America

Things I love about America:
-I feel pretty safe
-We have a stable government
-I can drive whenever i want, wherever i want.
-STARBUCKS.
-coffee creamer. and iced coffee
-my cell phone kinda...I forget about it sometimes and enjoyed not having it control my life for a few months.
-working out. Zumba in real life (with middle-aged women on week day nights)
-I really missed the Asian and Hispanic population.oh and of course Mexican food. YUM.
oh and how could i forget my beautiful roommates. and sister.


Things that confuse me:
-which side of the road do cars drive?? and which way do i look first before i cross the road.
-what does it mean to be on time?
-espresso hurts my stomach now..I will have to start drinking it slowly again.
-How fast 2 $ taco Tuesdays tequila shots hit you.
-umm how almost all my friends are graduated?...what the??
-why is gas so expensive....and whats wrong with Arnold Schwarzenegger?
-why are California drivers so mean?
oh and answering the question.."How was South Africa??"...how am i supposed to answer this??

Things I miss about South Africa:
-The Rastsfarians
-My wonderful friends who I would hang out with everyday. wake up together. meals together. and sleep together. have fun and suffer together. hah
-The statement "WHERE ARE WE?"

miss Luthando.

"You discover who you are by acting naturally"

"to live a creative life we must loose our fear of being wrong" -joseph chilhon pearce

South Afrika nursing video

kinda corny but......heres the nursing video haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNDp3EiUfkM

Battlefield field trip

We got to go on a 4 hour drive to learn about south african battlefields. HOW FUN!! and we got to stay in a lovely city called Dundee. Ive never felt soo threatened walking down this street. but we had to stop in this market..where men were sitting up on rice bags watching to make sure people dont steal. umm and these are some machetes we found right next to the microwaves and underwear...what the? I might or might not have purchased this.

Our view. Our outlet

Our view from our hotel in Durban. So lucky. too much fun

babies

This is a funny picture. while we were sitting doing nothing. I decided to talk to this little boy, even though he barely knew english and I barely know zulu. We ended up just playing games without words. I put him on my shoulders and we were visiting the neighbor..who was in the middle breast feeding. WHen the mom saw the girl wanted to play with us..she pulled the little girl off her chest and pushed her towards us. Callee couldn't help herself. She loves babies even more than me.

weekend at durban

Josh and Taka came to visit so we all stayed at a hotel right on the beach in Durban. Soo nice to get away. heres the whole group on the pier.

Ziplining

On our way to go zipling..I look happy now but once i was up there..i almost had a panic attack. It was crazy to be that high. i guess it didn't help that they basically just pushed you off.

Ushaka water park

This is a BIG fish. We went to the aquarium after we saw the dolphin show. seriously. this is bigger than my body. ew

The Sharks!

We went to Durban to see a the sharks play a Rugby game. My lovely friend, Meghan and I wearing the same outfit. I made her buy the glasses.

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
— Dr. Seuss

Kristen warned us about these guys. This is our new friend Bob. He lives in our room with us. We dont mind because hes so small. He likes the ceiling the best.

Girl Talk

Us nurses got to do a teaching project in the schools yesterday. Each group got a different topic. ours was menstruation of course. So we made these beautiful posters. One poster was of a uterus and the other...well you can see what that is. I used glitter for the blood. obviously. So me and Callee were on a mission to empower these young girls. We explained the anatomy and why we have a period and everything that goes along with it. After we had them ask anonymous questions..Some were sad. and some were just plain funny..here are some we got:
-Do babies come from my anus?
- When we have puberty, does it make us have feelings for boys?
-Why do girls have 3 holes and boys have 1?
-Why do girls have pregnancy and boys dont?
These girls were all ages 13-15. and after all the questions about "sleeping with a boy". We realized quickly they were all having sex already soo we really quickly added information about STI's and birth control.
There were a few questions asking if it was healthy to prevent pregnancy..lets just say we were adamant about encouraging the use of condoms.
Anyway the day ended with hugs, smiles and laughter.
Hopefully we could make them a little bit aware of themselves

Happy Valentines Day

Me and my beautiful valentine Callee. we make such a great couple

‎"To see the world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower. To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour."

outtings

So two bikes. 3 people. soo me bethany and alex decide it would be a good idea to have alex ride on the handle bars of my bike...with this awesome headlamp. lets just say it didnt work out as planned...

culture shock

so here are some signs of culture shock...and im definitely starting to feel some of these.
hmmm I want starbucks or a burrito. and I miss the US. It probably doesnt help that we are stuck on campus all.the.time.

-a feeling of sadness and loneliness,
-an over-concern about your health,
-headaches, pains, and allergies
-insomnia or sleeping too much
-feelings of anger, depression, vulnerability
-idealizing your own culture
-trying too hard to adapt by becoming obsessed with the new culture
-the smallest problems seem overwhelming
-feeling shy or insecure
-become obsessed with cleanliness
-overwhelming sense of homesickness
-feeling lost or confused
-questioning your decision to move to this place

on a lighter note

We went to Durban last weekend. spent the day at the beach. soo nice. Here are some things we saw on the beach. they are called blue bottles and i guess the little tail they have touch your skin and really hurt.
Oh and WHY DONT THEY HAVE ICED COFFEE HERE??

ok soo this week I was at ethinbeti( a HIV clinic) and it was definitely a shock to my system. I went along on multiple home visits with a nurse the first day. The things I saw make me feel sick. Patients laying on a bed with flies all around them. They are all HIV positive and seem soo lonely. One woman who was just diagnosed was so weak she couldnt even get up. and in a house with four other people. Just laying there all day and too ashamned to tell her family, so she stays with her sister who is also HIV positive.Every single one of them are jobless and have no income. but have grants for their children.. 250 rand per month (about 35 dollars). A bubbly, happy zulu woman came along and read the bible to each of these women. trying to bring hope. In between the english zulu language, I learned that she herself was HIV positive. I was so suprised. She had so much hope and love in her heart that she made visits to these patients, bringing them encouragement because she like them has been in that exact place before.
One thing I dont understand..how a girl like the one in the picture can be born here and grow up learning she has no power and probably have no chance. while I as an american is born with an education and respected as a woman. What if I were born here in a zulu culture? Goshh its so overwhelming to see death everyday

falling leaf

Falling leaf is the name we gave Kayla because she is our new yoga instruct er. Heres some meditation we did before clinical...just kidding. we didnt meditate..but we did do downward dog andd warrior pose i think?
Im pretty sure all the rest of the people think were freaks..especially since they have to pass us to get to breakfast. But what else are we supposed to do for fun?

Monkeys.

yep they are everywhere. and this guy took the banana peel from our garbage can..they actually can attack. They were supposed to give us pepper spray but we never got any. We have plastic wire on our window..so we thought it would be safe to leave it open fo rthe night...nope. one of theses little devils got through a fist size hole in the window, got into our room and was sitting on our chair reaching for our stuff.. Good thing Callee woke up and scared him away..I thought it was a dream so i didnt even get up. oops

typical occurrence here

This is what we have to stop for. they own the road. rude

Sister Zuma

This is her trying to make me pronounce zulu..she laughed at me a lot..along with the patients

Sister is what people call nurses here. and I got to work with sister Eugena Zuma. She taught me a lot about Zulu culture and the patients of course. Again every single patient was HIV positive here and on ARV's (HIV medication). Its sad that i almost get used to the HIV here..that was until a beautiful 9 year old boy came in with it. Uhh with his little levi jeans and argyle shirt..he probably didnt understand why he was always in the doctors and had to take so many pills everyday. One day his mom will have to explain that to him..
Another middle aged woman came in with a high CD4 count who was on regime 2 medication ( meaning regime 1 failed), this was her last chance at getting better. But since her boyfriend wouldnt wear condoms she kept getting reinfected. She had no power like all of the women we see. I just dont understand it. I just want to say stand up to him! but it isnt the same as the U.S.

Mandela

A quote from Nelson Mandela who is famous here because he ended the apartheid (seperation of blacks and whites). This was in the apartheid museum in jo-berg.

"To be free is not merely to cast off ones chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" -Nelson Mandela

Heres a picture of soweto in Johannesburg.

The shade of the chickens

My professor says that the "shade of the chickens" is the south african lingo for dagga or weed. Its everywhere I guess because the seeds just fall and it grows. so casual compared to the US. She took us to her farm and heres a picture of what we saw on the way. overlooking pietermaritzburg. beautiful. mostly sugar cane farms. YUM.

This is some of the "informal housing", which basically means people find land and make their own houses. I snuck a quick picture when no one was around. This one is literally made out of mud and sticks. The others were metal sheets and tarp. me and Kayla walked through the street, which wasn't really a street at all. it was more of a dirt path full of garbage. clothes hanging everywhere and emaciated dogs running around. It was crazy to really experience how some peole live. I think they knew we didnt belong, probably because of the scrubs..or the fact that we were white. i wanted to take more pictures but i couldnt. i was already intruding on their homes. cant even begin to imagine what that is like.

oh and this descibes our day today. hah

Today was full of sunshine. weird smells. excitement. scary lancets. tiredness. confusion. zulu. and sunshine

things i miss:

STARBUCKS

driving

classic coffee

oh and i guess my roommates.

euphoria

soo heres a flower i saw when we went exploring. reminds me of cotton candy and tie dye. Me call and alex ran through the forest yesterday in search of waterfalls and found...nothing. but we did stumble across a crab. in the middle of a soccer field? Alex proceeded to pick it up and once it pinced her, she threw it at me. great.

same school different country

so bored. i fell asleep right in front of the professor after this..oops

anyway there was one quote I did really like:

"the heart is the defining element of the human person-the central operating chamber of every human being. It is from the heart that all one's thoughts and actions proceed"

sawubona

Sawubona or hello in Zulu is the only thing I knew how to say today to everyone that walked in the clinic. I was a little bit in shock when we went into this rural clinic. We drove past beautiful green hills but crowded with little metal shacks on the way there. I don't know how someone could live in them. Anyway, every SINGLE person we saw today had HIV. It wasnt shocking to anyone there, it was almost a casual occurrence to learn that you had stage 4 HIV. The health standards are a lot different here, the doctors and nurses dont wear gloves or wash their hands very often. They probably thought it was weird that I washed my hands after touching each patient. He said the people know how to prevent HIV, they just don't follow through. It was hard for me to understand. The nurse said everyone was in denial. I guess I would be too. They come to the clinic multiple times hoping for a different prognosis. Women here don't have power or authority when it comes to using condoms and it is common for men to have multiple partners. The scariest thing for me to see today was seeing the patients that had muscle wasting. Their cheeks were all sunken in and they were so skinny. HIV wasn't real until now. Literally until I am working with them and seeing them and touching their skin.

oh and lots of women came in on HIV medications complaining of weight loss in their butt and thighs. One woman even showed us a picture of her bigger self. They love having curves. It's crazy how much different it is in the US. I think if you asked any woman in LA if they wanted to lose weight, they would say yes without a thought.

Heres a picture of me and Kayla with the student nurses that were working at the clinic. When I asked them what they thought of Americans, they said "rich and fast-paced". I like to see how they think of us.

the boot

Johannesburg. Durban. Pietermaritzburg. We finally made it to campus. Its really pretty here, lots of green everywhere and waterfalls! Reg, our coordinator told us how this international campus came to be. They wanted the "ethos" of APU, but in a different country. Even though everyone had to ride on the big bus, Reg took 6 of us in his van. Driving on the right side of the road was like a weird dream. By the way I'm learning how to say things that are new (like the taste of the ketchup) are different not weird.

Me and callee got a little overwhelmed trying to unpack in the humidity but nothing a little zumba can't fix :)

We were welcomed by some very nice zulu dancers when we arrived on campus, heres a Video if I can upload it...nope didn't work. Here's a picture instead. Look at those muscles.

Just too much

So I thought I would share a lovely picture of Callee on the plane. It basically sums up the loooong flight. This is what we looked like the whole time. The 17 hours was full of sleeping, eating, sleeping and eating. sick.

Today we also got a tour of Johannesburg. It was a bus tour. We learned about apartheid and Mandela. heavy stuff.

We all still cant believe we are in South Africa!

1st Day I think..in South Africa

So here I am awake at 2:30 am in the hotel. So me and my roommate decided to get our internet fix in, of course. We cant go back to sleep, probably because the flight was SOOOO long. I'm so confused. where am I? and what time is it?

So far the only interaction I had with anyone from South Africa was on the plane. They basically think we as a Americans are ignorant. I would kind of have to agree, but he didn't have to tell us..

oh also they have been giving us rands (which is the South African money) and I'm having a problem actually believing its money..thats probably not good.

anyways, heres a pic for you all. Me and Leslie are tired but not really. dont mind my lazy eye

Last day in America

Here I am sitting with Kristen Claire and Lizzy. This is just crazy. I am leaving the country in about an hour...and it hasnt really hit me yet ummmm

things im excited about: monkeys, ocean, zulu, and not the flight. oh and nott leaving my friends

Gosh. the next time I will see them they will be graduating. this is just too much