Just a quick one...

Today I spent the morning at a clinic in Plettenberg Bay with the new Emilie, but we had nothing to do for the first hour because the nurse was nowhere to be seen... So we sat in the office and had nerdy conversations about biology :) After a while of feeling useless I asked if we could observe what the nurse was doing and we got to meet a lovely 80yr old man called Pete who never left the house without his jazzy lil' hat. We drove him home and walked around visiting people who needed blood sugar testing, blood pressure testing, and medicine deliveries. One guy has some really scary dogs so the nurse refuses to go in past the gate and passes the medicine over the garden wall instead! Ooh and I got to do more finger-pricking again too! Woop!

The houses in this township were so varied - some people had fully kitted out homes with nice kitchens, sitting rooms with Tvs, and multiple bedrooms. Whereas 5 houses away people were living in tiny, 1 room, tin walled homes, with no furniture besides a few matresses and a table. It was so strange to see such huge differences within the space of a few metres but liek everywhere in africa, everyone was smiling and happy! Even most of the sick people were less grumpy that the average Englishman.

At Lunch we were picked up and finished the day at the hospital. We were supposed to be in the male ward but they were really really quiet. I helped admitt a patient and got chatting to a lovely old man about travelling (he had been on a cargo ship for years apparently and knew all the best spots) we went to help out on the female ward instead. After that we didnt really stop all afternoon they were so busy! Did alot of hte usual running about with beds and meds and bloods and helping with admissions and got talking to a nurse in theatre and hopefully i will get to see an operation tomorrow!

Finally finished the Children's Health Check-up stuff!! I'm trying it out for the first time tomorrow at the swap shop - over 100 kids in 2 hours!! The other Jess is goign to help too though so hopefully it wont be too chaotic...

ANDD its Emily's 21st birthday tomorrow! Dayne was trying to organise a night with the Rastas which would be awesome, but even if not i think the plan is to go out and party 'til the early hours :) I Love Birthdays!

written by

JL1 on January 25, 2011 from Knysna, South Africa

from the travel blog: African Travels

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