Heading Off

This time last year, I was in Costa Rica starting what turned out to be a life-changing experience. I made wonderful friends, learned a lot of Spanish, fell in love with another culture, and became much more aware of the differences between healthcare here in the US and other places around the world--what we do well, as well as things we could definitely improve upon. Saturday, I'll be getting on a plane for 18 hours to go to South Africa! I'm very excited, and, while I know it'll be different from my Costa Rican experience in many ways, I'm hoping it will be just as influential and meaningful to me.

For the first two weeks, I'll be traveling with my friend Margo all around the country, from Johanesburg to Kruger National Park, Swaziland, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, and lots of places in between. We figured we should make the most of the trip, since we don't know when we'll be back to Africa, if ever. We have many fun activities planned, including a safari and cage diving to see great white sharks! It'll be nice to have the first few weeks to relax and get accustomed to the country before starting our actual internship.

Speaking of the internship, we are staying at University of the Free State in Bloemfontein and shadowing medical school students there. We'll also spend some time in community outreach clinics, which I'm really looking forward to. For those of you who may be interested more in what I'm doing medically, I'll have another blog that's required for school that's only about that. You can find it by clicking on my profile and then finding the blog entitles "Clinical Education in South Africa".

University of the Free State

Through this experience, I hope to gain a greater understanding, again, of the differences between the US healthcare system and other places, learn more about a culture that is completely foreign to me, make new friends (and get closer to some South African students that we met in the fall in Boone!), and gain valuable clinical experience with underserved populations. Of course, I can't predict everything I'll experience while half-way across the world, so I'm going to stay open to new things and try to absorb as much as possible in my short time there. And finally--I promise I'll try to be better about updating this blog than mine last summer!

For now, though, I need to get back to my packing! Six weeks with only 50 pounds of luggage? Challenge accepted.