First
of all, I am sorry it’s taken me so long to finally blog from Bloemfontein! We
had limited internet access for bit, so I had to use that for my class blog (a
lot of this I just copied from my class one and I’m just adding fun things to
it though). Anyway, I arrived to Bloemfontein last Sunday afternoon after two
weeks of traveling around South Africa. We were welcomed by Louise Steyn, from
the International Office at UFS. She showed us to our hostel (dorm), which she
had stocked with food and other essentials. We quickly unpacked and headed to
dinner with the other ASU students, UFS students, and some professors from both
universities. I sat with the four UFS medical students that were there. They
were all third years and preparing to take their final exam. Here in South
Africa, students begin clinical rotations after this exam, so they were all
very excited and ready to start seeing patients and doing rounds at the
hospital! The girls seemed very nice, and I am looking forward to spending more
time with them when we start shadowing them next week.
The
early part of the week, we spent getting adjusted to living in Bloem. Monday,
we were given a campus tour and went to the Mimosa Mall to get cell
phones, buy some food for the week, and do a little fun shopping. Tuesday we
went to the Waterfront, which is another large shopping center. We tried rum
and raisin gelato, which we've been told is a very popular flavor here.
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| Women's Memorial |
Wednesday,
we went on a city tour! We began at the Anglo Boer War Museum. Unfortunately,
the exhibits were closed for rennovations, but we were able to see various
memorials outside and watch a documentary on the war. There was a specific
memorial dedicated to women and children who died in concentration camps during
the war. We even learned about Emily Hobhouse, the woman for whom our dorm is
named. She was an Englishwoman who came to South Africa to expose what was
happening in these concentration camps and is buried a the memorial. Our tour
guide then told us about the relationship between the Anglo Boer War and
apartheid. He argued that the homelands and townships were similar to
concentration camps. Therefore, it is important to learn about history so we
don't repeat the same mistakes. It was an interesting parallel that I would not
have considered on my own.
After
that, we drove through a township nearby. In some places, there were homes
built for the people living there by the government. However, there were still
shacks next door. The families living in the homes rent these shacks out to
immigrants or refugees from other countries in Africa, since there are 8-9
million immigrants in South Africa. From the township, we drove into a
historically colored part of Bloemfontein. This is an artificial race
classification for those not distinctly black or white. During the years of
apartheid, various tests were used to determine the race of these people. One
specific example is the pencil test, in which a pencil was placed in the hair
of the person. If the pencil fell out, the person was considered white. If it
did not, the person was considered black. This often separated children from
parents who looked different.
We
also visited an art museum that had many unique sculptures, an exhibit on
African music, and paintings ranging from very traditional to abstract. Later,
we drove to Naval Hill. We saw zebras, ostriches, giraffes, antelope, and a
wildebeest. Finally, we visited Lebone Village, an orphanage for children who
are infected with HIV or affected by it in some way. The village also has its
own woodworking shop, bakery, and textiles shop. These both raise money for the
children and provide a skill for the children to use later in life. We will be
volunteering there toward the end of our internship, and we are all very
excited to go back!
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| The med girls at MUCPP |
We started our community engagement program Thursday and
were able to see various nonprofit organizations and clinics around
Bloemfontein. It was a crazy start to the day as we did not have anything on
our schedule and woke up to a phone call at 8:30 saying we were to leave at
9:00. It was definitely worth it though since we got to see several different
places! Our first stop was MUCPP, which stands for Manguang University
Community Partnership Project. This clinic is in the township and was set up by
the Health Department, the University of Free State, and the Manguang
community. When we walked inside, there were patients everywhere. The waiting
room was full, and there were lines of people outside each department. While
they send patients with very serious ailments to another institution, the
clinic can provide most services. They even deliver babies there and have a
physiotherapy center. All of the services are free, just like all public
healthcare facilities in South Africa. Another interesting program offered is
called LoveLife. Youth from the township come into the clinic when they have
free time to be trained in HIV/AIDS prevention education. Then they go into
their community to educate others. Not only does this program increase
awareness about HIV/AIDS, it also gives these youth something to do with their
free time rather than getting into trouble or involved in crime. It looked so
much like the public clinics in Costa Rica it was crazy!
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| Playing with a Lebone girl! She was the cutest! |
We returned to Lebone village to get a better understanding
of what they do. They house 42 orphans who are affected or infected by
HIV/AIDS. They transport the kids to school each day and provides nutritious
meals for them. After school, they offer afternoon classes and homework help. The
village even has a computer lab to ensure the children develop necessary skills
to secure a job. Lebone village also has a large farm of vegetables, a chicken
farm, and a greenhouse of flowers. They use this food to feed the children, feed
other poor families in the area, and then sell for a small income. We stayed
for a long time to just play with the small children who were not yet old
enough to go to school. They were so cute and brought us so much joy!
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| Our group with all of the children |
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| Outside REACH |
Next we went to Heidedal, a colored area of Bloemfontein. We
toured the facilities of a program called REACH. They offer life skills
training, such as computer skills and hygiene classes. In addition, they
provide HIV counseling and an afterschool program and nutritious meals to
children ages 7-18. On the way home, we
passed Pelonomi hospital in Heidedal. It was interesting to see that the public
hospital was right beside the private one. It was clear that the private one
was much nicer and newer than the public one.
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| Free State Care in Action: People receiving food |
Friday, we visited Free State Care in Action. This
organization provides a daycare three days a week. In addition, they have a
soup kitchen on Wednesdays and Fridays. Pick n Pay, a supermarket here, donates
produce to the organization. Therefore, they are able to provide fresh foods to
the poor families. The kitchen staff there packs parcels of basic foods for 80
people and their families each week. They also take clothing donations from the
community and distribute them to the families that come in daily. Finally,
there are social workers on staff to help families apply for grants to help
with the financial burdens they face.
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| Sleepy Lion! |
That afternoon, we went to a place called the Cheetah
Experience. It was basically a huge farm full of cats, so I obviously loved it!
The really big cats, like leopards and grown lions were in cages, but the
cheetahs, lion cubs, caracals, and servals were just running around, and we
could pet them whenever they came close to us. I could not get enough! They
were adorable. They also had meerkats. The girls giving the tour are
volunteering there for a few months. It’s so tempting to stay there and play
with cats all day instead of going back to school! Later that night, we went
out for dinner with some of the medical students and had a lot of fun just
spending time together.
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| WE GOT TO PET A CHEETAH!! |
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| Can I have a pet meerkat please? |
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| My favorite animal, up close! |
Saturday, we woke up early for a game drive. It was so cold!
It actually started hailing halfway through the safari! I really should have
packed warmer clothes for Bloem. I didn’t realize it would be so cold. We saw
lots of animals, and our guide knew a lot about them, so it was fun and
interesting despite the cold! We came back to warm up and then two medical
students took us to Pelonomi Hospital to take a look around, drove us down the
main legislative street in Bloem, and we had dinner and watched rugby. It’s so
cool to hear about all the medical rotations they are doing. We’re the same
age, but they seem so much further ahead of us since they don’t have to do
undergrad before medical school. However, after talking to them we can see
positives and negatives to both systems.
So, my time in Africa is halfway over! It’s crazy! While I liked traveling around, being in one
place has been awesome. We’re finally able to make some friends from South
Africa, so I’ve learned way more about the country in this last week. I’m
really excited to begin shadowing the medical students on Monday. We’ll be with
them in the clinics and the hospitals and then attending their
lectures—hopefully I won’t be too lost!
Finally, here’s some funny/interesting tidbits:
1. We’re so lucky we haven’t been kidnapped (now,
don’t start worrying, I’m only kidding). But a different person picks us up for
things everyday. We never know who it’s going to be, so we stand outside of our
hostel waiting for someone to arrive. Typically, someone approaches us and
asks, “Are you the Americans?” We tell them we are, and we climb into a car
with them. So strange, but it’s worked so far.
2. Just like in Costa Rican “tico time,” South
Africa has “African time.” So, add anywhere from 10-30 minutes from when
someone says they’ll meet you.
3. When it was maybe around 60 degrees outside and
we would walk around in shorts or go running outside, people immediately
identified us as foreigners.
4. My Clarks, wallabies, hushpuppies—whatever you
call those shoes—are called grasshoppers here. We’ve been told that mainly
colored people wear them here. Fine by me. But apparently they’re cheaper here,
so I may be coming home with a second pair!
5. Margo and I smoked hookah, called hubbly here.
Much better name in my opinion.
6. I’m sticking to Spanish. Afrikaans makes no
sense to me.
7. A lot of people here like instant coffee. I don’t
understand it, but I was so happy to get my first cup of real coffee in several
weeks today at dinner!
8. Each hostel here has an a capella singing group
that competes in July. I’m so sad we won’t be here for it. We hear them
practicing all the time, and it’s gorgeous! We need to have that back home, for
sure.
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| Overlooking Bloem |
9. People here think Bloem is so small. For some
reason I recall someone saying it has a population around 800,000 (that may not
be accurate though), it has two huge malls, an airport, and bars that aren’t in
trailers. They should see Boone.
10. We went to a “Mexican” restaurant one night. It
served seafood, ribs, and wings. I’m already feeling an immediate trip to an authentic
Mexican establishment ASAP upon arriving back home.
