I finally had a hard week in Cape Town. I thought I was
getting sick last week, and it ended up occurring in the form of a very painful
mouth ulcer that made me stay home from work all week. I got to go to the
doctor’s office on Monday which was kind of enlightening. It was in this nice
house in the beautiful town of Claremont. The nice couches in the waiting area,
the big room where the doctor worked, and the happy and overall clean staff
drew almost polar opposites to the way that Tafelsig treats patients.
Basically
what happens is that patients at Tafelsig line up at 5:30AM every morning to
get a good spot in line where they will then wait another several hours to be
seen by a nurse or doctor. They wait this long only to be told they need to be
referred or that the pharmacy doesn’t have what they need in stock. It’s a hard
reality that these people need to face if they ever get sick at all so I
definitely felt bad that I was receiving all of this private nice treatment. As
stated in previous blog posts, I have felt guilty about everything I have been
given. My parents tell me all the time how I shouldn’t feel bad about something
I was born into. But nothing anyone can tell me can change the way I feel, so I
wasn’t particularly happy that I got this special treatment. I did nothing to
earn it, and this population of one million people living in Tafelsig did
nothing to deserve what their lives have given them.
Regardless of all my conflicting thoughts, I would like to
thank my housemates in this blog post because they had been so nice to me all
week. I couldn’t talk, laugh, and could barely eat but they were so nice about
leaving me alone when I needed to sleep or it was hurting very badly.
When I finally started to feel better, Anna, Allie, Liz and
I went to our activist project in Nyanga to start painting the room. We also
met with the carpenter where we discussed what he would be doing with the room.
By the time we go to Nyanga this upcoming Friday, the room hopefully should be
cleared of everything but the shelves and they will all be newly sanded and
varnished. This statement is very hopeful. I just want this to go so well. I
really don’t want this to be about me or the other UConn students helping out
but about the kids of Sithembele Matiso and what they have a right to.
The rest of the weekend was fun as well. After going back to
the school on Saturday to finish up what we hadn’t on Friday, a bunch of my
friends and I had decided to go to a Korean Barbeque restaurant which was
unbelievable. I don’t think anyone realized how much this had affected me. Not
only was the food amazing, but I got to experience yet another culture within South
Africa. The lifestyle of South Africa is awesome and fascinating, but the fact
that they have such a distinct culture that doesn’t deter as a result of other
countries’ influence is awesome.
That Sunday we also went to the most beautiful beach I’ve
ever seen. The beach is called Camps Bay. It took a while to get there but was
definitely worth it. After a fun minibus taxi ride with great music, we were
there playing soccer with some local African kids and watching the Cape Argus
Cycle Tour. This is a 110-km bike race that is named as one of the most scenic
bike routes in the world. I had a great time hanging out with new friends and
just relaxing for a day. I even won a cooler from a random prize drawing at the
restaurant we went to for lunch.
This week started off really terrible and ended on a pretty
good note. Now I just hope my mouth is actually healing..
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