I've had about 3 breakdowns since I've been here.
So let me just say...
A) I hate HIV
and
B) God, I pray for peace and understanding.
Love,
Mary Bette
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Updates are nice (:
Hello everyone! I'm sorry i've been so bad with my updating, I promise to try and do better, ok?
So another week has past and we are in our third week here in South Africa.
In the previous post you saw how we went to a Birds of Prey exhibit and showcase which was legit.
This past weekend, February 6th, we went to Umhlanga Beach in Durban! It was awesome. The nursing girls got to go on this separate excursion. I touched the Indian Ocean and swam in it. Haha. We soaked in the bright, bright sun and had a relaxing time. I was able to read and have some time with the nursing girls. After taking a quick shower, we headed off to the biggest mall in the Southern Hemisphere! It was HUGE. It had rock climbing, a theater (the Barnyard), a movie theater, restaurants, eateries, and hundreds of shops! Popular stores here are: GAME, Woolworths, Pick N' Pay, Clicks, and many others. I like how everyone here is so friendly and you can just talk to anyone. A popular cafe here is Mugg and Bean. All the students love it there. They have an excellent menu as well as great coffee and other drinks. After two hours of mall fun, eight of us girls plus Janet and SJ (our coordinators) went to a 70s themed concert at the Barnyard Theater. It was great and so much fun. It reminded me of my dad and all his favorite songs.
Clinicals on Tuesdays and Thursdays have been good and life changing. I love the people of Africa and I cannot stress this enough. My first week of clinical I was at East Boom Clinic which exposed me to HIV/AIDS first hand. My second week I was at Ethembeni in Mpophomeni. Ethembeni is run by volunteers. They give out food parcels and other needs to the community who are suffering with HIV or other ailments. They are Christian centered (as over 90% of South Africa is Christian) and therefore give spiritual care as well. We have home visits and check up on families. Most of them live in mud-houses that are dirty with flies everywhere. They may not have much, but they are rich in their faith with God. I am so happy that nursing is not only a profession, but also a ministry to the people. I know God has a purpose and I feel myself changing in ways I cannot explain.
Yesterday I was at Mason's Clinic. This clinic is not as "top-of-the-line" like East Boom, but it is wonderful nonetheless with the friendly staff and the amazing work that they do. I feel so much more respect for nurses and nursing as a profession being here in South Africa. They deal with a lot of frustration with non-compliance here, and I don't blame them.
I was able to draw blood for laboratory today! WHOO! (Yah, it's that big of a deal). I was so excited! We also saw some pretty crazy things like anal warts, an infected boob, a weird cyst on the vag, and planar warts on the face and legs.
Life here is good. Tea and eats are always nice. I weighed myself on the scale at Mason's clinic (haha) and I lost 4 pounds! Whoo! I think it's because we eat regularly here and get much needed exercise. Yesterday we had mini-apple pies for tea time which were divine!
Did I ever type out my schedule? No? Here it is:
Monday: Class All Day til 1600
Tuesday: Clinical 0800-1430
Wednesday: Class at 0800-0900. Free time. Class at 1845-whenever
Thursday: Clinical 0800-1430
Friday:Class All Day til 1600
Saturday: EXCURSION DAY!
Sunday: Church at 0840. Free time.
Food schedule: yah, it's that important [:
Breakfast is 0730 every day except on Tuesday & Thursday its at 0700. We pack our lunch on clinical days and leave by 0700 to be at our clinical sites at about 0800.
Tea and eats at 1015 ish
Lunch at 1300
Tea and eats AGAIN at 1600
Din Din at 1800
Yes, we eat a lot here but sometimes I skip breakfast and have a late breakfast at tea and I usually skip tea at 1600. It all depends on how tubby I feel. lols!
So yah, life's good. This Saturday's excursion consists of a hike in the Drakensburg to go see original Bushmen cave paintings as well as other famous landmarks. I will share these with you again next post.
Take care all! (:
So another week has past and we are in our third week here in South Africa.
In the previous post you saw how we went to a Birds of Prey exhibit and showcase which was legit.
This past weekend, February 6th, we went to Umhlanga Beach in Durban! It was awesome. The nursing girls got to go on this separate excursion. I touched the Indian Ocean and swam in it. Haha. We soaked in the bright, bright sun and had a relaxing time. I was able to read and have some time with the nursing girls. After taking a quick shower, we headed off to the biggest mall in the Southern Hemisphere! It was HUGE. It had rock climbing, a theater (the Barnyard), a movie theater, restaurants, eateries, and hundreds of shops! Popular stores here are: GAME, Woolworths, Pick N' Pay, Clicks, and many others. I like how everyone here is so friendly and you can just talk to anyone. A popular cafe here is Mugg and Bean. All the students love it there. They have an excellent menu as well as great coffee and other drinks. After two hours of mall fun, eight of us girls plus Janet and SJ (our coordinators) went to a 70s themed concert at the Barnyard Theater. It was great and so much fun. It reminded me of my dad and all his favorite songs.
Clinicals on Tuesdays and Thursdays have been good and life changing. I love the people of Africa and I cannot stress this enough. My first week of clinical I was at East Boom Clinic which exposed me to HIV/AIDS first hand. My second week I was at Ethembeni in Mpophomeni. Ethembeni is run by volunteers. They give out food parcels and other needs to the community who are suffering with HIV or other ailments. They are Christian centered (as over 90% of South Africa is Christian) and therefore give spiritual care as well. We have home visits and check up on families. Most of them live in mud-houses that are dirty with flies everywhere. They may not have much, but they are rich in their faith with God. I am so happy that nursing is not only a profession, but also a ministry to the people. I know God has a purpose and I feel myself changing in ways I cannot explain.
Yesterday I was at Mason's Clinic. This clinic is not as "top-of-the-line" like East Boom, but it is wonderful nonetheless with the friendly staff and the amazing work that they do. I feel so much more respect for nurses and nursing as a profession being here in South Africa. They deal with a lot of frustration with non-compliance here, and I don't blame them.
I was able to draw blood for laboratory today! WHOO! (Yah, it's that big of a deal). I was so excited! We also saw some pretty crazy things like anal warts, an infected boob, a weird cyst on the vag, and planar warts on the face and legs.
Life here is good. Tea and eats are always nice. I weighed myself on the scale at Mason's clinic (haha) and I lost 4 pounds! Whoo! I think it's because we eat regularly here and get much needed exercise. Yesterday we had mini-apple pies for tea time which were divine!
Did I ever type out my schedule? No? Here it is:
Monday: Class All Day til 1600
Tuesday: Clinical 0800-1430
Wednesday: Class at 0800-0900. Free time. Class at 1845-whenever
Thursday: Clinical 0800-1430
Friday:Class All Day til 1600
Saturday: EXCURSION DAY!
Sunday: Church at 0840. Free time.
Food schedule: yah, it's that important [:
Breakfast is 0730 every day except on Tuesday & Thursday its at 0700. We pack our lunch on clinical days and leave by 0700 to be at our clinical sites at about 0800.
Tea and eats at 1015 ish
Lunch at 1300
Tea and eats AGAIN at 1600
Din Din at 1800
Yes, we eat a lot here but sometimes I skip breakfast and have a late breakfast at tea and I usually skip tea at 1600. It all depends on how tubby I feel. lols!
So yah, life's good. This Saturday's excursion consists of a hike in the Drakensburg to go see original Bushmen cave paintings as well as other famous landmarks. I will share these with you again next post.
Take care all! (:
Monday, February 07, 2011
Birds of Prey
Okay, i'm sorry that i'm lagging. I really should be updating more! Sorry everyone ):
But.. ENJOI anyway (:
That's all folks!
But.. ENJOI anyway (:
 |
| He was flapping his wings for me |
 |
| Eagles! |
 |
| I loved this owl! HEY WAKE UP! |
 |
| This one was talking to me in Zulu. |
 |
| Look at those eyes! They were the size of your hand! Crazy! |
 |
| Bird show. |
 |
| These ones can fly up to 230 mph! |
 |
| I loved Birds of Prey! |
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Zebra
 |
| Model Zebra |
 |
| My favorite |
 |
| Peace, Zebra-dude! |
 |
| Good wide shot |
 |
| They're just like horses! Except, way better (: |
 |
| Gotta love those patterns! |
 |
| I love how they follow each other (: |
 |
| Here's some Impala, just for kicks. |
 |
| And, a lovely flower to end it (: |
<3Mary Bette
Friday, January 28, 2011
MAJOR MAJOR.
Oh boy, do I have a lot of explaining to do. Sorry everyone for the lack of updating. I've had my hands full trying to get everything in order I suppose. [=
I wanted to post the videos but it's giving me a hard time! Boo to this program that i'm using. It keeps shortening the videos and the editing feature is pretty whack ... this is when a MAC would totally be handy. *sigh*
Anyway when we arrived to Johannesburg (Joburg) after our combined total of a 21 hour flight, we got settled at the Road Lodge Hotel and were able to use 10 minutes of internet to let our families know how we were and that we were safe. We walked to a place nearby called the "Apple Bite" for dinner. I had a toasted cheese and tomato while others had the same, burgers, or a pizza. It was nice to hang out. They also took our order from a barcode system which was pretty smart.
The next day we would be going to Soweto, which is a township located a little bit outside of Joburg. It was really fun because our tour guide was amazing! She was really nice and pretty comedic. We visited the place where a monument of their constitution or bill of rights is. It is shaped like an ice cream cone and made of brick. A man there would play the South African national anthem via recorder and then a few songs with his nose! It was pretty hilarious. We also toured around and saw the Black Madonna Catholic church, Hector Pieterson monument, Nelson Mandela's house, Rev. Desmond Tutu's house, as well as the FIFA World Cup Stadium! Joburg was quite a busy place to be (:
We then went back to the airport and had to fly to Durban, South Africa. The drive was almost two hours but was pretty fun since we saw BEAUTIFUL landscape and were excited the whole time. We just wanted a place to stay and to finally see our campus. TIA TIA!! This is Africa!!! (: We even sang the Pokemon theme song. Awesome.
When we got there we had natives (probably Zulu?) do a dance for us and welcome us. Omann you guys I totally got all of this on video!! I hope to figure out how to post these things soon! Yah so we had a quick orientation and went to our rooms and ish. I have a video of the tour as well!
We went to church on Sunday at Papa Reg's parish which was called North Hills Church. It was a nice service and the people were very welcoming. But I still felt left out; like something was missing. Luckily, today Janet and SJ told me that they found a church for me. I AM SO GRATEFUL. MY HEART IS SINGING.
So for the past few days we have been going to to class and going to eat. Hahah and I mean EAT. We eat three full meals a day PLUS the two tea breaks (at 1030 and at 1600. The tea breaks are soooo good though because we get a respite from class and we usually get yummy biscuits (cookies)!!!
Clinical was at East Boom clinic which was really eye-opening and great!!! I love the African people and I can't wait for more experiences that will really test my mind, my heart and my soul (:
HIV/AIDS is really sad, I must admit. Also, the drugs can also be very detrimental with their side effects.
God is really working in our lives here.
We drove through the beautiful hills of townships such as Haniville, Copesville, Cinderella and around Mason's Clinic (an old farm mill turned into clinical site). We drove through farms and saw lots of sugar cane!!!! I mean, LOTS!!!
Haha, we also went into the downtown (busy, busy street) and I had to drop off paperworks for Sister (nurse) Glenda. She is a fun person to drive with, I must say. Let's just say.... you got to experience to believe it. Hahah speaking of driving, the roads here can be REALLLY steep and people stop in the middle of main intersections and can start backing up. CRAZY. lols.
Today was FRIDAY and another day of class. It was REALLY interesting. Ethics makes me happy.
When we got out of class (not for tea time)... when it actually ended, our classmates were on the slip and slide. I also have a video of this (pretty rad).
Also I saw a monkey today up to no good near the offices. lols. He had a white fruit in its mouth.
Tonight we had dinner with Janet since it was her 23rd birthday. Janet is one of the nicest and coolest gals here. She is one of our Community Life Coordinators (CLCs) and she really cares for us. The other CLCs are Reagan and Sarah Jane (SJ). Everyone here is wonderful. Did I mention HOW BEAUTIFUL our campus is?!?!
So yah on my facebook I posted pictures of our din din. I had calamari and a baked potato, so it was very American-like, but yummy! We had good fellowship with the nursing students as well as 5 other girls, but they were at another table. Lols, we played truth or dare on Janet's phone and Kelly pointed out that I make a peace sign and squint my eyes. omannn. Hahaha gotta love it!
Everything so far has been amazing. The only "complaint" I would have is the bugs, but whatev. Our room is a bit small, but its no big deal. We manage like beasts (: I'm getting used to it and loving it. Showers have been good lately and all that jazz.
Tomorrow we have our first official weekend excursion from AE (African Enterprise)! Too excited. Plus Lauren and I will be awake early tomorrow morning to go see the Zebra (:
Whoo!!! I can't wait.
Good night,, take care, *muah*
<3 Michie
I wanted to post the videos but it's giving me a hard time! Boo to this program that i'm using. It keeps shortening the videos and the editing feature is pretty whack ... this is when a MAC would totally be handy. *sigh*
Anyway when we arrived to Johannesburg (Joburg) after our combined total of a 21 hour flight, we got settled at the Road Lodge Hotel and were able to use 10 minutes of internet to let our families know how we were and that we were safe. We walked to a place nearby called the "Apple Bite" for dinner. I had a toasted cheese and tomato while others had the same, burgers, or a pizza. It was nice to hang out. They also took our order from a barcode system which was pretty smart.
The next day we would be going to Soweto, which is a township located a little bit outside of Joburg. It was really fun because our tour guide was amazing! She was really nice and pretty comedic. We visited the place where a monument of their constitution or bill of rights is. It is shaped like an ice cream cone and made of brick. A man there would play the South African national anthem via recorder and then a few songs with his nose! It was pretty hilarious. We also toured around and saw the Black Madonna Catholic church, Hector Pieterson monument, Nelson Mandela's house, Rev. Desmond Tutu's house, as well as the FIFA World Cup Stadium! Joburg was quite a busy place to be (:
We then went back to the airport and had to fly to Durban, South Africa. The drive was almost two hours but was pretty fun since we saw BEAUTIFUL landscape and were excited the whole time. We just wanted a place to stay and to finally see our campus. TIA TIA!! This is Africa!!! (: We even sang the Pokemon theme song. Awesome.
When we got there we had natives (probably Zulu?) do a dance for us and welcome us. Omann you guys I totally got all of this on video!! I hope to figure out how to post these things soon! Yah so we had a quick orientation and went to our rooms and ish. I have a video of the tour as well!
We went to church on Sunday at Papa Reg's parish which was called North Hills Church. It was a nice service and the people were very welcoming. But I still felt left out; like something was missing. Luckily, today Janet and SJ told me that they found a church for me. I AM SO GRATEFUL. MY HEART IS SINGING.
So for the past few days we have been going to to class and going to eat. Hahah and I mean EAT. We eat three full meals a day PLUS the two tea breaks (at 1030 and at 1600. The tea breaks are soooo good though because we get a respite from class and we usually get yummy biscuits (cookies)!!!
Clinical was at East Boom clinic which was really eye-opening and great!!! I love the African people and I can't wait for more experiences that will really test my mind, my heart and my soul (:
HIV/AIDS is really sad, I must admit. Also, the drugs can also be very detrimental with their side effects.
God is really working in our lives here.
We drove through the beautiful hills of townships such as Haniville, Copesville, Cinderella and around Mason's Clinic (an old farm mill turned into clinical site). We drove through farms and saw lots of sugar cane!!!! I mean, LOTS!!!
Haha, we also went into the downtown (busy, busy street) and I had to drop off paperworks for Sister (nurse) Glenda. She is a fun person to drive with, I must say. Let's just say.... you got to experience to believe it. Hahah speaking of driving, the roads here can be REALLLY steep and people stop in the middle of main intersections and can start backing up. CRAZY. lols.
Today was FRIDAY and another day of class. It was REALLY interesting. Ethics makes me happy.
When we got out of class (not for tea time)... when it actually ended, our classmates were on the slip and slide. I also have a video of this (pretty rad).
Also I saw a monkey today up to no good near the offices. lols. He had a white fruit in its mouth.
Tonight we had dinner with Janet since it was her 23rd birthday. Janet is one of the nicest and coolest gals here. She is one of our Community Life Coordinators (CLCs) and she really cares for us. The other CLCs are Reagan and Sarah Jane (SJ). Everyone here is wonderful. Did I mention HOW BEAUTIFUL our campus is?!?!
So yah on my facebook I posted pictures of our din din. I had calamari and a baked potato, so it was very American-like, but yummy! We had good fellowship with the nursing students as well as 5 other girls, but they were at another table. Lols, we played truth or dare on Janet's phone and Kelly pointed out that I make a peace sign and squint my eyes. omannn. Hahaha gotta love it!
Everything so far has been amazing. The only "complaint" I would have is the bugs, but whatev. Our room is a bit small, but its no big deal. We manage like beasts (: I'm getting used to it and loving it. Showers have been good lately and all that jazz.
Tomorrow we have our first official weekend excursion from AE (African Enterprise)! Too excited. Plus Lauren and I will be awake early tomorrow morning to go see the Zebra (:
Whoo!!! I can't wait.
Good night,, take care, *muah*
<3 Michie
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Yeah, i'm in love with flowers.
 |
| Roses are red, |
 |
| Violets are blue, |
 |
| Sugar is sweet, |
 |
| but, so are YOU! |
 |
| Friends are... |
 |
| flowers that... |
 |
| never fade. |
 |
| <3 |
Enjoy everyone (: I will make a massive update soon.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Photographs as promised...
 |
| Inside the Ice Cream Cone (the Freedom Tower) Look at the Cross it makes (: |
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| South African Flag. Awesome. |
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| My man, Mandela, inside a Black Madonna Church |
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| Amazing Beauty. Yah it's like this everywhere. |
 |
| Food was DELICIOUS! |
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| Driving through Joburg/Soweto |
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| FIFA World Cup |
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| Inside the Apartheid Museum |
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| Those men danced for me. Lols. |
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| Yes, it's a party that we've arrived. |
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| 4 mile hike around the Game Reserve right next to our campus (A.E.)... Beasts! |
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| Yah, it's breathtaking. |
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| For your wallpapers. Your welcome. |
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