Adventures

We have already had many adventures in our short time here in SA, and I'm sure we'll have many more. The first fun (non-work) things we did included visiting the "Origins" museum here on Wits Campus (tell about the origins of the human species here in Africa), and this weekend we went on a tour of Soweto (stands for south west township) which is where Bara Hospital is located and included the Apparthtide museum. We figured that we should know a bit about the majority of the people that we are treating in the hospital. The museums are very interesting, and the Apparthtide was touching. After a trip to the museum, we were taken to Soccer Stadium, Nelson Mandela's house, the memorial to where Hector Peterson was shot (12-13 yo boy shot in Apparthtide protest), and finally the different housing districts in Soweto. Upper class Soweto which in my opinion looks like middle class larger city (because they are very close together) USA :

Then there was the middle class housing which looked pretty low by US standards (look past the tin low income home and to the brick house:

These long concrete buildings are divided into government owned units converted from old mine housing (Jo'burg used to have gold mines) which are free but don't have water, sewer, or electricity:

Finally here are the poor shanty houses made of tin scraps: 

It was very interesting to see the different regions here in this poorer African suburb. It was also very, very sad. It hurt my heart to see how these people who are the majority of this suburb live everyday with water pumped from a well, port-a-pottys for toilets, and no electricity (which makes it impossible for us in the hospital to send them home with oxygen if they need it). I know that we have homeless in the US very similar to this, but to see the magnitude and volume of poor here felt like someone had punched me in the chest. I felt like the worst person in the world for leading the life that I do. I still get upset just thinking about it and knowing that there is not much I can do. The government here is working to help but it all takes so much time which is not what these people have. I thought that I knew how I felt about this from working at Bara, but I was apparently mistaken because it hit me like a ton of bricks no matter how clique that is. I pray for the best, or at least survivable conditions, for all of these people here and that everyone reading this blog never has to experience this in their lives. Anyway, the tour was very interesting and eye-opening. And I’m sure there will be more.

On a lighter note, other than humility being learned on this trip, I have learned that South Africans do a lot of cool things. Like using energy in kilojoules instead of Calories to measure food products which takes away the negative connotation, I mean you need energy to survive right? They also use lots of cool words that are fun to say, like: explaining to us the dodgy (iffy) parts of town. I learned that local is lekker (awesome), you can use the word ‘shame’ to respond to something good or bad which could be useful when you don’t really know what someone just said to you (as long as it wasn’t a question), and when someone asks if you want chips say yes because they mean fries my fav food. They also make their own chocolate, wine, beer, and liquor here which are all very good. As Emily puts it ‘peri-peri makes everything better’. Peri-peri is a type of pepper usually made into a spice that is good on literally everything (all meats, rice, vegis, and eggs).They also make aluminum cans and plastic bottles much thicker here than are in the States so I shake my Pepsi can and try to sip more several times before I decide that it is really all gone. I guess my proprioception overrides the other senses because all my life I know that when the can is that weight there is still some soda left. I have learned a thing or two about security of the threat of security because everything even private residences have high walls and barbed wire around them, all grounds like universities and hospitals have gates with security, and in Soweto they have police that stop random cars to search you, the car, and your bags and question you about your travels. I don’t know what they were looking for but they sure didn’t look very hard which is why I say ‘threat of security’. None of the guards really do the most through job but it must be enough to scare off at least some of the criminals because it is everywhere here. No one is really bothered by it; that is just their culture here: if you don’t protect/lock it, it’s up for grabs. And finally I learned that the online weather for Jo’burg is never correct. It has said 80-90% chance of rain most of the days we have been here and its only rained twice.