With only 6 weeks left, I'm feeling the pressure of wanting to
experience everything before I leave. I cannot believe how quickly the
time is passing, but then again I've been saying that since the second
week.
Last Friday, for the first time, I participated in a protest to
stop violence against women. It was so fun! Despite the fact that it was
raining and cold it was a really rewarding thing to do. We all had
whistles and were going around the center of Cape Town by St George's
Mall blowing the whistling. Losing hearing for a short time was worth
it. Many people beeped their car horns or shouted in agreement.
To
follow the protest, a couple of us ending up going to a Sexual Health
and Wellness workshop in the nearby town of Kensington. It was aimed at
men and encouraging them to get involved in their approach to preventing
STIs and unplanned pregnancy. It was an interesting perspective because
even in the US, most of the sexual health and wellness is aimed at
women. Most of the birth control and preventative care is considered the
women's responsibility and I would really like to see if things change
if men's responsibility was addressed. For this workshop we had to skip a
day at our internship and I was surprised to learn how much I missed
it! Even a "boring" day at the clinic without any critical wounds is a
fun day to me. Which makes me very happy because it means I am very
passionate about the medical field and helping people.
Before this trip I
was curious about both public health and physician's assistant.
Although I do enjoy giving talks and educating about public health, I
like to have one on one conversations with people. For the past couple
of days I have been in a new section of the clinic- adult prep. There I
would take down people's medical history, their complaints, and take
their blood pressure. I would then keep the folders I triaged and bring
them to the doctors or nurses. For the first time, I had problems with
language and understanding. Many of the times the patients couldn't
understand me and would have to ask the other nurse in the room. Also
they were getting angry at me for them waiting a long time to be seen
since I was the last one with their folders. I had heard the nurses and
doctors we work with talk about how rude the people are but I never
experienced it myself. I've noticed how impatient people are in American
hospitals and clinics as well so it's interesting to see how such
different places parallel so much in that sense.
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