Week 2 of Clinical: Tafelsig Clinic

So this past week I was at Tafelsig Clinic. This clinic is in the poorest of the poor area of Cape Town where people literally have nothing. People come to the clinic and will wait all day in a room with 100s of other sick people just to be seen or to get a medication they cannot afford otherwise. When you first walk in the clinic you are surrounded by a sea of sick people all waiting on benches rocking their sick babies or suppressing their own coughs. The first day at Tafelsig, I was placed in the immunization room with one of the Sisters. I watched her immunize the first bunch of kids and she showed me the different vaccines that were to be given at each age group. When I was finally comfortable it was my turn to give the immunizations and I have to say it was definitely not my favorite thing to do. Imagine an adorable 6 month old baby coming in smiling up at you wanting to trust you… and then having to stab them repeatedly in each appendage. Not a fun experience. The babies leave the room screaming and looking at you with these big tear-felt eyes that seem to say “how could you do that to me?? I trusted you!!” Needless to say immunizing kids was not my favorite task of the day. However, I know it’s in the best interest of these kids because they out of all people especially need these vaccines!

On the second day at Tafelsig I was placed in the “baby weighing area” so you can imagine what went on there. My day consisted of “triaging” patients or rather having baby after baby undress and lie on a scale while I get their weight and then take their temperature. I then asked the mother what symptoms or problems the baby was having and sent them on to the next room to be seen at. It was an extremely busy day and a lotta bit chaotic especially since everyone around me seemed to be shouting something in Afrikaans that I did not understand. However, for my first day in that area I think I did a pretty good job and pretty much kept my cool throughout the chaos. All in all definitely felt like I made a difference at the clinic and helped these sick babies get seen sooner by the Sisters so that they could get the medication they needed or further treatment if necessary.

This Wednesday I had the day off from clinical so I had a nice relaxing day to myself. I was sitting outside on a warm sunny day lounging by the pool and studying for my exam for most of the day. However, when I got up to bring my stuff inside my phone fell out of my grasp and bounced once dislodging the battery and the backcover and dropping the only important part of the phone into the pool. Of course right? Luckily Ben (the RA) was able to provide me with a new phone that worked with my SIM card!! Still owe him 350 rand though ☹. So after that chaos subsided another scary event occurred. I was sitting in the pool house minding my own business when one of the girls came running in saying that a man was at our front door (meaning that he had somehow made it through our front gate). We were all freaked out and decided to investigate to see if he was really there so we headed into the main house. One of the girls from the pool house grabbed a kitchen knife for back up and we snuck up to the front of the house. Sure enough there was a strange man at the door. We immediately panicked and called Ben (who clearly is a lifesaver) and Harry our landlord. Harry told us that his assistant did our laundry and should be there to drop it off so we went to the front and cracked the window to inquire as to who this strange man was. Sure enough it was the laundry-guy so we awkwardly opened all of the bolted doors and accepted our laundry. Moral of the story? Better safe than sorry when in Cape Town!

So tomorrow I have 7 hours of classes and then more study time for my exam on Friday! Good night!