More Exciting Sights and into the Third Week

Pictured Above: Mr. Basil's 6th grade class at the primary school in Genadendal after our discussion on substance abuse.  Can you pick me out?

From Tuesday 5.21.13

Back in the city!  We wasted no time after our return to Cape Town last Friday.  The weekend was packed with activity. After going out that night, we got up to drive down to the Cape Point, also named by the early Portuguese explorers such as Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco de Gama as the "Cape of Good Hope."  Cape Point is the tip of the Cape Peninsula and often mistakenly believed to be the southern tip of the African continent.  The actual southernmost point is much farther East, but the view isn't as good!

The Cape of Good Hope was named as such because it is the geographic point where the cold Atlantic Ocean current and warm Indian Ocean current intersect.  This collision creates conditions of extreme wind and rough water, which have driven countless ships to a watery grave as they try to round the Cape.
The drive along the Indian Ocean side was more than pleasant as we followed the road along the sea.  It is lined with beach towns, each with all sorts of shops and places to buy and eat fresh seafood.  Besides taking in the view from the tip of the peninsula, we stopped at a penguin beach (that's right, penguins!) on our way back.  We were able to get very close to a few nesting birds.

The next day we made it over to the Clifton beaches.  It seems as if the Devil's Peak/Table Mountain/Lion's Head chain are a fence.  To the East lie the townships of the Cape Flats region where we are staying, dominated by poverty of the townships and settlements, yet rich with culture of the black and coloured peoples.  But to the West is the very serene hillside coming down from Lion's Head and Table Mountain down to the beaches, where the views are unmatched and the real estate as expensive as ever.  It is also very much populated by whites.  Driving from one side to the other it's like living in two completely different cities altogether.

But anyways, I did come here for service learning, and that should probably be addressed at some point too. Today and yesterday we started our rotations in the Delft Community Health Center.  This is a facility that was built for the Delft community several years ago of around 90,000.  Today it services over half a million.  Nothing I have ever encountered matched the amount of crowding and stress on this small and understaffed medical center.  Patients schedule their appointments ahead yet must still arrive as early as six in the morning to wait in the ques to receive their file and go through the prep room before moving on to the doctor.
Monday I assisted the two nurses in the prep room, taking the blood pressure (They luckily had two automatic devices) and weight of every patient in line, while also having to learn their filing system on the fly to make sure their files got where they needed.  It was stressful work as we serviced a never-ending line for several hours.  I must have gone through a hundred people.

Tuesday I started in the same role, but not long into my work one of the general care doctors pulled me aside.  I told him me and my fellow students were volunteers from America. "Why would they put you here in this sh*thole?" he asked me.  "Come, let them do their jobs here, I will bring you to where the action is."  He brought me over to the ER/Trama center where I shadowed the senior physician, henceforth known as Dr. L, because I cannot spell or pronounce his name. He came to South Africa to practice after studying in the Congo, and spoke French as his first language, though he was able to explain things and answer my questions in English fine.  With Dr. L I observed as he saw all sorts of cases that occur in a primary care ER: broken joints, asthma exacerbations, genital infections, and a man with his left lung almost completely filled in with fluid and scar tissue after having three bouts of tuberculosis.  I feel I satisfied both ends of my expectations in my work at the Delft clinic.  Working strenuously in the prep room gave me great appreciation for the amount of care they are trying to provide with so few resources, whereas working in the ER with Dr. L provided insight as to what ailments are dealt with on a daily basis, and how primary care facilities must often refer their patients to a secondary or tertiary hospital facility to provide the patients the care they really need.

Tomorrow and for the rest of the week we will be moving onto new facilities in the Cape Flats area to see what sort of health care they provide.  It's a little hard to believe that we only have a week and a half left here in Cape Town, but sometimes I find myself starting to think about moving onto Durban.  I'm still very glad I have that opportunity.

We heard about the tornado in Oklahoma today, and our thoughts go out to all affected by it.

Hope everyone's having a good week otherwise, I'll be sure to write again soon.

Totsiens,
David