Cheers.

It has been hard for me to sit down and finish writing this blog entry that I started in the airport on my way home. I have been home for almost 3 full days and still not exactly sure how I feel about being home, being away from Cape Town and what I have taken away. It’s hard to express what I felt or experienced during my 2 months away. I left Phoenix/ OKC expecting to have a 2-month adventure, embrace another culture, work at the hospital, and whatever else came along. Because it was all of that, it’s hard not to be a different person when you leave. I learned a lot about how to be a better Child Life Specialist and more about myself. It truly was a lifetime opportunity to be part of the South Africa Child Life project and had an amazing time while there.

I am sitting in the Cape Town Airport, eating the last Topper (favorite cookie in SA, more for sentimental meaning, but they still are pretty tasty) I will eat in South Africa and really don’t even know what to write. This truly has been a lifetime experience, each month was very different (really each week or day), but I loved every moment. I have met some incredible people and developed some amazing friendships. And my prayer is that I hope that I accomplished what God had for me to do here and in turned have grown. I am very thankful and appreciative for the chance to live in Cape Town for 2 months and be apart of Child Life in Africa.

Friday was my last day at the hospital and it was more emotional than I was expecting. I definitely have fallen in love with that place, especially the patients. The patients have beautiful faces (I wish I could post some of their pictures, but there's even HIPPA in Africa) and I’m going to miss their sweet smiles, piercing eyes, and funny personalities. It broke my heart to say good-bye especially to these 2 boys that have spent the last 5-6 weeks at the hospital. Danielle drew a picture for the boys to understand where we are right now and where I was going and talked about flying in an airplane. They thought it was really fun that I would get to sleep on an airplane. The hospital was hard and very challenging at times. The dressing changes were not easy to watch and the burns were difficult for me to imagine, but it was the hands that I held, the encouraging words that were spoken, my shoulder that was cried on, the laughter and opportunity to forget the stress of the hospital, and the many moments of play (both medical and therapeutic) that was worth me traveling half way across the world to invest and support a new program that has become such a positive impact on the hospital and it has only been 4 months. It will be exciting to see what continues to come from the influence and support of Child Life in South Africa. Through my time at the hospital I discovered things about myself, personally and professionally. What’s hard is that life continues on, surgeries will still take place, patients will still need interventions, my new friends are still there or have gone back to their homes and it’s hard to leave and know that you are no longer there physically.

Things I will miss about the hospital:
The children (even when they smell or touch me in all the wrong places or never want to be put down or whine constantly or wouldn’t share toys and thought hitting each other was okay)
The greeting we received every morning when walking onto the ward, especially the sprinting down the hallway to give us our morning hug
The good-byes at the end of the day and the kisses that were blown and the waves
Bubble blowing…. Especially when you blow bubbles straight for 20-30 minutes
The conversations I had with the mothers when we where waiting for the OR
The older patients that understood what we do and would let us help them
Cuddling babies
The dedicated staff

Prof Jenny, the anesthesiologist that helped bring Child Life to South Africa

A sister (nurse), physiotherapist, occupational therapist, and me

I have realized that I really do love to travel and explore new places and things. Cape Town has been an excellent place to live for 2months. I feel like I embraced their culture, became friends with the locals, took advantage of all the beautiful places to see and discover and as one of my friends told me “you ate your way through Africa,” the food was always so tasteful. My last week in the Cape was great, was able to finish doing everything on my “bucket list” and enjoyed doing some of my favorite Capetonian things!

4 planes, 5 take-offs, and 33 hours later I finally made it to flat Oklahoma. It definitely was some long flights, but luckily I was able to sleep and met some fun people to talk to along the way, which always makes me happy!

I will be home for 3 weeks until I head down to East Texas for training and then will leave for Benin August 10th. Knowing that I have another adventure ahead of me, definitely helped with leaving, I'm not done with Africa yet!

Table Mountain... one of my favorite places, both to hike and look at. It can look so different throughout the day depending on the sky and weather, but it never got old to look at. I took this picture one morning on the way to work. I just was loving the colors of the sky and mountain and it just so happened that the street sign made the picture too, which is the street that the hospital is on. You can also see University of Cape Town on the base of the mountain, as well.