I can’t believe that another week has already passed by in
Cape Town. I was expecting things to die down towards the end of the trip, but
I seem to only be getting busier between my commitments and seeing all that
this city has to offer before I pack up.
The said “commitments,” namely my internship and activist projects,
definitely consumed most of this past week, but I’m incredibly grateful that I
have so much to be a part of and learn from during these few months.
Much of what I did at my internship this week was comparable
to past weeks, with most of my days depending on the influx of patients at the
private hospital, which does not see as steady of a demand as do some of the
town clinics. On the less busy days, I try spend some of the down time chatting
with the new mothers in the maternity ward or reading the policy books scattered
throughout the hospital. Although seemingly boring, the information that I come
across is often very telling of the culture and the current state of this
country, such as the fact that the government claims they don’t have the money
to provide polio vaccines for all kids. Some of the more exciting moments of my
internship shifts this week included getting to see an amputated leg and a very
rare diagnosis in the neonatal ICU.
As amazing as it has been at Melomed, a lot of the learning
experiences that will stick with me for life have come from outside of the
hospital walls. For the past three days, I have been working on my activist
projects in hopes of making a notable impact before we have to wrap them up.
However, achieving the vision I had for each of them is posing a challenge that
I hadn’t anticipated. I am being forced to acknowledge that the methods and the
commodities are very different here, and that I need to find a way to work with
them or around them in some way because I cannot simply change how things are
done. I spent most of Friday at Prevention in Action, an NGO that we are trying
to help get up and running in Kuyasa, Khayelitsha. Although we have been
involved there for over a month, we still have yet to move the office (a
shipping container) to its designated land plot, or install any of the
necessary security measures. Our task to get the office running seemed so
miniscule when we started that I had no doubt we would be able to accomplish it
and then some. However, things I take for granted at home, such as documentation,
negotiation standards, electricity, transport, and funds security are just a
few of the things that are lacking at our site. Fortunately, we are finally
coming to terms with the course that the project needs to take and officially
oversaw the first step of it this weekend, with the installation of security
bars on the container.
The rest of my time this weekend was mainly spent with the
Khayelitsha Firefighters at their tournament in Kensington. Quite a few of us managed
to show up with half time snacks and lunch, which definitely didn’t mean as
much to them as our presence and support alone. The kids, and especially Bongi,
are always excited to have the Americans on the sidelines, and I couldn’t be
more proud to fill the gaps in that arena, considering none of their parents
had the means to make the 30-minute drive and cheer them on. After winning both
of their games on Saturday, they made it into the semi-finals, which I went to
watch early this morning with Paige. Unfortunately, transport poses a major problem
for the team and they arrived late, giving them no chance to warm up before
getting defeated by the opposing team. As sad as it was to see them so
disappointed, one of the youngest players pointed out on the previous day that
“losing isn’t bad, it’s a part of life.” And that’s why I love this soccer club
so much; it means so much more to the players when they are off of the field
than anyone could ever comprehend and it transforms how they approach life.
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| Eric, Abby, Mariko & Derek with Khayelitsha's FireFighters Soccer Club |
Along with all of the great things I got to take part in this week, I also
attended an Of Monsters and Men concert at Kirstenbosch on Thursday, which was
incredible to say the least. Hopefully the upcoming week is just as action
packed as this past one!
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