MMMBeki! Ba, Bou, Doo, Dop!

Where to begin?
It's been a while, and I'm sorry about that. Between hectic-ness, nothing to update, and lack of time, I have not been the dedicated blogger the world deserves.


First, let's talk politics.
South African history is being made. About ten years ago, there was a gigantic arms deal involving lots of Top People in government, including ANC president Jacob Zuma and South Africa's first post-Mandela president, Thabo Mbeki. (The ANC is the African National Congress, South Africa's majority party to which both Zuma and Mbeki belong.) Both Zuma and Mbeki have been involved in corruption charges that have gone to trial. Zuma's trial finished just this month and he was found not guilty. There are obvious, pink elephant-sized questions about his innocence, since a great number of Zuma's supporters threatened to incite civil war and large scale violence if he were found guilty. It obviously wasn't worth the bloodshed to send him to prison.

With Zuma's innocence officialized (is that a word?), several government factions next set their sights on Mbeki. This is where I get confused, but basically the ANC had a meeting last Friday to decide whether or not Mbeki should be president. And they decided to recall him, or in more basic terms, to fire the country's president. Mbeki then chose rather to "resign". It took a weekend to sort out who would be the acting president. First, it was Speaker of the House, who would have been South Africa's first female president, but she resigned along with Mbeki. In fact, FOURTEEN ministers loyal to Mbeki handed in their resignations (that's more than 1/3 of the cabinet). Among the ministers who resigned was Trevor Manuel, the minister of finance. The rand (South African currency) crashed briefly, then strengthened, weakened again, strengthened, etc., throughout the course of the afternoon, until Manuel was asked to retain his post and agreed.

So the president is out, the temporary president is in, cabinet is shuffled up, and Zuma is set to be elected as president come scheduled elections in March (unless they call early elections to deal with the political crisis).

Imagine this in the States. The Republican Party fires George Bush, they put somebody like Rudy Guiliani in temporarily, McCain is guaranteed the presidency next year, the secretary of state, treasury, defense, and attorney general (among several others) all resign, and the dollar goes up and down by the minute. This is history, people!


What else, what else?
I made it out to Kirstenbosch Gardens, which is one of the most renowned gardens in the world. It was like Meijer Gardens to the 1000th power. It has this crazy view of the mountains and is absolutely enormous. The tracheostomy sister I work for used to have a house IN Kirstenbosch because her stepfather was the director!

I also had some more animal sightings. I saw a whale JUMPING out of the water. From afar, yes, but as someone who has barely even seen a whale before, it was REALLY cool to see. They are huge. I had a staring contest with a seal (it won). And then we were able to get fresh yellowtail fish that had JUST come out of the bay. Yummmmm...

Wednesday was a public holiday: Heritage Day. I'm not quite sure how to celebrate heritage (as opposed to the easy holidays like President's Day). Anyway, it was also South African National Braai Day. If you remember, a braai is just a barbeque, and it's what South Africans are good at. I stuffed myself into a delicious oblivion.


Unfortunately, I made the poor decision to get sick. I'm stranded in bed for a few days with sinusitus and a fever. Lots of Groundhog Day, 7-Up, and shortbread. The doctor said that the fauna on the mountain goes pollen crazy and all of it sweeps down into the city. Apparently if you haven't lived in Cape Town for awhile, you're doomed.

I just recently hit the halfway mark of time here. I know the remaining time is going to go sooo fast. Hopefully the weather will improve (it's been cold and wet forever) and I can hit up all the things I want to do before I go. I'll be a much better blogger from now on, even if there's nothing to report!

Cheers,
Erin

A Photographic Tour

Well, it's time. For a visual glimpse into life here.

This is my workplace: The Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. Long name, I know. It was built by the victors of World War II (instead of a monument). Strictly a children's hospital, the oldest patient is 14. And it is often followed with the title of "the only specialist's children's hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa".

This is my beloved rotary. It's on the hospital campus, and is where the parents of patients stay. And go figure, I work in a hospital filled with cute and terminally ill children and the people I get attached to are their PARENTS. The I'Khaya is simulatenously my favorite and the most frustrating job I have.

Just for fun; this is the sad loved bench on which I eat lunch everyday.

This is the living space in the apartment into which I just moved last weekend. 14th floor. Roommate Rachel. Lots of interesting cooking experiments.

That's all you get! ...For now. I want to take photos of the inside of the hospital, but technically, I'm not allowed to. The trick is to give your camera to a kid.

Okay, so what's new?

I'm definitely getting into the hospital work now. I'm working on the burns unit, the cardiac/tracheostomy unit, reception, the rotary, and the FRIENDS office. Therefore, I'm getting to know the hospital and everybody in it really well. And making a fatal mistake: getting attached!

I've also been exploring the city a bit more. I found some beautiful gardens right down the road and the church that Desmond Tutu used to preach at. Who knew?!

Speaking of church, I went to the Claremont Assembly today and it was crazy! People crying, jumping, the whole schpiel. I even got a gift bag for being a first-time visitor. I really enjoyed it, though, because it was the most diversity I've seen since I've arrived; and that includes the hospital.

Other minor news:
I switched apartments, a move from the 11th to the 14th floor. I like the new one better.
I was on the minibus and a guy next to me had a seizure - luckily we were next to the hospital. Draaamatic!
The weather has been tempermental, like usual. But Saturday was too gorgeous - a preview of the days to come, I'm told. (Remember seasons are switched.) So Janet took me on a drive looking over False Bay that was SO beautiful! We stopped in Simon's Town, which is a bit touristy but is a big fishing & boating locale. I saw a whale, penguins from afar, and a seal in the harbor. Pretty. Sweet.

Simon's Town

I'm thinking about going to Namibia or Mozambique next month. If anyone wants to tag along...

you know you're welcome!

Love,

Erin

Oh No

I forgot to update this!!

This week I explored Cape Town and ate a lot of grapefruit!

I'Khaya La Whatta?

Hey oh. It's been a while. I can only update on weekends, and last weekend I was a bit too preoccupied for ye, olde blogosphere.
But now ye has many, many updates. Settle in.

I started doing a LOT more at the hospital. My responsibilities really went from zero to sixty. I now spend my days running between one of the following seven things. In no particular order:

1. Tracheostomy Handbook
   I am simplifying sentence structure, developing format, and finalizing content in this 19-page handbook.
2. Series of Documentary Photographs
   For the tracheostomy ward. I have to take pictures of every piece of equpiment, every step of the process, and... just... everything. Tracheostomies are pretty complicated (at least to me, a newbie to them), and I basically need to document everything visually.
3. Occasional Seminars and Odd Jobs
   I am the unofficial assistant to the ward sister. Therefore, I do various oddjobs and whatnot mumbojumbo thingamalings. For example, I attended rounds. Ten specialists discussed four patients for about an hour in very complicated medical jargon as I tried determinatedly to understand and keep up. Halfway through, I started to worry someone would ask me for my opinion, in which case I was fully prepared to look that person in the eyes and say, "I concur" with force. Other random things I've done was to attend a seminar for parents whose children died, and this week I organized thousands of pieces of trach tubes.
4. Data Entry on a Burn Database
   I start Monday. Basically, they want to put all the information about locations of burn victims on a huge map so they can figure out demographics and where burn wards are located, should be located, etc. The first step? Getting me to type in thousands of entries.
5. Attending Occasional Surgeries
   One of the perks! I haven't started yet, I really hope it doesn't fall through, but with all luck this upcoming week I'll pretend to be a med student and observe a surgery.
6. Play Therapy
   When I say "play therapy", I mean I just go to a ward and pretend to fall over so children laugh. It's entertainment, it's a way to cheer up these really sick kids, and it's what a lot of people spend all day doing. This was what I was doing the first couple weeks I was here, and whenever none of my six other jobs need me this is what I do. It's good experiences, you still see a LOT of hilarious, interesting, devastating, [insert other adjective] things.
7. Housing Records
   This is my biggest job by far. The Red Cross is pretty much the only specialist children's hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa, so people come from very, very far away. Mothers are offered to stay in housing, which is just a small building next to the hospital (I'Khaya La Rotary). Many of them do, but very few of them sign out when their child is discharged from the hospital. Therefore, their fees continue, so mothers can end up being charged as if they stayed there for months and months on end, instead of just a few days or weeks. This is where I come in. I'm the person who figures out when a mother arrives, when she leaves, if she goes away for weekends, etc. And all the paperwork involved. On any given day, there are 35-80 mothers staying in housing. It's not so bad, but I will say that trying to understand Xhosa names is NOT EASY. (Xhosa is one of those clicky languages.)

SO, it's been a pretty busy week. The cons are that I have so much to do I can't do any of it very efficiently, plus the housing job means I have to work through my lunch break. And imagine how guilty I feel if I miss a day! I have four bosses!
Pros? I feel very important.

I sat down to watch my first-ever rugby match between the two best teams in the world (South Africa and New Zealand), and fifteen minutes in I fell asleep. Ha, the entire country was anticipating this game, as South Africa currently holds the world title. Sadly, we lost.

I have indeed been watching the Olympics. South Africa got one medal. And I feel so bad for their Olympian bicyclist, who crashed and took out two others with him. He has to come home to newspaper headlines that say "BICYCLE HORROR SHOW". Ouch!

I lost full feeling in my thumb after fetching scalding-hot coffee for a world-class neurosurgeon. Worth it? I think not. And speaking of coffee, I had a mochachocacchino. And now I'm addicted!

We went on a braai, which is the South African tradition of barbeque-ing. It was pretty cool, on a lake, and families all choose a spot among the hills and rocks to braai for the day. I felt a bit like a hobbit, eating sausages in the foliage. Click here to see a hobbit in its natural enviornment.

South Africa's currently having a competition for the next cast of South Africa's own High School Musical movie. And the camera crew came to the hospital!! Apparently there was someone who wanted to try out, though I'm not sure who it would have been, since most of our patients are under the age of ten. ANYWAY, I'm really excited to see our hospital on TV! Three of us were also interviewed by the Daily Mail, which is a big newspaper in the UK, about volunteering at the Red Cross. Look out world - this is my big break!

We also drove out to Darling, which is about an hour away from Cape Town. Very, very small Afrikaans town. Countryside is really pretty, it was all wine farm territory. Tomorrow I'm going to Durbanville, about half an hour away, which I hear is much more... populated. This week I was also able to go up Signal Hill and then back to Camps Bay (that beautiful beach I keep posting pictures of). That day, we went to a seafood restaurant and I had my first oyster ever. I'm told they're "REALLY GOOD" in comparison, not to mention ridiculously cheap in comparison to oysters in the States.

WELL, people who have access to CNN, I bid you adieu, until next weekend.
Love as always,
Erin

P.S. I want you all to know that filling up a tank here is the equivalent of EIGHTY+ DOLLARS. Quit your complaining!

I Wish I Was Michael Corleone & Buster Keaton Combined

Today I had Thanksgiving Dinner. Yes, in August. Yes, in Africa. YES, with lamb! And it was a fabulous Thanksgiving; lamb, squash, green beans, caulflower & cheesy thing, the works. I asked what the occasion was and the response was, "none, we just have a huge leg of lamb sitting in the freezer!"


I drove for the first time! Opposite side of the road, opposite side of the car, everything opposite! It's not too difficult, I just constantly feel like I'm about to crash into another car, a pole, or a human being. I also found my first real BUG. It was BIG. Just picked up a pillow, and KAPOW! The largest cockroach I've ever seen in my whole life. It had two-inch feelers and the whole bit. *shudders*


Wednesday was really, really nice weather-wise. A bunch of people from the hospital went to Long Street (the shopping/dining/drinking area) and then to Camps Bay beach. Camps Bay is gorgeously amazinggingly gagorgeous. Mountains, ocean, sand, and a book. We also found two starfish! It was much much too cold to swim (unless you're Canadian), but it was the most beautiful day since I've been here. Looooved it!

World Cancer Day was this week. "Spiderman" was there. He ate popcorn and was more interested in the magic show than the kids. It made me laugh. And as for work, although I'm bummed to have my assignments switched, I'm really anxious to get to work on the tracheostomy handbook. I looked through the current one, and it's rubbish. It actually bothers me how bad it is, so I can't wait to fix it up.
There was another excitement at work this week when a kid infected tons of people with a stomach bug. We were walking down the stairs and a doctor comes running up them and says to us, "Did you get the message?? Are you sick yet?" Yeah - pretty intense. They're calling it the African Yip.

A collection of facts, for the interested

I think Cape Town smells like salt, wind, gasoline, and a faint twinge of cigarettes. It's GOOD.

The hospital smells like tile (though there is none), disinfectant spray, and bodily fluids.

I live in an apartment where you lay your head down to sleep and you hear sirens and feet from the upstairs apartment. Which is also quite nice in its own way.

My favorite time of day is about six AM. Because the sun has just started to pour in through the shades and I know I have another hour to sleep.

You cannot turn on red lights.
Prince Harry, Richard Gere, and Hilary Swank are in town. And me too.
High School Musical is JUST as big here as it is at home.
In South Africa, your 18th is for every privilege: driving, drinking, smoking, etc.
You pre-pay EVERYTHING: internet, cell phone, electricity.
I realized that come December in South Africa, the sun will set at about 9, maybe later. Then I'll go home to Michigan, where the sun will be setting before 5.
Movie theaters have assigned seating.
I love hand sanitizer.
Get Skype!

The food section of facts (I could go on for ages)

Cupcakes and cake are eaten cold (this makes more sense, because nothing crumbles that way).
I'm single-handedly going to introduce the country to eggnog and s'mores.
At the movie theater, popcorn is not buttered. There is just many flavored salts.
Does anyone in the States eat condensed milk like ice cream? 'Cause here they do!






I think if I were Michael Corleone, I'd be able to handle the intimidation of South Africa. If I were Buster Keaton, I could make sick children laugh much easier. If I were the two combined... I'd be the greatest hero known to man.


The news from home has been rough this week. I'm thinking of you all.
Love!,
Erin

wish you were here

Two Comments? Really?

It was a very low-key week for Erin this week. Not much to report.

Work has been pretty all over the place. I was put in a different ward each day and then on Friday got the news that I'll be switching assignments BIGTIME in a week or so. I'll be going from mere entertainment to finishing a tracheotomy handbook. More on THAT later; by the time this is over I'm sure we'll all know much more about tracheotomies than we ever wanted to. But this announcement is bittersweet, since I've actually been enjoying my current work. I've picked up a few tricks, thank you all for your suggestions.
#1. That 'Baby Shark' song. You know, 'doo-doo, do-do-do-do'?
#2. Wearing lots of hairties on my wrist. The occasional kid is fascinated.
#3. Instead of tracing a kid's HAND with crayons and paper, trace their WHOLE HEAD.
#4. The 'Momma's Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird' song will quiet crying toddlers. However, when I couldn't remember anything beyond mockingbird, and then diamond ring for a whole week I went a bit mad. Then we googled it, and now I can't remember what comes after looking glass. But at least three verses is enough before I have to start making up new words.
#5. You know that thing where you put your lips together and blow and your lips buzz? They go 'pttthhbbbbb'? I am doing that NONSTOP. Also, you can get a really good workout playing soccer with a balloon.

The other plus about work is this week was a big bonding week for all the new volunteers. I had my first experience at Nino's, a cafe across the street, and pretty much plan to go there for lunch everyday for the next couple months. You can get a ton of eggs & toast CHEAP! Mmmm so good!
Roommate & co. decided to make pizzas from scratch a few nights ago. It was "fun" using two ovens, one on the 11th floor and one on the 5th. But really the best part was having HOT HOT food.

Okay, I really need to not update late at night when I'm sleepy. (I will always definitely definitely choose sleep over this blog. You should know this now... while you can still get out.)

To sum things up extremely quickly, I spent the weekend in Rondebosch (part of Cape Town) again. Went to a choir concert, a food fair, and a 3-D movie. The coolest thing about this entire week was probably getting cut at work and then seeing these SWEET bandages they have. I didn't want to take them off, they were like Shrink Wrap. It was cool.

I'm choosing sleep. When I have things to report, I will do so.
Maybe I can prompt some comments this week by asking for a news headline from each of you. I desperately miss having the time to read every single story on CNN International. (Speaking of news, South African politics is crazy! History is TAKING PLACE RIGHT NOW!! It's epic! Google Zuma!)

Nope, I'm definitely choosing sleep riiiightnow.

Monsters, Inc. or The Incredibles?

Ah, citizens. Hello. It's been a good week.

Work is going pretty well, I think. No major screwups so far, at least. It's challenging and I'm looking forward to being able to sort of conquer it. I've worked in the urology ward twice, the transplants ward once, the "coughing" ward once (lots of TB), and the oncology ward twice. Urology is where I'm most successful, since kids are able to get up and move around a bit more (despite not being allowed to; thus getting me in trouble). Oncology is the most technologically advanced by FAR, but also the most... disheartening. I was on the ward Wednesday when a patient died.

However, I might be switching assignments soon anyway. We're playing it by ear at the moment, but I might end up finishing a burn database (the burn ward is always extremely busy during the winter) or working on materials for illiterate parents. Who knows? Time will tell. But I was told to think outside the box during my time at the Red Cross as a volunteer. For instance, instead of just arriving everyday and entertaining the kids -- having an International Day, or maybe performing music or something. Any ideas? I have very few talents, so think hard.

This week was pretty busy outside of work as well.

I went to Canal Walk with Katherine, a girl from Grand Rapids who happens to be staying very close to me, her friend Katie, and their friends Michael & Tim. Canal Walk is this HUGE shopping mall that reminded me a bit of Disneyworld if you ask me. We drove in under this HUGE bridge that was ornamental and very decorative. The whole place was like that -- huge stores, huge palm trees lining the inside, huge bridges. Huge huge huge. We saw a movie & I bought scarves to keep me warm in this wintery state we're in. Got very lost on the way there, which was more fun than not.

Went to work early on Wednesday to listen to a lecture by University of Cape Town students & professor. There were three minor presentations on iron deficiency, genealogical depression, and communication. Interesting considering it was 8am.

Other experiences include:

- an introduction to Mr. Price (cheap winter clothing)

- sleeping for 14 hours straight (take that, jet lag)

- taking a minibus home (it was like inhaling gasoline)

- babysitting & watching Pixar movies (the major debate of our time: The Incredibles or Monsters, Inc.?)

- moving apartments (just as nice, no problem there)

- finding out that patients go home on Fridays (surprise!!)

- discovering this sweet little bookshop down the corner (two words: Member Discount)

And, today was amazing. We (me & the Bray clan) went on a scenic drive. I'll never forget it, for the rest of my life -- it was so incredible. We basically drove in the circle around the mountain that sits in the middle of the city. Then we did as much of Chapman's Drive as we could (it's always closed after rain due to mudslides) and saw Hout Bay from up above. THAT was possibly the most intense portrayl of nirvana I've ever seen.

Okay, listen, I've done three photos and it's very difficult to do.
It's also late. And by late, I mean 9:30. But I happen to have the sleeping schedule of an 80-year-old man. Do not judge me.

So, g'nite! Much love. I keep having dreams about people from home, if that assures you I miss you!
Sweet dreams,
Erin