A lot has happened since my last blog, and I have had very little internet access!
We left Pietermaritzberg, which was very sad for me. I really felt at home there. I will miss Phillip, Za, and Gloria so much. Everyone on staff at AE was so friendly and kind. Although the food was difficult for me, I will miss everything about AE.
I'll even miss seeing this every single day! He got ahold of my juice!
This was the back of a menu at a nice steak restaurant. Please read about avocado! Haha!!
Restroom at a gas station... ??? TIA???
The mannequins look freaky here...
Prior to leaving, I had a few adventures. We had one last Durban day :(, a teaching project for nursing, a very rainy/thunder storm night, and a run-in with a puff adder. The nursing project was such a joy! We went to Ethembeni, the hospice place in Mpophomeni. It is run by a church in Howick, and the home-based care workers do not have any medical training. They mostly care for the patients’ basic needs, and there is one nurse on staff who oversees everything. We taught the workers how to take pulse and respiration measurements, and they were SO excited! It was a great experience to watch their faces when they felt their own pulse for the first time. We taught them how to make a bed with a patient in it, which is a simple trick, but not something you think to do! They loved that skill- they were shrieking with excitement and shouting, “I am so happy you came!!!” We also went over proper body mechanics for moving patients, and the nursing students even learned a new skill! Our instructor taught us something called the “Australian lift” which is an incredibly easy way to move a patient up in bed. After our teaching session we sang songs together and danced in the front yard. The following week, we went back to evaluate the workers to see if they actually retained what we taught them. They remembered EVERYTHING! It was so exciting!
I will miss Mpophomeni!!
Cutest baby in the world
The women at Ethembeni
The puff adder was an interesting experience. I was tanning with my friend Megan at the water hole for a little over an hour. When we got up to leave, she started screaming! I could not figure out what she was screaming at until she shouted, “IT’S COMING OUT OF THE WATER!!!!!” I looked across the water hole and saw a huge snake slithering out!!!!! Yikes. The puff adder is an extremely dangerous snake.
We had a lovely “farewell dinner” for our last night in PMB. It was bittersweet…
This is Gloria. She made everything at African Enterprise run smoothly. She was our mom away from home for 3 months.
This is Za! She was one of my favorite staff members. I wrote about her earlier in my blogs
Yvette and I with our two nursing instructors, Glenda and Wendy. Glenda is with us in Cape Town, but Wendy stayed home :(
Phillip! This man drove us everywhere. He taught me Zulu on the way to clinical, and referred to me as "the loud one." He always knew when I was sick or tired (because I guess I wouldn't talk much?? haha) and would ask me if anything was wrong. He is wonderful.
Phillip's son Musa! He came with us on lots of excursions, and we saw him every weekend.
The next morning we left bright and early to drive the garden route over four days to Cape Town. Our first day of the drive was rather interesting… we got pulled over for something random, and the police officer told us our bus driver had the wrong license for the vehicle. Somehow REG had the correct one, even though he had never driven a huge charter bus before. After a long negotiation with the police, Reg was allowed to drive our bus… which was quite a rocky/bumpy drive for a few minutes. After he drove several miles, he and the bus driver switched places and Reg informed us that the police officer was crazy. TIA??
Musa spent the night in CJ and Micah's room the night before we left. Musa looooved CJ. He would always scream for CJ when people were teasing him or tickling him (because Musa always started it...).
Worst day everrrrr :(
Yay Reg can drive us!!! haha
xoxox
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