Happy Easter!

    Happy Easter to you all!  I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing weekend with family and friends.  I had to settle for the next best thing to my own family and friends….new foreign friends!  I had quite an enjoyable Easter myself.  A friend I’ve met here invited me to spend the holiday at the coast with 6 of her other friends.  Her one friend owns this cottage right on the ocean, it was beautiful.  So I was actually very spoiled, laid out on the beach and worked on my South African tan, read an entire book, went on a few hikes, swam in the Indian ocean, and played board games!  What more could a girl ask for? 

      I hope this update finds you all doing well.  Things are plugging along here in South Africa….a new adventure, new experience every day.  I must say, there is hardly a dull moment! 

     I have gotten more settled in with my job, learning quickly how to adapt to a much different culture, work ethic, managing structure, etc.  I am working in the pediatrics ward mainly and am the only physical therapist as of now.  I do have a South African physical therapist assistant working with me but she seems to take a lot of vacation since I’ve arrived.  On Tuesdays, I run an outpatient clubfoot clinic with a former physical therapy volunteer from Germany named Astred who never returned home after her experience here 6 years ago! (no worries, I’m still planning on returning home)  She has taught me a lot and we’ve become good friends.  We treat all clubfoot babies on Tuesday who travel in for treatment from as far as 15 hours away.  These are dedicated Moms!  I have learned the Ponsetti Method for serial casting and splinting and am really enjoying seeing the progress these babies have made so far.  I leave work almost every Tuesday with a headache from all the crying but it’s so worthwhile when these children are able to stand and walk on their own and their deformity has diminished!  I have also gotten to scrub in and assist in several of my own patient’s surgeries with the orthopedic surgeons which has been an amazing experience as well.  I held the fractured femur of one of my little boys in my hands and helped suture him back up, assisted with two achilles tenotomies for our clubfoot babies, and watched a closed reduction/manipulation of a wrist dislocation.  OK, so maybe I’m boring everyone now except for my coworkers but you get the idea.  Cool stuff! 

     I am falling in love quickly and easily with my patients here.  I have taken to one in particular named Pumeza, a 7 year old girl who was severely abused.  She was admitted nearly a year ago to the hospital with severe burns, deformed limbs, contractures so bad she was curled in a ball and an emaciated little body who barely spoke.  When I first arrived and added her to my caseload, she would lie on her stomach with a glossed over look on her face and never smiled.  In the last few weeks, the transformation has been amazing!  Now she lights up when I enter the room, she laughs all the time, even when I’m stretching her and causing pain (I use tickling for distraction and it works wonders).  And I had a huge breakthrough with her last Thursday when she started speaking English to me!!!  I couldn’t believe it, just like that, started repeating words I would say to her.  Her favorite is “hi-five.”  She is an inspiration to me.  At such a young age she has already experienced so much pain, suffering and hardship and yet she is still able to smile, laugh and continues to grow.  She has made me smile here as well.  J

       Another volunteer who has been here once before said to me, “Don’t come into this experience expecting to change things because you’ll leave disappointed.” Sometimes I feel like I’ve done nothing productive and have been frustrated with how much difference I am actually making.  Isn’t that why I came?  I have become so much more aware of the problems that lie in this government, the politics, healthcare system or lack thereof, and how that has dictated the way these people live their lives.  These are issues on a much grander scale and changes that are much bigger than what I’m capable of changing obviously.  But I will continue to treat these children, do my job, and most importantly perhaps now I’ve realized: I will try to continue to make them smile every day.

 I miss you all and will write again soon. 

Much love,

      Joy

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