Genadendal, The Valley of God's Grace

On Saturday we spent the day touring Genadendal, South Africa, a town a few hours outside of Cape Town. Genadendal is a Moravian settlement and the first missionary station in South Africa.  It is also the namesake of Nelson Mandela's presidential residence. We spent the morning touring around and the afternoon eating a delicious and humongous meal at the home of our guide. After several hours of eating, we all settled in for a nap on the bus.  I don't have any pictures to prove it, but I also ate my first ostrich burger later that night back in Cape Town.

It only took a two hour bus ride to find autumn!

Entering the cemetery: "Sewn in Weakness" in Dutch.

"Raised in Glory"---I think. 

We loved on their animals.

The second course of our four course meal. I know I take a lot of food pictures, but I am spending a lot of time with food.

All of this food.....

....was made on/in this fire-burning stove-oven.

Our guide Paul and his Siberian Husky.

I saw a lot of "firsts" on our trip to Genadendal. The first pipe organ in South African, the first formal church....my first blue toilet.

Waving goodbye to our gracious hosts.

Hellos and Goodbyes at Tafelsig

When I first found out that I had been placed at Tafelsig Clinic for my internship, I was truly worried about my lack of medical experience and how it would affect my ability to be of value there. But as it turns out, what I thought was a short-coming has actually been a gift. While my lack of experience has limited my capacity as a worker, in has unhinged my capacity as a learner and what I have learned has very little to do with medicine:



With just over two weeks under my belt at the busy Tafelsig Clinic, I cannot say enough about the people that have welcomed me there. Brother Eddie is one of those people. He greets me by name as we pass in the hallway and is forever throwing me a questioning ‘thumbs-up’ to make sure I am alright. One day at leaving time I was rushing passed the reception area in pursuit of the door when I heard a forceful knock on the reception window. I turned around and there was Brother Eddie, looking paternalistic. “How can you run past here like that?” he said. “You must tell us goodbye before you leave.” The tone in his voice was serious and I knew I had committed a cultural faux pas.



I should have known better. In our short stay in South Africa the importance of “hellos” and “goodbyes” has come up several times. Since the beginning, Steve McDuff has stressed the importance of thoughtful greetings and their ability to communicate respect. But for some reason I still ran past that window. It took Brother Eddie’s knock to solidify the message and to help me truly recognize the propensity toward respect in South African culture.

When I arrive at Tafelsig in the morning, Fahmy and Tyrone shout a “Hello” from the pharmacy. I get a “How’s it?” from Warren when I drop my bag in the back and a sincere “Good Morning” from Sister Sandy when I make it to the examination room. The kids greet me with a “Hello, Aunty” and their mothers with a “Hello, Sister.” Wendy welcomes me to tea time with a “How are you, my dear?” and Aunty Iris hollers “Erin!” down the hall. Immunized (and traumatized) children muster tearful waves as they leave the room. “Aye, shame,” is the response from Brother Eddie upon confirmation of my departure and the security guards say goodbye as a board the van to go home. In every way the greetings at Tafelsig communicate a respect that is not only spoken, but felt.



When I arrived at Tafelsig I wanted to do nothing more that prove my (medically-inexperienced) worth, but Tafelsig has taught me that I don’t have to. They value and respect me whether or not I can contribute to their clinic.  I have been reminded that proving my worth should always be second to finding worth in others. Everyone at Tafelsig Clinic already knows this. That is why their greetings are so sincere. That is why in the face of serious resource limitations, they are able to provide high quality care to their patients. That is how they endure increased workloads and long hours. They truly value people for being people, and experiencing this is why being at Tafelsig Clinic has been such a valuable experience for me.



Needless to say, I don’t run past that window anymore. I stop and I wait and I say goodbye to Brother Eddie to be sure that he knows the depth of respect I have for him.

SAFARI!!

Last Sunday we went on a very cold, very classy, fairly unbelievable safari. I suppose I'll just let the pictures tell the tale. 

A kudu, the largest antelope in the world, is built for long distance running. 

So cold.

Oh, lion!

At our mid-safari drink break by the elephants.

Back on the safari truck. I'm looking very safari-ish/a complete mess. 

Rhino dung.

Hippo

These leopards are used for breeding.

Baby!

In general, this is how we felt about ostriches. 

Saturday in Khayelitsha

Thanks to some great networking done by Hazar, she, Margaret and I spent today working with Doctors Without Borders and Treatment Action Campaign in Khayelitsha.  Our job was to go from shack to shack encouraging people to come to our tent and get tested for HIV.  Again, language was a major barrier to us being independently successful, but our guides did a great job and it was simultaneously intriguing and disconcerting to follow them in and out of informal township homes that, before, we had only seen from a distance.  We also spent a significant amount of time being entertained by dancing children and entertaining those children with our cameras. After coming back to town, we hit up our favorite deli for some hot cocoa and pizza.

Outside of the tent used for testing.

Kids dancing at the testing site to attract crowds. 

Hazar and Margaret dancing with the kids, attracting larger crowds.

They loved pictures and sometimes smiling.

Show time.

A quick shot of the Daily Deli which is both its actual name and an accurate description of our visit behavior.  It is the best place in our neighborhood for pizza or coffee or fresh produce or second dessert; anything really, it's the best.

Off to the Vineyards

We spent all of Friday touring vineyards outside of Cape Town. The weather was PERFECT and it was a wonderful, relaxing day. After returning to Cape Town, we tried to satisfy our mutual Taco Bell cravings with a trip to our first African Mexican Restaurant. 

Looking back on Table Mountain from Beyersloof Winery.

Wine testing #1 at Beyerskloof Winery

Thandi is South Africa's first fair trade winery.  Their mission is to employ previously impoverished workers from around the farm as an act of social justice and community development.

Everything was beautiful.

At Thandi. So warm. So perfect. 

Napping in the grass after lunch.

And swinging.

The disconcerted look on Kelsey's face is completely appropriate. We weren't quite sure how to digest African Mexican food.

CHIMICHANGA: served on street stalls along Mexico

My First Week at Tafelsig Clinic

I started my internship at Tafelsig Clinic this week. I spent Monday and Tuesday in the reception area pulling files and doing other administrative stuff.  For the rest of the week, I helped my supervisor, Sister (Nurse) Boezak, in the pediatric wing of the clinic. All in all, my stay at Tafelsig has been great so far. They were quick to welcome me into the family (even though I accidentally stole people's personal coffee cups during tea time for the first three days) and I have so much fun there. The pace is fairly frantic and everyone speaks Afrikaans, but I think I am probably happiest when I am kept on the very edge of my seat so it is a good fit. Also, I hold plenty of babies and learn lots about how to take care of children....both good things.

Wednesday was Africa Day and we celebrated at the Artscape theater. There was lots of music, dancing, and speaking Xhosa, including a 3 hour play which we enjoyed interpreting with our eyes. I was happy to share in the celebration of a continent that is teaching me a whole lot about the joy of shared humanity.

Thursday my cooking group and I were in charge of providing dinner for everyone.  It was something close to a disaster, but as tasty a disaster as we could've hoped for. We just laughed about it and all ate a big breakfast the next morning.

I hope all is well over the border!  I've been thinking about you all a lot this week and hope everyone is managing to avoid bad weather. Tornadoes in Missouri headlined on South African radio almost every morning this week. I'm sending lots of love and hope it warms up/calms down soon.

Robben Island

We spent Saturday walking around the waterfront and then took the ferry to Robben Island. Robben Island was originally a colony for lepers and, during apartheid, was transformed into an island for political prisoners including Nelson Mandela and current president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma.

Wall surrounding the island.

Leper Cemetery on Robben Island

World War II relic when the island was used as a defense post.

Entering the prison

Prison Kitchen

Our guide, a former political prisoner, explaining how the food prisoners were served on Robben Island varied from race to race, Bantus (Black natives) getting the least food.

The garden where Nelson Mandela buried his writings.

Nelson Mandela's Cell. He spent 18 years in isolation on Robben Island.

The view of Cape Town from Robben Island.

On the ferry back to Cape Town. Locals say that from a distance Table Mountain looks like a man sleeping on his back.