Bean Leaves/DDG: So, you'll have to check out some of the videos i posted on here, but this night was incredible. The University of Botswana had some international student orientation business (which none of us Penn nurses attended cuz we slept in too late still adjusting from jet-lag! :-)), but we were still invited to the "traditional botswanan dinner" out in some village on tuesday night. First of all, this "village" they spoke of was deceiving: i was thinking it was going to be out in some hut and all, but this woman's house was POSH. it was like a mansion out on some farm, with an outdoors area for all the students to sit and eat and talk. After introductions of about 30+ international students, we formed a long line buffet style for dinner. It was not that good, but i was really happy to experience a traditional dinner. And there was this alcoholic drunk mexican who kept interrupting introductions...so short story: The introductions included name and favorite drink, so when it got to the mexican PH student in the circle, and he said "tequila", the drunken mexican guy was like "Ehhhh!!!! TEQUILA!!! Corona!? Mi amigo!" and it was hilarious. the shy germans were very put off but it was a good time, and it wasn't til later that the host (big african woman in red in the first pic) announced that he was her husband! We had a LONG laugh about that and continued to enjoy our meals...(my favorite part being the bean leaves which were hella salty, mixed with the white BLAND-ASS sorghum which is what the states uses to feed livestock!)
Pic 1: The meal (clockwise from the bread): Bread biscuits, bean leaves and veggies (REALLY salty), some small portion of meat i accidentally grabbed, white corn/sorghum stuff that is apparently fed to livestock in the states (it was incredibly bland and tasted a bit like plastic), semp or kemp or something high in fiber that they feed to malnourished kids here, and some sweet sauce thing that i dipped the bread in.
Pic 2: Ginna and Andrea's response to the meal provided above, lol
Pic 3: Komal and I havin' a grand time singing.
Video 1: The host is on the right, dancing and singing, and two other students, from UBotswana but who studied in the states for one year are on the left, singing at dancing as well. we are all clapping along to the beat:)
After dinner, we sat around and got taught traditional setswana dance and song, and it was KICK ASS. there were probably 5 botswanan students who just got back from studying in the states for one year, mainly at Kalamazoo College in Michigan (WTF!?), and they took trips to CA and their favorite place was (drumroll please....) San Francisco, DUH! she said she loved it, and they all clung to be instantly. obviously, me, the californian who loves SF and we hit it off. it was fun....then we played games. and we played this version of Duck-Duck-Goose and it was SO FUN! kinda random, but after they (the hosts) were all done showing us games and songs, they asked us if we had anything to teach them. One of the germans (random) taught everyone "if you're happy and you know it..." so we had a grand ol time shakin our booties to that. after like 5 hours of playing, we finally left on the trip back home in the Combi van seating 15 or so of us. crazy...everytime we go somewhere, i think we're gonna get taken off to some slaughterhouse like in hostel, lol.......thanks for making me worry dad! ;-)
Video #2: Follow-the-Leader Type dance, i am at the end in my red sweatshirt, peacing out at the end of the line...
Hippie Beliefs/HIV Politics: So, i don't have any pics of my instructor, Jodi, yet, but i wanted to talk about her for a bit. Jodi, Jenny, and I visited Mallach house yesterday, which is a house that Penn owns that houses all the visiting MDs when they come to work here every couple months. In the car ride back from Mallach House, i was asking Jodi about HIV and the politics and she is EXACTLY like me: she was basically saying how here, adults don't get put on ART (Anti-Retroviral Therapy to control their HIV) until they are "really sick", as in stage 4 HIV, which is classified as progression from HIV to AIDS, and their CD4 counts are as low as 0-4. I got enraged, and so did Jodi. She prefaced this conversation
with "I am extremely biased in my opinion, so i am not sure i should go blabbing about it", but it's all corrupt bureaucracies and politics associated with paying for the meds. New patients will come in and get counseled on HIV preventions, but will be turned away from drugs because they "aren't sick enough". We all talked about how Penn and other associations paid with PEPFAR money (PEPFAR: President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. go here for more info: http://www.pepfar.gov/about/) spend their money on brand-new beautiful buildings, and pill counters for the MDs and pharmacists, and how they are salaried in the high triple-digits and how none of the money gets trickled down to the people dying of AIDS who actually need it. It makes me sick. and one of the residents at Penn in ID work has talked with me extensively about PEPFAR and how Bush's signing of this bill to aide African nations in the fight against AIDS is the biggest in history, however it focuses 60% or so of the relief money to Christian Organizations which PREACH abstinence, which DOES N
OT WORK.(Both sides of the debate: FOR abstinence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Against Abstinence (this video kills me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Make your own decision!)
So, Jodi and I went back and forth agreeing with each other for a while, and how POOR the policies the Bush Administration has administered are regarding abstinence-only education, and the Global Gag Order..
(Against: http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.bayswan.org/
For it: I couldn't find any official sites FOR it...how funny....google is pretty good at finding stuff too!)
...which mandates anti-abortion policies for clinics in Africa receiving US Aide, which leads to abortions being performed illegally and incorrectly, leading to poor women's health. Ugh, anyways, it was amazing to know that this awesome instructor of our's shares nearly the same opinions on all subjects related to our trip here! Jodi ROCKS!
MDR/XDR: So, Jenny and I met with a nurse and an MD from the HIV/TB clinic where we'll be working for the next 4 weeks, yesterday. They said we'll be in contact with MDR/XDR (Multi-Drug Resistant and Extensively Drug Resistant) Tuberculosis. Ugh.....i was so intrigued and kinda scared, but this is the kinda work i wanna do. Once i told them i used to counsel people in STIs and sexual health, the nurse piped up and was like "we could use you at the clinic to counsel new patients who have seroconverted (HIV- to HIV+, new status), because the first step is counseling the patients about safe sex and HIV prevention (Um, HI. My name is derek, and that is my specialty!). At first, they were both apprehensive to have students at this busy clinic of their's, but after seeing how excited we were when we met with them at Mallach House, they were fine. I will be working there M, Tu, Th from 7:30-4ish, racking up clinical hours, but moreso racking up experience. Every other week Jenny and I will be switching off between the HIV portion/management of the clinic and the TB portion. Then, the last week we're here, we'll be doing outpatient visits to/from people's houses, who have TB, which is awesome. There is also the option of flying up to the NE border of Botswana/Zimbabwe and working with Zimbabwean refugees from the civil war there from the election, cuz there is apparently NO food and killings and lots of IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), but some of the other girls wanna do that. While i would LOVE to do that and help with aide, house-building/shelter/food and healthcare, but i'll stick to my HIV/TB clinics, as that most pertains to my future as an HIV/ID NP.
Pic to the right: Yana, Andrea, and I making dinner in the dorm and getting ready to see the Dark Knight at the local cinemas!
1 comment:
That dinner looks gross! I feel for you guys
PS- derek you're cute
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