Winding down our time in Cape Town

Our time in Cape Town is drawing to a close. We are trying to hit up all the beaches and favorite restaurants one last time. Overall this experience has been amazing. The country of South Africa is absolutely beautiful. It's just sad the conditions that many of the people live in.

Monday: watched the sunset at Camps Bay.

Tuesday: after work we went to clifton beach. After that we went to the casino after dinner to indulge in some dessert.

Wednesday: a group of 6 of us went to an African dance at a small theatre on long street. Afterwards we went to Nandos (fast food grilled chicken... SO GOOD!! :)

Thursday: last day of clinic!! Night time activities included a quaint Italian restaurant on Long Street and Tiger Tiger club.

Friday: enjoying the beach and visiting the eastern bizarre for some Indian food tonight.

Saturday: heading home!!!!! :)

Stellenbosch Wine Tour

Cape Town is surrounded by some of the most beautiful wine country. Yesterday we drove about 30 minutes outside Cape Town to a smaller town named Stellenbosch. We started an all day wine tour at 10am. Our tour guide drove us around to four different wineries where we sampled different local wines. Semi-sweet white was my favorite but it was still fun to try all the different types.

Week 3

Monday- 2 guys joined our group this week brining our total up to 9 participants. We all went down to the waterfront that evening to hang out. Before dinner a few of us went to check out a nearby craft market. They had some really adorable things made by locals. After the market we went to dinner at ferrymans and then drinks at quay four. There was a one man band performing at quay four who was asking where everyone was from and I shouted Nebraska! So then I had to go tell the whole restaurant about Nebraska.. Represent! He then called me back up and made me gangham style in front of everyone. Good thing I have that dance memorized ;)

Tuesday- we just relaxed at home and enjoyed wifi at the local mall

Wednesday- enjoyed Camps bay and cafe caprice. They have some of the best nachos.

Thursday- had the day off from work so we got up early that morning and hiked table mountain. That was difficult!! Three hour hike up and all the trail looked like was a bunch of boulders. The view was fantastic though! That afternoon we went to Kirstenbosch gardens and relaxed on the lawn. Afterwards we enjoyed a free local concert at company's garden. That evening we hit up long street.

Friday- enjoyed a late start to the morning. A few of us girls went to the fresh food market and I absolutely loved it. That afternoon we did a three hour tour of Robben island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years.

Recap of the week.

So my mother asked for more information on what I am doing in clinic so here goes :) our hospital that we work at is Victoria hospital. It is a secondary state hospital which means that patients have no insurance and are referred to the hospital from their primary care physician. The children's ward has around 35 beds. The main part of the room has 20 beds dedicated to general medicine problems (ie asthma, croup, failure to thrive, etc). We see a lot of asthma patients in the hospital because they don't send kids home with nebulizers. The need for Nebs is an automatic admission every time they have an uncontrolled acute asthma attack. There is then a section off to the left with 5 beds dedicated to children over the age of 5. Peds over here only goes through age 12. Then there is a section to the right with 10 beds for gastro (diarrhea/vomitting/dehydration) patients. Some interesting cases I have seen include tetralogy of fallot, failure to thrive, cerebral palsy, sickle cell anemia, and possible munchausen. The great part of being in peds is that I'm getting to see my own patients every day. I'm still having trouble with the medications since they have very different treatment regiments than we do in the US but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Our daily clinic has a different focus each day. Monday- general medicine Tuesday- HIV Wednesday- allergy Thursday- asthma Friday- sickle cell/ general. The charts are all placed in one pile and everyone just pulls a chart and continues seeing patients until they are all done. Patients wait a while and aren't seen by the same people each time but are just thankful to be receiving care. During ward work time in the afternoon I help out by doing rapid HIV tests, mantouxs (same as PPD for TB testing), anthropometry (height/weight/head circumference) and taking general birth histories. We usually leave at three for the day and repeat it all again the next :)

As far as tourist stuff goes we have been very busy recently. Last week we visited camps bay and had dinner during sunset. The next day we went to Clifton beach and enjoyed soaking up some sunlight. Friday night we went out downtown on a street named Long street. We ate at a well known restaurant named Mama Africa. I had the BEST stuffed squash. I'm not even kidding when I say I ate half of a butternut squash. Just fabulous. After dinner we enjoyed some of the local nightlife. I continued the trend of eating great food at bobs bar.. Holly and I shared a basket of onion rings that were to die for. The next morning we went back downtown to the green market and pan Africa market. I was able to get all of my gift shopping in! We then enjoyed lunch at Zula bar. After lunch we headed to the business district of Cape Town. There we saw the building where Nelson Mandela first addressed the country of Africa after being released from prison. Then we went to company garden around the buildings of parliament. The gardens were so beautiful. We were able to sit on the lawn for awhile and watch some local acrobatic performers. That night we attended the Cape Town carnival which is a huge parade. The costumes and floats were stunning. Today we enjoyed a drive down the ocean highway to cape point and boulder beach to see the penguins. I forgot sunscreen and now look like a lobster. Oh well :)

A day at the beach

We were excused early from clinic today (1:30) so we were able to pick up our car from the rental company AND enjoy some time at the beach. Driving was a little scary today.. I am the backup driver so pray that I survive :) the beaches here are beautiful but give a very different perspective of Cape Town. The majority of people at Camps Bay were white tourist compared to the mainly black/coloured population of Cape Town. Prices on food were also about double. The sun was wonderful until 5 when the clouds started rolling over Table Mountain and the beach became very windy. We hope to hike up the mountain on Saturday.

Garden Route Tour

What a crazy adventure this weekend has been. All 7 of us girls plus our local & medical coordinators traveled up the eastern shoreline of South Africa along the Garden Route. It was a beautiful, scenic weekend filled with many firsts.

Friday march 8th:
0500- Depart Cape Town
0830- enjoyed breakfast at a quaint cafe. I ordered the French toast since everything else came with eggs :)
1230- arrived at cango caves (my second favorite event of the weekend). Here we completed the adventure route. This included squeezing through a one foot horizontal opening for about 5 meters, crawling up a 75%incline through a canal in the rocks, and then army crawling through a vertical opening of about 1 1-2 feet for another 5-6 meters.
1530- arrived at ostrich farm. I was the first one out of the tour group to ride an ostrich. Definitely an adventure but probably not something I would care to do again.
2000- arrived at blue orchid for dinner. Enjoyed some local wine from the Cape Town vineyards.

Saturday March 9th:
0930: Tsitsikamma canopy tour. Zip-lined through 10 different tree landings. The longest one was 90 meters long and 30 meters off the ground. The forest area was beautiful but we didn't see very many animals as the guide said most are nocturnal.
0100: WORLDS HIGHEST BUNGEE BRIDGE!! And yes, we all jumped! On the video I looked like I was about ready to give birth by the way I was breathing but I did jump without any assistance (ie a push in the back for those who chicken out last minute). After I jumped I had to dangle for awhile before they bring you back up. When the guy repelling down hooked on to me he asked how I was doing. I said "fine, I'm just crying" pathetic, I know :) I held onto his leg the entire lift up as if that would save me if my line broke. I don't have pictures of me jumping yet since they are on a DVD but I will try to get them up soon.
1630- arrived at knysna elephant park where we feed the elephants. We weren't able to pet them because the one was pregnant and could go into labor any minute so they had them in the fenced area. Normally they are free to roam the grounds.
1700- went to the waterfront and did some window shopping. I bought the best caramel gelatti by the dock. At 6 we boarded a ferry for a sunset cruise where we once again enjoyed some local wine. We also meet some Michigan state fans who were pumped to meet people from Nebraska.
2100- enjoyed some local pizza. My favorite was the Mexican style.

Sunday March 10th:
0900- left for a morning safari at Botlierakop game day safari. It was so fun to see lions, zebras, elephants, rhinos, antelope, and my favorite- the giraffes!
1200- enjoyed a fabulous lunch at the safari lodge.
1300- departed for the trip back to Cape Town.