"Do you enjoy the smiling faces and smelly bottoms?"

That is what one of our taxi drivers asked us when he was dropping us off at the hospital one day this week and thought it would be a fun title. Taxi rides always provide interesting conversation.
It’s been a good week… I’m having a low-key quiet night so it’s a good time to update the blog.
Monday.
It was just Danielle and I at the hospital today, Caroline’s parents are still in town and they went away for the weekend. It was a good day, busy with surgeries, dressing changes, and lots of playtime. We have these 2 boys from Congo and Zimbabwe that are here to have their Keloid scars removed. They are precious boys, full of energy, and are ages 4 and 5. They will probably be here for a few months, so we are getting to know them well. They like to invade my “personal space,” but their need for attention and love outweigh my space issues. They hang on us from the moment we walk onto the ward till we leave and they really do bring so much life and joy to the ward. I was really tired today and had to take a nap after work before I could even think about doing anything else. I then went on my hiking trail (the one around the base of Table Mountain, it’s takes a little more than a hour from the time I leave my door and back and is a good workout). Then tonight Danielle and I were able to check something else off our Cape Town bucket list by having a cupcake and hot chocolate at the corner bookstore and looking at children’s books. It was so fun and we found a few great books. Now we want to go at least once a week till I leave.
Tuesday.
The Hospital was good. Tuesdays seem to be a little bit slower (probably in preparation for madness Wednesdays). I continue to love my time at the hospital, loving the kids and trying to make a positive impact on their hospitalization. Our transportation for the hospital consists of taxi in the morning and bus in the afternoon. Taking the bus is not my favorite part of Cape Town and my least favorite thing about working at the hospital. It’s not so much the bus that I dislike, but the waiting for the bus. You never know when it comes and in the past we have been lucky catching the bus and it comes within 10 minutes. Well this week, we have not been so lucky and the waiting can become frustrating, especially when buses pass the stop and not stop and we don’t know why. During our wait for the city bus, mini buses (which is a mini van that cram as many people into it as possible) pass by trying to convince us by yelling out the window to ride into the city with them. I will say that it is tempting, because we don’t have to wait, but they are not the safest ride and I probably would have stories about the experience that I don’t need to have. So we’ll just continue to wait patiently for the city bus. So today after waiting 30 minutes for the bus and still no bus, we decided to venture down the street to a store called Mr. Price. We heard that they have clothing for cheap and wanted to check it out. It was fun to look around, the sizes are different, reminded me of mini Old Navy and Danielle and I each found something to buy, she was more excited for her new hoodie than I was for my long sleeve shirt that I needed because it’s getting colder here and I don’t have many warm clothes. After work Danielle and I ran some errands and in the midst found a new cookie named “Melting Moment.” I only share this because I loved the name of it, eating it was almost like a melting moment… shortbread cookie that melts in your mouth covered in chocolate… amazing!
Since today is Cinco de Mayo we decided to celebrate by eating Mexican food. We went to a small Mexican restaurant. We had a reservation for 15 and since there was another large group inside we had to sit outside and wait for the other group to order before we could even look at menus because they didn’t have enough. It was pretty good food, Danielle and I split some nachos. They funniest part of they day was that our friends from England had no idea what Cinco de Mayo is. They both received a text message asking them if they wanted to go to dinner and they both were confused by the text, my roommate Pippa thought it had something to do with mayonnaise and Lucie literally thought the girl who sent the text was borrowing Cinco de Mayo’s phone asking to go out to dinner. The text read: “It’s Cinco de Mayo, do you wanna go out to dinner?” I love that having friends from different cultures and learning from them and teaching them some our traditions as well.
Wednesday.
It’s our early morning at the hospital; we get there by 7:00am for the marathon of dressing changes. It’s the day where every child is “opened,” there dressings are removed so the doctors can have grand rounds and discuss what needs to be done next. Since every child is opened and then closed and outpatients come in as well, Danielle and I (Caroline was sick) did about 48 dressing changes with-in 3 ½ hours. I know the number is crazy high so you can just imagine how tired we are mentally and physically. I also was hit today from a mother as I was bringing her baby back to her, saying I was bad. I think she assumed I was a nurse and views the dressing change as a mean, bad thing and not something that is helping her baby. It definitely catches you off guard and not sure how to handle it, especially when we don’t even speak the same language. After the dressing changes and Danielle and I took our “tea break,” we found the older kids in a music therapy session. I always loved our music therapy days back at Phoenix Children’s, so I was excited to see a music therapist. The kids were rocking out, playing the guitar, shakers, and drums. I loved watching them and to see how much fun they were having. Chris the music therapist let us join in for the last song.
Thursday.
Today was a great day! It always starts with our taxi ride, changing into our scrubs, gathering our toys and supplies, and off to the ward we go. As we walked by theatre one of our patients was about to go back, so I quickly put on my booties and off I went to meet him and his mom. This is a boy that I have worked with the last couple of days. He is 6 and his whole back was burned from a hot water kettle. He had skin grafts on his back and today in theatre they were going to do skin grafts on his arm. I spent some time with him and his mom until they went into the theatre. The ward didn’t have a lot going on with dressing changes, so I was able to spend the whole morning just playing with the kids. We have several school age children right now, so play groups are a lot of fun. Even though they also consist of hitting, whining, complaining that they other took their toy, etc, all while trying to teach them the concept of sharing. I also did some medical play with a girl today that has clips (staples) on her forehead from a skin graft and it was time for the clips to be removed. Prof (the surgeon) asked her if she wanted to be asleep or awake for it. She wasn’t a fan of either, but asleep was definitely the better option for her. For medical play we used a cloth doll and were able to put clips into the dolls forehead and then let her take them out. She did awesome and enjoyed the experience. She asked me to cover the doll’s (named Ava) eyes so that she wouldn’t be scared. I just love the power of play and what it can do for kids. The patient had fun getting to take the clips out and telling the other Child Life girls what she did as well. Such an empowering moment for her. Tomorrow she will go to theatre… we’ll see how it goes. Since Caroline’s parents are still in town and she called to see what they were doing and if they wanted to come pick us up from the hospital. They were just getting gas and were on their way to eat, and would not mind the little detour to pick us up and of course we were thrilled not to take the bus. When we left the hospital it was raining, so another reason we were so thankful we didn’t have to take the bus. (No telling how long we would of had to wait in the rain) They were on their way to Camp’s Bay for a late lunch and took us along. It was great. The beach is still so beautiful even when it’s cloudy and rainy. The waves were huge and the tide was high. We ate at Caprice Café and all enjoyed pita with hummus and hamburgers. It was a much better way to spend the afternoon then coming home, eating peanut butter & honey. Then this afternoon Danielle and I decided to run to the Waterfront (about 2 miles away) to get my favorite ice cream, its really frozen yogurt (so even healthier). It was great except we decided to leave around 4:45pm, which is around the people rush hour, so it was a journey dodging the people on the sidewalks. We had some fabulous frozen yogurt, blueberry & strawberry with chocolate sauce, which was amazing. Maybe not the best idea to run to eat ice cream and then run back, so after watching a little African group sing (and I got to hear the South African National Anthem) we walked back… pushing day light a little bit, but we made it… embracing the city one ice cream at a time. You really never know what’s going to happen when you leave the apartment, it’s always an adventure in Cape Town and I love it! So now my evening is consisting of being on the Internet and watching Gilmore Girls (someone left part of season 7 behind, love Gilmore Girls, it makes me happy and especially since nothing is on TV)…. Getting ready for another day, today felt like Friday maybe because I have been spoiled since I have been here and have not worked a 5 day week yet (got to love public holidays in SA). Sorry for the long blog entry and I’m sure it’s way more details than anyone cares about, but that’s what my week has been so far. I only have 3 weekends left in CT, so we are still working on exactly what we will do this weekend.