Hakuna Matata

The title of this post was one of the headlines on today's issue of the Cape Town newspaper, I kid you not. I hate to promote such a stereotypical view of South Africa but honestly, the past two papers I've read have had articles about a baboon wrecking havoc and causing chaos in residential areas of the city for eight hours, a rhino that was illegally killed by poachers whose horns had been cut off, and a young man who was standing in waist-deep waters in the ocean and was killed by a shark.

The temperatures this week have been the most brutal I've ever experienced; African sun is surely stronger than anything I've felt in the states. I also have unfortunately come down with a bit of a cold (which refuses to let me recover with my no-AC apartment), so the past few days have been a bit uneventful. My supervisor is lovely and gave me the rest of the week off from work to get better so that I can hit the ground running with some research projects starting on Monday. She's the head anesthesiologist at the hospital and probably one of the best in the country. She's a doctor but she's also a teacher, so her title is "Prof." I can tell she really cares about me getting the best out of my education and experience at the Red Cross. I attend educational meetings in the (early) mornings on Tuesdays and Thursdays; every Tuesday a different anesthesiologist gives a lecture on some medical topic and Thursdays are devoted to discussing critical cases, such as mistakes people have made or how best to approach a given situation in surgery. I know I'm going to be learning a bunch!

Monday I was juggling between observing an open-heart surgery on a two-year-old and a surgery on a young girl who was in a car accident and got her hand and part of her arm completely sliced off down to the bone. I got to watch them cut her lower leg down to her fibula and do a skin graft on her hand! Tuesday was a bit more mild as I spent the morning in the outpatient surgical unit, but I had a ton of fun with the doctors and nurses. One of the nurses named Esmerelda (she's technically a "sister," which is a head nurse) took a liking to me right away and was teaching me a bit of Afrikaans. Everyone in the room was getting a kick out of my accent! I got to hand some supplies, find some tubes, and draw up some simple medicine for them, so I felt like I was actually volunteering and lending a hand!

The girls and I have been making some great plans for the weekend, so I'm excited for what's ahead. We all get together after work for drinks or dinner and just try to stay cool!!

Hope all is well on your side of the world,
xo Em