Carl on visiting internship sites

Carl looking forward

Yesterday we completed our orientation by visiting the last of the internships. And as much fun as touring around Cape Point and the vineyards was, I would say I appreciated visiting the internships the most. On monday we visited the pediatric burn ICU at the Red Cross Hospital and learned about those affected by burns in the townships. Surprisingly enough, the majority of the victims are from small fires that consumes only one or two huts and the larger fires cause people to flee from their homes so there are less casualties. Later in the day we visited my internship, Maitland Cottage Hospital. It was a lot different then I expected it to be because when I looked it up on google maps it looked like it was a small house, but It was actually a decently sized hospital with three large wards and then a surgery room and physiotherapy area. After seeing it I am now pretty excited to start working there next monday. Our supervisor, Ms. Schriber, said we would be working in all areas of the hospital, including helping out with surgery and the physiotherapy area. There are parts that I am nervous about though. In the past I have worked with kids, but with those kids I could move around a lot and were happy to be there. A good portion of these kids were not very mobile at all. So when it comes to playing with these kids I am going to hit a bit of a learning curve. 

Yesterday we visited Social Justice Coalition, which I thought was where I learned the most about current problems in the area. We were told about the problems with their latrines and how there is no plumbing in the areas where the shacks that people live in were. I just thought it was terrible how these people were already in such an impoverished area and the South African Government was doing very little to help them. Some did have community toilets, but some people would have to walk about 100 meters to get there. And if you had to use them at night there was a good chance that you could be assaulted on your way, or your house could be broken into while your gone. Its astonishing how such a basic human right could be completely ignored by the world. While people had to relieve themselves in a field or an filthy, unmaintained, public, portable toilet the government was spending tens of millions of Rand to refurbish or build homes for government officials such as Jacob Zuma.