Paige has created the most beautiful, inspiring relationships

On Tuesday it was my last day at the clinic and I had to say the hardest goodbye to all of my coworkers at Tafelsig. I can’t put in to words how impactful my time at the clinic has been. Not only did I learn more than I could have ever imagined, but I also created some of the most beautiful, inspiring relationships as well. Sister Castle is a very special woman, and I can honestly say I have never met anyone else quite like her. There is not a mean bone in her body—she is constantly giving, loving, and making you feel welcome. She has been the most incredible mentor to me, in both the medical field and also just in important life skills. She was the person who stood out to me the most and really shaped my Cape Town experience. I will definitely miss our hummus sharing during lunch, her blunt remarks to the patients, and her pure heart.

We officially finished our mural at Heavens Nest and it looks awesome!! Everyone at the center was extremely impressed and grateful. We had to say goodbye to the kids for the last time. I don’t think they really understood that we weren’t coming back next week, so the goodbye was a lot easier for them than it was for me. It feels like our time there was too short—just as the really shy kids starting warming up to us we had to leave. I keep getting reminded of this issue of time (and not just because everyone shows up late to everything). These past few weeks at the clinic I realized I started to recognize familiar faces, and a few of them even remembered me, which was really comforting but also upsetting since now its time to leave. Our departure is coming up a little too quickly, I wish I had more time here.

 Eric, Paige, Derek, and Abby with co-workers at Tafelsig Clinic

Abby, Sister Castle, Derek, Paige & Eric

Paige on things she'll miss

I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain, something I personally love to hear. However, I thought about the people living in Khayelitsha, Langa, Nyanga and other townships—how do they handle the rain? They aren’t living in a two story house with insulation and a stable, flood proof structure. Their homes definitely aren’t built to handle a storm and surely have crevices that aren’t covered by a roof. Rain is yet another daily challenge that people of color must face but that whites don’t even have to think about. Something really needs to be done to improve these living conditions and reduce the inequality gap in the near future.

This past week has been really nice. I went on an outing with two of my coworkers from Reception (Tracey and Valda) along with Derek and Eric. They took us to Grand West Casino for some ice skating! It felt pretty funny to be ice skating in Cape Town. I still can’t put my finger on it as to why, but its probably because skating is an activity I do back home in the winter, so something about the nice weather and lack of winter hat felt a little off to me. I had a good time watching Valda and Tracey ice skate for the first time, and anyone on the outside could tell they were beginners. At one point Tracey fell and since we were linked at the arm, she took me down with her. Many laughs later, and after she tried to put the blame on me, someone helped her up and we continued ice skating. There was a lot of improvement by the end of the session.

Then on Sunday Derek and I participated in the annual Spar Women’s Race with Sister Castle. Mariko, Maria, and Isabel also came but they ran the 5k while Derek and I strutted with Sister Castle. Although Sister Castle was upset we didn’t receive a medal upon our finish, we did get a pretty cool bracelet, a T-shirt and an awesome goodie bag which provided me with groceries for the week. Sunday we had a braai to thank our program leaders for everything. Everybody brought a dish to contribute. Drew and I made guacamole out of 16 avocados—it was definitely the biggest mound of guac I’ve ever seen. It was really nice to see everyone cooking together and I think we put on a really nice braai.

I’ve started to make a list of all the things I am going to miss about Cape Town. Just to name a few:

• the backyard view of Table Mountain and the ability to hike whenever you want
• the hidden satisfaction you feel when you receive a milkshake at 10am instead of an iced coffee
• roobois tea and tea time!!
• the food
• minibus taxis, especially the party buses
• daily routine and walking routes (through the commons, to UCT, to the grocery store)
• Sister Castle and learning at the clinic
• dancing and music everywhere you go
• Old Biscuit Mill
• living with the most wonderful, intelligent coeducators who are willing to have meaningful conversations any time of the day or night
• the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen
• accents, friendliness, and diversity (it will be hard to be back home without these)
• being treated like a long lost cousin when you meet someone new
• pace of life—most people on our trip wish it was busier but I personally love the relaxed mentality, im definitely less stressed here than I am back home 

The countdowns have begun as my family and friends back home remind me how many days until I’m home, and Sister Castle counts the number of days left at the clinic (Which is sadly just two). People keep asking me if I’m ready to leave and the answer is not yet. I am excited to see everyone back home, and the thought of a laundry dryer does sound nice, but I definitely do not want to leave Cape Town. It’s going to be really hard for me to have to say goodbye but I already have plans to come back. Marita always says “Come to Cape Town once and you fall in love, come twice and….”

Paige experiences the highs and lows of Cape Town

This post is a few days past its due date (oops!) which means I have a lot to write about. 

First I just want to talk about drawing blood all by myself for the first time without any guidance! The nurse wasn’t even next to me, she was across the treatment room, yet she still trusted me to find the vein and do the procedure all on my own which was really cool. That was the first time that I truly felt independent, capable, and confident on my own in the professional setting and I was successful on the first time which made the feeling even better. I’m starting to feel very comfortable at the clinic. I’m even starting to recognize familiar faces in the waiting room which is pretty cool. I’ve been thinking about how much I will miss all of the staff and this amazing experience in just a few weeks.

We have all of the base colors completed for our mural at Heaven’s Nest. It already looks so much brighter and I can’t wait to see the final product. I love all the kids at Heaven’s Nest but there are two that I have especially bonded with—Tylin and Sukhile. Tylin was quiet at first, but now that we’ve spent a lot of time there she has really warmed up to me. She smiled really wide and ran up and hugged me at our last visit.

My fun packed weekend began with shopping for soccer balls, uniforms, and equipment for my favorite Khayelitsha Fire Fighters with Bongi, Power, and the other coeducators involved with the project. After that, I went to my usual Saturday hangout spot, Old Biscuit Mill, where I got my favorite short rib Bolognese and jalepeno Mac n Cheese Balls. After that I headed to Atlantis with a few others for our Sand Boarding adventure. Although it was definitely much different than snowboarding (since you are not in ten layers of snow clothes, you are barefoot, and you have basically no control over the board) it was still so much fun and an awesome experience. My favorite part was actually the time spent just chilling on top of the slope. After the exhausting walk up it was nice to relax and take everything in at the top. The sky was perfectly blue, without a cloud, and contrasted so beautifully against the white sand. Another favorite memory from the trip was when Drew and I took the sled down the hill and we hit some air and fell off in a not so pleasant way. My butt was very bruised and I got sand between my teeth but we both laughed it off and wished we had it on camera—it was definitely a sight to see.

Sunday, April 10^th is up there with my favorite days spent in Cape Town. A group of us went skydiving about an hour or so outside of Cape Town and it was absolutely insane. I think I’ve watched the video of my jump about 50 times already, reliving the thrill of jumping out of a moving plane 9,000 ft in the air each time. It seems crazier and crazier with each view. As incredible as it was, I still screamed the whole 35 second free fall and my face was absolutely hilarious. My video was a favorite amongst my housemates in Loch Road. The feeling was indescribable. In addition to competing with bungee jumping for being the coolest thing I’ve ever done, there were also some of the best views of the coastline and table mountain in the distance. I would do it again tomorrow in a heartbeat, I loved it so much.

In my last post I talked about the 4 year old boy at the clinic who didn’t make it despite our best efforts to save him. This week I found out that the day after that boy died, his 2 month old sibling also passed. The parents (who are drug users) are now under investigation and we are waiting on the autopsy results. In combination with spending so much time with the kids at the orphanage (who come from neglectful, abusive, or unsafe living conditions) and since working in the pediatrics department of the clinic this past week (where I saw one HIV positive baby and a few other’s who are still at risk) I have just been asking myself a lot of questions. I know this kind of stuff happens all over the world and not just in South Africa, but this is the first time I’ve been exposed to a lot of it, and I just keep thinking, how does this happen? How do you bring an innocent child into a world like that—into a life of disease, abuse, or neglect? It’s hard for me to refrain from automatically assuming that the parents are selfish and irresponsible, and deep down I know that the situation may be out of their control/the result of circumstance, and that it probably isn’t entirely their fault. Still it’s hard for me to come to terms with the fact that the baby enters the world and starts its life at a disadvantage. How is that fair? How is that not an infringement of the baby’s human rights?

Today we got to give the soccer equipment to the team. They were absolutely ecstatic and I loved every second of it, especially the many hugs I received afterwards. They even had typed out signs that said “Thanks Paige!”, “Thanks Mariko/Derek/Abby!”, “Thanks UCONN!” and “Enkosi!” It was so cute and I could tell everyone really appreciated it and were excited to play with the new stuff. Then we got to scrimmage with the boys and that was definitely a workout but still a lot of fun. I was reminded of how much I love the sport and miss playing it.

As the days start dwindling down my plan is just to enjoy as much of what I already love about Cape Town in order to strengthen my memories before I have to leave. This means I will definitely revisit all of my favorite places and do some more hiking in the upcoming weeks….Stay tuned J

Paige experiences many parts of life in Cape Town

My friends and family back home keep asking me what my favorite part about Cape Town is. How do I sum up everything I love about Cape Town in one response? To me, what stands out more than the amazing food, beautiful scenery, and great music, is the passion behind the people involved in changing their communities. The people I’ve met working for some of the NGOs and projects that either I or my co-educators have been a part of have been so brilliant and wonderful that they now occupy a special place in my heart, I call it my fifth chamber—the Cape Town chamber. After spending this past weekend with the Khayelitsha Fire Fighters soccer team at their Kensington Tournament, I’ve grown especially fond of their coach, Abongile Qasana. Bongi calls himself a transformational coach—he doesn’t just teach soccer, he instills important life values and offers a unique support system to his players that transforms their entire growth. You can tell the kids really admire him and that the program means so much more to them than anyone on the outside could ever understand. What Bongi is doing for his community is absolutely incredible. His efforts combined with Power’s help have definitely convinced me that sport does in fact have the power to change the world.

Even though the Fire Fighters don’t all have their own cleats, a goal to practice on, or grass to play on, they still played their little hearts out and competed with the ‘big teams’ of the area—the ones that are well funded and more structured. It was so fun to cheer for them and they were incredibly happy to have us on their sidelines, especially Bongi. They won their first two games on Saturday but lost their third on Sunday. One of the younger kids on Saturday said, “losing isn’t bad, it’s a part of life” which was really cute but also really cool to see someone understand this important lesson from such a young age. I was so happy to be there to support them, especially since none of them had family members who came to watch. This was something new to me since I don’t think my dad missed more than 5 games my entire high school career. It really put into perspective how privileged I am that my family could access and afford transportation, and have the time to come cheer me on.

Eric, Abby, Mariko, Paige and Dereck with the Khayelitsha Fire Fighters Soccer Club

I spent the morning at Tafelsig in the maternity unit, screening pregnant mothers and listening to their baby’s heartbeats. Everything was going well and it was actually pretty uplifting until another code blue was called—this time it was called for a four year old boy who was being resuscitated. I came to the scene at the end, and was the last one to give chest compressions. It was a very weird feeling to be the one to stop the compressions when the time of death was called and I felt very numb afterwards. I wasn’t truly affected by it until after the debriefing when I had time for it to sink in and for my mind to resonate with what just happened. That’s all I want to say about the topic because it was, and still is, emotionally taxing and difficult for me to think about. I came home and wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone or do anything. I know losses come with the territory of entering the medical field, but they are not easy. I hope tomorrow is better.

Paige's full and busy week

I spent Easter morning with all the little cuties at Heaven’s Nest (the orphanage where I do my activist project). While I enjoyed watching them search for all the Easter eggs we hid, and coloring eggs with them like how we do back home, I definitely missed my family a little extra that day. Easter is really big in our house and it was weird not to be home for it and all the Easter festivities we do together.

I missed being at Tafelsig the week we were away on excursion, and also the day it was closed for the public holiday. Being back this week felt good. The clinic is always busy, but it was especially busy this past week. Because the clinic was closed on Monday, there were more patients than usual on the following Tuesday. Unfortunately all the patients couldn’t be seen that day because there were just too many, so the patients rolled into Wednesday. On Wednesday it was still busy and the clinic was super short staffed (with only one doctor for consultations). Again, the nurses and doctor couldn’t see to everyone. It got a little hectic towards the end of the day we had to go out into the waiting room and call everyone’s folders and ask them if they were going to stay or leave. If they left, they were told to come back tomorrow. Patients came in and out looking for their folders and the folders were being passed to different nurses and put into different piles. Eventually we got it all sorted out it was just overwhelming for a little while. It just shows the daily challenges the clinic faces with being understaffed so often and also being primarily for walk ins. The nurses handled it as well as they could have, as they always do.

Paige and Sister Castle

I spent this past week in the clinic with Sister Castle, observing her consultations and practicing a few small procedures. I'm really thankful that she takes the time to teach us and make sure we are gaining something from our experience. I think I speak for all the interns at Tafelsig when I say that she's been the absolute best mentor to us all. As our time is coming closer to an end I am starting to think about how much I will miss her kind heart and happy energy when we go back home, since I find I am always smiling around her. 

I’ve also learned a little bit of Afrikaans since being at the clinic. I can finally hold a very short, structured conversation with the patients without looking at my piece of paper of written notes from Sister Castle. The only thing is that I never know how to answer them if they steer away from the anticipated response. Still, I’m learning.

Last night was incredible. A few of us went back to one of my favorite places in Cape Town, Kirstenbosch Gardens, to watch the Of Monsters and Men concert. I used to listen to this band a lot so when I saw they were coming to Cape Town I had to get a ticket! I knew they were going to be good because I have seen some of their live videos before but I didn’t think they would be as incredible as they were. I was so impressed by all the instruments that were played on stage (again I knew they always had them it was just so awesome to be their live and watching it). They played some of my favorite songs from their old album so I was super happy. I was front row, on the fence, smiling the whole time. It was one of my favorite nights I’ve had and I’m so glad I got to share it with such wonderful people J