Saturday, June 25, 2011

Whats next?

this morning I head out to Mochudi to live with another family for a week in a different environment. its suppose to give us the "rural" village experience, however we have heard that is not too much different from Gabs. I guess we will see! we'll all be working in clinics again for the entire week, but were told to expect less people to be fluent in English or know any at all. Might be a challenge. I am not bringing my computer because its highly unlikely that my new family will have internet let alone electricity. So you wont hear from me until at least next sunday, possibly not until Wed or Thurs because we are headed to a rhino sanctuary in Serowe (Eastern Botswana about 3 or so hours from Gaborone).

All I know about my family is that they are farmers, they have 2 older children who don't live at home, then a 24 year old and a 3 year old. I also will probably be sharing a room with someone because the houses in the village are smaller. Might have an outhouse, doubtful I'll have hot water, probably will have to get water from an outside pump. Also had to pack for 9 days in my school backpack so this will be a fun week!

Thursday was another day at Broadhurst 3. I spent the morning moving between the family planning/reproductive health and pharmacy. I talked to the pharmacist about traditional healing and how that coexists with modern medicine. I then spent the afternoon sitting in with the doctor, saw a few interesting cases like tape worm and potential meningitis, but other than that it was a lot of "flus" (common colds), and genital exams.

Yesterday we visited a traditional healer in the morning. He was from Zimbabwe and told us about how he became a healer, how he came to botswana, and what types of things he treats. It was really interesting although kinda scary when he was talking about this air pump and doing witchcraft. He sees his ancestors in his dreams and they tell him where to go to look for medicines. After the healer we went to Gaborone Game Reserve to make lunch. We were so excited because there were a few monkeys in the trees, but as we started cooking they came from all over and started jumping on tables and running under people's feet to get food. One stole a bag of chips and ran up a tree, opening it and making it rain chips. Another one jumped on the table stealing food from a girls plate and tipping over drinks. Another one pooped on someones arm. And I tried to chase one away but when I turned around it tried to grab my ankle. Those cute monkeys turned into being a nuisance. Last night be went to Bull and Bush to have dinner and a few drinks for Randi's birthday. The music started up and we ended up dancing until after 12, lots of fun!

Time for some adventures, back in a week!

1 comment:

  1. I hope you are taking pictures of your "families" and your "home" - I'd love to see them :) Those monkeys (and you know I LOVE monkeys) can be quite nasty - when I was in Africa, we had to "hide" stuff - otherwise they would steal - anything from car keys to towels to jewelry!!! I really look forward to your posts - thanks for letting us know it will be awhile till your next one....stay safe! XOXOXXOXO

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