It has been an interesting week to say the least. However, my dorm mate Ali had a good point when she described our time here so far as being "everything and nothing at the same time". We found ourselves dumbfounded trying to figure out why we could barely keep our eyes open past 8pm when our only activity for the day had been venturing out to the grocery store. Our instructor Jessica assured us in reminding us that it is truly exhausting when every single aspect of your day is entirely new and in an entirely new culture. In addition to our 25hrs worth of plane travel and 10 hr bus ride, I have to admit, I had my first "I miss Canada, I want to come home night" on Saturday. After conquering our quest to the grocery store AND the local market and arranging our own transportation via taxi, myself and my housemates arrived back in our 10 person dorm, tired and hungry and ready for dinner. We had each purchased food for what we thought would make a lovely dinner. 6 of us divided into groups of 3 and each attempted to make rice stir fries. However, I will tell you right now, none of us were successful in creating something edible. In fact my stir fry was so terrible, it made poor Nikki gag at the smell. Defeated and suddenly with a loss of appetite I decided to head to bed early, and for those of you back home who know me well...I never go to bed early. As I lay my head down on my pillow to rest, I opened my eyes briefly to suddenly be in a one on one staring contest with the largest spider I have ever seen in my 22 years of life on this earth. Appropriately, I screamed so loud that 9 of my fellow nursing students came running down the hall to my aid, swiftly to realize I was alive and well and the only task at hand was ensuring this spider was not cuddling me for the rest of that night. My much braver travel companions took it upon themselves to find our newest member of the house and tell the insect he was no longer welcome at the lodge. In doing so, we found yet another member behind my bedside table....which was in fact a quivering bat. I am quite surprised we did not wake up all of Western Province with our shrieks and pathetic cries as two very small creatures were now also our fellow roommates. In no orderly fashion and definitely not quietly, five of us discharged the creatures from our living quarters and I lay down to finally sleep. Exhausted, I fell asleep instantly. Only to be woken up at 3am hallucinating on behalf of my anti-malaria pills to think the flowers on my bed spread were tarantulas. It was that night I so strongly wished I was in the comfort of my own Canadian home, eating tortellini pasta and asking my dad to assist with any minor spider interactions.
It is now Tuesday and I am pleased to say my spirits have lifted immensely. We have finally figured out how to tackle our new cooking environment and which foods and techniques we need to adhere to such as which burners work and which ones do not on the stove top. We also had a beautiful candlelit dinner prepared by our instructors outside last night after watching the sunset on the african flood plains. We have also just returned from a very welcoming geographical tour of our new working hospital. To keep this blog post from rambling on too far, I have conducted a list below of the "firsts" I have experienced this week. I begin my rotation on the children's ward tomorrow and am sure I will have much more stories and lists to share after my clinical experiences. Thank you for reading and remember to check your pillows for spiders before you sleep tonight.
My "firsts" in my first week:
- Washed my own laundry by hand and hung to dry (I feel extremely spoiled typing that)
- Came face to face with a bat and a spider in one night (refer to above)
- Watched my friend be proposed to in the dairy aisle at the grocery store (she replied in a very Canadian manner and said "sorry no"
- Watched a football cup final and the country I was cheering for and living in won the gold (this does not happen when you are a football fan from Canada and Scotland)
- Purchased my first chitenga (a long traditional, Lozi skirt)....I am very short and will need to get my chitenga altered as when the wind picks up I look like a flag blowing in the breeze
- Bartered for eggs before purchasing
- Woke up to the sound of a tropical parrots
- Waited 3 hours for my dinner at a restaurant
- Witnessed a woman in active labour during our tour of the hospital
- Went for a run with 4-5 children running alongside me
- Got a sunburn during a nursing lecture
Thank you for reading and for your continued love and support. Talk soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment