A little more on the Red Cross...

I haven’t written too much about my internship, and since I do spend 4 days a week at the hospital I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate on what I’m doing there. First, I have two projects that I am responsible for. My main project (which I am turning into a research paper/final paper for the study abroad program) is under neurosurgeon Dr. Padayachee; I am doing a risk factor and clinical assessment on patients with myelomeningocele, a form of spina bifida. Currently, there are only two babies with myelomeningocele at the hospital and I’ve already interviewed their mothers, so now I must go through medical records of past patients in order to collect information. My second project is under Dr. Rode; he wants me survey moms of children with burns resulting from kettles and to research kettle companies, looking at possible problems in manufacturing. I really like watching surgery, but my favorite part about the Red Cross is volunteering on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. My sports watch and name badges are always a big hit. Many of the kids don’t speak English, but kids are kids everywhere and it isn’t a problem; we play and I talk to them in English and they talk to me (or just don’t) in either Afrikaans or Xhosa. It's hard interacting with the older ones because most of the donated toys we bring up to the wards are geared towards younger kids. They all must get so bored during the day, and their parents too. It's not like hospitals in the US where there seems to be a good system in place for providing children with entertainment, as well as resources for parents and spaces for them to wander about.

Last Tuesday in the oncology ward, I let one little girl – who had to have been no older than 4 years old – draw on my hands with marker. She was quiet and shy, and I wasn’t doing a good job of making her happy, but I’ll always remember how she used one pink marker to poke and jab at my left wrist, in a spot comparable to that on her own wrist where an IV line was secured with a bandage. I’m fairly confident in the fact that she was mocking what she experiences every day – the administration of drugs in an IV. How pensive and naïve and too knowing she was, all at the same time. On Thursday, I volunteered in the burns ward and felt much more useful. This ward is always crazy and over-crowded and kids roam the hall; they’re fun to be around because usually they’re playful despite their injuries. Generally, children in the other wards are sick and seem much sadder. They are all so brave though. The highlight of playtime in the burns was me comforting a crying girl (burns covering her chest and back and legs were bandaged). I didn’t expect her to let me pick her up but she held onto me for a while and think she just needed some attention and human contact.

On a different note, it’s HOT here! Sunday, twelve of us crammed into a taxi (typical) and rode to a beach nearby. On Saturday I visited Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which was absolutely beautiful. If I were a bird or a flower, my home would be Kirstenbosch. This weekend, we're leaving for a week-long excursion to Johannesburg and Pretoria and Kruger National Park, where I’ll embark on actual game drives!

Still in love with South Africa.

Hearts, Sharks, and Game Meat

Hearts: At the RXH on Monday, I watched heart surgery for two hours. It was amazing. There is so much to learn about the human body and what is truly incredible is how it can withstand the demands of such invasiveness. This patient was a two and a half year-old boy whose heart was basically cut open and closed back up right in front of my eyes. He was on cardio-pulmonary bypass for an hour and a half; his heart was actually not beating during that whole time. I had no idea that was possible. I also can’t imagine being a cardiothoracic surgeon and standing for that long while being so focused.

Sharks: Yesterday, I went shark cage diving in Gansbaai. It’s the thing to do here and when else would I have had the change to get in the water with Great White Sharks? Three misconceptions I had before leaving, however, were (1) the boat would be quite large, (2) I would be able to handle being out at sea for most of a day, and (3) the wetsuits would actually keep me warm. To clarify – the boat was very small, I was seasick the entire time, and the wetsuits definitely allowed the cold water in. This may seem miserable, and in fact it was, but underwater I did get to see one Great White (after missing two somehow), and the trip was therefore worthwhile.


Game Meat: On Friday night, I went with the majority of my group to a restaurant called Marco’s African Place. I ordered the Pan African Platter, which was composed of ostrich, springbok, and kudu as well as a traditional Xhosa dish of beans and crushed corn that I couldn’t pronounce. I actually liked the game meat and I’m glad I tried something I normally wouldn’t eat; the springbok was my favorite.

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It’s been too long since my last blog so there’s a lot to say but what else is new? I started interning at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital last week – I’ll start there. Anuja is another UNC student placed at the Red Cross and our supervisor is Dr. Rode, a pediatric burns surgeon who is extremely intelligent and has been around for a very long time. We each have an assignment under him, and mine deals with children suffering hot water burns from kettles; a majority of the burns are scalding burns and a great number of these are caused by spilled or pulled kettles. Overall, Anuja and I have a lot of free reign as to how we spend our time because Dr. Rode is extremely busy and not around us very much. Figuring out what I want to do and how I wish to spend my time at the Red Cross has been challenging; I don’t just want to sit at a computer entering data and researching all day, which has happened. I did attend a volunteer orientation earlier this week and should be able to start on Monday which I am very excited about. As a volunteer, I’ll be able to bring toys to children and simply play with them; I desperately want to interact with these kids and haven’t had a real chance to experience that yet. Something really cool that I have been able to do and hope to take advantage of is watching surgeries; putting on scrubs makes me feel important J So far, I’ve seen a couple of bandage changes and skin grafts in the burns theatre (theatre means surgery and/or operating room). Also, I’ve stood in on a brain surgery. It was actually on my first day, and Anuja and I simply walked into the theatre. People don’t seem to mind if we do that, but I would never be able to do so in the States. The neurosurgeons were actually very nice and allowed us to come right up next to the patient’s exposed brain as they explained what they were doing. They also asked a few questions which I didn’t know the answers to, thus I felt pretty unintelligent.

I spend over an hour getting to and from my internship every day. Taking public transportation has been an experience all on its own. Oh, the culture of the mini bus taxis. If you think any big city in the US is home to bad driving, come see for yourself the craziness of Cape Town’s streets. There seems to be no traffic rules at all: people just go as fast as they can and change lanes as much as they can (most streets lack dividing lines). When Anuja and I accompanied Dr. Rode to the Kyaelechia Clinic, he explained to us that a large part of the problem is that there is simply not enough police officers to enforce traffic regulations. Also, once people obtain driving licenses, they are not required to ever renew them. I never thought I’d say this, but thank God for the DMV.

Last weekend, I went to Hermanus for the annual whale festival. Hermanus is one of the best spots in the world to whale-watch from land. I saw a few Southern Right Whales, mostly chilling on the surface of the water; there was some breaching action, when they come up out of the water, and that was the best to see. Unfortunately, it was rainy that day and the trip would have been much better if I hadn’t slipped on a rock almost immediately upon arriving. I was too excited and rushing to get closer to a whale I had a bad fall, bruising and cutting my knee and shin. Needless to say, I couldn’t walk very well at all the rest of the time and missed some good picture opportunities when the whales came in really close.

Tomorrow, the group is visiting Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela stayed for the majority of his 27 year imprisonment. I’m looking forward to it, and almost (FINALLY) finished reading his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

The weather has definitely been improving here – summer is on its way. I am a little sad that I’m missing fall at home, but summer is still my favorite.

I find that I have to catch myself sometimes and remember that I’m in Africa. It’s so easy to forget in the day-to-day where I am and how far away I am from North Carolina since I’m now accustomed to life in Cape Town. The city is so diverse and composed of many kinds of people – South Africa’s history is fascinating, yet terribly sad. Just fifteen years ago, the apartheid system was still in place and the remnants of that are very much evident today.

It’s funny to think how different my life here is than it is at home. Everything is a little slowed, and less stressful. It’s actually very nice. You would think that in a city so laid-back (and because I’m not my typical busy self), time would also slow – I guess that’s just not the case no matter where you are. I’m afraid that the rest of my time here will pass as quickly as it already has and that I won’t be prepared to go home, at least in the sense that I won’t have accomplished my purpose or gotten the most out of being in South Africa.