Katrina's adjusting to Cape Town life

Adjusting to Cape Town Life

As I finish up my second full week of internships and classes, it’s becoming clear that I’m transitioning from tourist to…well I’m not quite sure what but certainly not a tourist. I still stick out like a sore thumb from the way I look to my very noticeable American accent, but I am starting to adjust to life in Cape Town quite a bit. Everything is still exciting but not nearly as daunting. I’ve gotten much more street smart and aware, but I’m no longer paranoid of every unknown person or the idea of being by myself.  My life here in Cape Town, from our house in Rondebosch to the clinic I work at in Mitchells Plains, to classes in UCT, has turned to routine, and dare I say it I’m starting to feel completely at home.

Some of the subtle difference between the US and South Africa are starting to feel normal. For instance, the fact that pedestrians NEVER have the right of way here (I’ve had a few close calls but I’m still in one piece). Or the fact that any given bathroom in Cape Town will be missing AT LEAST one of the big three: toilet paper, soap or paper towels. Yep, even the fanciest of restaurants, and you guessed it: even the staff bathroom at the clinic…. But you live and you learn, and every day I become that much more savy about the life and culture here.

I’m finally starting to get my bearings, and have a pretty good idea of how to get around Rondebosch, and slowly picking up when we’re in the Atlantic Ocean, versus when we’re in the Indian Ocean (BRRRR). Lucky for me there’s a beautiful running park not even a quarter mile from our house, filled with people at all hours, in which you can run around the 1.5 mile sidewalk to the view of Table Mountain, or through paths in the long grasses (if you watch out for snakes….). This has become my daily spot, and even oasis to get some time to clear my head and feel the breeze. There’s a ‘Pick n Pay’ grocery store a few miles away on main road, and we usually have to walk there a few times a week because unlike America, they don’t use many preservatives or additives so the food actually goes bad!!! But don’t feel too bad for me having to walk all those deliciously juicy fruits back home in the hot African sun, there IS a froyo place that may or may not know us by name at this point. Life here is much slower and much simpler. While I wear my watch almost without fail (the tan lines are pretty bad), time is no longer a burden. Granted we certainly have places to be at exact times and are very busy, but time does not have the same nagging effect as I find it has at home. You may enjoy an unexpected conversation, or a dinner may take up to 3 or 4 hours, but it's not looked at as a waste of time. At home I am almost obsessively consumed by my individual schedule, with every second of my life planned out, and ‘wasting’ time being a crime. Here people are so willing to sacrifice their time for me, or anyone, but to them it’s not even a sacrifice. When you say thank you, people say ‘pleasure,’ but its in way that they genuinely mean it was a pleasure to give you their time or help. I hope to learn so much from everyone who’s shown me this love, and bring this mentality back home with me.

From Monday to Wednesday I’m interning with 4 other students at Tafelsig Clinic, one of the very few government funded ‘free’ clinics available in the townships. It’s located right in the heart of Mitchell’s Plains, a very poor township with lots of violence. Every morning about 15 of us cram into a van that drives us all over the globe to each of our internships. It’s a pretty bumpy ride, and it’s a little over an hour before we get dropped off. Every morning you pass through the township where most of our patients are living, and it’s a hard scene to get used to. Miles and miles of informal settlements as they call them, basically shacks made of whatever people can find, most without plumbing or electricity. There is clutter and debris everywhere, kids running around without shoes or many clothes, and stray dogs, goats and the occasional horse littering the roadside. I see some children in uniforms making the long journey to school, others pushing grocery carts for miles looking for anything useful on the side of the road. When we arrive at Tafelsig, there is a line outside that has formed at 5AM. The five of us walk in wearing our scrubs (which are the greatest thing ever), and draw quite a bit of attention being the only white people in the place, on top of our American accents. Our first days at the clinic were very intimidating. The place is PACKED, small, loud, chaotic and boiling hot, and everyone speaks Afrikaans. Luckily the Sisters (what they call nurses here), especially Sister Castle, took us right under her wing and started teaching us right away. I spend the first few days mostly observing, and overwhelmed with how little I understood about anything.  Frustrated and exhausted patients would ask me questions I could barely understand let alone know the answers too. For once in my life I was the one that no one could understand, and for the first time in my life my ‘accent’ felt wrong when I spoke.  But I loved that excitement and buzz and chaos of the clinic, and every new case had promise of getting to see something cool to tell my friends about at lunch. I picked up on the different systems much faster than I thought possible, and soon I was actually DOING something, even if it was just printing labels, or moving folders from triage to the doctor’s room, it was something.

Allie, Emily W, Katrina, Jenna, & Morgan ready for a day at Tafelsig Clinic

Today was only my 6th day and I can’t believe how much I’ve learned. I walked into the clinic with confidence, and smiled and said “Goeie more” to as many people as I could (Afrikaans for good morning). I ended up working with a Sister in the triage room, and by the end of the morning I was calling up patients, taking their blood pressure, asking what was wrong, and from there doing all sorts of things from HIV, to hemoglobin to urine tests. While I was under the supervision and lots of guidance from the sister, the patients were looking to me for help, and more importantly to really listen to what was bothering them (which wasn’t the easiest in their broken English). Many of the patients wait from 5 in the morning until 2 or 3 in the afternoon to even get seen, with many of them in lots of pain or discomfort. This leads to a lot of angry patients, yet the sisters work under the pressure with loving but stern attitudes, and are still willing to take the time to teach us students. While there are times where you end up just watching or sitting around, any chance to try something new is so incredibly exciting. Giving my first HIV test, my first EKG, finding a missing folder in the filing room (quite the accomplishment), or learning a new Afrikaans phrase from a patient all make me so excited about my day . Every day is so exciting and has so much potential, and I’m so inspired to be a PA or doctor someday and do the real thing. And all of us interning at the clinic have felt the same excitement, and you should see us when we all meet up for lunch, giddy to talk about the gross infection you just saw get drained, or the catheter you just got to drain. Every day I’m learning more and more about South Africa, the health care system, and myself as a person. And I’m certainly coming to love my life here in Cape Town very much.