I cannot believe today marks three
days left at Maitland Cottage. Last week, at club foot, my favorite doctor
joked about how the head doctor should write a note to the consulate explaining
how my visa needs to be extended so I can help. Apparently this summer, or
Capetonian winter, will be a lonely one at MCH without any interns. All I could
think about while scoring and casting a bilateral club foot all by myself was
my time is limited. Everyday I think about the possibility of staying. I cannot
fathom a day in which I dont begin my day by entering a ward filled with girls
screaming my name. It's one of the best feelings, truly. How can you even feel
sad when over twenty girls want nothing more than your attention? Each morning,
I make my way through the ward, giving each tiny human a hug. One of the girls
said I should be a doctor of hugs because I love giving hugs so much. It's sad
to think that my daily hugs may be all the love they get at Maitland. So many
start off crying for their mommy but soon realize she cannot come around. They
find comfort in other people such as myself and the other interns. They really
love the French & German physios but unfortunately this is their last week.
How did that even happen?
I finally got around to helping
Zara, the head physio, to finish her mural. A few years ago, a coupe European
students painted a lovely tree mural in the physio room. When I asked Zara if I
could paint one of the white physio walls, she began to describe how she envisioned
the current mural. With five tiny humans and seven physios watching, I set my
brush to the wall. Unfortunately I couldn't handle the pressure and created the
ugliest flower anyone could imagine. Luckily, the French physio suggested I
turn it into a butterfly. Unlucky for me, no one would let up on teasing me
about my mistake. Even the tiny humans played along. This morning, they asked
how my ugly flowers were. Little did they know that I spent a few hours after
they left fixing my mistake. Today, Zara showed me how to shade and add texture
to the flowers. So again, I stayed late to add to Zara's masterpiece. When the
tiny humans came for physio, they were in disbelief that I had actually created
something not so horribly ugly. Somehow I managed to start a mini paint war
when I painted the French physio's hand. He then painted three of the girls
faces. They took retaliation by throwing paint at him. Utter chaos broke out
for some time - whoops!
On Friday, Paige and Mariko came to
club foot clinic. It was pretty cool to show them a little piece of my favorite
place!
On Saturday, I indulged in a little shark cage diving. My fears
soon faded when my cage time was just observing sharks swim. I was sad to see a
few sharks with mangled fins as if someone or something tried to take them off. On
Sunday, I weaved and ran my way through a 5k with over 20,000
participants. 
This past week, four new physios
joined Maitland. Today, they asked questions about diseases, disorders and
ailments I've witnessed first hand all semester. I proudly explained to them.
Unfortunately during rounds, I wasn't supposed to talk to let the medical
students have a turn. Each week, I'm saddened by how the head doctor pays more
attention to his fresh med students than anyone else. It's frustrating because
there are new med students each week while all of the MCH interns stick around
for a while. On the bright side, I cannot even begin to describe how much I've
learned in my short time here!
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