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
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