While
I am here in Cape Town I am interning at Eros School for Cerebral Palsy in the
Occupational Therapy department. So far
I am loving my time there, even if has only been four days. My first day I was a little nervous but
quickly felt like I belonged there. Since the OT’s were busy preparing for the
year I was put into a grade one class. The kids were so much fun and easy to
get to know. They are all very excited
to meet new interns and love our attention.
I was able to play teacher helping with math and writing skills. As the day progressed the teacher told me why
some children were wheel chaired or had trouble walking. I was shocked and almost heartbroken to hear
that one little boy had trouble walking because he was shot by a stray bullet
from a gun fight nearby. I have only ever heard of some awful things happening
to children but meeting a child who had such a tragedy happen at such a young
age brings a new light to it. As sad as
it is, it inspires me more to want to help children in need. The few times I
have been with the OT’s it has mainly been observing them do assessments to
place the children with his/her therapy.
Even though they can be tedious I have already been learning new things
to look for to indicate a problem with the child’s posture or movements. I cannot wait to learn more about OT and
experience it with such openhearted children.
The
subject of race has come up a lot since I have been here. It has still mainly been in class but the
longer I am here the more I see it or hear about it. While at my internship I was talking with one
of the OT’s about school systems and getting into a university. She explained to me that she went to a school
for "colored" people and though it was not the desired white school it was still
a good school and the teachers she had made it better. She explained that even though the school
didn’t have as much money as a white school the teachers and students still did
their best with the resources they had and at the end she was still able to
make it into a university. Her
experience with the school system during apartheid was positive. She was appreciative of what she had and what
she could make of it. I’m curious to
hear more stories about experiences through apartheid.
As
much as I am loving Cape Town, this trip still will not make me into a city
girl. Yeah I’m okay with taking the
minibus taxi or other public transportation as long as I’m not alone
though. I have never felt in danger on
them but I wouldn’t go as far to say I felt comfortable either. And the city itself can be fun but still
not a place where I would choose to hang out.
First of all some of the smells that seem to come from nowhere, I don’t
handle them well. Also all the people
and the need to be extra cautious of my belongings, I can’t find it in me to
enjoy my time there. This has nothing to
do with Cape Town though, just the fact that I was raised in the middle of
nowhere Connecticut and grew to like it.
Big cities just aren’t my happy place.
On the plus side, I am learning to be more street smart. And luckily for
me the city is still only a small part of Cape Town.
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| Cassie at Camps Bay at sunset |
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