Ladysmith Hospital

My last few weeks have been centered around the hospital. However, I did get a chance to go hiking in the Drakensbergs this weekend, which was beautiful. The last few Fridays I have also been going to dinner parties, which are thrown by my mentor in the Casualty Ward. There is always amazing food, last weekend was Middle Eastern food and this Friday was a huge braai. Other than that I have been working and helping out at the hospital, which is really interesting but also draining. I have been updating my daily log from the hospital. (changing some of the names naturally…) But this is essentially what I have been up to for the last two weeks. It is a bit long, and I would encourage skimming =)

11/3/09

Today has been a slow day at the hospital. Things were really not happening in the Casualty department, so I decided to stop in and visit doctors in other areas of the hospital that I had met. This type of feast-or-famine seems to be how the Casualty ward generally operates; it is rare that there is a steady flow of patients. There also are long periods where all beds are full, but the patients are waiting for an orthopedic or surgical consult, which can take anywhere from 10 minutes, to several hours.

I went into the gynecology ward and went on rounds with Dr. Potter, but it was essentially just examinations to see how far dilated all of the women were, and if the baby was lying correctly in the uterus. After rounds, I went back to Casualty, where Dr Winchester suggested I go to ward 3, the orthopedic ward and observe some interesting x-rays. When I got there I saw Jessica, a physical therapist that I had met through Dr Winchester. I went on her orthopedics round with her, which was fairly interesting to observe. I also was able to assist in moving patients and generally helping out. Many of the patients were pre-op, and had been so for a long time. There seemed to be a fairly long backlog for surgery. There was a man who we saw that had been there for 10 days with two broken legs and a shattered spine. I saw his spine x-ray, and it looked like there were gravel fragments all around his back, really pieces of spine. He needed to be transferred to a specialist, and all that Jessica could do to help was to move him around to prevent bedsores. She said that if he developed bedsores, no other hospital would admit him.

I then went back to Casualty, where there were several patients who had been bitten by dogs. Dr Winchester told me that there are essentially three levels of risk when there is human-animal interactions, a level three is when there is blood present at the site of injury, level two is a scratch with no blood, and a level one is a lick or nibbling on unbroken skin. Most of the dog bites that present at Ladysmith are level three interactions, although Dr Winchester said that they are often miss-categorized at the referring clinics, either higher or lower than their actual risk. Ladysmith is a high-risk area for rabies, it is endemic and there are generally a few outbreaks a year in animals in the area. As such, in all bites that are “high risk” where the dog wasn’t provoked and is unknown to the patient, the patient is generally given the full series of rabies shots. If possible, the dogs are also kept under observation by the patient, and they are told to come back if the animal dies within 10 days.

7-2, 7 hours

11/4

Later that night, I went back to the hospital to observe a night shift. There were several men who had been assaulted with knives, but the wounds were all superficial and readily sutured with no complications.

Later, a woman was brought in who looked like she was sleeping. She was 51, with a history of hypertension. She was found lying in her bed, and the family couldn’t wake her. She had clinical signs of a stroke: limb rigidity, no eye movement, and no reflex to protect the airway. She had been dizzy, and gone to bed, about 10 hours before. Dr George told me that if a person who has a stroke can be operated on within 3 hours, brain function could be saved. The woman had a Glasgow Coma Scale of 7 (The GCS is a rating scale that takes into account eye, verbal and motor response, the worst score is 3, the best 15) with a motor response of 4, meaning that she could withdraw from pain. Dr George said that Gray’s would not take a person with under 5 on the GCS motor response, so we went upstairs to get a CAT scan. Easily visible on the scan was a massive interverntricular hemorrhage, or blood in the brain, which meant that the woman had a very low probability of surviving.

A man also presented with a badly infected toe. Dr George called for a surgical consult, which came to clean the toe out. The consultants on call are all residents, who have to undergo 4 months in each field of practice to become doctors. Dr George explained that he had more training than the resident, because he had competed his surgical training while the consultant was only halfway done, but that they had to call them as a part of their training for surgery. A woman also presented with a dry cough, but her lungs sounded clear, which indicated either Pneumocystis Carinii (an atypical pneumonia) or a typical pneumonia, but as the woman wasn’t in respiratory distress, it was more likely to be pneumonia.

8-12, 4 hours

11/5

Today I began in Casualty. It was extremely slow, as the orthopedic and surgical clinics were both open, which meant that those cases could be referred instead of being treated at Casualty. These cases account for a lot of the patients presenting during the day. I went over to pediatrics to see what was happening there. I ended up shadowing Dr Jeff on rounds. He pointed out quite a few cases of pediatric vomiting diarrhea malnourishment cases, and also showed me the x-rays for some infant pneumonias as well as PCPs (Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia) which are extremely common in people with HIV aids, including children with HIV/AIDS. I went back to Casualty and saw another PCP case when I got there. Dr Winchester explained that PCP is clinically quite different from pneumonia. Dr Winchester said that the run of the mill pneumonias don’t present with respiratory distress, although they can. On a PCP x-ray, there is a characteristic ground-glass effect, but the lungs sound normal when listened to with a stethoscope. In other types of pneumonia, there is a distinct crackle that can be heard upon clinical examination, although the x-rays can look similar. A man also came in who had been kicked in the face by a cow. He was quite elderly, and required several sets of sutures. He proceeded to show me the scars from all of the various places he had been injured by cows over the years. It seems like a dangerous profession.

11-4.30, 5.5 hours

11/5

This morning started at 7.30 with a general hospital presentation by the Gynecology department about transgender, which was very interesting, both the medical and the psychological side were presented. I then popped into theatre, where Dr Winchester was examining an older woman who had a foot almost completely rotted away by gangrene. It was dry gangrene as opposed to wet, which essentially clinically means that there is less swelling and fluid on the appendage. Dr Winchester said that the leg would need amputation, as the gangrene was progressive.

A man was brought in who had been hit by a car, the emergency protocol was followed and he was immediately started on twin wide bore IVs. He also had a pneumothorax, or air in the chest cavity, for which an underwater chest tube was placed to remove the air and allow him to breathe properly. He had extremely low blood pressure, and after a very quick clinical examination it was determined that he had a broken left femur, left tibia, and several ribs on the right side, which moved up and down as he breathed. He also had head trauma, but the extent couldn’t be determined, as he died in the X-ray room. Dr Winchester said that the cause of death was probably related to the head trauma, since he was otherwise stable when he was sent to x-ray.

A little girl was brought in for vomiting and diarrhea; she had severe myasthmous, a type of malnutrition. She was extremely wasted, and her skin hung off of her in loose folds. She was given an IV for rehydration and admitted to the pediatrics ward.

A small boy was brought in who had a toy shoved up his nose, he was sedated and the toy was removed with a pair of extremely long forceps. A short while later, another small boy was brought in, dead upon arrival. However, the ambulance man said that he had been screaming when he was brought in. Dr Winchester explained that if the boy died in the ambulance, it meant a ton of paperwork for the ambulance driver to do, w so that the ambulance company would have less paperwork to do.

A boy of five was brought in, who had been involved in a minibus taxi accident. He had minor abrasions and was medically fine. He had been walking, holding his four year old sister’s hand, and was pulled down as the taxi drove over her head, which was crushed beneath the wheel. He was held overnight, more for the psychological trauma than anything, and so his parents wouldn’t have to worry about him for the night.

Dr Winchester also loaned me a book on how to read x-rays, which I studied between patients. In the trauma ward, everything seems to happen at once, which is followed by extremely slow periods. These especially occur when the specialty clinics are open, because a number of the patients that are handled in Casualty actually are non-emergency cases, which are usually handled by these clinics.

7.30-5, 9.5 hours

11/6

This morning I began in Casualty. There were several various fractures, which were sent to orthopedics. A man came in who needed head sutures; his minibus taxi had been in an accident.

I talked to a male sister (all nurses are called sister regardless of sex) about domestic violence cases presenting in Casualty. He said that there are far too many, and that after initial treatment, all are sent to a crisis center at the hospital, where there is someone on call 24 hours a day to council and help deal with domestic violence cases. Another doctor told me that most domestic violence cases, as well as assaults and other violence, occur on weekends and especially at the end of the month. This is payday, and the only time there is money around that can be spent on alcohol, which fuels violence and domestic abuse.

Another doctor there told me that the Zulu were generally a very proud people, and also had a vary warlike past, which might attribute to the high levels of violence, but he also said that these levels were present throughout all of South Africa, so there were obviously other factors as well. He also told me that all clinics in the hospital close at 3.30, even though they are supposed to be open until 4 or 4.30. He also told me that there was “no sense of urgency” in the hospital, the nurses might call a doctor to help resuscitate but when the doctors get there 10 minutes later, the nurses might not have even started resuscitating.

11-3, 4 hours.

11/6/09

I also came into later at night, and met Dr Pierce, a nice older gentleman. He let me listen to the chest of a woman who came in with a severe asthma attack. Whenever she breathed in or out I could hear a rasping sound. She was put on steroids, adrenaline and oxygen, and a half hour later I listened to her chest again, which sounded clear. I also heard some great stories from Dr Pierce, about how he performed his first surgery at 18, and many other stories from his long career doctoring all over the world. There were also several stab wounds to the back that were sutured, and a blunt force trauma injury to the back of the head. These traumas all have a distinct pattern; severe swelling, and an extremely tender area around an open wound with a fairly undefined edge as a result of the skin bursting due to the force of the injury.

9-12, 3 hours

11/7/09

Today I went in a bit later in the day, and when I got there I saw a man who had cut his thumb off with a saw. He was belligerently drunk and on frequently broke out into Natasha Bedingfield songs. He had bled all over everything, and a trail of blood followed him around the waiting room and Casualty ward. I got him a bag of ice for the thumb, but as he’d had it in his pocket for several hours, it was no longer viable tissue. He kept asking people if they wanted to see his thumb, and pulling it out of his pocket to wave in their faces. Dr George told me that the thumb probably wouldn’t be re-attached even if it was viable, as there just weren’t the resources for it.

A woman also came in with suspected TB; she had a chronic cough and a chest x-ray with some suspected TB spots on it. Another woman was brought in by her husband; she was a stage four Aids patient and couldn’t move or walk.

Another assault victim was brought in with several cut fingers on his hand. The doctor called it a defense injury, as the man had caught the knife blade in his hand when he had been assaulted and refused to let go. He was sutured and released

3-6, 3 hours

11/9/09

This morning was fairly slow in Casualty. However, there was a man who came in with a leaking chest tube. He had been stabbed several days before, and the blade had penetrated his diaphragm and nicked his stomach. Apparently when they opened him up the first time, he’d had stomach contents in his chest, and had to have his chest washed out. He was given a colostomy bag for drainage, but now it was leaking so he was back. Dr Winchester said that he would most likely need another surgery to clean out his chest cavity, as there was fecal matter in the tube.

A baby was brought in with a broken leg. I was surprised because the baby showed no signs of discomfort although her tibia was completely broken. Also on the orthopedic side of things, a woman presented with a swollen ankle. Dr Winchester suspected a break, although there was nothing visible on the x-ray. The ankle could have been sprained, but sprains are commonly swollen on the lateral side of the ankle, and this ankle was predominantly swollen on the medial side, so she was sent to orthopedics for a consult.

Next, a man came in with a prolapsed rectum, which had been prolapsed for several days. The procedure for repairing this is just to gently re-insert the rectum through the anus. This process is extremely painful, and the patient needs to be put under anesthesia.

A woman also presented with a large abscess on her neck, which was drained by the surgical doctor. A man came in who had been assaulted with a rock several days previously, on Saturday night whilst out drinking. He couldn’t be sutured because the tissue had already began to heal and was too delicate to hold a suture.

10-4, 6 hours

11/10/09

Today was fairly slow in Casualty, so I went up to surgery to observe orthopedic surgeries. The first was an older woman who had fractured her femoral neck. The surgeons first inserted a screw through the head of the femur, and then attached it to a plate they had screwed onto the femur below the fracture. The next patient was a 15-year-old boy with a fractured right radius. A plate was attached to the bone to place the two ends in proximity to each other. The last surgery of the day that I observed was an Austen Moore hip replacement on a 78-year-old woman. In this surgery, the head of the femur is removed, and the femur is cut at an angle. A metallic prosthesis is inserted into the femur, and the top is then rotated back into the hip socket.

I then popped into the MOP Department to visit Dr Pierce. I ended up spending the rest of the day in the exam rooms with him. He was extremely efficient, and saw patients quite rapidly. There were a variety of patients; many were TB patients, who he saw for a variety of complications due mainly to their TB. He also saw an extremely overweight patient who had no cartilage left in her knee. He gave her a hard time about eating so much, and told her to get on a diet. Most of the patients that he saw he joked with while he gave them medical advice and care. A woman came in with shingles all over her back and breasts. Dr Pierce said that this was an HIV indicator. The woman also had been in a month earlier with bleeding gums from gingivitis. Dr Pierce said that these opportunistic infections often took advantage of a destroyed immune system. A man also was seen who had brain inflammation, which Dr Pierce told me was another example of an opportunistic infection.

An older woman came in wanting a disability grant, and she was sent to the special “grant doctor” that deals with all disability grants at the hospital. He also would not see patients if they didn’t have a letter of referral from a clinic, since this was a secondary hospital.

The doctor talked about how the government couldn’t provide jobs for the people, but they still needed votes to stay in power, so they provided grants instead, which fed peoples dependence, but also gave them money for food, so he was of a mixed opinion. In all, Dr Pierce saw 42 patients in his shift, one after another.

After this I stopped by Casualty, but it was fairly quiet. On the way out Dr. Winchester was stopped by a man who had jaw cancer that had metastasized to his ear and throat. He was being transferred to Gray’s hospital for surgery at 3.00 AM, and would have to sleep in the rooms that the hospital provided for transfer patients. He had a long conversation in Afrikaans with Dr Winchester about how he didn’t want to sleep in a room with “them” (black patients). Dr Winchester later explained the conversation to me and told me that he was often put in that position, where white racists expected him to sympathize with their views because he was white and spoke Afrikaans.

8.30-4.30, 8 hours

11/11/09

I started my day in Casualty, where a man came in with a laceration on the back of the head. He had gotten assaulted there last Saturday, 4 days ago, so the skin was too weak to hold sutures and a dressing was put on it. Another man came in, with a laceration that had been sutured but was now infected, so the sutures were removed and the wound cleaned and dressed. A woman came in with a severely malnourished baby that was dehydrated. Four doctors spent about 30 minutes trying to insert an IV line in the baby, but her veins were so small because of the dehydration that a line couldn’t be placed. At this point Dr Winchester came in and inserted an IV line directly into the right tibia. He explained to me that it was an emergency procedure, but the baby was severely dehydrated and so it needed to be done to get the baby fluids. The baby was then admitted to the Pediatric Ward. There were also five dog-bite cases in the morning, all of which were high-risk and the patients were started on the series of rabies shots.

A man was brought in the early afternoon; he had been assaulted with an iWisa, or Knobkierrie. This weapon is a stick with a large knob on one end, and is common among the Zulu communities. It was traditionally used by the Zulu as a war club, and Dr. Winchester told me that it is commonly found as the weapon in assault cases because of its widespread popularity as both a walking stick and symbol of authority amongst the Zulu. The man had been drinking, but “only a little” and he didn’t know why he had been assaulted. He said that someone that he knew from his village had assaulted him, possibly because the man was unemployed and jealous of his new job. He told me that he was considering exacting revenge, but that he didn’t want to risk jail so it was better to just let the police handle it.

After this it slowed down in Casualty, and I went and sought out the medical library, which was quite old but had some interesting journals about trauma.

I came back a short while later, and a TB patient had been brought in. A woman later came in who had been run over by a minibus taxi, at first she came in with only x-rays of her ankle and knee, but she was sent back for foot x-rays. When they came back Dr Winchester showed me the x-ray, and I saw that her lateral four medial phalanges had been dislocated laterally by nearly a centimeter.

An older woman who had fallen was brought in by her family; she was 80 and had fractured both of her hips within the last ten years. Dr Sipho determined that her pelvis was not fractured, and that it was probably a bone bruise.

8.30-5, 8.5 hours

11/12/09

Casualty was slow at the start of the day, so I went over to MOPD (medical out patient department) to observe some chronic patients, and also to help out by doing small tasks such as changing beds and taking vitals. There were a variety of patients there, although most had TB, Aids, hypertension, or diabetes and were coming in with complications of these diseases. I met several new doctors, who were all very nice and explained some of the complications that can arise from these conditions.

In the afternoon, I went back to Casualty and talked to Dr Winchester for a bit. He has given me some wonderful textbooks in electronic form on trauma and medical complications that can arise as a result of traumas to different areas of the body.

There was a motor vehicle accident victim who presented today, and although he only had a minor laceration on the back of his head, Dr Sipho, the other Casualty doctor, sent him for x-rays. He explained to me that the government had special funds for car accidents, work related injuries, and certain other types of injuries, and so they could take extra care of these people because the hospital would be reimbursed. There was also a small girl whose family told the doctor that she had been in a motor vehicle accident; her entire face was so swollen that she couldn’t see. She had been in an accident on Tuesday, and it was now Thursday. I asked the doctors how no one would have brought her in sooner, and they said that some more distant relative was raising her, and it was actually the neighbors who had called her mother to say that the child needed care. This story seemed incredible, and I found out the next day that her mother had actually hit her, and that the neighbors had called an ambulance for her. There were also several babies who presented with vomiting and diarrhea, malnourished children. They were all rehydrated and sent to Pediatrics. Also a small girl who had fallen ad split open her head, she was given some sleeping medication so that she wouldn’t cry and the cut was closed with Dermabond, which is basically medical superglue. This glue is used to bring the two sides of the cut together without sutures, which will minimize the appearance of the scar. The cut had a small arterial bleeder, which would have not allowed the doctor to use Dermabond, but he put adrenaline directly into the cut to constrict the artery, as adrenaline is a vasoconstrictor. This slowed the bleeding enough to allow the glue to set.

Possibly the most fascinating case of the day was a 58 year old man who had been repeatedly bludgeoned with a knobkierrie. He had apparently gotten into an argument with another older gentlemen and it had come to blows. He had loss control of his facial expressions and Dr Winchester told me that he had expressive aphasia, and that in this condition; a patient who has sustained head trauma cannot articulate their thoughts correctly. They will often speak slowly and haltingly. They have full mental capacity, but cannot express themselves vocally. The man’s CAT scan showed distended ventricles, and the entire brain had atrophied. Dr Winchester said that these were chronic conditions, however, and may or may not have had any bearing on the present condition. The ventricles were probably the result of increased intracranial pressure in the brain, which would have taken quite a while to build.

A man who had been bitten in the hand by a dog while hunting also came in, and was started on rabies vaccinations. There was also a woman who had been bitten by her cat. These bites were deep, and there were a number of them on her leg. They were judged high risk, as the cat had no history of aggression and had not been vaccinated. In addition to the rabies vaccines, the woman was given rabies immunoglobin, which was injected directly into the bitten area.

A 74-year-old woman was brought in by ambulance with cuts and skin missing from her neck. She said that her grandson had choked and tried to kill her. Judging by the marks, he had held her throat with his left hand only, there was a clear point on the left side of the throat where a thumbnail had sank in, and the skin on the right side of the neck and jaw was missing a good amount of skin, presumably from the fingernails. The entire frontal neck area was about 30 percent bruised. She said that he had been drinking and smoking dagga (marijuana) and had tried to kill her when she refused to give him her pension money.

10-6, 8 hours

Saw today so far

11/13

Today was a fairly slow day at the hospital. I began the day in Casualty, which was empty. I then talked to Dr Winchester for a while, and wandered over to MOPD, which was also entirely empty. After a bit I headed to maternity, where I observed a childbirth. The birth happened fairly quickly, as it was the woman’s fourth delivery, and there was an enormous amount of blood.

I then stopped back at MOPD, which was still empty, so I talked to the doctors for a bit. They told me that today was a pay period, which generally meant that there would be lots of assault cases and car accidents due to the fact that people had money for alcohol. Dr Molandie also discussed assault cases with me. He told me that in his experience, the Okapi, a local knife, is the most common weapon used, followed closely by Knobkierries. He also told me that most assaults happen by someone that the victim knows, which is a theme that I have also seen in the multitude of assault cases presenting in trauma. This is such a recurring theme that he told me there is a saying, “If you are shot, it was by an enemy, if you are stabbed, it was by a friend.” I have heard this same saying from Dr. Winchester as well on several occasions.

There were a few cases in Casualty when I went back. A man had an extremely swollen foot with clean x-rays. Dr Winchester said was probably a result of infection, although there were no visible cuts or wounds on the foot. He also said that it could be a case of atypical gout, and gave the man medication to cover both possibilities. An 8 year-old girl also came in, her foot had been run over by a minibus taxi, and she had two broken toes. An older woman was brought in who had been kicked in the chest by a cow. There were no broken ribs, but Dr Winchester spotted a lung infection on the x-ray, and gave the woman antibiotics.

10.30-4.00, 5.5 hours

I went back for a night shift tonight, because in addition to being a Friday night, it was a payday for all government employees. However, when I arrived at around 9PM, there has been very little activity. Surprisingly, most of the patients were medical patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension. There was a 15-year-old boy, who had been hit in the forehead with a rock, but there was no internal damage, and only a small, deep cut on the head. There was also a 26-year-old man who had gotten into a knife fight on his way to work. He had a small laceration on his forearm, but was otherwise fine. All in all, there were very few patients and it was a quite evening in Casualty.

9-2, 5 hours

That is about all she wrote. I am still amazed at the dedication from some of the doctors and nurses here, and the apathy of some others.

Sala Kashe,

Ben

The first few days at Ladysmith

Hey all, it has been a crazy week or so. I am at ladysmith hospital, a public secondary hospital in Ladysmith, a town of about 150,000 surrounded by rural communities. I have been shadowing health care workers, mostly interns and doctors. Ladysmith is beautiful, I am staying in a small flat about 10 min away from the hospital with the two other girls from the program who also came to Ladysmith. The first day that we got here we got right into it at the hospital and observed a few surgeries. All of the doctors have been extremely nice, I am working mostly in the trauma center, primarily under the tutalage of Dr Marene Paige, (pronounced mah-ney). He is very much the intellectual, and is a veritable dictionary of information on just about every subject that you could think of. Our first day at the hospital he invited us to a dinner party that he was having, which he generally has every Friday. Most of the interns at the hospital were there, and we got in some good networking.

Saturday we went hiking with some of them in the Drakensburgs, it was Susanne’s (our neighbor here and a physical therapist) birthday, so we had a nice hike up in the mountains with her and some of her friends.

Ever since I have been essentially observing different wards in the hospital, which has been really interesting but also keeps me extremely busy. Here is my daily log for the first few days here, which should give some idea.

10/30/09

Today was the first day at Ladysmith. I went to the hospital at 7, and met Dr. Mgobe I went to the operating theatre and observed an orthopedic surgery, a boy whose tibia and fibula were both broken through. It got pretty intense, so during the surgery I went to another room with Dr. John, who was cauterizing some genital warts and removing part of the cervix for a biopsy on a woman who was about 30. She was HIV+. John said that she had some in august, but she wasn’t on ARVs at that point so she couldn’t be operated on, as the risk of infection was too great for someone with essentially no immune system. He also said that the HIV was very commonly associated with other STIs, because made it much easier to contract other infections. This was a very common procedure, as HPV, AIDS, and cervical cancer are closely linked in many cases.

I then went to the emergency/trauma ward, where I will be working for the next three weeks. I met Dr. Paige, a very nice doctor who was busy suturing a patient. The patient had multiple lacerations on the scalp, face and hands, and Dr. Paige said that someone had assaulted him with a bush knife. Judging by the number of cuts, Dr Paige said that it was likely from his girlfriend, because if a man had wanted to attack him with a bush knife he would be dead. A woman also presented with some trauma to her finger, but she was sent to the Operating Theatre. Another man presented who was rolling around in the gurney. Dr Paige said that it was either kidney stones or an acute pancriatitis, but more likely the latter given the age of the patient. Acute Pancriatitis can be caused by heavy binge drinking, and will onset 2-3 days after heavy drinking. It was fairly slow, but Dr Paige said that it generally picks up on nights, especially Friday and Saturday, so I will be heading in nights as well starting this weekend. 7-1 6 hours

10/31

Today I observed the night shift at the trauma ward. I went in at 8 with Dr Skaape. He showed me how he performs basic suture procedure with a hand needle, which uses much more suture thread, but is also faster. It was the end of the month and a Saturday, so it was expected to be very busy. There were several head trauma cases requiring basic sutures, which were preformed quickly by the doctors on duty. An old Indian woman came in with her family, she had been vomiting and was feeling faint. She was diabetic, and she hadn’t eaten all day, but she had taken her diabetes medication, which meant that her blood sugar was dangerously low. Dr Skaape gave her an injection of sugar, and her blood sugar shot up. She was observed for about an hour and discharged. Next a woman was brought in by ambulance with her two small children. There was no one with her to explain anything about what had happened, but based on the pupil response, and the fact that all three were foaming from the mouth and had severe diarrhea, the doctors deduced that she had organic phosphate or possibly carboxolate poisoning from taking rat poison as an attempt to kill herself and her two small children. They were started on a course of atropine and eventually stabilized. Dr Skaapie told us that an investigation would be opened, but that eventually the children would probably go back to live with their mother, because there was not enough infrastructure to place the children in another home, especially when there are so many AIDS orphans who also need homes. At the same time, a man was brought in who had been stabbed in the chest and had a collapsed lung. A tube was inserted into his chest to reinflate the lung, and the wound was closed. I also observed an interesting technique where an arterial bleeder was closed in a head wound. Instead of sealing the bleeder by tying off both ends, pressure was applied by suturing under the artery against the top of the scalp, and the wound was then closed. In the last case of the night, a woman came in who had been hit in the face with a bottle by her boyfriend. A chunk of flesh was missing from her lip, and her face was extremely swollen. Her lip was sutured closed, and Dr Skaape encouraged her to go and file a police report that night, and to come back for examination.

8-2, 6 hours

11/1/09

I went into trauma at 8PM. The first case was a woman who presented with dehydration, so IVs were set up to re-hydrate her. She also had Kaposi Sarcoma, a cancer of the skin, which shows up as spots of pigmentation and is an Aids defining illness. The woman was only 55, but looked 80, she was extremely thin and bony and had difficulty moving. After several hours of IV’s she was sent home. There was also a community assault victim. He came in with a swollen eye, lacerations as well as crush injuries (when a person is crushed between two heavy objects) around the head and neck, and a mouthful of broken teeth. His friend said that he had just gotten out of prison for murder after two years. According to Skaape, “when the community feels that the justice system isn’t functioning properly, sometimes they will take matters into their own hands”. The danger with crush injuries is kidney failure, as the destruction of muscle tissue causes an influx of myoglobin, phosphorus and potassium into the circulation. The man was intoxicated and flailed violently when Skaape tried to put in an IV. The doctors decided that he could wait, and left him in a cot out in the hall for the next several hours.

There was a girl who came in with a severe headache, probably meningitis caused by bacteria, a virus, or TB. Spinal fluid was taken and the girl was started on antibiotics in case it was bacterial meningitis, the most common type. Meningitis is common amongst HIV positive (or reactive as the doctors call it) patients, as the population is not generally vaccinated against it because of cost. A small boy also presented with respiratory issues. He was likely HIV positive because his mother didn’t take niviropine before childbirth, which lowers mother-child transmission from 30% to around 4%. The boy’s heart rate was too fast to count, probably around 160bpm, and his respiration rate was also extremely high. He likely had PCP, which in children is indicative of HIV. He hadn’t been tested because the HIV test is an antibody test, and the mother’s antibodies are present for 18mo after birth. The technique used is a DNA amplification that allows for the presence of the virus itself to be determined, but it is expensive.

I also heard a very interesting story from Skaape, when we were talking about a nurse in America who gave a child a toxic dose of sirofractin, which had made the headlines. He said that there was a doctor in the natal ward who, instead of giving babies ivs proportionate to their weight, gave them standard 400ml IVs, killing four before anyone realized what was happening. He was asked to work in another ward, but there was no disciplinary action, much less a news story.

The two children who had been poisoned the night before were doing well, and talking.

A man came in with a stab wound to the chest, and we examined his x-ray, which showed that he was a chronic smoker. It caused his lungs to inflate, and to look extremely enlarged. In people who smoke, the surrounding muscle becomes weak and cannot deflate the lungs fully, so as a result they become grossly enlarged. Another assault victim came in, with a massively swollen eye, several broken ribs, and a lump on the back of his head, which was a possible skull fracture and brain damage. The way Skaape explained the link was, “imagine a pen inside a cucumber, if there is enough force to break the pen, then imagine what would happen to the cucumber”. The man couldn’t see out of the swollen eye, which either meant a detached retina or posterior bleeding, either of which meant that the eye needed to be removed.

8-12, 4 hours

11/2/09

The day started out with a meeting of the Gynecologist that we had been invited to, where they discussed multiple gendered persons. Then I went on labor rounds, where the doctors showed us what to feel for when examining a woman in late pregnancy. First, you feel the top of the stomach to see if it feels hard or soft, this lets you know if the baby is lying normally or is breeched, then feel the sides to see if the child is lying transverse. Lastly, you see the bottom to feel whether the head is in position, and if it is movable the baby is not in the birthing position.

I then went up to surgery and observed two cesarean sections. The first was twins, but one was a stillborn in stage two, which meant that it had been dead for about 48 hours. The other twin was alive, and was immediately placed under incubation. The case had been referred from another hospital, and the c-section had to be perfumed because the dead fetus was lying transverse across the birth canal. The second C-section was supposed to be performed tomorrow, but the nurses brought up the wrong patient, and so they just performed the c-section on the woman that was brought up, she had a bp of 170/117, which was why she was getting a c-section. The surgery went well, but the baby was premature, so was blue and had to be put under lights. The next two procedures were ectopic pregnancies, where the fetus becomes lodged in the fallopian tube and needs to be removed, along with the section of fallopian tube. In the first procedure the cause of pain was unknown, so an endoscopy was performed to determine if it was an ectopic pregnancy. It was determined that the fetus needed to be removed, and the section of tube was removed. In the second ectopic pregnancy, the fetus had outgrown the tube and had burst, so there was a lot more blood than in the first, and the tube had to be repaired where it had burst.

I then went to casualty, where I saw a woman who’d had a spontaneous abortion at 16 weeks. She had presented with shoulder pain, and when the IV was placed, the fetus aborted. There was another laboring woman who presented to casualty as well, but she was sent up to the surgical theatre.

7-6, 11 hours

There you have it. It has been pretty intense so far, and I am still waiting for most of this to become real, it all still seems like it is a TV show, there is just so much disease and death around constantly.

Sala Kashe

-Ben

Research and School

This week has gotten long. This has been the week that the school has finally started to pick up, but I am so out of practice at this point that it is hard to just dive into it. This week the proposal for my final project was due, as was a big project for my community health class. The workload here definitely picks up at the end. I am writing my community health paper about African masculinities and multiple concurrent partners as forwarding the Aids crisis. It is really interesting stuff, and there is a lot of really cool innovative research being done with it.

On a more stressful note, my final practicum is finally coming together, albeit slowly and painfully. I started out looking at a practicum in a TB ward, but the project advisors here, after approving my project every step of the way, 4 days before the proposal was due decided that it would be too dangerous and that I shouldn’t do it. Instead I am now going to be doing a practicum on emergency care in an ER. I am getting excited for it, but it has made this week pretty crazy in terms of doing a whole other set of research. It doesn’t help that this program doesn’t really have many research tools, a slow internet connection is about all that there is. I am expecting to do more research when I get on site thought, there is a full medical library at Ladysmith hospital where I will be working.

Other than school, life here goes on. I am living in the Windemere on the beach, which is beautiful. Only another week in Durban, then I am off to Ladysmith!

Sala Kashe

-Ben

Impedle and the Beach

My second round of rural homestays was pretty awesome. I went to Impendle, back in the Drakensburg Mountains. I stayed in a larger house with Karthik, our homestay mama, and our little sister who was about 5, who was mama’s grandchild. The first day we got there, we went to bed at about 7.30 when mama went to bed. The next morning we were woken up at 5AM by mama, who bustled into our room and gave us coffee. We had a huge farm breakfast of egg sandwiches and porridge, and headed out to start our day. We went and met our co-ordinator for the weekend. She was a hippie American lady in her late 20s who kind of came to South Africa about 7 years ago and never left. She took us to plant some trees at a school, thinking that it would be a great community building experience. We split into groups and I ended up at a high school, digging holes for peach trees while the students watched. I did some serious manual labor digging tree holes, and was rewarded with a nice set of blisters (they don’t use gloves here when using pickaxes).

The students did help when we started planting some veggie seedlings into the ground, which was nice. We then headed to a primary school and saw the students do a fantastic traditional dance routine. Afterwards we headed to lunch and saw some more dancers. We got back home at about 5 and I was so tired that I slept until dinner at 7.

The next day, we headed to a series of lectures at a local clinic. We heard from a community volunteer and the head nurse of the clinic, both talking about their work in the community. Afterwards we talked to a Sagoma (traditional healer) in her practice and heard about some of her work and what she treats in the community. She actually records the patients that she treats, and shares her logs with the nearby clinic. She also refers patients to the clinic, and was very adiment that traditional healers needed to work with western doctors and clinics.

We were then taken to some crafters in the area, which got uncomfortable. They toted out all of their wares and no one really wanted to buy anything or had much money on them, so we just kind of stood there and all looked at each other. They also had increased the prices drastically for our arrival. We then went to visit the commune where Sam (the hippie lady) lives. It was just like being home in Eugene for the afternoon.

I thought that Sams role in this community was very interesting. She had lived there for a while, and was attempting to do good in the community, but she didn’t really seem to have a great interaction with the community or important community members such as the inkosi (chief).

We came back to Durban on Thursday and moved into a set of flats right on the beach. The view is amazing, and the beach is fantastic. The weekend has been spent trying to figure out my study project for the next month, and finishing up other various assignments that are all due within the next few days.

On Sunday, however, I did get out to a wonderful market, where I walked around and looked around. I found some really nice wood carvings and some other cool stuff. This week should be pretty hectic, everything seems to be coming down to the wire school-wise.

Wish me luck!

Sala Kashe,

-Ben

Rural Areas Round 1

Hey all! I have just gotten back from my first rural homestay, in Imontekulu, which is about an hour north of Durban along the coast. I had a great homestay family that I got along with very well. I stayed with Mama Siyabonga, sister Mbali, Baba, and 4 younger siblings, two boys and two girls, the oldest of whom was about 12. The area we were in was pretty rural, there were fields of sugar cane as far as the eye could see.

We were there to follow community health workers, basically community members who are given a small monthly stipend and educate the community about TB/HIV as well as basic health and sanitation practices. The first day we got there we followed our sister as she went around to various houses and talked to people. They all seemed to be interested in the information that she was presenting, it was always kind of a to-do, with everyone gathering around and listening and asking questions. I was able to pick up bits and pieces of the conversations (they were all in Zulu) and the information was pretty standard, but given the hygene and dietary practices of many of the places we visited, was definitely needed.

We quit at about 11, after about 3 hours of walking, because it got too hot, and then we went with Baba to go pick up the children at school. We picked up what felt like the entire neighborhood in the back of the truck, and then headed back home. The roads were so bad that we could only go about 8 miles an hour, but it was fun to talk to Baba and see the countryside. We got back and ate. We ate obscene amounts of food there, probably about 5 square meals per day plus tea and snacks.

There was no power or running water, so we hauled water in the afternoon in Baba’s truck. We went into town to another of Baba’s daughter’s house for dinner, and to watch Generations!

We also followed Mama on her rounds, which was a little more intense. We visited a lot more houses, and Mama checked prescriptions and talked to people about TB/HIV/AIDS. It got ridiculously hot out, and we called it a day at about 11. After lunch I went exploring the neighborhood with my little brothers, they showed me the cane fields, and where the cows are pastured, and where the store was. It was interesting to see where and how a good deal of the population here lives. Today I am headed to a different rural area up north, to talk to Sangoma’s (traditional medical practitioners) and see a more mountainous rural area. Wish me luck!

Sala Kashe

-Ben

Shaka Zulu Day and Life at Cato Manor

Hey all! It has been a while since the last post, but the days here are just flying by. Last Thursday was a fun day, it was Heritage Day to celebrate SA heritage. The holiday pre-Appartide was called Shaka Day, and it falls on the day that Shaka Zulu, the most famous Zulu king, died. We went to the beach for the holiday, which was cold and windy. All of the families went and so we had a huge Braai by the beach in the cold. It was still fun though, and I was able to meet a lot of the other student’s homestay families.

On Friday we had some interesting health lectures, and Friday night we went to the shebeen and hung out around our houses.

Saturday, I ran errands with my neighbor. We went to a really interesting market with some beautiful woodwork and pottery, and from there to a mall and a bulk foods store so that he could do his shopping. My neighbor is one of very few men around cato, and has an adorable little boy. He is about 3-4 and we all call him “boy”. He is like my Mama’s grandchild, always running around our house, and my brothers love to play with him. He calls me Bhudti cnami, which is “little brother” in Zulu. (I am the little brother because my brother Brian is older than I am, so he is “big brother”.

I had a great time cruising around with my neighbor, it is nice to just ride around a city and see the sites from a car window sometimes. After I got back, I went with some friends to Gateway, the largest mall in the southern hemisphere. It was pretty huge, I was never sure quite where we were. I went with some of my friends from the neighborhood and a couple of their nephews, who were about 7. We went to an arcade with them and watched them ride bumper-cars, which I hadn’t done in a long while.

When we got back to Cato, I ended up hanging out outside some ones house, chilling with the locals. I met some interesting people, including a bunch of students from Jo-berg who were visiting relatives.

Sunday I got invited by my bhuti Brian to an expo that he was working at in town. I went and it was like an open trade show, with all kinds of businesses and industry representatives in a huge convention center. It was fun, but after a couple of hours I tried to use the public transit system to get home. It was quite the adventure, I got a little bit lost and when I finally got onto the correct minibus, it promptly pulled out from the curb and ran smack into another minibus! Our driver got out and decided that our bus wasn’t damaged too badly, then got back in and took of. The other bus was pretty smashed up though. It was interesting, because what would have been a long involved process with insurance and exchanging information in the States took like 3 minutes here, because the driver didn’t want to loose our fare.

The rest of this week has just gone plugging along. It is a fairly long week, just in terms of seat time. I get to class at 7.30 and don’t get home until about 6, so it is just a lot of seat time. None of the material is extremely challenging, but it I do kind of get a little bit of cabin fever from being inside for so long.

This weekend should be exciting, we are headed to the Drakensbergs to hike and camp, and then we head to our rural homestays for the better part of two weeks. The Drakensbergs have some of the oldest cave art in the world, so I am really exited to get out and into the countryside and get a little bit of scenery in.

I have also tentatively decided on a research topic for my Independent Study Project. I think that I am going to look at barriers to accessing treatment among Zulu men in a rural area. I am a little bit torn between that and doing a Practicum in a rural TB clinic. I am withholding judgment until I have seen the rural areas, but as of now that is the direction that I am going.

Hope you are all well,

Sala Kashe,

-Ben

Hospice, Weddings and the Beach

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post. I have been busy with school, mostly trying to work on my Zulu. Last weekend I was home with my family in cato manor. On Friday night there was a braai for one of the girls in the program’s birthday, and I got intimate with several more of the local sausages that are specific to the region. I also tried Cane, which is a local vodka-like drink made from sugarcane, but different than white rum. It smells and tastes like straight rubbing alcohol. On Saturday I went to another girls birthday. Her family had braai’d some very tasty inkomo (cow), and I had my first taste of Zulu beer, or besiZulu. It is made from fermented sorgum and milk, and tastes kind of sweet and salty, with the consistency of thick cream. I cant say that I am too much of a fan, but the locals seem to love it.

This week was a little bit more stressful, our Zulu final was on Friday, and I spent the week studying for it. We had a written and an oral examination, and as I am (apparently) not very gifted with languages, Zulu has been a bit more trying for me. On Monday we had a great lecture with a man who has been highly involved in rural healthcare for the last 20 years. He spoke about some of the needs of rural healthcare, and about rural health practices.

On Tuesday I went to an NGO with a couple of other students. We went to the Hillcrest Aids Trust Center. It was an amazing place, the people there were simply incredible. It is a Methodist organization founded in the 1970s. This NGO was really cool in the holistic attitude that it took towards greeting HIV/AIDS as a community disease, helping those who were affected by aids as well as those who are living with it. The center does food distribution, support groups, home visits, help the families to raise gardens, and supports 350 families directly through facilitating access to world markets for their bead workers. They also have a hospice center that they built to support those patients whose families cant look after them, or have no families to care for them.

Friday was the Zulu final, which went on all day. Afterwardson we headed into town for a weekend out. Friday night we had a mixer with a few of the medical students from the local university, which was fun. We braai’d and mingled, and talked, and afterwards headed to a club called 80’s. Saturday I went to the beach, swam in the Indian ocean and built a pretty cool sand castle. I got a touch of sunburn, and went out for pizza for lunch. Afterwards, a bunch of us caught a taxi to the Sharks stadium, where there was a professional rugby game. It was great to get to some sporting events, and the Sharks won, which made it even better! From the game I went with some friends to dinner at a thai restaurant. I had some tasty Pad Thai (not quite as good as Ring of Fire, but you cant have everything) and went back to our hostel. Later that evening I got dragged to another club, the Mansion. It was quite different from 80’s more a young black professionals club, but it was pretty nice.

Sunday I came back home to Cato and went to a traditional wedding. It was different than I expected, it took forever and there was lots of drinking of zulu beer. I talked to old zulu men for about 4 hours, and watched them slaughter the traditional wedding goat. Eventually I got hungry and walked home (the food was taking forever, they call it “African Time” here, if something is done within an hour of when it is supposed to it is incredible) I fell asleep at home, got up for dinner, and then went to bed again. All in all, a good weekend. This week is going to be a little bit more relaxed hopefully, it is Heritage Day on Thursday, so there is no school and we are going to the beach with our families.

Until next time,

Sala Kashe

-Ben

a week of school and a weekend out!

Wow, I can’t believe that it has been a week since I posted, so much has happened over this past week. It was my first full week of real classes here, which has been pretty intense just in terms of time spent in the seat. On an average day, I get up at 630 to be on a bus at 7, class starts at 8 and I am in classes until 5. It is weird because there are usually only a couple or three lectures a day, but just being in the house with 30 people all day wipes me out.

Last week we had a couple of really good lectures from guests. We went to a special needs school and spent the day there, then talked about the context of education and special needs education. It was strange, there were children there at a special needs school that would have been mainstream in the states. For example, albinism is classified as a disability here, and albinos cant go to regular school because they would be beaten. The same for people with any kind of physical disabilities, the regular schools here just are not very accommodating to needs. We talked a lot about the level of funding that education has here, and the failings of the education system. It is very well funded, but the teaching is way under par, and there is no way to fire teachers because they are unionized. Everything in this country since the appartide seems to be unionized in one-way or another; the army was just on strike, as was the post office and the bus system.

We also went to a cultural lecture on the Zulu people that was pretty interesting. The lecturer was a Zulu historian who answered questions that we had about past and present Zulu lifestyle. I went to an open-air market, which was very cool, lots of crafts and knock-off sunglasses and sports apparel. I also talked to a couple of professors about the topic that I will be studying. I am thinking about doing a practicum in a rural area clinic, but that would mean that I would be just kind of there for a month and a half or so, and I wouldn’t be able to come back to Durban for that time. The other option that I am thinking about is researching and learning more about a study at a hospital about an hour away. The study is doing trials to determine if there are adverse effects to taking both traditional healer remedies and ARV treatments at the same time. Either way, it should be pretty interesting stuff.

This weekend we got to have a town weekend and booked into a backpackers. On Friday night we all went to a local club called joe cools, and got our chilling on. There were mainly funky looking white dudes there, the euro-trash look is apparently in among the youth of SA. Before Friday I didn’t realize that a mullet and a fauxhawk could be sported simultaneously.

Saturday I went to the beach for the first time!! It was beautiful, the water was cool but not cold, and it should get really nice as we get into spring and summer. I brought my stick and played on the beach with Katie, and swam and went for a run on the beach with my friend Karthik. Saturday night some of us went out with one of our home stay brothers, Thando and his friend Tubs (Thubisa). We went to an abanlungu (white people) party up in a really nice neighborhood. There was a great view of the skyline, and I talked to a bunch of interesting people. We left and went to another party, one of Tub’s friends was having a 21^st. This party was a little bit down the hill, and was more like a block party. The birthday boy was really excited to have Americans at his party, we went through and met his family and his mamma sat us all down and fed us (it was like 12 at night) there was chicken and beef and a bean dish called chakalaka, which was spicy and had a medley of veggies in it. There was an angry drunk who kept yelling at us, he said “Americans!! Follow me!” and we went through the party to a back room, through security. He told us to come in and shut the door, and it was just he and we in this tiny room. We were a bit nervous, but then he busted out the cooler and started passing out Heinekens. The party was fun, but when we were there I noticed a security guard with an Uzi. Just kind of chilling. The host told us not to worry, that he was just there for security, but it was slightly unnerving.

Sunday we all studied for a Zulu test on Monday (which I bombed. Time to start studying harder) I went to the beach again and went out for ice cream with Ujin and Karthik. The last couple of days have just been class, which is getting progressively harder, and hanging out at home. I had a really good talk with my brother Brian last night, he is 25, and he told me about growing up under appartide, and being the only black kid in his model c school. He played rugby in high school, and we talked about working out and sports. I really like my family here.

Until next time,

Sala Kashe

-Ben

School

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. The days here start at about 7, when we all get picked up from our homestays. Then we have Zulu lessons for about 2 hours, which move very fast. I am still not exactly sure about the schedule/ assignments ect, things seem to move fast and loose in this program.

The weekend came up and I went out to what I thought was a braai (bbq) at another homestay. We ended up at a huge house in the suburbs with a bunch of white S africans (the first that I have talked to of my age since coming here) they were pretty nice, but I was struck by the undertones of race that seemed evident in their words and their actions. The two homestay brothers that brought us seemed to stay on the outskirts of the group, and the girls that were there in particular seemed to not want to even talk to them. Part of it may also have been class, the whites mostly didn’t have much in the way of jobs, but they all had fairly wealthy parents, and what jobs they had were sort of more playboy jobs (one was a pro motocross racer). We asked them if they spoke zulu, and they told us that they didn’t need to know much, because the only zulu person that they talked to was the housekeeper. It was definitely an interesting experience, getting the other end of the spectrum in terms of class and race. Living in a township with zulu seems normal to me, and it is how most of the country lives. It was kind of an awakening to realize that there is still a highly social elite that doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the population of the country.

That night I got really sick (as did about half of our group, I later discovered). I was up all night sick and I got up the next morning and didn’t feel much better. My brother took me to town in a minibus, which was quite an adventure, they make the cabbies in NYC seem like great drivers. We went and he got his haircut, while I had a milkshake for lunch. We were going to go out and about, but I felt sick and we went back home. I slept for about 8 hours, woke up at 930pm to my omamma knocking on my door. She made me eat some mashed pumpkin, then I slept until 11 the next morning.

Sunday my brother had a ceremony to thank his ancestors and his deceased father for guidance and his new job. They prepared an alter with his fathers favorite foods and prayed (guided by a sort of medium, a traditional spiritual healer) Then they had a braai, where they cooked a piece of meat for his father and put it on the alter. My brother and I then cooked literally a bucket of meat for lunch (it took 3 hours) and there were some community members that came over to help eat.

The last couple of days have been school and home for homework and sleep. My omamma is gone on business (selling life insurance) till Thursday, so it has been just my brothers and I. Good times.

Sala Kashe

-Ben

Address!!

I found out my address and the postal service is apparently working, but it is slow due to the strike.

my address is 18 Alton Rd, Glenmore, Durban, 4001 South Africa.

Sala Kashe!

Durban!

The last couple of days have been quite exciting. Since My arrival in Durban things have been pretty jam packed. We go into our hostel on monday, the happy hippo, and went exploring (not very far tho, it was dark). Myself and a couple of others ended up at a chinese restaurant in a touristy mall by the waterfront. There was a sign for 50% off sushi, and who can pass that up? We ended up getting a 40 piece platter, which was loaded with none to fresh sushi, coated in wasabi. Afterwards we all felt pretty sick, and headed back to the hostel.

Yesterday we had our first day of “school” we had a two hour zulu lesson from 8-10, then a class about study methods. After that we were sent on missions around Durban, we were dropped off in various places and told to find our way to the destination by asking south Africans and practicing our Zulu. I was paired up with anne marie, and we were sent to find a mall. It was pretty easy, we were in the same neighborhood that the SIT house is in, and only had to ask for directions a couple of times. The mall was open air, and we had lunch at a place called comics run by an old dutch couple. I asked and the old man recommended the “bunny chow”. I thought that there might be rabbit involved, but it was a half loaf of white bread with the center cut out and filled instead with curry. It was delicious, and is called bunny chow because to eat it, you have to hold it in both hands and nibble around the edges like a bunny =).

We got back to the house and debriefed, and then headed to the hostel for the night.

Today we had a zulu lesson and our other class, and were supposed to have a doctor come and talk to us, but there has been a flu outbreak, so we went to the mall. I got some flops and some school supplies, and ended up getting left behind with my friend Ujin. We are now back at the SIT House, and about to head to our homestays!!!!

South Africa arrival

I am finally in SA!!! After a 15 hour plane ride, started off with a 2 hour delay because of mechanical troubles, Katie and I exited into Johannesburg (or Joburg as the locals say) airport. We were greeted at the gate by one of the program assistants, Sdu, who took us to a hostel close to the airport, the shoestring youth hostel. The first thing that I noticed about south Africa was the fences. They are around every house, stone with razor or electric wire around the top. Even when we went to Soweto it was the same, or worse. Everything is fenced and gated in Joburg. It gave a feeling of violence, although the hostel we are in is in a fairly safe neighborhood. We got in at about 11 local time, and just kind of hung around the hostel with about 5 other girls who had come in on our flight. Katie and I tossed a ball around and played soccer with the hostel manager’s kid. We met with our program manager, Zed, who is very south African. His speech patterns are hilarious, and the accent is out of control. At about 6 the rest of the students came in. We had a “bit of a bar-b-q” including some local sausage, which was delicious. There are 27 girls, me and two other guys. At this point it is just me and Billy representing the male sex. I miss my boys, there is so much estrogen around here. We also got our homestay assignments, I am with a mother and her two sons, Brian and Carl (I know, how weird is that). They are 20 and 22, so hopefully there will be a little bit more man time shortly. Today we got up and had breakfast, then had a talk about safety, and then we went to Soweto, which used to be an appartide black community of about 1 million people and is still predominantly African. We visited nelson mandela’s house that he had lived in with Winnie before he was arrested, and also a museum/ memorial of a riot in 1976 which sparked worldwide controversy about appartide. We had lunch at a local restaurant, which was very good, lamb, chicken, beef, tripe (not too bad), and lots of starches. Then we went to a shopping centre to buy things we had forgotten at home. Back for dinner and some wine, which was quality but super cheap at the grocery store. Still cant stand the taste.

Boston and beyond

Well, A lot has happened since my last post. Goodbyes were said all around, and Katie and I boarded an overnight flight to Boston and were off on the first leg of our trip. We were worried because we didn't know what we were going to do with our luggage while we explored the city. We got into Logan international at 5AM local time, and ended up hanging out in the airport until about 8, when someone finally came to the info desk. They told us about a place a short bus ride away where we could stash our luggage for the day. We hauled our luggage up to the fifth floor of the amtrack station, then we were free to explore! We went first to chinatown, where there was a street festival happening, and walked around. We were trying to find the North side for some fresh cream filled cannoles, and ended up in southside. We wandered through the Boston Commons, and saw people on the pond being petaled around on little boats. The park went to the top of Beacon Hill, where we saw John Hancock's house! We then went further north and saw Paul Revere's house, which was not as impressive. We then made our way to little italy, which was also having a street festival! We got cannoles at a little place called maria's bakery, which was like something from a movie. Maria and an italian father and son were loudly conversing in heavy italian accents, and eating their italian pastries with lots of gesturing and discussion. It was insanely hot out, and the humidity was intense, so we stayed in the shop for a while, listening and eating. We left little italy and went towards the water. It was sunday afternoon, so there were lots of people sailing in the bay, and we sat and watched the boats for a while. We wondered down, following the water, and found a park where children were running through fountains. We ran through to cool off, then went to find some new england clam chowdah. We ended up at legal seafood, the place that has served clam chowder at the inauguration since the 1980's. It was very tasty. at this point it was almost 4, so we picked, got our bags and went through a series of trains to our bus pickup point. At the meeting point we met two journalism professors, one of whom was thinking about a position at the UO. They were very interesting and told us about the history of the meeting point, the Church of Christian Science headquarters. The bus finally came, and we headed to Hartford CT. We got in and were picked up by our friend Ana, who took us to her house. We had dinner with her family, and headed to bed. Today I went with Ana and Katie on a tour of her school, and then went with her family to a swimming hole. We went to a Hoagie place for lunch (they call them 'grinders' here). and now here I am. Still have yet to do my pre-trip reading, and my required essay is yet undone. Katie, Ana and I are headed to NYC tomorrow morning, and then to SA on Thursday.

Waiting

With my departure date a week away, I have begun packing, and thinking about how soon I will be away from everyone that I know. It is both thrilling and intimidating. The former because I feel on the cusp of adventure on another continent. The latter because I so far do not feel very well taken care of by my program, and still do not really feel like I have been prepared for what I am getting into. I do not know where I will be living or who I will be living with. Nor do I have any of the syllabi for the courses I will be taking.

I am writing this blog both to let people know about my experiences with this program and section of the world, and because it is part of the service project that I am fulfilling for the Benjamin Gilman Memorial Scholarship, which I have received and am now and ambassador for.