Sunny Days=Exploring and Beaches

Well, this is me writing from my new digs J. And what a drastic change it is. Cape Town sits in the bowl created by the space between Table Mountain, Lions Head, Signal Hill and the ocean. As we drove up the winding streets, I was absolutely in awe. First, because the streets are quite steep and everybody uses manual cars, the e-brake was used almost every time we stopped. Second, I was excited as each street we passed had shops and cafes and restaurants, all waiting for me to explore. At the house, I was greeted by Lola, the very hyperactive, black and white border collie. She was poking her head over the wall when I arrived. My new hosts are the Brink family. When I first arrived, only the daughter, Saskia was at home, while the parents- Monica and Johan, were still finishing up their vacation through Europe. Saskia was a great host and immediately put me in the car to drive me up Signal Hill, which runs behind their house. From there, I peered down at Cape Town and the white beaches of Clifton beach. I didn’t manage to get any good photos that day, but I’m sure I will be back up there, walking Lola, soon.

The first night, I was invited to Saskia’s boyfriend (GP)’s parents house for dinner. They have a stunning view of Cape Town as they sit high enough on the hill to view the whole city, right down to the harbour.

Thursday and Friday at work was still a little crazy, but not crazy enough that most people were ready to leave at 2:30 on Friday. The work ethic here is so interesting. Work starts in the unit at 8 am. What this really means is you should be in the building at this time. The first thing everybody does is make a cup of tea. You usually drink you tea before continuing on to work, none of this multi-tasking business. Some people check their emails, but often that does not get done until 10 or 11am, so if you really need to discuss something it’s easier to phone or walk down the hall to someone’s office. Often the internet is not working (but somehow Microsoft Outlook is working so people can get their email), and most people do not sit and work at a computer. Lunch is very social, with everybody stopping, making tea, and eating his or her lunch around the same time. Afternoons include a tea break, and then people begin packing up around 3:40, to be in their cars by 4pm. At 4:05, the unit is nearly a ghost unit, with one or two stragglers staying back if necessary. For the most part, nobody works past 4, even if there is work to be done.  Fridays, people generally leave the unit around 2:30 (actually, we get to leave whenever the big boss man leaves....and people often are done their work early). It’s quite laid back, but sometimes the small inefficiencies drive me up the wall. For instance, the other week, it took 5 people, 20 minutes, to figure out how and where to file 4 files. It’s a good exercise for me in learning to work with other people and cultures.

Friday night was spent with Saskia and her friends. We first went to this fancy sushi place down by the water. It was situated in a cobblestone courtyard that was surrounded by high brick buildings. Sushi and cocktails were ½ price, and I ate two rolls and a bellini for $14 (about 95Rand). We watched the sky overhead turn from blue, to orange, to pink. After, we went to her friend’s house to cuddle up in blankets by the fire and watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics (which started at 9:45pm for us). We spent lots of time discussing what different words mean for us (SA: Flapjack= pancake, SA pancake=crepe, SA:Crumpet=scone). I also picked up on the fact that although Apartheid is well over, racial stigma is still very present. Cape Town is a very white-dominated area, and slang referring to ‘coloured’ and ‘black’ mannerisms still often refers to lower class people (regardless of colour). It was interesting as an outsider to watch a country in the midst of changing racial tensions, for which racially charged language and slang often follows behind changing thoughts.

Saturday and Sunday were absolutely gorgeous.

Lola

Morning walk along the promenade with Lola

 I spent lots of time leisurely reading in the sun while Saskia did her homework. On Saturday afternoon, we went to the other side of Table Mountain to Llanduno beach, where we watched surfers glide in while the sunset stained the sky behind them.  As soon as the sun set, the night became chilly quite quickly and we returned to the house to warm up and watch some of the Olympics. Sunday morning began with a shopping excursion. GP, Saskia’s boyfriend is a unit manager for Adidas and he took us to the factory outlet store to peruse the discount racks. Unfortunately, they did not have a lot in my size, but I managed to find a nice pair of shorts for an awesome price. Then, Saskia and GP dropped me off at the V&A Waterfront so I could take a “Hop On Hop Off” Bus Tour all by myself. It was the first time I have ever wandered around a foreign city by myself and I was quite worried I was going to get lost or attract too much attention as a white female tourist wandering by herself. My first stop was Long Street, and the Green Market Square where local crafts are sold. Although I wanted to explore the market and the streets, I was a bit uncomfortable about lingering too long because there were not many pedestrians and many of the shops were closed. I found a nice place to eat and then scurried back to my bus. The next stop was St. George’s Church, where Desmond Tutu and Gordon Oliver united over 30,000 citizens on a march protesting peace and justice in 1989. 

The church was closed, but beside it was a beautiful national garden hosting flora and fauna that are exclusive to the Cape. Couples and families were sprawled on the grass, feeding the pigeons and enjoying picnics.

My next stop was the National Gallery, where I viewed art from many South African artists. It was different from the traditional art museums I am used to, but I enjoyed how the South African culture was expressed through the art.

Then I was off to the Castle of Good Hope, where I walked along the battlements and gave myself a self-guided tour. It was very different from traditional European castles and I’ve included some photos below so you can see for yourself. I also practiced using the self-timer mode so I could have a picture or two of myself. 

Unfortunately, the District 6 museum which hosts most of the information about Apartheid was closed on a Sunday, so I will have to go back and view this another day. 

Finally, the bus took us on a tour of the beaches on the other side of Table Mountain.

I was so happy to have my first sunny weekend and real taste of Cape Town. I’ve now got a good list of things I still wish to explore in my remaining 13 days. (And lots to do at work this week).

Stay well!

Monkeys and Moving

The weather improved on Sunday and Marcha and I decided to venture outside again. We went to Monkey Town, a privately owned monkey sanctuary that houses monkeys who were previously taken out of the wild or born in captivity. The cool part about the park was that the humans walked in cages, while most of the monkeys ran free over the 4 acre property. We lucked out and arrived in time to walk around a bit and then watch the noon feeding session. We learned that monkeys make horrible pets because they are very unpredictable, especially once they reach sexual maturity. I also learned that a monkey can die of a broken heart if it does not get enough attention for 5 days. Some of the monkeys at Monkey Town had never climbed a tree before they came to the sanctuary. We also got to watch the feeding of the chimpanzees. The chimps are quite smart and need a lot of mental exercise so their food is given to them in creative ways. Sometimes the food is tossed to the chimps for the chimps to catch, sometimes it would be buried and hidden within their enclosure, or sometimes it would be delivered in containers that the chimps would have to learn how to open.

I’ve added some pictures of monkeys for you, but because I was taking them from inside of a cage, they aren’t great.

This week at work was a bit of a crazy week. We were reviewing how things went in the first week, making changes as necessary and preparing for the next week’s visit. Additionally, because we did not recruit enough patients, we decided to keep recruiting during this week, even though we did need input from those nurses. Somehow, in the craziness I also found time to shadow another study. The study is looking to see if there are neurological and psychological deficits in children born with HIV. I watched a TOVA test, which is a test designed to test attention span of a child during a boring task. As warned, it was boring to watch, but interesting to learn the reasons behind the testing. I then watched as the child was put through an MRI. We did a small practice MRI on a bed so that the child could get used to the different sounds that they will hear during the MRI. We then put on a movie for the child, and sat and waited for the hour long MRI to be complete. Looking at the scans of the brain brought back memories of looking at thin sections of the brain in anatomy class.

Wed was a bittersweet day. Things really picked up at work as we had a feedback meeting and discussed all the problems that need to be fixed for recruitment next week. Additionally, we started receiving the completed forms for the first visit here in the unit. I spent most of one day formatting the documents and double checking that every data element in the database was present. Because of the many languages that exist in the Western Cape, the study is being conducted in 3 different languages- English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa; and many of the main documents had to be translated in order to capture the precise wording of the questions. For some reason, it was decided that I should type up the translated versions of the questionnaires. After doing my best to try to type up the Afrikaans translation, I handed the questionnaire off to a counsellor to check it over. Within minutes, she came back, doubled over laughing. My attempt to understand the translation was horrible and there were mixed up letters and spacings all over the page. Thankfully, I was immediately pulled off of typing up translations.

I also changed houses Wednesday, I  moved from Strand (a suburb- the equivalent of Tsawassen or a city in the GTA), to Cape Town proper. I also learned that the hospital where I am working is not actually technically in Cape Town, but is in Parrow, a suburb 20 minutes away (the equivalent of Richmond for you Vancouverites).

 I will thoroughly miss the dogs, Lucy and Tiger; little Nikita (Marcha’s 4 year old friend who came to visit lots), and my naps in the car ride home. I never missed a nap in the car after a day of work and I’m sure I snored a few times and gave the rest of our car pool a good laugh. Also, for those of you who know me well, you will be surprised to learn that I consumed about 3L of milk in the 12 days I was at Marcha’s. Breakfast was always Weet-Bix, a dry bran and germ bar that you add milk to to make a porridge, or porridge, loosened up and flavoured with milk. I had about 4-8 cups of Red Roses tea (decaf for me) a day, which just tastes so much better with milk. Between breakfast, tea, and a few other dishes that relied on milk, I polished off those three litres. Never once did I have a plain glass of milk.

 I will miss the walks along Gordon’s Bay and Strand beaches and I will miss the traditional Afrikaans meals I had most nights. Mostly, I will miss being spoiled as Marcha treated me like one of her children. The night before I left was a bit sad, but I will still be seeing Marcha every day at work as I take up space in her busy busy office.

I’m sure I have a lot more to tell, but I don’t want to make this a mammoth post.

As they say in South Africa,

Stay well!!

Table Mountain and Cookies

Hallo, hoe gaan dit met jou?

Or, Hello, how are you? In Afrikaans. This is the language I hear most frequently at the office and in passing casual conversation around here. Although South Africa has 11 official languages, each area seems to have two or three languages that are most dominant. Cape Town is mostly English and Afrikaans. In the Eastern Cape, it’s more Xhosa (pronounced Kho-sa). Some of the women and children who come into KID CRU speak Xhosa and it is quite interesting to listen to because it includes a clicking sound as part of the language. In the office, most people speak Afrikaans to communicate. While they try to remember to speak English around me, they often forget and lapse into Afrikaans. I’m considering investing in an English-to-Afrikaans dictionary to try to understand more of the basic phrases, as it has been hard for me to pick up more than ‘yes’ (Ja), ‘no’ (Nee), ‘thank you’ (Danke), and the few words that actually sound close to their English counterparts. Interestingly, most advertising and signage throughout Cape Town and the Strand, where I am staying until Wed, is in English.

Wednesday was another beautiful day in Cape Town. The sun was shining and it was warm enough for me to break out my lighter sweater. I woke up with a sore throat, and I think I started running a bit of a fever towards the middle of the day, but I still went to work (don’t worry, I washed my hands lots and stayed away from the kids). Half way through the day, Marcha convinced Gareth and me to play hooky and go visit Table Mountain because it was supposed to be the last sunny day of the week and the cable car that takes you up and down (much like the tram at Grouse Mountain) was closing for maintenance starting Monday. Gareth and I picked up his girlfriend, Rachel, who I recognized from my work last summer, and we drove to the base of the mountain. It was really the first time I drove through a lot of Cape Town and the town layout and housing is a different style from the Strand. Below are pictures from Table Mountain:

Cable Car on the Way up

View looking down from the Cable Car; Cape Town

Small Towns at the Base

Lion's Head Peak

Dassies- don't they look so cute!

Up close Dassie- rather ugly :)

Cape Town and surrounding suburbs

We also made roti (Malaysian bread) that night. I had bruises on my palms from rolling out close to 50 or 60 roti.

Thursday and Friday were rainy again, but busy at work as we began to prepare for our evaluation week next week and also for the first visits, which start on the 31^st. We only managed to enrol 3 patients, sitting well below our target of 8, but that is the way that enrolment goes. It was funny to listen to the women as they spoke of myths about what makes women go into labour (we enrol the women at the labour and delivery ward, shortly after they give birth). Some said that rainy weather makes babies come, and others said they like to come when it is warm. All we really know for sure (from looking at data), is that September will be a busy month. If you don’t know why..just count 9 months back.

Saturday, it was too rainy to do much. We tried to go to one of the National Parks, but it closed due to rain. Marcha tried to show me around a bit, but the paths were all wooden boards and were quite slippery. We stopped for the day and hoped for better weather Sunday. At home, I convinced Marcha to show me some traditional South African baking. We made Hertzoggies (which surprisingly doesn't translate to hedgehog)

It also thundered Saturday, and Tiger, one of Marcha’s two dogs it quite afraid of it. Here is a picture of him in his hiding place (the shower). 

We could not get him to budge from it for a good hour. At 7 years old, he is quite the big baby, but he still thinks he is Lucy's mom (Lucy is Marcha's other dog. I will post a photo of her when I get a good one!)

Other than that, not much else to report. The weather is looking up again for Mon-Wed (the forecasts only go 3 or so days in advance because the weather can change so much here), so hopefully I can get up to more adventures.

Hope everybody is doing well at home! And if you would like a postcard, please comment here or message or email me your address and I will try to send those out this week.

Postcards!

Hi everybody!
Please comment here or message me your address if you would like postcards!
I hope to send them out within the week.

I will update you all soon, I promise. Just getting over a cold and heading into a stretch of rain, but lots to share!

xo

Sunshine

Welcome back to my adventures! As promised, here are some highlights from the aquarium.

A Honeycomb Moray Eel (black and white) and a Geometric Moray Eels (on the bottom).

 Spider Crab

 Penguins 1- Yellow eyebrows

 Penguin 2

Monday was my first real day at work and the first day of recruitment for the study. I wish I could say everything was bustling and hopping; however, there were no massive changes in routine that day. Because the study targets low income people, the unit were we are recruiting people from is approximately a 25 minute drive from Tygerberg Hospital, in a town called Kraaifontein (Cry-fawn-tayne). Two counsellors were situated at the Kraaifontein Health Centre, hoping to recruit any mothers who deliver babies who fit our study criteria. What amazed me was that in South Africa, about 80% of people who are asked to participate in studies, agree. Especially in low income neighbourhoods, or when the study includes children, many people are willing to go through the extra hassle for two main reasons: 1. To gain another route of access to the healthcare system, which may help ensure them or their child receive adequate or extra care; and 2. To help improve the overall health of the community. People here realize that participating in studies may not directly improve the health of themselves or their families; they see the value in trying to improve the health outcomes of those around them. We hit our target for the day and successfully recruited two mothers and babies into the study. Although there was not much to do, there was excitement about a smooth first day of enrolment. That night, it cleared up and Marchalaine and I walked along the Strand Beach. Everything is so beautiful here when it is sunny. Below are some pictures from my walk. 

Where we parked the car, young fishermen were selling fresh caught fish, filleted and on display; due to my interest, we actually ate some the next night for dinner. Finally, Marcha turned on a small heater in my room so I could not freeze during the night. As a treat, I warmed my pillows against it right before I hopped into bed and relished in the feeling of being slightly warm.

Tuesday was a bit more exciting as I got to go to Kraaifontein in the morning. The Health Centre was in a huge gated compound with guards at the entrance to the parking lot who wrote down the name of everybody who drove in and guards at the entrance who directed people where to go. Individuals and families were lined up against the walls in zig-zagging lines all over the place, yet everybody was content and understanding. The labour ward was calming, with pale pink walls. Unfortunately, I did not get to see any babies L. The most interesting thing I found about the unit was the Kangaroo Mothers program. This program is for babies who are born early or are too small. The purpose is to have the babies curled up and swaddled next to the mother’s bare skin until they reach a suitable size instead of placing them in isolated incubators, which are expensive. Most interestingly, the focus of the program is not only on the babies, but also on keeping the mothers busy. Because the child must be swaddled against bare skin at most times, the program has many activities for the women to keep them busy and encourage them to stay with the program.

We were blessed with sunny weather Tuesday and I could admire the mountains from the hospital. Once we left work (and I had my customary nap on the car ride home), we walked along Gordon’s Bay beach, the same place we walked on my first night. I managed to get some pictures; however, due to impending night fall, we did not reach the end of the walk the harbour at the end. Perhaps another night...

Well, that is all for now. I hope everybody back home is enjoying the sun. I am majorly envious of the heat I’m missing out, but my nightly strolls along the beach remind me daily of how beautiful this place is!

Tea, Fleece, and Jet-Lag

Hello hello! I have arrived! After 24 hrs of travel, 8 hrs of sleep total, and a 10 hour time change (I'm 10 hours ahead of BC and 7 ahead of Ontario), I made it.

I was greeted at the airport by two friends of my host, Marchalaine, and experienced South African warmth and hospitality as the two of them entertained me on the way to work. At the airport,before being picked up, I changed into capris, a light sweater, and toms so I could be fresh as I was headed straight to "work" at Tygerberg hospital. What a BAD choice of clothing. In my mind, I had it set that the temp range would always be 10 degrees-ish in the morning and warming up to 18 or so in the afternoon. While this is not the case, I also forgot to take into account two things:
1. It is windy here! Which makes everything a lot colder
2. They don't heat their buildings. That meant that the hospital was maybe 15-17 degrees inside, depending on how many people are in a room. I was most grateful all day when I was in crowded rooms. Everybody wears sweaters and fleeces and coats inside their houses and at work.
I stubbornly managed to convince everybody that I was warm enough because Canada is cold (and Vancouver stayed cold until July), so I was "used to it". Hmph. I managed to hide my chattering teeth and convinced everybody who was taking me on a tour to walk up and down the 8 flights of stairs to our ward. At the first chance I got, I grabbed my warmest sweater (and basically haven't taken it off since).

My first day at "work" at Tygerberg hospital was a bit of a blurr, to be honest. Knowing I would be tired, the staff did not have much for me to do. I transferred the documents I had brought from Vancouver, but mostly sat in on meetings and got to listen to the counselors as they were introduced to the questionnaires they have to administer as part of the study. It was very enlightening to hear their remarks and concerns about the questionnaires that they would be asking these women. Some of the information we ask is fairly private, especially the section on the mother's relationship with the father (105 questions, which is estimated to take 30-45min to complete). I met a lot of people and unfortunately remember very few names. The South African accent is very hard to understand because each person's accent is different based on the languages they speak (most are bilingual at minimum) it varies from person to person. To further complicate things, people often speak in Afrikaans or Xhosa and inerconvert rapidly between that and English, making it difficult for me to discern when people begin talking to me. Most of my conversations begin with me asking people to repeat their first sentence. They are often asking questions of me, so the whole "smile and nod" tactic doesn't work so well.

I luckily got to leave work early, and my host, Marcha, took me home. Due to jet lag, I fell asleep for the whole 45 min drive back to her place. Again, her house is cold, as the only heat comes from a fire (which we did not start until the second day). She has two very friendly dogs who welcomed me happily. That night, she took me on a pre-dinner walk around the shoreline near her house. Although windy and cold, it is so beautiful here! I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera on the walk (we shall do it again, so pictures will come later), as it was so stunning. High table top mountains transition quickly to lush greenery, then sandy white beaches, to rocky and craigy surf. And when it is not raining, then light is stunning. It is also their winter, so some of the low hanging trees had little blue LED lights wrapped around their trunks. It was truely stunning and I will post pictures as soon as I get them so you all can see just how gorgeous it is!

Getting to sleep was no problem, despite the cold. I feel a little bit like I am camping though. I have to warm up my bed (with my clothes on) and warm up my pj's under the covers. Then quickly change and place my clothes for the next day folded up at the base of my bed so they will not be freezing in the morning.

The second day (Saturday) we took pretty easy. I slept in and read in bed (which I haven't had a chance to do since May). Then we travelled into Cape Town (I stayed awake for that car ride!) and walked along the waterfront there. We also did a tour of the aquarium, which had a two oceans theme- hosting animals from both the Indian (warm) and Atlantic (cold) oceans. I felt a bit like I kid, exploring new sea life. They had a live penguin exhibit which was awesome.

After falling asleep again on the car ride home (I blame jet lag), I met some of Marcha's friends, including a little 4 year old girl who was quite petrified of me due to my 'accent'. Everybody here has been so lovely so far and always so warm and inviting. Also, everybody loves tea and I'm quite pleased that almost everywhere I go, the first thing people do is offer me tea. It makes it easier to hide that my fingers are cold and follows quite nicely with my love of tea :). Marcha drinks only Red Roses, but kindly bought me some decaf tea so I would not be wired all the time. I am easing her into getting used to me drinking 5-8 cups a day (the norm when I'm hanging about at home or working).

Ok, enough from me. I should go be social and drink more tea as my fingers, toes, and nose are quite cold from typing this post out. Not sure what tomorrow holds, but I will update when I can!

Miss you all!

Hello hello! And welcome to my first attempt at a travel blog.
Hopefully if you are reading this, you know I am going to Capetown, South Africa, for 4 weeks starting July 11. I've started this blog as a way to keep track of my experiences and a way to keep in touch with all of you. Feel free to leave comments in the comments section and I will do my best to respond!

While you may know that I'm going on this little trip, many of you may not really know what I'm doing. Technically, I am volunteering with an HIV study that is looking at why babies who are born to mothers infected with HIV but don't have HIV themselves are more at risk for being sick in their first year of life. What exactly I will be doing from day-to-day will change and the one thing I'm sure of is that I will be very busy! My first day of work is the first day of study recruitment and I've been told I could be going out to the recruitment clinic in the Kraafonteine suburb.
I plan on filling up my evenings with sightseeing and soaking up the culture and my weekends with day trips to the surrounding areas (wine country anybody?!).

Follow along as I experience my first stay in Africa and my first international travels alone!

This is Tygerberg Hospital, where most of my time will be spent. If you notice, the building is completely symmetrical, with each side being a mirror image of the other. The hospital was built during Apartheid, with one side for whites and another for coloured people. Today, no such division exists in the hospital, but I'm told that it's very confusing because the sides are nearly identical, but only certain units are in use on each side. I'm sure I will be getting very lost in there.

And just for fun, here's your typical picture of Cape Town waterfront.

Neither of these pictures were taken by me, but I'm using them as a test to see how the picture function works.

Wish me luck as I pack my suitcase(s). If you don't already know, this is roughly how I pack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3qiXZRFmRY  so I need all the good vibes I can get to make everything fit into 1 suitcase + a carry on.