Safrica Day 5

Learning from my mistake yesterday, I woke up early today. It’s kind of silly to think that waking up early here entails rolling out of bed 7:00am. I blame it on the time zone difference and the jet lag.

We eventually rolled out of bed and were able to make it out to our 8:30am meeting in Atlantis on time. From there, we split up to our respective clinic areas. It was really interesting to hear about Wit Sand, the new site that we staffed today. This was the first township that contained only Black families. Buddy and Vita were the first to experience the madness that was the culture for the area. Jenny and I went back to Chatsworth and were surprised to find that the clinic was open and the Sisters were staffing for the day. So, we went in and began talking with the Sisters and figuring out exactly what goes on in the clinic. In South Africa, they refer to the nurses as “Sisters.” When in training, they are called “nurses” and as the progress in their vocation, they are called “Matrons.” In actuality, the Sisters are more the equivalent of the US nurse practitioners. They staff the clinics and are able to dispense antibiotics and other medications. Seeing as though we could not dispense any medications following our exams, we decided to leave the Sisters to what they do and head out to join Buddy and Vita around 10am.

So, as we left Chatsworth, we heard more about the Wit Sand area. It is apparently the “impoverished” area where we were likely to see the crazy zebra-type illnesses. Even with that warning, we weren’t quite ready to see the masses of children with the illnesses they harbored. For example, I was assessing a patient with abdominal pain early this afternoon. As I was obtaining the basic history and asked her what she ate last. I was certainly surprised to hear the translator report that she couldn’t remember what she ate. Further interview revealed that the patient hadn’t eaten in over a month. I guess I should have seen that coming. I mean it is an underserved, underprivileged area. It was still an eye-opening revelation. Even with ten of us there, we were not able to forage through the seemingly growing line of children. We eventually were forced to resign to our transport at 2:00pm and head back to Atlantis.

Back in Atlantis, we were scheduled to have a lunch session with Dr. Petersen and his colleague Dr. Reinquist. Dr. Reinquist wanted to give us a talk about their private practice and how they managed treatment for the surgeries and medical cases. Following this lunch meeting, we were taken on a brief tour of the public hospital nearby Dr. Petersen’s clinic. It was interesting to hear about how the public hospital functioned in the socialized healthcare setting. I admit that I had idealistic conceptions on how healthcare was delivered in this setting. I was saddened to hear the stories of local patients being queued and being told to wait several weeks for desperately needed acute care. Although healthcare was being subsidized by the government, it was clear that the people in this area still were not able to access comprehensive care.

Following the hospital tour, we continued to the HIV/AIDS clinic that was associated with Atlantis ADP. In addition, many of the patients that were part of this clinic were patients of Dr. Petersen. It was heartbreaking to hear the individual stories of the patients that were not only receiving care, but also volunteering their time as a major part of the support structure for new patients. We saw patients of all ages: adults, children, infants born to HIV-positive parents. It was a sight that I still feel I was unprepared to see. In the face of all this, the patients were still warm and receiving. While talking with each patient, never once did I get the feeling of hopelessness or despair. This clinic was truly a testament to how Atlantis ADP has positively impacted the community.

Back at the Fairview school, we had a quick debriefing session with Dr. Petersen. He had reviewed our patient evaluation forms from yesterday and selected a few cases to review. It was eerily similar to attending Morbidity and Mortality seminars at work. We went through several cases which were more informative than any series of PBL’s than I have had at KCOM. It truly makes me wish that we had organized this trip better and had details laid out for administration before we left.

Anyway, the lecture went well and we soon left for the hostel where we would be hosting various affiliates for a barbeque dinner. Being the fun-loving bunch that we are, we decided that we needed to go out to the local store and fetch some spirits for the evening. If there is another thing to add to the list of reasons to go to South Africa, it would be that the alcohol is ridiculously cheap. So, that being said, we bought some bottles of beer and walked back to the hostel. There, we were greeted by Dr. Petersen and Wally, the Headmaster of the Fairview School where WorldVision has its office of operation. Several WorldVision staff were also in attendance. It was a great experience and a great way for us to talk with our mentors outside of the professional atmosphere.

After the party had subsided, we realized it was our first weekend and free night in Cape Town, South Africa. So, the opportunity to head out and see the night life was an offer I couldn’t pass up. That was my first mistake. The next mistake was crawling into a taxi with four other people. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, we sat there like a can of sardines shooting down the Cape Town highways at about 150kpm. It was like a bad movie. However, it was a cheap night at the bar and there was some pretty great dancing out at the clubs. It was a great cap to the week until the group split for the return trip to the hostel. One group took a different taxi back and we went with Claudia, Betsy’s daughter. Much to our surprise, we were stranded because the gear shifter was locked and we were stuck in reverse on the incline of a hill. It took us nearly an hour to locate and obtain a key and get on the road. Much to my amusement, the taxi that had left before us had become hopelessly lost driving back to Melkbosstrand and we had to locate them to caravan back to the hostel. Before we knew it, 5:30am had rolled around and I desperately needed to head to bed.