In 2010 I shared this picture via Youth Journalism International of a skeleton in our faculty dressed up for the Fifa World Cup. (Click the link and scroll down to the middle-left.)
Today we had a rather long clinical skills session for our anaesthesiology block.
This little guy met us there. I laughed:
Today (a public holiday) I went to Stellenbosch, in the Winelands District of the Western Cape. The medical campus is far from the main campus, so I don’t get to go to Stellenbosch very often. But today I met Nazirah.
Yes, the tree has to be in there. It's pretty, and I was having a bad hair day
Nazirah and I are both medical students – she in Malaysia and I in Cape Town. She’s doing her elective rotation in Cape Town. We met via our blogs. And no, we’re not the kind of people who readily meet people over the internet.
Because I don’t know Stellenbosch very well myself, one of my friends, Dee, joined us for the day. She gave us the royal tour and it was lovely. And a royal tour must of course start with some lovely tea. We went to The Birdcage, a quaint little coffee shop with the most amazing teas. I had French Vanilla tea, Dee had Raspberry and Blueberry, and Nazirah had Rooibos tea – the endemic and famous “red bush” tea of South Africa. And she liked it!
Dee's tea is pink, Ni's is reddish. How lovely are the tea sets?!
We learned a lot about similarities and differences between our countries in terms of healthcare, politics and infrastructure. It was amazing. It was a chilly – but not cold – Autumn day, and the town was simply beautiful.
And I got to meet an international friend, and that with the aid of WordPress.
This past week, Stellenbosch University has been celebrating the successes of the Hope Project (about which I have written before).
In two years, the SU has made leaps and bounds of improvements in the fields of healthcare, legal aid, agriculture and science. For more on all that, you can check out these two sites or read the virtual paper here.
I’m particularly enamoured by the story of Hillary Lane, who was born with Cerebral Palsy and had significant gait disturbances and pain such that she preferred not to walk.
The SU Faculty of Health Sciences has a Motion Analysis Centre, and a lot of their upgrades have been made by means of the HOPE Project. Using the technology at this centre, Lane’s gait could be improved in such a way that she completed the NYC Marathon in 2011. 42 Kilometres. Something I, fully able-bodied, am not sure I want to attempt.
I like this. I think it’s great for the Allied Health Sciences (who are often scorned by old-school doctors) and I think it is great for the CP-community.
But, this is not my story to tell. Watch the clip below to hear more about it first-hand.
Last week, the fifth years had their last ever day of class. For the next eighteen months, until they graduate, they will only be doing clinical rotations.
It is a longstanding tradition here for fifth years to dress up on their last day of class and ambush all the other classes. The general theme is “What would you have been if you weren’t studying medicine?”
I’ve seen a lot of things, from hobos to blue-skinned Avatars.
These are two of my friends who dressed up:
It’s weird to think that in a year’s time, that will be me. I don’t even know what I’ll dress up as. There were many alternatives, to be honest…
On Friday, members of the Student Government (including myself!) were invited to attend Semester at Sea‘s Open Ship at Cape Town Harbour.
This is us being all touristy-like:
This is the ship:
Semester at Sea is just that: it allows students the opportunity of a semester abroad… abroad in various places. It is affiliated with the University of Virginia, and has excellent courses available.
And I want to go. Next year, 9 January to 25 April.
The itinerary includes San Diago, Hawaii, Japan, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Mauritius, South Africa (!!!), Ghana, Morocco and Spain. The great thing about SAS is that they take “service learning” very seriously. So you don’t just visit these places for the fun of it; you also visit them to learn.
Here’s the other awesome thing: The Academic Dean for the specific voyage is Dr Sharon Hostler. She is a professor in pediatrics, and one of her niches is outreach to rural underserved children.
This Friday, I am going to meet with my faculty’s assistant registrar. Our school doesn’t readily allow students to just leave for three months… BUT, I have a plan! It is quite a complex plan, but it will work, and it will make me a better student and a better doctor and this the only thing I want to think of right now.
Which is making studying extremely difficult.
Our university has started to rethink our way of welcoming first year students, in such a way as to promote the HOPE project. The HOPE project focuses on three pillars:
Academic Excellence
Research
Community Interaction
It is the latter that has been revolutionary: for universities to accept responsibility in the community is less obvious than the former two.
This past Friday, we organised a community interaction day. We took our first years to various spots for service to the surrounding communities. The Health Sciences first years were taken to a nearby township where they performed skits about wellness promotion and served food to the school children.
We served and interacted with 15 000 children that day.
But I have no doubt that this was a huge turning point for many first years too – difficult as it was to see such poverty.
Today, hordes of brand new First Years arrive on our campus. Wild-eyed and bushy-tailed, I wonder if they hear the seniors murmuring, “Run now, while you still can.”
It was not too long ago that I was there… three years ago, I was a scared little kid, stepping into a world where the maturing process would be escalated far beyond my then-eighteen years.
Tomorrow, I will be giving the newbies and their parents a speech. I’m still trying to polish it, but I know that it must be short: I remember close to nothing of the Chairperson’s speech in my first year.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would have liked to hear as a vulnerable (and gullible) little first year.
There are many things… but one thing sticks out:
Medicine will take so much from you. It makes you study longer and later than most of your friends. It works your fingers to the bone, literally. It places you at physical and psychological risk. It shows you things that the human psyche is not equipped to understand.
Medicine will take so much from you: cling to your little bits of individuality.
I have a bright pink stethoscope – and who’s business is that? I like the colour and it makes me happy. It appears to make my patients happy too.
You want a neon stethoscope? Get one – make the decisions that remain fully yours.
The overall reason for our trip to China was a liaison-opportunity with Hunan University. We had the opportunity to explore the university grounds and to interact with the students.
Having experienced Stellenbosch Main Campus – a beautiful campus – it was a pleasant surprise to explore an equally beautiful (albeit differently so) campus.
Walking from the main building after our official welcoming by the university chairman and professors. Hunan University dates back to 976AD and was one of Chairman Mao Zedong’s self-proclaimed favourites. Note his statue in the background.
We spent most of our time at Yuelu Academy, the oldest and most prestigious part of the university. Also one of the most beautiful parts. This was taken walking from the main building to the Academy.
The influence of Confucianism is very clear and interesting on the campus. Much of the philosophies and appearance speaks thereof.
And there are Confucianism Temples and monasteries around the Academy.
This contains a list of things one must do in order to be a good student. I cannot remember them all, but one of them is “not to spend any time on matters that are unrelated to academics.” So that must be the reason I am such a bad student…
A map of the campus with Kai, whom we called “Our fearless leader”.
My favourite view at the university.
Note that our interaction with the Hunan students was just as beautiful and far more interesting, but writing about that will take a considerate amount of time – something not at my disposal during exam times.
Part of my trip to China in September included a three day trip to Zhangjiajie, a World Heritage Site and the first National Park of China. Certain scenes of the movie Avatar were shot there (I have never watched the movie, and now that I have seen the real-life place I am afraid the movie will bore me).
Stop 1: Huanglong Cave
Immense – covers an area of 48 hectares and up to 15 kilometers in length. There is a river that runs through the cave and the stalagmites are another level of beauty. Probably the one thing that bothered me a little was the artificial light in unnatural colours, but the place remains stunning.
A lot of the structures in the cave have very imaginative names, but I can’t remember any of them. Huanglong, for example, means Yellow Dragon Cave.
"Eagle Looking for Food"
Stop 2: Zhanjiajie Park
The park is characterised by tall rocky outcrops and more colours of green that I have ever seen (green is my favourite colour). It offers a cable car ride that is breathtakingly scary. My friend with a fear of heights, Clinton, says it is worth it.
Panorama taken by Charl Engels
On the cable car ride
By the way, Zhangjiajie also house the world’s tallest and fastest outdoor elevator – the Bailong Elevator. It is 326m tall and moves at a speed of 3m/s.
Stop 3: Baofeng Lake
It was a rather hot day and all I wanted to do was swim in the beautiful water. The photos hardly do justice to this place.
Zhangjiajie is home to the Tu minority (which must be pronounced properly otherwise it means some expletive). So anywhere you go, you see their traditional dress and hear their traditional song. It is lovely. An awesome moment was when, after our tour guide sang a folk song to us in the Huanglong Caves, our group sang the South African National Anthem. Pretty cool.
Heading to China, I expected many things. Beauty was not one of them. As a South African, I have always firmly believed that my country is the most beautiful. And because it is home, it probably will always be. China was certainly an experience that opened my eyes – and I thought they were already open.
I know I have been awfully quiet, but I have a good excuse, I promise…
I was in CHINA! It was awesome. Eight students from my university went to liaise with students from Hunan University.
Unfortunately I now need to study for Haematology on Friday, so I will only be able to give adequate feedback then. Watch this space!
The team at Baofeng Lake
