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