Ahhhhhh!!!! So sorry it has taken me forever to start this blog! I tried using another site and posted like 8 times and it never worked! So 2.5 weeks in and I am finally starting. So they may be slow coming and in bundles at first...but I will catch up this week, I promise!
So this is my 5.5 week African adventure, hopefully from beginning to end. I was sent here mainly to do an elective in obstetrics and gynecology at the Pretoria Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa. I am travelling with 3 other fellow medical students and James my boyfriend will be joining a couple of us in 3 weeks to travel around, vacation, and finally get to meet some of my African family!!!!!
Day 1- January 28th-January 29th- I'm counting our whole travel experience as one day since that is what it seemed like...One horribly long day on the plane. We had not even got out of the Oklahoma City airport before I had spilt a diet coke all down the front of my white t-shirt, I already knew then that it was going to be a long trip. :) Through Dulles Washington D.C. we went and had a short layover there which for us was mainly spent on our phones syaing goodbye to family and friends. Actually, this was the first of many times that it struck me how ridiculously attached we are to our cell phones and e-mail etc....I am pointing the finger at myself as well, I honestly cannot imagine being without my phone. I think the years of my youth of growing up without a smart phone was barbaric (well not that intense but still...)
Anyways, got on the flight with only a small glitch. South African Airways actually weighs your carryon bag and it cannot weigh more than 8 kilos. Lorine, thinking she was smart packed all her heavy jeans and skirts and shoes into this bag so it would not count against her 50 pound weight limit in her checked suitcase. So after being forced to check my carryon was not fun especially because I had put all my jewelery and shoes in there and I had to take them all out and shove them in Justin's half empty bag. I had been warned by my Uncle and cousins that shoes were a hot commodity in South Africa (especially tennis shoes), and that they would be taken right out of your suitcase! Plane ride was the usual boring planeride. I could not sleep so I watched movie after movie and tried to get comfortable. The free wine helped. :) We did get a middle row with 4 seats for the 3 of us, Patrick, Justin and myself. That was nice. Two rows ahead of us was a family with a screaming child, and I mean screaming child. All 16 hours of the flight this kid was bellowing..I mean I have heard kids scream before but this was constant! I didn't understand how this kid's lungs had not given out yet...until I saw another head pop up and realized there were 2 of them! So when one would pipe down the other would start....it was a loooong flight!
Nima, the other student was supposed to arrive in Johannesburg at the same time we did but on another flight. Through texts and e-mails we found that his flight from OKC to Atlanta had been cancelled and he would have to join us the next day. Bummer!
We made it through customs without any glitches and my Auntie Cheryl was there to pick us up in her veto. Now the fun part. We knew that the hospital was in Pretoria but we only had a campus map and no big map to help us get there. Cheryl living in Krugarsdorp wasn't too familiar with Preotria or the hospitals in that area. So after driving for about an hour we eventually found the hospital. That was the easy part. By now it was dark and we needed to find our lodging and all we knew was that it was called the Medical Guesthouse. We stopped at probably 4 gates on the hospital property and noe of the security guards knew what we were talking about. They all sent us in different directions. One gate said they were fighting with the guards at the other gate so we hade to walk over there and ask them ourselves. This was our first experience of Africa.
We did finally find our lodging. It is nice, basic, clean, and simple. We are on the second story adn we each have our own room with a bed, desk, and sink. Then everyone on the floor shares 2 bathrooms and 2 showers and a kitchen and common area. We have 4 Zimbabweans and 1 man from Angola on the floor. They all are very nice. Time to sleep now....so exhausted.
Can't wait to see what Africa has in store for us tomorrow!
