest of my life. At the time, however, I wanted nothing more than to wake up from this dream and find myself safely in my own bed at home. I woke up to the noise outside; it sounded like a jungle! It was so loud with every animal sound you can imagine. It was kind of neat; I would have to say that definitely isn’t a regular occurrence in the city I’m used to. I’m still pretty exhausted, but I’m expecting it to take a while before I’m rid of that. My host family’s home is so foreign, yet there’s something oddly comfortable about the houses in South Africa. They are so different, but I seem to be adjusting fairly quickly even though it is somewhat of a struggle. I am usually quite hesitant when placed in such a situation, but am really trying to put myself out of that.
Today Maureen picked Miles and I up to take a tour of the city. I don’t even have the capacity to verbalize how vastly different Durban is from anything I have ever seen in my life. I think I am still in semi-shock trying to grasp everything that I witnessed today. We drove through townships, one in particular that houses nearly two million people (astounding!), Umlazi , is where we will be working in a orphanage for two days, as well as a little clinic called the Malakazi Clinic ran by our medical director Dr. Kahn situated in the township for the same length of time. The Orphanage is a special place, started by a couple that had nothing more than anyone else in the township. Because the death toll most commonly created by AIDS is so high, especially for those with very limited health care, many children lose both parents and are too young to care for themselves. This creates a huge problem, because most people in the area don’t even have enough to sustain a reasonable life for themselves, let alone added children. But, this sweet couple wanted to create a place for these poor children to come. They provide for them everything that they have, and have sustained community and outer-community support which allows them to survive. The orphanage houses somewhere around 50 children of both genders and all ages, and for two days we will get the difficult yet rewarding opportunity to step in and help. We were allowed to stop by and see the ‘facility’, which looks like a slightly larger house in the township, and meet some of the children that stay there. The couple that started and still run the orphanage were attending a funeral, so we weren’t able to meet them yet. We were also allowed to stop and visit the Malakazi clinic. It has merely three consulting and treating rooms, two nurses, and very limited care, yet sees somewhere around 70,000 patients a year. We stopped on our tour to be introduced to a very interesting man who lives in the Umlazi township. In 1976 he created a park around his home, which he named “How Long? Park”. Its purpose was to bring some change and happiness to the conditions of the townships, and he has gained national attention for creating a beautiful park, as well as for his efforts in bettering the community and environment. It is located very close to the orphanage that we will be working in. I was amazed at the stunningly beautiful park and garden he created from absolutely nothing, on top of being in the midst of the gloomy and hopeless outlooks that stagnate the township. He truly did an incredible thing for his people, and it was incredible to meet the man who made it possible. I was astounded by the living conditions that have become such common place in these townships; as mentioned above, Umlazi houses nearly two million people. And I’m not talking about a large area of land; these people are all in a small densely populated area. The conditions of the housing are devastating. Looking around, you can see shacks, mud huts, and storage bins literally as far as your eyes can see in each direction! Each family lives in one of the three arrangements listed above, and they are extremely small quarters to share with so many people. The houses are packed tightly together, leaving barely any land in between, have no electricity, only dirt for flooring, no toilets (there are shacks with holes in the ground that substitute), and pipes that release water for drinking, bathing, and washing that serve hundreds of houses each. The townships were originally build by the government to house people for a maximum of six months, but clearly, these people have been well established at their dwellings with no outlook of ever leaving them.
We were also brought to see what South Africans refer to as “locations”. These are very large brick buildings where black men were forced to live during the Apartheid. The men had to leave their families behind at farms or wherever their homes were, and come to work on the railways. Each tiny room housed four men and the large buildings had no electricity or running water in them. After a work day, the men were forced to come straight back to their allocated ‘location’ for the night. Today, they are extremely run down yet still house some men. Luckily no longer by force, but rather for some men, out of habit and close proximity to work, because it is a very cheap way to live, or because they have nowhere else to go any longer. Some new locations are being built right now where men will be allowed to bring their families to live with them that will hopefully provide better living conditions as well. Seeing these types of conditions all morning really helped to understand how well off both of our host families really were in Durban. They have all necessities for sustainable living, plus full electricity, a TV with something similar to DirecTV, computers, cell phones, running water, a washer, and more. Although the housing conditions are very different than what you would see in the United States, I can most certainly see how well off they are in this country. I cannot imagine the shock somebody from a township like Umlazi would experience coming to the United States and seeing let alone the population we consider poor (literally nothing compared to what they have here on the townships), not to mention the wealthy population.
Maureen and her husband told us that there is no other country in the world where you can go from seeing third world conditions to first world conditions driving down one single road. And we most definitely experienced that, driving from Umlazi to a different part of Durban housing a giant shopping mall called the Pavilion, with expensive shopping and eating options with full air conditioning and parking garages. Maureen was taking us to lunch at a nice restaurant inside, and that was the strangest experience for me. I had a hard time grasping that level of normalcy; seeing such poverty yet continuing down the road to do your shopping at the expensive mall. You could see the townships upon the hills just outside the window of our restaurant. I didn’t even understand it yet, because I was still in shock from the brick wall that was suddenly inches before my nose. It is going to take a while to digest and process the amount that is before me for my five week stay in Durban.

Interesting Adventures

I have finally arrived!! Pretty much as soon as I stopped writing my last post, we were able to get back on the airplane and head to Johannesburg. I didn’t expect to arrive to another disaster, however. I had missed my connection flight from Johannesburg to Durban by quite a few hours and was expecting to just be put on the next flight out. Not how things work here! A man that worked at the airport offered to help me with my bags, and directed me to go visit the South African Airways desk. But, SA Airlines told me they couldn’t help me because I didn’t have a valid ticket any longer. I was directed to visit their ticket sales office, where I was told I needed to buy a new ticket. Missing my flight was completely in the hands of British Airways, so I had to go see them to get my ticket paid for. At first, B.A. told me that I would simply have to buy a new ticket, and I refused because I shouldn’t have to pay for their mistake. The guy who told me this was in training and apparently didn’t know that they had to fix everyone’s connection flight because they were the reason we missed them. The airlines in Africa use very old computers; they were typing in codes to get to the right pages. This took forever! By the time I had my ticket worked out two hours had already gone by. It was long enough having to visit so many different places to get this fixed, but as I was told, African time is very different than American time. They work very relaxed with no rush; I am not adjusted to this slower lifestyle yet. And, my flight wasn’t for another two hours! There was so much waiting today! My feet and ankles had swollen A LOT from the long flights, plus I had a huge bruise on the top of one of my feet from dropping my 50 pound suitcase on it, and a blister on the top of the other. Instead of walking onto your plane from the airport like we do, in Africa you are taken in a bus to a place on the grounds where the airplane is parked, and then you climb the stairs to get into it. I met the nicest couple while waiting for the plane, and found out that coincidentally enough, they were also seated right next to me on the plane. They taught me some Zulu, the native language of Durban besides English, and I found out that we had many similarities. Her husband was a University teacher and also worked through the government. He has been to every state in the U.S. and has taught at over 20 Universities across the country, including UCSD, Yale, and UW. He now teaches at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where I am also coincidentally ‘enrolled’ during my stay as to have access to the medical library and facilities. It was a good introduction to South Africa for me. The flight was very quick, an hour at the most. Marion and her husband were waiting there for me; Uncle Roy couldn’t come anymore because of how much later I arrived than originally planned. The sweet couple I met embraced me goodbye and told me to contact them if I needed anything at all. Miles, the other UW student on the internship with me, was arriving only 30 minutes later, so we waited for him at the airport. The drive from the airport to both of our home stays was five minutes, and our houses are very close to each other. I got to meet Miles’ host family, who are very nice, and then I was dropped off at mine. My family is great as well. Zola’s children are all boys, and they all look exactly the same, with the same humorous nature. The whole family was so welcoming, which made me feel so much better; this has been a really emotionally challenging week for me. The father, Vusi, welcomed me ‘home’ and told me to let them know what they can do to make me feel comfortable. He told me to beat up my ‘brothers’ if they give me trouble. I think I will have a great time here. I have been here for 2 hours and am amazed at the vast differences I have already noticed. I am so tired from all of my travels, but will expand more along with my happenings tomorrow. Sala Kahle! (Zulu used for departing, meaning go and stay well)

Last Day in London

For my last day in London before heading to South Africa, I returned to Oxford circus to shop. I didn’t have much time between waking up and heading to the airport, so I just made a few quick stops to the places I had missed the times before. It was very nice. There are such cool shops down there that don’t exist in the United States. Those are always the most fun to visit. I also adventured to the post office to send of some gifts and it ended up being a nightmare. I arrived just before a huge crowd came, so you’d think my trip would have gone quickly; of course not! The man ended up taking FOREVER, and then when he asked me how I wanted to pay, he told me they didn’t accept American Visas. In Europe the cards all have this chip on the front of them, and instead of sliding the card like we do, they stick it into a short hole so that only that top portion of the card tall-wise is read. We don’t have that, so I have often found myself in trouble because some of the stores only have Visa machines geared towards European card with this special chip that we don’t have. And of course I didn’t have enough Pounds on me. So, I had to go to an atm machine to see if I could get cash; didn’t work. It was also pouring rain by this time and I was wearing nothing but a thin t-shirt and was getting drenched. I was so worried and couldn’t figure out why the machine hadn’t worked! Since there are cash exchanges on every block, I ran to the nearest one only to find out that they only had Visa machines for European cards. So, I headed to the HSBC bank just around the corner, to find out that they only do cash exchanges with HSBC account holders. Fabulous! I didn’t really know what to do next, so I tried the next two atm machines I found. Atm machines in London are everywhere! They are on the walls of streets on every corner, but they are slightly unsafe because there are no barriers to hide against snooping passer-bys like in the United States; they are just flat on the wall. Both of the next atm machines I tried didn’t work either and that was my last straw. I was soaking wet and had ran up and down the block looking for cash and couldn’t find it anywhere! I finally stuck my card back into the same machine to try to figure out why every one of them was declining me (each had said, “sorry, we cannot complete your order at this time”). I then figured out that atm machines in London only let you withdrawl up to 20 pounds at a time, even though they give you an option of up to 200 pounds to select! If you want more, you have to make your transaction, get your card returned, and start all over again until you finally have the amount you need. That is completely unnecessary and really annoying when you’re standing in the pouring rain. When I had finally gotten my cash, I returned to the post office only to find the worker helping somebody else, which took 15 minutes! I was running so late, and had ALL of my luggage with me; three bags weighing a total of 90 pounds. I could barely walk and it was the worst ever. It took me a very long time to make it all the way to the tube station and then down all of the escalators and to the entrance of my gate. I finally made it and then ran into more trouble at the airport. The check-in lady told me that my flight was full, even though I was booked for that flight! She figured it out for me, and since they had made an error, she found a spot for me on my original flight, didn’t charge me for my extra bag, and upgraded me to first class. I was so happy because I had just went through great ordeals and was about to get quite upset. And of course it couldn’t have stayed lovely; once we were all boarded, the pilot got on the intercom and told us the plane was having some technical problems that were trying to be fixed. We waited on the plane for an hour and a half, only to end up getting unloaded from the plane, which I am currently still waiting for. We were told either this plane will be fixed, or another will be available for our use. They are estimating a four to five hour wait, which is horrible. I am missing my connection flight from Johannesburg to Durban, and am now going to have a very late and long night. I have been sick for the past two days—my body is trying to adjust to all of the smog and pollution in the air here, and it’s not going so well. That’s making me extra tired on top of my jet lag that conveniently started to hit at the same time. I’m just sitting at my Heathrow gate waiting to find out what’s going to happen. Overall, pretty miserable day. I am exhausted and just want to rest already. I am crossing my fingers that something good will happen soon. I am so thrilled to be in South Africa. I am getting picked up by my local coordinator for Durban, Maureen, as well as the escort that will drive us to and from the hospitals each day. In South Africa as a sign of respect, most elders are referred to as aunty or uncle, so my driver is referred to as Uncle Roy. They will both drop me off to meet my host family, the Nxele’s. Zola and her husband Vusi are both school teachers. They have three children, 19 year old Mzamo, 17 year old Luyanda, and 13 year old Minenhle. As I am not South African, I do not have the capacity to differentiate gendered named, so I will find that out when I meet them! I have heard that they are great though, and I am anxious to finally arrive.

4th day in London

Hampton court was on the agenda today. It is a royal palace further out of London. We took the Southwest over land train to get there, and I got to see a completely different view of London. I saw neighborhoods with houses rather than flats, Tenements, and factories. The palace was of course wonderful. It was so big and had a maze and many different styled gardens throughout the property. I got to see Henry VI’s apartment, as well as his last wife’s and his daughter Mary II’s apartment. Each were so big, I found myself lost! There were also spots on the property where there was modification for each of Henry’s five wives. For example, the entrance to Henry’s apartment was designed for his third wives liking. His daughter Mary II was not the same religion as his; he was Anglican and his wife was Catholic, so their daughter Mary decided to stay catholic. You can see this in the completely different architectural designs of their apartments. Henry’s side of the castle is at the entrance to the tour, and Mary II’s side of the castle is facing the gardens and is a completely different style; I found this quite interesting that he would allow her to deviate so much. The gardens were mind blowingly beautiful! So much work has had to go into them to keep them pristinely stunning. The gates encasing the property were made from gold and were simply amazing. Hampton Court does a very cute reenactment of Henry’s marriage to his last wife that children come on field trips to see. They get to meet Henry and his wife, give them their best wishes, tour the castle, and have a celebratory dinner. It is very cute. I got to catch a glimpse of him as I was touring the grounds. Because the kitchen on the grounds was pretty impressive (served 1200 meals a day in the 1500’s when Henry would stay), the court has a restaurant where you can eat a ‘medieval’ meal with dressed up cooks. Shannon and I stayed for this because it was just so cute. We were going to go see the play “Les Mis” at the Westin Theatre, but we weren’t able to get tickets, which was very unfortunate. I would have loved to attend an authentic English play. We had a much shorter day than the rest of the week.

London Day 3

Lots happened today; I saw a TON. I went back to the Westminster Abbey because I only saw the outside of it the first day I was here. The architecture is phenomenally beautiful. It is absolutely stunning inside. There is so much old history stored inside of that cathedral. I was mostly enthralled with the stone work of the outside building and the ornate details within. I never knew I was such a European architecture nut until I got here; I just love it. I also went to Greenwich today, which was awesome as well. It’s this cute little town, housing the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum. We skipped the Maritime Museum, and just walked around the grounds. We walked through the ‘garden’ as they called it, which was soo beautiful, and then headed up to the Royal Observatory which was located up on a hill behind the museum. This building was beautiful, and the view down to the garden and museum, which looks like a palace, was breathtaking. The Royal Observatory is also interesting in the fact that right in front of it is the prime meridian, so I got to take pictures at point zero. I didn’t even know that was in London, honestly, so that was cool. While in Greenwich, Shannon convinced me that I needed to visit a pub, since they do not exist in the U.S. (I don’t think), so off we went. The Spanish Galleon was just like in the old movies; the style has not changed. But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised, because everything in London is old and still just like the movies. It was quite fun, and admittedly she was right, the food was pretty yummy. We headed back around Oxford and Piccadilly Circus to see the shops and areas that I hadn’t gotten to see when I went on my own yesterday. It was nice to have a knowledgeable guide (: I saw tons of amazing buildings like everywhere in London, and visited some interesting shops. She took me into this bookstore called Hatchards, which has been in the same spot and running since 1797. They are known for selling books to royalty, and even have the royal stamp posted up in the building. You can often find signed copies of books in their shop I was informed, which is differential from chain book stores in the U.S. It was a really cute shop. We also went into Fortum and Mason’s, which is a very large and decadent department store of sorts. It sells everything you can imagine and is quite high end. It was a beautiful store and Shannon and I had fun poking around at everything. They even sold ‘exotic’ candies, such as fried spider, chocolate covered ants, and worm lollipops. I pretty much died and turned away as fast as I could. Right around this area, there is also a huge National Geographic store, and we checked out the gallery section of the store where their photographers posted amazing pictures which coincidentally were all African themed. We ran into a Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum and store downtown too, so we looked around for a bit. We then visited an authentic English Café which of course was on my to-do list, called Caffe Concerto. They had amazing deserts sitting in the window for passer-by’s to see. It was very proper and high-end, just as I had imagined them to be. Everything was gourmet and fabulous looking, not to mention tasting. Shannon made me take a picture of my hot chocolate because she thought that everyone in the United States would be jealous. She reminded me a little too late to get my yummy mixed berry tart (: but it was very European, and most certainly professionally showcased. She took me to the Millennium Pedestrian Bridge, which had lovely views of the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to name a few. Shakespeare’s theatre is the only building in all of London that has a special permit to still have a thatched roof. How amazing is that? It is SO old!! The grounds of St. Paul’s Cathedral were beautiful, and we also visited St. Martins-in-the-Field, and the British National Library. I feel completely accomplished for doing so much today. I learned that speed bumps are referred to as sleeping policemen in England, so funny.

Day 2: London

Today I went on a tour of the Tower of London. The grounds are so huge and amazingly intricate; I couldn’t even imagine living there like the royalty did. Some pieces of the castle are dated back to 1114! It was incredible to walk around on the tour and hear about all of the history that took place in each of the buildings. To have that amount of history right before your eyes, or to stand in the exact spot that something happened is such an amazing feeling. I got to see old prison cells that well known royalty were locked in, where those royalty were beheaded, their burial sites in the church located on the grounds, the living quarters of these royalty and their servants, and the battlefields and torture equipment used on ‘enemies’. I also got to see the crown jewels which are kept at the London Tower, very very ornate and intricate. There is no mistaking that the person who wore them was royalty. I am jealous of the amount of sparking the queens got to do. I got yelled at by a Scottish guard for trying to take a picture of them /: The tour was guided by Yeoman guards, also known as beefeaters. These are very impressive men. In order to be a yeoman, you have had to serve in the British Army for 25 years, and have contributed something significant to history. There are only 20 of them in all of England, and they get to live on the grounds of the Tower of London with their family. One of them helped capture Dessa, Hitler’s ‘assistant’, who was brought to and imprisoned at the Tower of London. It was amazing, and I normally detest history. The Tower of London is also located right next to part of the Thames River, the London and Tower Bridges. The Tower Bridge is the most recognized bridge in London, and as I learned, is often mistakenly called the London Bridge. But, on my tour I found out that the London Bridge is actually just a small insignificant bridge located on the opposite side of the Tower of London that was the first built connection across the water to the other side back in the 1200’s. I visited Hyde Park today as well, which was beautiful and extremely massive. It is located across the street from a neighborhood, which is placed right in between two large shopping streets, Notting Hill Gate, and Oxford Circus. I visited a bit of Notting Hill before reaching Hyde Park, but was really on the way to Oxford Circus, an area of London full of fashion forward shopping. And I navigated the tube and buses all by myself today! I didn’t get lost once, which made me so happy. I had so much fun walking around and looking in all of the shops big and small. There were also many interesting street vendors scattered down the sidewalks and in little alley ways that were fun to check out. It was interesting to see the fashion in the stores too, which was all very different than what you would find in the United States or Canada. Even stores that we share in common, such as H&M, Aldo, and in Canada, La Senza and Zara, had such different items! I honestly rarely found something I would wear; the London fashion I am noticing isn’t quite my style, or anybody else’s that I know. It continues to amaze me how much these countries differ. Even little things, for example, there are “bureau de change” on every block here, which you don’t find in the United States. In the tubes, instead of signs pointing towards the “exit”, it says “way out”. And in restaurants, they always ask you if you want to ‘stay in, or take away’, which is just slightly different. Outside you can hear little cars and mopeds zipping around, and the cars have the English classic car honking noise in all of the movies. It is the weirdest sounding horn ever. The cars also drive very differently here, besides the obvious driving on the other side of the road and car. They drive uncomfortably close to each other. The lanes are skinnier, and the proximity they stop behind each other is so tiny, a person could barely squeeze in between. It makes me really nervous sometimes. And, England clearly doesn’t have any pedestrian laws in regards to cars. Jay walking is highly encouraged, walkers usually have the right of way, even though hurried cars give you that odd little car honk, and you know that law in the U.S. where a car cannot proceed unless a pedestrian is two lanes away from the vehicle? That absolutely doesn’t exist here. I feel like I’m about to be hit as I walk across the street sometimes because the cars don’t wait one second for you; they are maybe 3 feet away from you slowly inching forward until you are just barely out of their way and then they speed off. I thought the United States rushed! London is far worse. It’s fun to be in this different hustle and bustle, but I am most certainly accustomed to the U.S. way of living. It’s funny the things you discover about yourself once you are put into a different environment.

First Day in London (:

My first day in London was amazing! Shannon, an old family friend, picked me up from Heathrow airport. As soon as we were together, we promptly went to get myself an “oyster” card; my pass to ride all of the tubes, buses, and trains to get around in London. We hopped on a tube that went straight to my hostel (which by the way is on Gray’s Inn Road right in the heart of the city and King’s Cross), where we checked in my bags. As soon as we did that, we immediately left to start exploring the city. I could not believe 1, how tightly packed EVERYTHING in the city is, and 2, how ancient EVERYTHING looked. It was amazing!! One thing I noticed that greatly differed from the States is that all space is utilized here. In the U.S., if for example, a building is being unused, it will simply be knocked down and the land will be cleared for something else to be built. And, we unknowingly have so much space in between our buildings and houses. This is absolutely not the case in London. The university my friend goes to is actually an old jail! It was unused, so instead of tearing the building down, it was ‘renovated’ to become a university. All houses that are “unused” are turned into hostels, cafes, restaurants, convenience stores, you name it. And everything is so compact! First of all, the housing sizes are incredibly small; a standard flat is the size of an American closet! And, the buildings, such as the cafes and restaurants that line the streets are mostly extremely tiny and very close together; you would be amazed at how many stores can fit into a small section. You would absolutely never find something so squished in the United States. As for the look of the buildings, every single one of the buildings in London are old; originating from the 1500-1800’s! I was stunned at how beautiful and ornate the architecture all is. In the United States, it is very rare to come across such a building, and when you do, you clearly want to take a picture because it’s so rare! Here, I was finding myself taking pictures of EVERYTHING because these buildings weren’t rare, they were every building! It is going to take me a while to adjust. I took 200 pictures today alone! Shannon was the best tour guide ever! I didn’t realize how large London was, and despite the vast size, I saw SO much today! We rode the tubes and buses all across town, and I even rode on a red double-decker bus. We went through the British museum, which is the largest museum I have ever been in in my life. It has so many artifacts that it was overwhelming. It would take you years to truly appreciate every piece held inside that building. This museum is also home to the Rosetta Stone, which is remarkable. I saw Trafalgar square, incredibly beautiful, Big Ben, which is massive, Picadilly Circus, the London Eye, which is by far the hugest ferris wheel on the planet that I will never get on, Thames River, Westminster Abbey, Almost every countries “ambassador/congress/parliament” building, the ---“place with big fountain”----, tons of castles that former royalty have lived in or own, tudor buildings, the British Library, which is SO big, and I ate at a Portuguese chain restaurant in Europe called Nando’s. Another thing I found fascinating about London is the amount of diversity represented in the country. Not only were there parliament buildings for every country as mentioned above, but you could literally see every one of those ethnicities represented as you walked down the street. I heard so many accents and different languages being spoken around me, different clothing styles, skin colors and facial features. I think that is the coolest thing ever.
Although I don’t think I could never live here, it is quite beautiful to admire from afar. I would strongly urge everyone to make it here at least once in their lifetime. There is an abundance of history carved into each building, literally, and it is truly fascinating.

2 Days in London

I have so much to share!! However, my hostel's wifi isn't working (of course, just my luck..) so I can't post any of my pictures or the long stories I wrote about my adventures. I am stuck logging onto their computer that has nothing on it for me. I will try to get to a place that has wifi either today or tomorrow so that I can share everything with you! Check back soon (:

Departure

I am off to start my adventures tomorrow! I can't believe it's time for me to leave Seattle already. It feels like just yesterday I was talking about my trip still being three months away. I'm flying to London first, where I will stay for five days to be touristy and explore, and will then fly directly to Durban, South Africa, where I will be for 5 weeks. Then I fly to Cape Town, where I will spend the remaining 5 weeks of my trip. I am currently feeling every emotion known to man simultaneously; I'm pretty much a big mess. I know that once I have arrived I'll be fine, but I can't rationalize that with myself at the moment. I'll be posting entries about everything I do in London and South Africa very frequently, and will post tons of pictures as well! However, I think the majority of the pictures will be posted on my facebook...I'll have to see how easy it is to do on here (: So until I have exciting things to report, au revoir!! (:

Hailey