Back in Durban after a week in Hlabisa

Hi everybody!
Today was my first day back in Durban after a GREAT week in Hlabisa. I was in the clinic there for 4 days and then I slept at a house that closely resembled a very humble farm property. The clinic was amazing; the best experience yet! So far I have been interjecting interesting facts about what I have learned in the clinics, but after last week, I wouldn't even know where to start! I learned so much about HIV and TB, along with many other health problems that affect the people in rural communities. It was an exciting week, full of learning opportunities with doctors that were fabulous. There were about 8 doctors, which is more than any hospital we have been at so far, and almost all of them were an incredible blessing. We woud meet with them during their daily meeting at 7 30 am and then by about 8 we would follow one of the doctors on their rounds. My favorite was internal medicine rounds, which they refer to as either male or female "medicine." I liked seeing the inpatients and I learned so much by asking question after question. I was so excited to find that no one EVER discouraged my questions... in fact, there were 2 doctors that loved answering the questions I had, and I am so thankful for both of them. After round, we would have lunch, and then after lunch everyone (including the doctors) would go to the out patient department to see the walk in patients. As I mentioned before, at all 3 clinics I have been to, the OPD is the only form of primary care medicine (uness individuals are willing to pay for service) that is available to the patients. I think this is unfortunate, but we have that problem more and more in Canada too.... One thing that I really like is that the government pays for ALL medications.... even birth control injections. None of the patients have to pay for anything! At the clinic that I was at today, they do not do any investigations or invasive procedures, so they provide transportation at 7am every morning to take patients to any of the referral hospitals that the doctors refer to. Speaking of today, it is nothing compared to last week, so I am trying very hard to keep interested. Today was bascially a family practice clinic... there were really no interesting cases.... actually, there was one woman with what appeared to be a lipoma on her back, but she had 2 other masses elsewhere, so she was sent for biopsy and I have no idea what it could be... I hope that I will be there to hear the results! At the end of the day I also watched an abscess get drained and a pleural effusion get drained (not overly exciting.... more painful to watch). Anyhow, I am at this clinic until Thursday, so I hope that I will have some interesting stories to share.
Back the the past week..... staying in the house in Hlabisa was fun, but I was excited to get back to the comforts of Durban. In Hlabisa, there was NO street lights or house lights, etc. so when it was past 6 pm and up until 6 30 am, you couldn't see anything. I mean, you actually couldn't see anything. At night, if I put my hand 2 inches from my face, I would have absolutely no idea that it was there. This made finding the outhouse very difficult haha, so I would feel my way to the light switch and flicker the light just long enough to find the bucket, but short enough that I woudln't wake up my roommate. I'm sure you can guess what the bucket was for... Bathtime was also interesting. We took our "baths" in a cement room... we would stand on the cement and use a bucket to wash ourselves..... I would try to stay warm by washing my body first, drying off, and then washing my hair as if I were at the hairdressers. It was pretty fun.
On Thursday night, our host sister took us for a walk through the town and it was amazing. We saw where they kept the cattle during "bath time" and we saw where the children played soccer (and got swarmed by 40 boys, shouting "whites" in Zulu and gigglig... it was a riot- in a good way). The last night, we went to the King's house for dinner and he made a speech about how badly he wanted us all to come back. He asked us to comment, one by one, and his excentric gestures and grunts made for a good time. His wife was so sweet, and insisted that we go home in time to et a good sleep before the game reserve on Saturday. Saturday we woke up eary and left for the game reserve. We had such a great time this weekend, seeing all the African animals. The "big five" are elephants, lions, white rhinos, water buffalos, and lepords; we didn't see leporsds, but we saw the other 4, plus giraffes, monkeys (although the monkeys were in/around our hotel room that night haha), zeborahs, and springbok. Then on Sunday we went on a boat in St. Lucia and saw hippos and crocodiles! So many animas in one weekend!!! Next weekend 4 of us are going to cape town, upon the advice of Kelly's friend Danielle, who live in Johannesberg. She has been so good to me, answering all my questions and recommending great places to go. We have a weekend full of fun planned and I am so pumped to climb table mountain on Sunday :).
In the mean time, please pray that the group will learn a lot this week, so that we can make the most of our time here. I'm asking for this prayer because I know that the clinics this week are nowhere near as interesting as last week, but there is still so much to learn. I hope that we can make the most of every opportunity!