My story.

I promised I would write after I got back from my first day of internship so I’m sorry this post comes a bit late. Anyway we started classes as well and below is a more formal blog that I have to write for one of them. It tells a little about my first day and some other thoughts but it shows the jist of how I’ve been feeling this past week. Here’s my story:

 

“Get outside, get all over the world, you learn to love what you get in return.”

Almost another week has gone by and I find myself full of many different emotions. On Wednesday we started our internships and while we were told to refrain from judging it based on the first day, I have to say that I am already looking forward to going back on Monday (is that cheating?). I’m interning at Tafelsig Clinic which is one of the poorest townships in an area called Mitchell’s Plain. When the 4 other students who were placed there and I arrived, we were split up and shadowed different nurses (who they call sisters there). I was in the pediatric immunization room for the whole day. I enjoyed learning about the different vaccinations and at what age they were administered and I was even given the task of weighing the children and measuring their head circumferences. To be honest, I was glad to be doing anything because I was expecting to do nothing but watch for my first couple weeks there. I am looking forward to shadowing other sisters in other areas of the clinic next week. Before I came here I had this vision that I would someday become a pediatric nurse. I’m starting to second guess myself because the immunization room was very routine and I’m just not sure I would enjoy that for my entire career. I still have so much time here so for now I put that thought in the back of my head and will revisit it at the end of my internship.

One of the hardest part of the internship for me was seeing children come into the office who it was very obvious that they hadn’t been bathed for days. The woman I worked with constantly sprayed down the room after families left and told me that it was surprising to see a child come in who was clean. This hit me rather hard because I realized how much I take for granted something so simple as a shower every day. It’s part of my routine and while everyone always jokes and says you do the most thinking in the shower, I never spend that time thinking about how others don’t have something so small as a bath.

Yesterday we headed to the University of Cape Town for Vernon’s class. I honestly thought it was going to be a rather uneventful day but it proved to be quite the opposite. We spent a majority of the time talking about Cape Town, what we saw, how we felt, and in particular the differences we saw between this beautiful place and our lives back in the States. We talked about how discussions of race are often pushed aside and avoided back home while here it is rare if it doesn’t come up in conversation. In the U.S. we create a ‘personal bubble’ around ourselves and only let certain people in. Here that ‘bubble’ does not exist. People greet you for the first time with a hug and will sometimes touch your arm when you are speaking with them. We talked about how people seem more friendly here and that the concept of time doesn’t matter as much. People will take the time to help you even if it means they will be late to something. We talked about how you can see the history of South Africa within people’s lives where in the U.S. it’s almost just something we learn in school and forget shortly after. And we talked about the large income gap is and how shocking it is that an informal township is literally in the backyard of a wealthy golf course.

I agreed with what everyone was saying. But as the conversation continued and went on for over an hour, I found myself sitting in class with tears in my eyes. It somehow felt to me like we were bashing the United States. My family, my friends, and 20 years of my life are back there and it just didn’t seem right to me. And then one of my co-educators raised their hand and gave a new perspective. They said we need not put South Africa on a pedestal and look down upon the U.S. It’s not better; it’s just different. So we shouldn’t compare and we shouldn’t feel bad for what we have and where we come from. Instead, I think, we should be thankful especially now that we are aware of what life is like to those living in such poverty. I find myself stepping back and thinking before I utter a complaint. And when I go back home I’m making the promise to myself to smile more and say hi more to strangers passing by.

Last night another one of my co-educators was talking to a group of us and said something so profound it really inspired me when writing this post. He told us to make sure we wrote how we really felt and to not be afraid to say something because no one else can write our story. Days, months, years from now we’ll look back at our blogs and know one thing: all these words are the truth. And it’s our story. To everyone back home, know that I miss you but know that I am also very happy here. I am learning so much and realizing a lot about myself as well. I thank God every day for this experience because I have gone across the world and I have already learned to love what I am getting in return.