Learn, Live, Laugh

Wow! Life is still so busy! And it is now technically November (for a whole hour) in South Africa! I can’t believe I’ve been here for 7 weeks! It feels like a long time but not at the same time (if that makes any sense haha). I don’t even know if I remember everything we’ve done! Back in the U.S. when us 9 nursing majors took Community Health in May, we created a teaching project for a group to take to Uganda and for us to take to S.A. We finally got to present them to a high school in Mpophomeni, near one of the clinics we work at. We taught 5 classes of about 40 students about basic hygiene, communicable diseases, and dental hygiene. We had a lot of fun and it was cool to implement a project that we actually created on our own.

Then on Saturday, we were given permission to take over the kitchen at AE and we cooked an awesome Mexican meal. We got to make taco salads or burritos and it was seriously one of the best Mexican meals ever (and I’m pretty sure it’s not b/c it actually tasted good). Mexican food isn’t really common over here at all so it was a nice taste of home! I got to make the guacamole and was SO excited… but they don’t sell tortilla chips over here so we had to use tortillas and it was still delicious =)

The next week was Homecoming week!!! It was actually the same time as APU’s homecoming back in the U.S. Each day of the week we had a certain theme and people had to dress accordingly! The first was backwards day so we all had to wear our clothes inside and out and backwards! And Tuesday was crazy hair/clash day. Wednesday was black and white day. On Wednesday we had the privilege of going to see the Drakensberg Boy’s Choir. It’s a school for 4th-9th grade boys that teaches music. Their voices were incredible!!!!! I seriously don’t even know how to describe it. Then Thursday was twin day! Our chalet had a pair of conjoined twins and then pregnant twins that were pregnant with twins haha. That day we also played a homecoming football game! It had been raining, which made the game even more fun! I even caught the ball!!!! And then that night we had an “airband competition”. Each chalet had a routine to a song. My chalet (Nicholas B) “acted out” a music video I Need A Hero from Shrek 2! We had so much fun trying to choreograph it… we didn’t even start until 2 hours before the actual competition haha. We didn’t win, but the guys’ deserved to… there’s was hilarious! And then on Friday each chalet had been given a color and everyone had to dress up in that specific color. Ours was black and we went all out with thick make-up and everything! And later that night we had a braai (South African BBQ) and tacky homecoming dance! The dance was a lot of fun and believe me… the outfits were awful! It was such a good week and it really helped with bonding within all of the chalets… I LOVE all the girls in this chalet they are all so wonderful!

A very important component to the South Africa Study Abroad program is that all the non-nursing majors participate in a community engagement class. On Friday and Saturday the nurses got to sit in on the lectures and they were extremely interesting. API fly’s in a man named Francis, from Uganda, every semester to teach this class for a month. He has worked for World Vision and done so many cool things in his life. He really is a blessing to Azusa and is one of the most interesting people to talk to! But this past week has been really different for the non-nursing students. This was their first week to go out to their service sites and work with the communities. I love hearing about what they see and what they do. I’m glad they’re finally getting a chance to go out and see what we’ve been experiencing the last month and a half. I know people are going to be wrestling with what they see and wrestling with God and just trying to make sense of it all. I’ve already heard some amazing conversations that have been sparked by what has been seen out in the communities!

This past Tuesday I got to go to the Family Center in Mpophomeni and basically hang out with kids for a couple of hours. I WAS SO HAPPY!!!!! There were 3 of us nursing majors there and we had children climbing ALL over us! There was this one little boy, who doesn’t know how to talk yet and couldn’t tell me his name, who I fell in love with. He kept wanting me to pick him up and hold him! He is such a cuddler and I didn’t ever want to set him down… I was so depressed when I saw our ride come.
The rest of the week was filled with lots and lots of homework! But today, Saturday, we went to the Drakensberg mountains and got to see cave paintings from a really long time ago. It was cool to see…but I was more impressed with the beauty we were surrounded by. It was SO green everywhere! I wish that the U.S. was as green as it is here… you really can’t even describe how vibrant the colors really are. And tonight we watched a Scooby Doo Halloween episode and then I Am Legend to celebrate Halloween. We were all exhausted so we kept it pretty chill.

Wow… these long posts are becoming ridiculous! But again if you read through this, thank you for taking the time to read about my life in the beautiful country! And I’m so sorry for the terrible grammar and sentences that don’t even make sense. It’s 1 AM here and I am so tired, but I wanted to blog before I forgot. I miss everyone a lot! And I can’t believe I’m past the halfway mark. Definitely Bittersweet…But my chipotle cravings are getting stronger I don’t know how much longer I’ll last! Hope you’re all doing well! Love you!

Oh yeah kind of random and not that important, but we’ve been having TONS of rain! And the most amazing thunder/lightning storms EVER!!!!!

God bless,
Kels

Is it really October?

My beautiful running trail!

It has been such a busy couple of weeks! I don’t even remember what I’ve done haha. We went to the beach in Durban and I got to swim in the INDIAN OCEAN!! It was so exciting!! And the beach was so fun… they had lifeguards that were out in the water telling people how far out they could go, but they had whistles and would start whistling a beat and clapping and everyone was in the water dancing and clapping their hands. There were seriously so many people in the water but it was so fun! And then a big wave would come and everyone would run into each other haha I loved it! Weird fact… the lifeguards wear Speedo’s haha. But while we were hanging out at the beach, a guy named Garth who’s in his mid-twenties came over and started talking to us. We found out he was a Christian as well and a couple of us started talking to him. So many people are friendly here, so it was really cool! But our group got his number so that if we ever came back to Durban we could all hang out.

Kels & Kels at the Indian Ocean

The rest of the week was filled with way too much homework!! And I also got to go to a new clinic, called Mason’s clinic in Haniville. One of the ministries in the area describes Haniville as:

“The community of Haniville is a very poor community where people came together after being displaced in the old Apartheid system of South Africa pre 1994. There houses comprise tiny 2 rooms that accommodate up to 12 people, mainly children and many of them sleep on the floor.The socio-economic conditions have also led to an explosion in HIV AIDS and we are starting to see the ravages of this pandemic with people now getting very sick after having contracted HIV up to 6 years ago.”

That kind of gives you a picture of the type of patient’s that we saw in the clinic. We saw a lot of HIV… the numbers still shock me. The first day we were at Mason’s we worked in the ARV (basically HIV drugs) clinic and I got to do my first blood draw!!! It was so exciting!!! I got it on my first try… but my hands were shaking so badly I think I scared the patient oops! =) We do a lot of blood draws here, because people that are on ARV treatments have to get their blood drawn every 6 months to look at their CD4 count in their blood, which they want to be over 200 to go off ARV’s, but many people are at 4, or 0. After working in the ARV clinic, I got to go help in the antenatal area. So I assisted a nurse with assessing pregnant women! It was so beautiful! I got to feel the stomach and find where the baby was and listen to it’s heart through a fetoscope (it was so hard to hear it though). It was a very happy part of my day =) The next day, Adah and I went back to Mason’s. The nurses were very busy so we got sent to the immunizations room to help. When we walked in we were the only people there and the nurse said she would send in a student (who was only in her second year of nursing school) and then we could start seeing patients. I was so shocked! But it was awesome!!! Adah and I basically ran the immunizations all day! We got to give immunizations to babies and kids! It was a lot of fun! I love giving shots… I don’t know if that’s completely evil or not =) but I do hate making the babies cry, so I promise I’m still compassionate haha. We also gave a lot of Depo-provera (birth control) shots.

That weekend we went to a rugby game in Durban! We invited the guy, Garth, that we met at the beach and so he agreed to meet up with us at the game. Rugby is an awesome sport! I’d say it’s just as fun as ice hockey! It was crazy how violent it is! And they have like no padding anywhere… pretty hardcore! I definitely think we should get a pro rugby league in the US! After the game, one of our SLCs (Student life coordinator) stayed back with a group of us that wanted to go out to dinner in Durban. We went to an Italian restaurant with Garth and all 8 of us had such a good time talking and sharing life stories… it was seriously just surreal. But can I just say highlight of my evening… We were in South Africa in an Italian restaurant and Enrique Iglesias was playing… talk about a melting pot haha. The next day, Sunday, a group of us went with the other SLC, Reagan, to a black township church. It lasted 3 hours! Pretty crazy! But I really enjoyed it! And once again everyone was so friendly and welcoming! This church was held in an old community center building, but the people in there added so much life to the place! The way they were singing praises was beautiful! All of us from APU that were there were so excited when they started singing a Zulu song that we actually knew! We were singing and dancing and just enjoying life!!

The next week I was back at Mason’s clinic. Adah went to the antenatal clinic and I got to go back to immunizations with two South African nursing students. One patient came in that needed her blood drawn to test her CD4 count. I asked if one of the students wanted to do it and they said they don’t learn blood draws until they’re about to graduate… so I was on my own haha. They asked me how to do one, so I taught them how and it was only my second time!!! Praise the Lord I got the needle in and filled up the tube! I was so grateful! Adah and I made friend with the nursing students that we were working with so we decided to go to a movie that night! There were about 7 of us from APU that met up with the students, which was so much fun! I love all the relationships we’re able to build here!

That Thursday I went to a different clinic site, Ethembeni, which means place of hope. At this site, we get to go out with one member of a church and one healthcare provider. I went out with two of the most incredible ladies I’ve ever met, Patty (from the church) and Nelly (healthcare worker)! This ministry goes out to houses in the township of Mpophomeni. We went to four houses on Thursday. The first had a woman that had an infected wound so we set up transportation for her to get to a hospital. Then the woman from the church prayed for this woman, and then we brought the family food. This house was really small. It had two rooms, one didn’t have anything in it and the second one was taken up with two large mattresses. There was a small kitchen that did not have a ton of appliances. Then there was a small living room with a couple of seats in it. There was a bathroom attached to the house, but the only thing separating the bathroom from the living room was a curtain. Not much privacy at all. There was only a grandma and 20-year old granddaughter living in this house. The young girl had a child, but the father’s mother had taken the child after the father’s death. This way the father’s mother can collect money from the government, because she has a child in the house. It’s really sad how many stories there are like this, where people abuse the governmental handouts. The second family we visited was composed of a dad and his two sons. Patty translated the names of the two kids for me… the first one’s name meant joy and the second one’s name was enough! I thought it was hilarious! But we found out that the mother left the family a year ago and moved to Durban. She still collects the money from the government for having two kids… but she only visits them every once in a while and most of the money does not go towards the kdis. It seriously broke my heart. How could a mother leave these adorable children? (The little girl is a friend of theirs, the two boys are the ones that lived in the house)

Jeanna and I at Ethembeni

This past weekend we went to the Battlefields where the battles were fought between the Zulus and Boers (basically Dutch farmers) and the British throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s. It was really interesting! And I loved seeing more of South Africa. This really is a stunningly beautiful country!

Okay this has been a ridiculously long posting, and if you read the whole thing I’m sorry, but thank you so much for taking the time to follow what’s going on in my life over here. It really does mean a lot! Thank you for the continued prayers and support. I’m really starting to miss people, but I am still so happy to be here! Miss you guys! Lots of love!

God bless,

Kelsey

Oh hey Simba!

It’s been a crazy week! Last Friday we had some down time and a lot of us got some of our homework done… I’ve found it’s ridiculously hard to focus here because it’s just so pretty and I’d much rather sit and read for fun than work on school… but oh well =) That night a group of us went out to a restaurant called, the Keg and Hedgehog. I got Chicken Fingers and they were probably the best I’ve ever had, mostly because I really miss American food haha

Saturday was AMAZING!!! We went to this place called the Birds of Prey and we got to see a whole bunch of vultures, owls, and other birds that are native to South Africa. After that we got to go see LIONS! There was a fence between us and the lions, but they were coming right up to the fence so we got some amazing pictures. And I actually got the courage to reach my hand through the fence to pet a lion!!! It was so incredible being up close with gigantic, scary lions, but so much fun! We also got to go to this place called World’s View where we had incredible views over Pietermaritzburg. It was beautiful!

Sunday we went to church, we have 3 different options and I went to God’s Family Life Center. Everyone was so welcoming and the music/worship was amazing. So full of life and energy and true, honest praise. After that, most of us had to spend the rest of the day doing homework. I definitely took the most amazing nap outside. I was lying on a blanket near the waterfall with the sun shining down on me… by far the best nap I’ve ever taken!!!

Monday was filled with classes. I loved learning more about the history and culture of South Africa, it’s really interesting and I realized I barely know anything about it. My favorite part of the day was aerobics =) I brought a DVD called TurboJam, which is kind of like kickboxing. Well we decided that a couple of us would do the workout in the room where we have a large projector screen hooked up to a DVD player. We invited everyone to come, but didn’t think that many would be interested in it. Well it turns out that between 15 and 20 people came (that’s 1/2 - 2/3 of our group)!!!! So we were all in this room doing kickboxing and it was incredible!

On Tuesday the nursing students got to go back to our clinical sites. I was in the pediatric ward, which I really enjoyed. I got to help the nurse with the assessments and she even let me do a couple by myself. A lot of them were just there for the common cold, but we saw about 3 patients with pneumonia. One little boy walked up to me and was just staring at me and then coughed in my face…5 minutes later we diagnosed him with pneumonia… AWESOME! Haha One case that I found sad was a young boy around 3 years old who is HIV positive. After an assessment the nurse diagnosed him as having pneumonia and she told me to listen to his lung sounds. His lungs were so tight and so full of junk, I was surprised he could breathe at all. Later the Dr. showed me the chest X-rays that the child had done, and it turns out he had pneumonia as well as tuberculosis. This kid was so miserable and it was hard to see all his health problems. It’s interesting to compare what I’ve seen here with my hospital experiences in the U.S. This little boy would have had his own room to isolate the spread of any of his respiratory infections (especially TB!) where he could watch TV, play videogames, order food whenever he wanted, the list goes on. The care is at such extremes, it’s sometimes hard to comprehend.

The next day, Wednesday, I got to work in the PMTCT or the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission unit. This area of the clinic works to prevent the spread of HIV from HIV+ mothers to their children. The nurse I worked with that day was in charge of reading TB skin tests, doing blood draws, and assessments of babies! At this clinic, if a mother is HIV+ they suggest that 6 weeks after a child is born the parents should have their children tested for HIV. The test is a simple heel stick, so I watched a couple and saw how the test was set up. We saw a couple of patients come in to get their TB skin tests read. Two of the patients had higher reactions and had to get sent for chest X-rays to confirm or deny the existence of TB. Then a woman, in a different room went into labor (prematurely). Everything happened so quickly and I didn’t get into the actual room until the baby was being wrapped in a towel by the nurse. This was also extremely different from the U.S. It would take me forever to try and explain everything, but it was interesting to observe. And the baby was SO CUTE!! Very tiny, but adorable! At dinner that night the table I was sitting at got into some really interesting conversations. We discussed healthcare in the United States and compared the two systems, as well as the future possibilities for the U.S. It was just so nice being able to share our opinions and not be judged and to truly discuss an issue that is huge to us right now.

Today, Thursday, was our day off. Technically it was to work on homework for our online classes, but a lot of us needed a relaxing day to just unwind, especially with all of our clinical experiences this week. Two back-to-back clinical days is very emotionally and physically draining. It was nice, we went to the nearby mall and a couple of us grabbed some coffees =) So delicious! Then later we got to go out to PIZZA! And it was really good, surprisingly! They had a bacon and banana pizza… I wasn’t feeling that adventurous today, but maybe next time.

This is such a long post! And I have so much more that I wish I could share!!! This weekend we’re going into Durban and we’re excited for the beach and some good, local shopping =) I really do miss everyone!! I hope everyone’s doing well! Keep me updated on your lives!

God bless,

Kelsey

Zebras and monkeys and buck oh my

I can’t believe we’ve only been gone a week! It’s not a bad thing, but it feels like it’s been at least 2 weeks. After I blogged on Tuesday, 6 of us decided to go for a run. There’s a nature reserve called Queen Elizabeth Park (QEP) that’s less than ¼ of a mile away from AE, where we were told we could run. Supposedly the run is about 5 kilometers or 3.2 miles... but not when you get lost =) In the beginning of our run we saw 3 zebras just chillin’ on the side of the road eating some grass, it was incredible! And the whole “course” was absolutely gorgeous, it’s so green and we went uphill a lot so we had some amazing views.

When we realized we had gone too far, but we asked for directions and finally ended up on the main road…4 km away from campus (uphill) haha We eventually made it back just in time for dinner.

The next day, Wednesday, was a day off for nursing majors… it’s not actually a day off, we have 2 writing intensive classes that are online so those are our homework days. Most of us were actually extremely productive and got everything we needed to done!

But that’s boring so on to the fun story. I don’t know if I already said that there are monkeys on our campus, but there are monkeys EVERYWHERE! At orientation we were told not to back down from a monkey, because it makes them feel superior. Anyways, I walked out of my chalet to go to my friend’s room and there were some monkeys kind of far away and I just ignored them and kept walking. ALL OF A SUDDEN… about 10 monkeys came down from the tree and from the lawn and blocked my exit! It was so scary! And I didn’t know what to do and I tried to shoot fake guns at them, and yell at them, but they kept coming closer!!! So I retreated, extremely quickly, back to my chalet almost in tears (not really, but I was terrified!) That’s my scary monkey story and I’m sure I’ll have more in the weeks to come!!!! We also went on another run, got to see some buck (antelope), and didn’t get lost this time, YAY!!!!!

Today, Thursday, was the first day that us nursing majors got to go out to the clinics! 3 of us went to East Boom Clinic, which is located right here in Pietermaritzburg. I got to spend the day in the ARV section of the clinic. ARV stands for antiretroviral, which are drugs used to treat HIV. At first, I helped the nurses by signing in patient’s while they filled out the charts. After tea break, I got to go back to the amagazi room or “bloods” room, where they do blood draws for tests. I didn’t get to draw blood, but I helped the nurse out by setting up the bags and forms to send the blood samples to the lab. In the hospital in the U.S. I sometimes feel like I get in the way of the nurses, but here I actually got to make a difference. I helped the nurses, which allowed them to see more patients quicker than they normally would have. It was kind of sad, because by 2:00 PM (7 hours after opening) the clinic had already seen 175 patients, all of which were HIV+. That was ONE day… the clinic is open Monday-Friday and each day is just as busy if not busier. To see this disease up close is heartbreaking. You see the mothers that are HIV+ with their children and wonder what’s going to happen to them… are they going to be motherless soon or are they infected with HIV? The questions are endless. I’m going back to East Boom clinic on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, and will get to go to the TB clinic and hopefully pediatrics.

This weekend we get to go see the birds of Africa and lions!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait! Thank you for your continued prayers! I miss everyone! And I definitely got a craving for Chipotle and In-N-Out already… uh-oh! Oh yeah and P.S. I still suck at isiZulu haha

Ngiyakuthanda (I think that means love in Zulu),

Kelsey

“You wrote a 200 page paper?... That’s almost as hard as Zulu”

We’re finally on campus and all settled in! On Sunday we flew into Durban and were greeted by Reg, who is in charge of API (Azusa Pacific International, South Africa). Then all 29 of us loaded our luggage and ourselves into a couple vans for the hour drive to Pietermaritzburg. It was a beautiful drive! It’s so green and there are so many different types of trees and flowers everywhere. We were so excited when we saw the sign for African Enterprise, which is the name of the conference center that we stay at! First, we got assigned to our rooms. We’re staying in these cute little chalets that have 2 floors and 4 rooms per floor (on each floor there are 2 double rooms and 2 single rooms). I have a room to myself on the second floor and it’s incredible!! The room itself is nice and cozy… very simple, which is just what we need… but then I looked out the window!! Oh my goodness, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Right outside my window is some of the greenest grass and trees I’ve ever seen, oh wait and a WATERFALL!!!! It’s about 20-something feet (I think, I honestly have no idea). And I get to fall asleep to the sound of it every single night! Okay I know you’re all jealous so I’ll stop bragging =)

The rest of Sunday was just filled with orientation and a couple of us explored the grounds, which are absolutely gorgeous! On Monday we started our day off with chapel, which in this small community was amazing. After chapel we had a tea break (yup, this is heaven). We get 2 tea breaks a day. One at 10:30 AM and one at 4:00 PM, it’s a rough life haha. After tea, the 9 nursing majors on campus got to meet our professors and look at our schedules. We get to start in the clinics on Thursday, which I am so stoked about! After our 4 PM tea break all 29 of us got to go to introductory isiZulu, which is an introduction to the language, Zulu, enough for us to have very limited conversations… mostly greetings. Um can I just tell you that Zulu is extremely difficult, and that’s an understatement. That is where the title of this post came from haha. Here’s a little example of a simple greeting formula basically saying hello, how are you, and good.

Sawubona
Yebo, sawubona
Unjani?
Ngisaphila. Wena unjani?
Nami ngiyaphila
Kuhle. Ngiyajabula ukuzwa lokho.

And on top of that there are different clicks for c’s, q’s, and x’s. I can’t even being to try and explain them, but it’s an adventure to say the least! And now today’s Tuesday! We had the introduction to history and culture of South Africa, and a man named, Michael Cassidy, who is the CEO of African Enterprise, told us a summary of South African history. It was really interesting and I can’t wait to learn more in our weekly class. After that we had Community health (nursing) and talked about the history of nursing in South Africa. The differences in the between the scope of practices for U.S. nurses and S.A. nurses is really fascinating. When they complete their 4 years of nursing studies, they graduate with being certified in midwifery, psychiatric nursing, and community nursing. And then we talked about our clinic sites, which we get to visit Thursday!!!!!! I can’t wait to get out into the community and learn more about the health care over here. I’ll probably blog again on Thursday about my experiences!

I am just absolutely loving it here! I was so nervous to leave at first, but I can’t imagine not doing this now. It’s hard being away from all my friends and family and people that I love, but I know that this is where God wants me. I can already tell He’s going to teach all 29 of us amazing things, and I can’t wait to see how we all change over the next couple of months. And a little side note… everyone here this semester is incredible and I can’t wait to get to know them more!

I hope you are all doing well at home!!! I miss you all a lot, so come visit =)

God bless!

I'm falling asleep...

to the waterfall right outside my window... is this really my life? God is amazing!

Joburg!

Okay so normally I won’t blog 2 days back to back, but we did a lot today and I have some free time now so I thought I’d share with everyone! We started the day off with going to the Apartheid museum, here in Joburg. It was really cool to get some history behind the country we are going to call home for the next 3 months. I copied down some of the information from one of the placards in the museum, it read:

“By 1960 the efforts by apartheid state to contain the size of urban African population had failed. State planners developed the policy of population removals: forcibly uprooting whole communities of people, considered by the state to be ‘surplus’ to the labour needs of the cities or otherwise inappropriately located. Removals began mid 1960’s and ten years later over 1.5 million people had been relocated to black resettlement camps, suitably far removed from white areas.”

The museum was filled with information just like this… it was really sad to see and we definitely went through many emotions to say the least. Some people were feeling guilty and so a group of us talked about it with sour student life coordinator, Leslie (who is absolutely amazing). A woman from western Africa came up to us and said she felt guilty, because her ancestors sold her own people into slavery. It’s an interesting feeling, because even though we have not directly enslaved anyone we feel the pain and we empathize with those who have been hurt by our ancestors.

After the museum we met up with a woman named Alina who showed us around Soweto (South west township). There is a lot of government subsidized housing that people are able to get for different levels of income. It was really fascinating to see the different “levels” of housing there were and just see the communities that people live in. She took us to her restaurant for lunch and we had a real African meal with chicken, lamb, corn and potato dishes and a couple other random things I can’t remember. It was pretty good, definitely different from the U.S. and I’m already missing Chipotle uh oh. And when we were done with lunch some of the boys from the neighborhood danced for all us, it was FLIPPIN’ AMAZING!!!! There really isn’t anyway to describe it, but I wish I could dance like that. After that we saw Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu’s house. It’s the only street where two Nobel Peace Prize winner’s live, pretty crazy considering they were less than ¼ of a mile from each other! The rest of the day was pretty chill and now we’re getting ready to leave for Pietermaritzburg! We leave the hotel tomorrow at 7 AM and fly to Durban then drive to our campus, African Enterprise (AE) conference center and home for the next 10 or so weeks! Thanks everyone for your continued prayers! Don’t forget to let me know how you are all doing through e-mails/comments!!!

God bless,

Kelsey

P.S. I'll probably post pictures once we get settled on campus, so get excited!!!!!