Patrick anticipating work at his internship

So this week was definitely very trying for me, both physically and mentally. Since my last post, we went to a beautiful vineyard and a concert at Kirstenbosch Gardens which was awesome but I was excited to finally see my internship.  After two tiring days of going to everyone’s internships besides mine, we went to Tafelsig Medical Clinic which was so much better than I could have ever imagined. Going into it, I was very nervous because all I was concerned that at Tafelsig I might be doing secretarial work and nothing really very productive. We walked in and spoke to a woman who told us how intense working here is going to be. She talked about how we would be rotating between the adult prep room, reception and the emergency room. I was so excited and happy to be there and learn I would actually be doing a lot with my semester. She also told us we would have to wear scrubs, which was great to hear.

On Thursday we finally had a day off which was awesome because we decided to climb Devil’s Peak, which is the hardest of the three mountains we can see from our house. So after about 2 ½ hours of intense hiking, we reached the top. For some reason, we had to come back down quickly, and so Carl said he knew an alternate route that would land us right back to our house. We ended up literally scaling down the side of the mountain. It was terrifying and awesome. I got to learn a lot about who everyone is, where they came from, and what made them decide to come here. We all made it back down safely right before the sun went down. It was an amazing experience I will definitely have to do again soon.

I’m writing this post the day before we all start our internships and I’m surprisingly not nervous at all. I feel very calm and really haven’t felt anxious about anything really since being here. All I can really think is how happy I am that I’m here. That might be the “honeymoon stage” talking, but I am truly happy to be in such a warm atmosphere.