Tourist weekend

We all decided to stay in Jo'burg this weekend and do all the touristy things everyone says you HAVE to do while here.
I can't put up a lot of pics anymore because we only have 2 gigs of internet and apparently that takes up a lot. But, I will put up some important ones and less of my bathroom, as my brother pointed out was a little too much. I am going to bring my camera to the hospital this week so I can prove we are actually doing some work and good in the world.

So this weekend we....
1) Did a bike tour of Soweto, which is basically this historic shanty town, where Nelson Mandela lived and another Nobel Peace winner Desmond Tutu lived. Good time and nice little work out as well. Oh, and we sat in a shebeen (small tin house for beer drinking) and tried this home brewed stuff with the locals. Not too tasty and I am pretty sure we all have tuberculosis after we got coughed on by one of the elders and this crazy man named King Shaka.

King Shaka forcing us to take a picture with him and simultaneously strangling me. He also tried to slap my butt as I rode away. I said, "Don't you even think about it Shaka!"

2) Did a night call on the trauma service at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital or Bara. It is the largest hospital on the continent, but also the craziest. It used to be old army barracks so it is spread out in sections all over. It has a very popular trauma center that is run so completely different than in the States, but they do the best they can with the high volume of patients that come in with critical conditions.
The second we walked in there was a 7 years old boy who was shot twice in the head by his friends while playing around. He was not sent to the hospital until 4 hours after the incidence. Very fishy story. Anyways he was in bad shape and they had to try and resuscitate him, which was hard to watch chest compressions on a child. He didn't make it, which didn't hit me until I was going to bed when I felt pretty upset. Lots of car accidents and stab wounds filled up the majority of the rest of the night.

Can you see the skull fractures from the bullets?



3) Saturday we went to the Apartheid museum. Very eye-opening and educational. I think it is a requirement to go if you ever visit here.

4) Later Saturday we went on the World of Beers Tour. It is another must, if you are here. It was really fun and interesting and well it involved beer...enough said.

5) We went out to this area of bars and restaurants called Greenville where a lot of the young people go. Some of our friends from California also doing a medical rotation came over for dinner before going out and decided to bring Absinthe. Nasty stuff.

6) Market Day! This morning we shopped this huge local shopping and food market. Found some good finds and gifts for the nieces and nephews.

7) The Lion Park. Drove around in our 9 seater rental van through a reserve with Lions, wild dogs, hyenas, cheetahs, zebras etc. Then got to hang out and pet and play with lion cubs. Awesome....oh except for the fact we were hanging out the car doors and a lioness started coming right at us. We got the doors closed and window rolled up in barely enough time as she put her mouth to the window. Ok...that was awesome too.

The lioness that got too close for comfort. My camera is not on zoom by the way.

Cat Whisperer?

Back to the grind tomorrow. Hopefully I can deliver some babies. The hospital I am at is called Johannesburg General Hospital. It is pretty run down and they run things so differently there. I think I will get to see the real exciting stuff when I work at Bara for my last two weeks.

Cheers!