Madame Zingara!

A few weeks old now but...

June 16: Madame Zingara's Theater of Dreams!

Friday night we spent all evening going through the dress-up boxes stashed around the house in preparation for our night out to  Madame Zingara's Theater of Dreams on Saturday. The decision making in itself was an absolute riot -but nothing in comparison to last night!

Saturday morning we started out at China Mart to pick up the bling and fish-net stockings still missing from our decided outfits. Then went to the Neighbourgoods market, which is a saturday market near downtown which has locally made clothing, wine, and the most unbelievable food! It was similar to the version I went to in Cape Town but still great to poke around at and the people watching was out of control!

 

 Then, each with a glass of red-wine in hand, we all got ready together to go to the casino!

It was an absolute riot to make the trek from the parking lot to the theatre which required a long walk through through the mall (including the food court) where we (especially Mark) turned more than a few heads.

The show was in an antique belgian circus tent which was lined with mirrors and absolutely beautiful!

They served dinner through-out the show. 5 courses in total, and all of them delicious.



The show itself had some incredible cirque-du-soiler -esque acrobatics/feats of strength/ contortionists/jugglers and trapeze artists (all in incredible costumes!) and all MC'd by a clown/host who I suspect is a great fan of the film Caberet!

It also included several musical numbers by "Cathy Specific" (the glamourous drag queen 'flight-attendant' in the photo right) and her co-hostesses "holly" and "molly" . They were absolutely incredible - and really talented! The night ended with nearly the whole room dancing up on stage - it really was too much too be believed!

Cricket in the Free State and Other South African Things

Neglectful again! 

I don’t know how this keeps happening… I type up even my most mundane adventures thinking of you all, and then every time I plug into the internet it slips right out of my head… 


Case in point: the lizard I shared a washroom with during our road trip south. I called him Terrance. Thought you should meet. 

May 27: Cricket in the Free State!

This weekend we went to Villinsgrout The small farming town in the Free State where Mark grew up and where his family still farms. It was his nephew’s 30^th birthday party so almost his whole family was there and a ton of friends of the family  (about 50 of us in total) who came to drink and eat and celebrate! The party was great and I met all kinds of really wonderful people! Then the next morning (after sufficient quantities of coffee) we played cricket!! Luckily both Mark’s nephew and his friend coached cricket professionally so I could not have asked for better guidance when I stepped up to the wicket (that’s right!) for the first time! It was a ton of fun - but a lot of rules - and I’m still not convinced that I’d last watching an entire game (which range in length from 1-5 days). 

The only unsettling part of an otherwise incredible weekend was before the party on Saturday a couple of us decided to go to the pub to watch the rugby game. We drove past several bars that seemed to be full of people until we came to a white bar. They are  not officially segregated, but owners will close down for the night if a group of the wrong coloured people come through the door (they said it had happened at the bar they were at the night before). 2 days later I still don’t have words… 

June 1: The Canadians Arrive!

Last week at the PHRU was not terribly eventful, the project is currently struggling with a funding SNAFU so everything is just a little bit crazy which makes things a little slow. 

This weekend, 2 PhD students from Canada arrived to stay in the same home I am. They are working on a really neat project involving body mapping (I suggest a google-image search - its a new art therapy/discovery/research method) and at-risk youth. 

We had a large (and boisterous) welcome party Friday night with some friends and then shopped off our hangovers at Woolworths in the EastGate Mall Saturday morning. 

On Sunday we went to the China Mart which is absolutely bursting with the most beautiful scarves - I’ll admit, there was not a lot of self-control exercised - but it was a ton of fun. 

We have also all decided to go on a fitness kick at the villa, and to that end we are going to combine the km we each do on  the treadmill and the stationary bike and see if we can make it from here to Durban before the girls fly there for their conference at the end of the month (about 600km). This weekend we are off to a pretty strong start, but they are flying to Cape Town on Wednesday and I am responsible for holding down the daily minimum all alone for the week…. 

June 13

Winter has finally set in; the temperature here is like late October (10-12 during the day and 2-3 at night - there was even frost on the grass this morning!), the difference is that without insolation and really limited heating (also a habit of keeping windows and doors open) means that even indoors are cold so you tend to spend your entire day hugging yourself to keep warm. Luckily because half of our patients are babies, our clinic gets special treatment when it comes to heating so I’ve not yet had to resort to drastic measures at work. 

This weekend we went to a comedy fundraiser for a friend’s son who broke his neck while on vacation in the US and is trying to raise money for rehab-therapy. The show was absolutely hysterical. Mel Miller was the big name draw, he is apparently quite famous here and has had a pretty long career. There were also three younger comedians who were all very funny. Luckily none of it was in Afrikaans (which I was worried about going in - I’ve learned from experience there is not a faster way to make it painfully clear the joke went over your head than to have the punchline hit in a language everyone knows you don’t speak. Awkward-face). We were all also thankful that our table had been moved from the front row because one can only imagine what kind of direction the show would have taken when the joke starts “A Canadian, 5 gay guys (including a member of parliament), and 3 teenage boys from the township walk into a bar…”   It was a really really fun time though!

At work this week I am working on a new project while we wait for the results from the blood tests to come in. This project is about cervical cancer rates in HIV-infected women. It is a really interesting study and I am really getting my tuition’s worth out of BioStats. 

Hello Soweto!

Apologies to my fan(s) (miss your face C-Beats) I’ve been terribly neglectful, but no more! 

Tuesday May 15:

Today was absolute madness at the clinic because not only were there twice the number of patients (because of all the appointments that were missed yesterday) but the power was out until just after 10 which meant a great deal of the morning was dedicated to tracking down a place in one of the generator-powered sections of the hospital where we could plug in the centrifuge. This afternoon I helped one of the study coordinators track down patient files and check through recording discrepancies. Got a good taste of the administrative mess that comes with running a project like this. I am still waiting for the red tape to clear around my access to the infant data. Apparently I have walked in at the exact moment of utmost turmoil for the project. Issues about funding and an announcement of canceling the study yesterday has absolutely everyone flying around the ceiling with stress. Not a great time to be a fresh arrival but everyone is still really friendly, and I’m getting great exposure to the South African Soap Opera scene which plays almost constantly in our clinic’s waiting room. 

Friday May 18:

This week i started making baby steps towards learning the ropes at the PHRU. Thursday I went with some of the nurses into Soweto for patient recruitment. It got to see some of the other clinics - drove past the block were Nelson Mandella’s house is (it was a few streets over but I”m going to make a trip back to see the museum inside). Soweto is an interesting mix between enormous glass-and-steel malls, subdivisions of various-sized brick houses each with a wall edging the compound and informal settlements of small square tin houses. The whole place is incredibly vibrant, with fruit stalls and outdoor hair salon on every corner, and people absolutely everywhere. Apparently you can bungee-jump from the top of the old reactors (see the picture), but I have yet to convince anyone at work to do it with me. 

Monday May 21:

This weekend my project’s study coordinator (and head nurse) invited me to stay with her and her family in Krugerdorp. She has two daughters, one in highschool and one in second year university - and it was absolutely wonderful just to be able to sit around and hang out with the whole family. We watched The Help and a couple of DVDs of a South African comedian named Trevor Noah. He is apparently touring the states at the moment - but he is absolutely fantastic! His stuff is really funny - but also really educational in terms of South African culture, politics, history etc. etc. Hope he’s this funny when there isn’t someone to fill in all the gaps for me! 

Friday May 25:

This week I got to sit in on the Provincial (Gutang) Meeting for AIDS comprehensive care. It was a gathering of all the district heads from across the province to talk about their successes and failures in attempting to meet various HIV-related targets (such as number of male & female condoms handed out, number of medical male circumcisions completed, +ve test rate, overall proportion of population tested, % of HIV+ antenatal women (about 20%!)) It was really interesting to hear them talk both about the administrative stuff and about the more practical issues that were hindering meeting the targets each district had been set.

One of the major issues brought up were drug shortages due to the inability of contracted suppliers to keep up with demand - which absolutely broke my heart - one woman made a very passionate speech about the unacceptability of shortages of Nevirapine syrup (which they give to newborns to prevent them from contracting HIV from their mothers) she spoke of being trusted to protect innocent souls from a lifetime of disease at a time when they had no control over their own health, life, or destiny. It was both incredible and devastating. 

Another big issue was a chronic shortage of condoms which did not seem to be resolved when the meeting ended after the second day. 

The third major issue was low numbers of medical male circumcisions, which had been a big focus of this year (evident by the huge number of billboards, posters and radio ads encouraging men to man up and get circumcised). The numbers were way below the targets that had been set, some mentioned that there were not many sites offering the service (only 2 in the City of Johannesburg District). 

The Hector Peiterson Memorial in Soweto 

It was most interesting to contrast this 2 day meeting of the higher-ups with a second trip to the clinics in the area (I went straight from the meeting on Wednesday to Soweto) which were different than the clinics we had visited last week. At one of them they were building a brand new building exclusively for MMC (medical male circumcision). We went into the clinic and found it was literally packed to standing room only. More than 50 people were crowding the waiting room (only 2 hours until the clinic closed for the night) and only 2 nurses were on duty to help them. We spoke to the head matron who was running the antenatal clinic, the HIV wing, the chronic and the acute wards by herself. I asked who was going to perform the procedures and run the new centre. She shrugged and said they were always unterstaffed, then shrugged again and shook her head. Not once had staff shortages come up during the provincial meeting, but it came up again, and again as the single greatest concern at almost all the clinics we visited that afternoon. Interest to see the disconnect first-hand, crushing to see it at such a fundamental level. 

This weekend I am headed to the Free State to visit Mark’s family! It’s supposed to be cold but very pretty! Keep you posted!

xxo

Someone sent this to Fildah - an article about how a politician in Zimbabwe thinks the HIV problem is fuelled by women being to beautiful  

Penguins and Mountain Climbing

I've been hoarding posts on my computer because the wifi at the hostel in Cape Town was a touch temperamental. But I am now in Joburg and prepared with both internet and tales of adventure:

Wednesday:

Wednesday I met up with Kristin at a coffee shop at greenmarket square and we caught the train out to Simon's Town. It was a gorgeous ride along the coast - lots of colourful surfing shacks and pretty sea-side towns. There, we went to see the penguins at Boulder Park, they were funny to watch waddle in and out of the waves but mostly they just sunbathed with their babies (the brown ones). We stopped at Klemps Bay on the way back for some antique/art shopping, and then made our way back into town.

Thursday

Thursday I climbed Table Mountain with 3 Canadian guys I met at the hostel (2 working the oil rigs in Alberta, and 1 Torontonian making his way home after 2 years teaching english in Korea). It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes straight up, and corrected any notions I may have had about being in shape. But after 10 minutes of sitting collapsed and panting at the top, the creeping sense of accomplishment definitely began to feel worth it. Initially we were above and inside the clouds so I was really irritated that I'd busted myself to be swaddled in white, but they moved past and the view was absolutely stunning. I however ran out of batteries precisely 45 minutes into the climb so this is the best I can share with you

Friday/Saturday

Friday I met with a good friend of mine from University who is studying in Stellenbosch (about 45 minutes from Cape Town) he came and picked me up, we drove to his place. I went with him to Basketball practice (he runs a program for highschool kids in the township nearby) which was an unbelievable amount of fun! After we toured the campus and then met up with his friends for dinner and some drinks and pool at a bar near by. Saturday he had to study so I (back in Cape Town) went to the Neighbour Market at the Old Biscuit Mill which is kind of a local/organic/artisan outdoor market where there are enough free samples of delicious food that you could do a lap and consider it lunch! I went back to the company gardens and toured around a bit, then went back to the hostel for dinner and turned in for an early night because Sunday was the big flight to Joburg!

Sunday/Monday

Yesterday I arrived in Johannesburg! The flight was a little less than 2 hours and rather uneventful. The man I'm staying with (a friend of my Profs) came and picked me up at the airport, then I spent the day chatting with him, touring the house and unpacking my bag. 

Today was my first day at the hospital! It's absolutely massive but conspicuously empty of patients because of the Taxi strike that happened today. Here "Taxi" refers to a mini-bus that runs in the place of public transit but has a chaotic and rather unreliable schedule known only to the locals. According to the news the strike will end tomorrow, so (fingers crossed) people should be able to come in for their appointments. Not particularly eventful as a first day of work but intriguing and as good a day as any to start feeling out my place in all of this. 

32 Hours Later

After 32 hours in transit (including some truly excellent UK-themed reunions) I am finally in Cape Town! It is incredibly pretty, really interesting just to wander around in, and has more used book stores than any place I’ve ever seen! The weather today was really sunny and warm but it’s cooled down a lot since the sun’s gone in. 

After a long, hot shower at the hostel, I met up with a friend from McGill who is just about to head home after almost a year working in Cape Town. It was a riot to see her again - we picked up take out from her favourite restaurant and then took it to the park to catch-up while we ate. We then met up with a friend of hers to do some souvenir shopping at the greensquare market (so they would both be prepared with adequate gifts when they arrived home). The market is a large square of stalls overflowing with a varied collection of mementos of SA. Wooden masks and beaded jewelry seem to be the staple items but there were also paintings, soap-stone carvings, scarfs and safari-themed knick-knacks. I was too tired to join her and her friends for dinner but rumour has it they have discovered the best burgers in all of South Africa. Now off to bed - there aren’t words to describe how excited I am to finally sleep lying-down. 
More Soon xx  

Table Mountain

SOUTH AFRICA: The Sequel

This week I'm flying out to South Africa for my work placement with the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) in Soweto. The work that they are doing is incredibly cool and I am unbelievably excited to go! My piece of the project is looking at how the drugs used to treat pregnant mothers for TB might be effecting the drugs they give the babies to prevent HIV transmission. Sounds complicated but I'm assured it comes with field-trips! 

Now all that's left to do is decide which of my work pants will come out the other side of a 30 hour flight in my backpack with the most socially acceptable number of wrinkles. 

More soon!

Rwanda

In Rhungeri we trekked gorillas in Volcano national park which was unbelievably fabulous. The gorilla group was 9 and we found all of them just chilling out under this clump of trees - so we got to go underneath into the clearing with them so there were 4 of us and 9 gorillas all staring at each other in this little 8m canopy cover. The little ones were curious and came almost close enough to reach out and touch. I nearly had a heartattack when 'charles' the massive (200kg) silverback ran at us at full speed pounding his chest, but the guide just laughed and gave me a little pat on the arm because it makes you a silly white girl to react the car-sized monkey.
We went back to Kigale to catch a bus south to Butare (because all roads really do lead to Rome, all buses only go to and from the capital). Butare was quiet, but the view from absolutely everywhere in Rwanda is fantastic, which made just wandering the town a nice way to spend the afternoon. Danielle and I went to the National Museum in the morning while the others went to one of the memorials outside the city. Then Dave, Danielle and I got back on a bus to Rome and spent the afternoon wandering the old neighbourhood in Kigale. We spent a good part of the next day at the Genocide memorial which was incredibly intense, but really well done. Yesterday we wandered the outdoor markets in Kigale, and took motos (everyone in Kigale rides motorcycle taxis because car taxis are hard to come by and cost an absolute fortune) all the way to the north end of the city to go to the movie theater we had thought was playing a local-made film about the genocide. Turns out the cinema shut down 3 years ago and our guide book is slightly outdated. We sat at a bar with a pretty view of the city for a few hours, then taxied to the airport at 1am for our 4 am flight. Dave is going to bus across Uganda, and Danielle is right now on her connecting flight to amsterdam - so the original 6 has officially fallen apart. But the other Malawi group has seen fit to adopt me so we are now a group of 7.
We landed in Nairobi at 6:30 and convinced the YMCA to let all of us sleep in a 3-bed dormroom until our other rooms were ready. Very cosy - but so desperate for a nap. Today is a public holiday in Kenya, so not much is open, but the city itself is interesting and this is the first time we've been allowed to roam the city.