Initiation

Six years after our trip to Uganda, we have finally made it back to the African continent. For the next 4 weeks, we will be calling South Africa our home. With our brief 3 day stay so far, we have discovered that some things never change. Nicole still has an extremely small bladder and I can still fall asleep pretty much anywhere. But unlike our experiences in Uganda, we are no longer navigating rolling blackouts, spotty plumbing, and camps filled with mud huts where everyone lives in absolute poverty -- now, we are dealing with a developing country for which the poor live in the same communities and in stark contrast from the wealthy. Probably because of this, South Africa has one of the highest crimes rates in the world and our first day here, we were imparted some helpful safety tips like “when you drive, leave some space between you and the car in front of you incase you need to make a quick getaway from an ambush” and “always leave your windows open a crack so that if someone tries to smash your window to steal something, there is less tension and less chance the window will break.”

So far, we have ventured into Durban along South Africa’s eastern coast (see pics) and haven’t run into any problems or uncomfortable situations. (Truth be told, as of right now, we have been more worried about our safety driving on the left side of the road than walking on the streets!) There, we relaxed on the beach, swam in the Indian Ocean, and had some delicious South African/Indian fusion while we re-cooperated from our jet-lag and prepared for what will be our first day of work tomorrow at Edendale Hospital in the province of Kwuzulu-Natal. We anticipate many challenges (as our mentor here says, “expect more deaths in your short time at Edendale than you have encountered in all of your residency thus far, and more than that, expect them to have been preventable deaths at that”), but we are excited to begin working. So stay tuned….

For those who haven’t seen it, check out the YouTube video and website to learn more about the organization we are working for (iTEACH) and about Edendale hospital.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/iTEACH-SA/98675643113

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAmM55TRW2I&feature=youtu.be

http://www.rainerfellows.org/?q=Fellows/Krista-Dong-and-Zinny-Thabethe

http://designmind.frogdesign.com/articles/health/iteach-taking-on-tb-and-hiv-in-south-africa.html

-f