Okay yeah it’s already Wednesday and I haven’t been the best updater. There are reasons though! Well Monday I was a wee bit sick but we’ll just leave it at that and yesterday (Tuesday) was a really busy day and I got home very late. Not much to say about Monday so we’ll just stick to Tuesday and today.
Tuesday we met with the Sports Science Institute (SSI) of South Africa to see one of their Community Health Intervention Programmes (CHIPs). Basically, we went to two different communities and did chair exercises with senior citizens in those communities. And it was awesome! Lol We had a really good time, especially at the second community center because there were SO many of them…at least a ton more than I would have ever expected. Also, the second center didn’t really know we were coming until that morning so they were given late notice but seriously—the nicest people and soooo welcoming. They kept thanking us, and everyone was smiling, and the minister of the church gave a small thank you speech, and they made us delicious tea. It was really cool to see how the SSI was making efforts to get communities active and you could really tell how it impacted the seniors; it’s what they look forward to every week. They also do programs for kids and adults so I imagine those are just as awesome.
Tuesday night I went to a mobile clinic run by SHAWCO (Students’ Health and Welfare Centres Organization) run by the University of Cape Town. Basically, it is a group of medical students from the university who are in any year of med school (ranged from 2 years to 5 years) and one to two doctors that volunteer their time to go out to the townships where people do not have easy access to clinics. We got to our destination (I think it was called Philipi?) at about 6:30-7 and there were 7 NU students from our trip, plus our professor (Adam), and we split up and joined the med students that were seeing the patients from the township. The med students are the ones that do the initial examination and if they don’t know what is wrong or don’t know the solution then the doctor gets involved. I know, sounds pretty crazy and if anyoneeee from the U.S. was seen by a 2nd year med student instead of a doctor they would probably flip. But, these kids knew SO much. And they go right into med school…no undergrad. There was a 2nd year med student who was 20 years old. Pretty insane. But anyways, they see all sorts of patients and different problems and I could write about 3 pages on Microsoft Word but I won’t do that to you. Most importantly: I didn’t get to do as much hands on stuff as I thought I would…the kids from our group that went the night before us apparently did more stuff then we did so that was a bummer. But it was really cool and interesting to see how they treat patients that have these clinics as their only easy access to healthcare. And the doctor that saw a lot of the patients was little odd…definitely not your average doctor but kind of reminded me of Patch Adams. He would have these random bouts of conversation ranging from Shakespeare to “what do you think the problem may be?” (asking me—a 2nd year Physical Therapy student) then to asking if we knew how to dance the tango. But then suddenly he had the diagnosis for the patient and that was that, all done. Must be pretty good. My favorite quote from him for the night was, “Do you know what my job is? It’s to amuse myself and to tickle others.” Do something you enjoy and you’ll probably end up as happy as him, I’m sure :) It was a really good night though, definitely a side of health care that most people don’t get to see.
Today we met with a group called Active Schools Initiative (ASI). They visit schools every week to include more physical activity in their days through games and skill building. When we got there, they had our group play a few games ourselves so that was pretty amusing. We had fun though, not gonna lie ;) After a quick presentation, we broke up into groups and we started making bean bags, painting pick-up sticks, and painting cardboard squares for a matching game. So those will be used during games that ASI does with the kids and I’m pretty sure we get to play a few games with the kids after we finish the project tomorrow. So that should be really fun :)
It’s starting to get nicer and less rainy. This weekend is definitely supposed to be warmer and have more sun so I’m excited. Nothing compared to the lovely weather New England is having right now :P But that’s what I have to tell you about my days in Africa for now. I’ll be sure to write again tomorrow or Friday. I’ll put up pictures when I don’t have to pay 10 Rand for 20 Megabytes :)
Oh! Also, the title of this post is ASI's Mission statement and I liked it so that is why it is there :) Goodnight from Cape Town!
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