The view from my new office

I've found a new place to work while I am here in Cape Town. I started grading care plans and reading final papers for my on-line clinical nurse leader class I am teaching at 7:30am in my favorite little shop Cocoa Wah Wah, finally left when I felt like I outstayed my welcome three hours later. The people who work there have come to know me as "the nursing professor from the States", apparently it's a favorite hang out for my students as well. As my students say, it has a great "vibe". Sound a little retro and it actually is...they have a great play list with all my favorite alternative rock from the late 80's and early 90's...yes, a lifetime ago.

Ok, so I digressed. Anyway...got bored there and could't face sitting in my flat. It was a perfect summer day and I know that I don't have many of those left since I will be leaving in 2 weeks. I am excited to be home to see everyone, but nothing about me is happy with going back to 30 degree weather and dark at 5pm. So...I decided to work at the beach. Ya, right you say, I bet you got a lot done! I actually did get through 6 out of 16 care plans, graded two final papers and finalized the exam I am giving Friday morning. Not a bad day in the office. I am posting two pictures, one of my office and the other of the view from my office.

This is going to be a crazy week for both student and teacher. They have a paper due for me tomorrow night (which means 16 more papers to grade), 2 exams on Friday and 2 exams on Saturday. I think there will be some celebrating to be done in Cape Town on Saturday night.

Well, all I can say is it doesn't get much better than the view from my new office.

Mitchell's Plain Clinic

One of the clinical site that the students have been rotating through is a clinic in a largely Muslim populated township. A township is a step up from informal housing. The townships are neighborhoods of tiny houses that are made of cement, have electricity and I presume water because there is no outhouses. Unlike the informal housing which I mentioned earlier are just 4 walls put together with who knows what, no electricity, no water, and no real neighborhood just miles of shacks in open fields.

Anyway, back to the clinic. I usually try to go first thing in the morning because this is when they are the busiest. There is a TB clinic on one side and general medical care on the other side. People will starting lining up by 6am if not earlier to get in to see either a doctor or nurse practitioner. I'm told that sometimes people start lining up as early as 4am.

It is a very overwhelming place to walk into, especially being a white women driving up in a car. I've learned to just smile and say "good morning", the clinic is not very big, maybe the size of a gymnasium with some rooms around the sides and a large waiting area in the middle. There is a gate you need to walk through with a security guard, which is the same man every day. More about him later. As you walk in all you can hear is hundreds of people talking and lots of children running around and babies crying. There are literally at least 100 people in the waiting room every time I come in to check on the students.

I usually find the students either in the immunization/sick room. This is where they triage sick children along with give immunizations, all in the same room, all sharing the same air and probably germs. The equipment they have is so old I'm shocked they still work. The scale alone looks like something my parents had when I was growing up. As a small thank you gift I had the students bring digital thermometers, the nurses (they are called sisters here) were so thrilled and I quickly found out why, all they have is mercury thermometers that take forever. I actually had to teach the students how to read it since they had not been exposed to them before. The other places they work is in the family planning on Tuesdays and on Mondays in the antenatal testing unit. Both of these areas are just basic rooms with one exam table on it that may or may not have the paper sheet replaced before or after your visit.

Teen pregnancy is very high here as well as pregnancy in general. Lots and lots and lots of young children and babies in this township. There is a big push for safe sex and getting tested for HIV, actually there is a campaign going on in all of South Africa to "know your status" with free testing sites all over the place. The students have been getting a lot of practice with family planning and are a little frustrated with the lack of prenatal testing they get, there is no ultrasound machine.

It's hard to explain unless you are here just how poor the people in the townships are and how hard the sisters work each and every day with very little. The clinic will see at least 2-3 hundred people in one day and most of the time they do not have a doctor or a nurse practitioner, they have the sisters who are registered nurses, but have to call for an ambulance if there is anything more urgent than typical childhood diseases, colds, etc.

Back to the guard at the gate. He is an older gentleman, probably in his 60's who wears a knit cap and jacket regardless of the temperature. He is so friendly and we share pleasantries every time I come in, he has gotten to know me and lets me know where the students are. On my way out the other day I asked him how he was, he told me with a smile I'm doing well. I then asked him how his weekend was and he told me "not very good, they shot my son and he died". Like an idiot I had to ask him twice to be sure that I heard him tell me very calmly that his son was shot. He explained that he was robbed, put up a struggle and was then shot and killed. He was 25 years old. All through this I wondered how the heck he was there and still smiling, doing his job and asking me how I was doing. It occurred to me that he couldn't afford to not work regardless of the reason and that is why he was there, guarding the gate. I walked away with a heavy heart and wished there was more I could do.

pictures on the bottom are from the excursion...this is informal housing in Soweto.

Plettenberg bay pictures

these are some of the highlights. Me walking with an elephant, hand and trunk, me riding an elephant, and me smiling with an elephant (trunk up is a big smile, she liked me). One of Plettenberg's Beaches, the view from my hostel bedroom. Some of the animals I got close to while doing a safari on horseback...I was too scared to get a picture of the rhino that was right in front of me, just in case he and his buddy figured out we were there, crazy stuff. Two plus hours on a horse = more bruises!

Plettenburg Bay - Outside my comfort zone in a Hostel

I never thought I would find myself crawling through passages in caves that are barely big enough for me to fit in. With names like the "stove pipe", the coffin, etc you can only imagine what I was up against. But when you are with a bunch of youngsters who are up for anything, who am I to say no?

That was the start of my hostel experience. And what an experience. Anybody who remembers our "road" in Vermont will know what I'm talking about when I describe the way to the hostel, in the middle of the night, with a nervous older gentleman for a driver, as being just a little stressful. Pitch dark, not a light in sight, a veritable path way for a 22 seat bus with a trailer hitched to it for luggage. We finally made it there and our hostel adventure started.

We were met by Vicki and her three dogs, one of which was HUGE, named chug a bunga, then two others Rosie and FiFi. They were all adopted township dogs that were rescued - two of them had coloring just like JT, I was ready to bring them home.

The students had a bunk room with 16 beds and I was living in the lap of luxury in my single with adjoining bathroom what I shared with our 70 year old driver, Lenny. All I wanted to do was go to bed, and that's just what I did not caring that there didn't seem to be the same amenities that I am used to! ha ha. Oh did I mention that my body, especially my knee, grew more bruises from my cave dwelling? I woke up the next morning to see the most incredible view that I have seen in a long time, complete with an Italian mob boss hideout and families of baboons.

The next morning we met Vicki's husband/friend (never got the low down on their relationship) and the two children they had taken in because their mother was a drug addict and had abandoned them for weeks at a time when they were 3 and 5. The little boys name was Gift and the little girls I can spell. They were the most beautiful, happy and fun loving children I have met in a long time. Full of hugs and giggles. The students were in love! Vicki and Matthew own and run an orphanage in their spare time and great cooks. For $150 dollars I got lodging for 3 nights, 3 full meals and breakfasts which were delicious. I think I've found a new way to travel.

more to come.....with pictures

Taking a digger

I finally found my way to the beach area where I wanted to run. Didn't get lost getting there or coming home, I am very impressed with myself. Except....well, here I am having this wonderful run, ocean to my right, the mist in my face from the crashing waves. Lion's Head and Table Mountain to my left in the distance, a rugby team practicing in the field to my left. Couples, families and dogs everywhere, a beautiful Sunday morning and things couldn't be better. And then of course....I trip on a raised cobblestone brick and take a nasty digger!! There I go left knee, right hip and both hands -- what a way to ruin a perfectly beautiful morning/run. My already broken phone went flying, head phones ripped out of my ears and my pride badly bruised! Not to mention the look of terror on the family that approached me to see if I was alright - they didn't speak English so all I could do is smile and keep running. I was so determined for this little "slip" to not ruin my day. I kept running. In case you are wondering, I had a phone and Ben, one of the people that is involved in the program lives just around the corner so if it had been worse I would have had help.

So, now I am limping around, have a lovely sore looking knee and can't wait to see it tomorrow morning. Just when all the other scabs on my legs had cleared up! The good news is I had a wonderful cup of decaf coffee and breakfast with my leg up on a chair reading the Sunday paper in a coffee shop on the beautiful coast of Cape Town. It was worth it.

Running in Rondebosch

I've been trying to take advantage of the really nice weather and run whenever I can. Only problem is I'm finding it really boring and hard to stay motivated. I am running on Rondebosch Common which is right across from my apartment and has a beautiful view of Table Mountain and Lion's head, but it is very flat, one time around is about 1.7 miles so I do it twice. I have added on another street that is adjacent, but again it's flat and boring.

I need to be able to get to and from Camps Bay (the ocean) and run along the promenade, I can get there just fine, but always get lost coming home! My goal for this weekend was to get out there and find a route on the beach that has a little more to offer than flat roads. I guess I miss running in Hebron and on Uconn campus, too bad it will be winter when I get back, dark and cold.

Despite the flat, boring terrain, I find myself amazed that I am running in South Africa, hours away from home listening to the same play list that I listen to when I'm in CT. It always amazes me that we can get on a plane and like magic, 15 hours later, you are essentially a day away from where you just came from. When I am getting up in the morning my kids are still awake, but it's another day from them. I'm starting my day and they haven't gone to bed yet. I can't even keep up with the time change from Arizona, so I haven't been able to connect with Kyle very often.

I don't know why it took me so long to discover Skype. I am finding it's the best way to communicate, if you know me, you know I don't like talking on the phone, but I don't mind using Skype. Seeing the person I'm talking to really helps to stay connected.

It is supposed to rain all weekend, which is fine, I have a ton of work to do to prep for the week coming up. The semester is flying by and a big part of me doesn't want it to end. So I am trying to enjoy the time I have, see everything I can and enjoy this adventure.

I'm attaching two pictures, one of me working with a student teaching newborn assessment and the other from the commons that I run on. My apartment is in the background next to the red roof.

Para Gliding off Signal Hill over looking ocean and Table Mountain

Yes, I para glided for a while until I became nauseous, so that was the end of that. It was so relaxing and beautiful, I am really angry with my inability to withstand motion. I asked the instructor if it would be worse if I parachuted out a plane, and believe it or not he said that wouldn't make me sick! Maybe I will do it this summer. I wasn't able to get many pictures because I was too busy keeping the banana I just ate in my stomach, but I'll share what I have. I wish I could show them all to you, there is a distinct progression in the look on my face, all smiles and then holding it in. Oh well, I tried.

Another week of clinical and teaching under my belt. I am shocked at how much prep time it takes me to prepare for 16 hours of lecturing. I hope my students are studying as much as I am prepping. Judging from the quiz I gave them yesterday they are all studying. I will up my game on the next quiz and make it a little more challenging. I'm sure they would disagree.

My goal for tomorrow is to head back out to Camps Bay and find the running area I have been reading about. I try to go one new place each weekend day because I know I don't have time or energy during the week.

This is flying by really fast. Sorry to brag, but the weather is fantastic. I will be so depressed getting off that plane at JFK. Good thing I will have Christmas and all the kids home to look forward to.