The story behind my new hairstyles!

In April 2013, after years of getting relaxers every 6-8 weeks, I decided to stop getting "perms," if you will, and "go natural." Instead of doing a big chop, I opted to keep straightening my hair and start transitioning. Soon, the hair at the cut off point between the relaxed hair and the "natural" hair started to break, and in January 2014, I did a small chop and got rid off all the relaxed hair.

I started getting my hair pressed every 2-3 weeks. By the summer of 2014, it had grown almost all the way back.

Since my hair was all natural (or so I thought) I decided to try some natural styles. To my surprise, even when wet, my hair was straight as a nail. So I just kept on getting it pressed.

On NYE, I was flaunting my locks

But I get jealous of all the beautiful black women that can go seamlessly between straight hair and natural styles. So I decided to see how long I can go without getting a press. 

First I got a twist out at the salon

Then I tried one myself (it needs work)

Next, a rod set

And this time without the flat twists

Look at me now!

Chobe safari and Victoria Falls

Today started my third week here, it's hard to believe that my four weeks are more than half over. I had a supervisor here for the first two weeks, now I am doing the teaching on my own.  I'm looking forward to it, but it will take a good bit of time in preparation. I will also spend some time in the clinic this week, and will actually be seeing one of the patients I saw last week for a follow up appointment, and I'm excited for that.

Another weekend gone by means another trip taken. Two of my roommates and I went up to the northern region of Botswana for a safari. We had a view of the Chobe river from the porch of our room. We took a cruise down the river, drinking beer and spying on animals. We saw buffalo, hippos, giraffe, warthogs, eagles, crocodiles, and the best part was watching the elephants play in the water.

Next we crossed the border into Zimbabwe and then Zambia to see Victoria Falls, an incredible sight, and one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Rain got in the way of our last safari a bit, but we were still able to see a giraffe, a lion, baboons, and hundreds of impalas.

XOXO,

Adrienne

Batswana and their culture

As I'm sure you can imagine, their are plenty of cultural differences between Americans and Batswana. Batswana is the name for the people in Botswana. 

Driving

1. They drive on the left side of the road here

2. They never use A/C in their cars, and the temperatures have been above 90 every day since I've been here. You can see in the picture below that the knob is switched to off. 

3. When a car is being passed on the highway, they drive on to the shoulder to allow the car to pass them. They will do this even when there are cars in the opposing lane. This happens multiple times each way on my drives to and from Sbrana daily, and I caught a pretty good picture of it today. 

Umbrellas

The women use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun

Food

The food is actually not much different, but they eat a lot more meat, and they eat a lot of cornmeal, which they call pap. I've eaten Indian food, Thai food, pizza, and lebanese food for dinner, but I have a traditional Batswana meal every day for lunch, so I've eaten my fair share of pap. Yesterday at lunch, the manager convinced me to eat a Mophane worm, which is a delicacy in the northern region of Botswana. Here's my face while I ate it.

Money

It's probably not a surprise that things are a lot less expensive here. I realize it most in people's attitudes toward money and spending. I wanted to put my hair in braids, so I asked my housekeeper Doris where to buy hair, and she offered to take me to the store where she buys her hair. She said that it was pretty close but we could take a combi, which is a shared public transportation van. 

Me: How about we take a cab?

Doris: The combi is only 7 pula (70 cents)

Me: I'll pay for the cab

Doris: But it's 40 pula! ($4)

Me: It's too hot, let's take a cab

Doris: No, it's 7 pula, we'll take the combi

How do you explain to someone who is folding your underwear that the 40 pula she works hard for means nothing to you? So that's how I ended up on a packed combi on a 96 degree day

When we were buying the hair, there was a woman who offered to braid my hair in her home, but I opted to go to the salon. 

On the way home from the salon, I stopped to buy a sheen spray and vaseline for my scalp. When I picked the bottle of spray from the aisle, a woman who worked there looked at me and told me "that costs 28 pula ($2.80)" and her point was that it was too expensive. Then I went to check out at the register, and the cashier looked at me and said "you know that is 28 pula." 

When I returned home, Doris asked me how much I paid.

Me: 250 pula (proud of myself)

Doris: (shakes her head) the woman at the store was going to braid your hair for 130 pula!

It's cliche, but being here really reminds me of how fortunate I am. I will have to write more about this at a later date.

The finished product

Xoxo,

Adrienne

Safari in Madikwe

I don't have a lot of time to write tonight, but I wanted to share some pictures. After 5 days in the flats with no wifi, I was excited to upload some photos when the network started working again tonight.

This is the hospital in Lobatse called Sbrana where I spend the majority of my time at work. It's a relatively new hospital, just having opened in July, 2010. The facilities are quite nice, for teaching we have a white board and a smart board, and they have a library with computers and psychiatry textbooks. There is also a picture of the outpatient clinic where I visit about twice weekly.

Last weekend, 3 other residents and I took a trip to Madikwe, South Africa, for a game drive/safari. I took about 500 pictures, some of my favorites are below. We saw antelopes, impalas, zebras, lions, buffalo, giraffes, rhinos, warthogs, and elephants.

Sbrana

The outpatient Psychiatry Clinic of Princess Marina hospital in Gaborone

The King of the Jungle

This sleeping lion is my spirit animal

I love the warthogs, I think it's because I was born in the year of the pig in the Chinese calendar

xoxo,

Adrienne

Settling in Gaborone- one week down

I just finished my first week of work, and I am looking forward to the weekend on Safari at Madikwe, South Africa.

The students that I am teaching are a real pleasure to work with, and I am not just saying that. They were very welcoming to me, and were easy to engage. They ask very thoughtful questions, and seem much more interested in the material compared to the majority of the Penn medical students that I have worked with. They are all 4th year students, which puts them at about 21-22 years old, and they are all from Botswana. Yesterday we had a PBL (problem-based learning) session, and the students put a lot of effort into their presentations, and I learned a great deal about Psychiatry in Botswana, and how that differs from Psychiatry in the US. They put my PBL presentations from medical school to shame. The students don't even seem to be bothered by the sweltering classroom.

IT'S HOT!!!

The temperature has been in the mid 90s everyday, and our classroom has no windows and no air conditioning. On my way home today, I bought a fan, that I hope will cool down the classroom at bit. On Tuesday, I was giving a presentation on the mental status exam, and had to sit down in the middle of it because I thought I was going to pass out. I think coming from the winter in Philadelphia to the summer in Gaborone was too much for my body to handle. But since then I have done a better job staying hydrated.

We are based at Sbrana Psychiatric Hosptial in Lobatse, but today we visited the outpatient clinic of Princess Marina hospital. The patients have a variety of diagnoses, and not all of them had severe mental illness, which is what I was expecting. However, the last patient I saw today was profoundly psychotic gentleman. I will refrain from giving details of the case for privacy reasons. In the US, this man would be considered a straight-forward admission, who a resident would admit without calling the attending. However the psychiatrists here were reluctant to admit him, and sent him for further evaluation. It really highlights the disparity in resources, which is also evident in talking with the psychiatrists here. The psychiatrist in the clinic, Dr. Nguni is from Zambia, and will be returning there in August.

Dr. Nguni: There is a shortage of psychiatrists in Zambia
Me: Isn't there a shortage of psychiatrists in Botswana also?
Dr. Nguni: Well there are 4 doctors here, 1 in Maun, one in Kasane, one in Francistown, there is one in every hospital, so that is enough to take care of the population
Me: (dumbfounded and trying to hide it in my face) Oh

I have to wonder what he would think about the so-called physician shortages in the US.

Socially, things are great here. I haven't eaten a meal alone since I got here. I eat breakfast with my roommates, lunch with my attending from Penn, and dinner with my roommates. Mostly we cook in the apartment, but last night we went out to eat, and I had fish and chips which were delicious. They have a delicious tea called Rooibos that I have been treating myself to frequently.

Sorry I will not be able to add photos to this blog, the wifi at our flat has been down for the past 3 days. I am able to connect from my phone for brief periods at restaurants, and right now I am at an internet cafe, so I am able to get by. When the wifi comes back, I will be sure to upload plenty of photographs.

xoxo,

Adrienne

First day in Botswana!

I have made it safely to Gaborone, Botswana, where I will be spending the next 4 weeks, working in a psychiatric hospital, and teaching medical students in their psychiatry clerkship.

After the 16 hour flight from New York to Johannesburg, my feet and ankles were very swollen. (They were a bit swollen when I left but now much worse). But I've been wearing compression socks, which is helping.

My room is shared with one OBGYN resident, and there are six of us total in the flat. There is a maid, named Doris, who cleans our rooms everyday, does our laundry, and even cooks for us some. She told me that she was my "new mom," even though Doris is younger than me by a few years.

After a quick nap, I went exploring the town, and was happy to find a grocery store nearby. When I saw the Dark and Lovely hair products, I knew that I was going to be just fine. I used to use this moisturizer exclusively, until I stopped being able to find it a couple of years ago. So you can only imagine my delight when I saw it on the shelf of the grocery store here in Gaborone for half the price.

One of the residents here has lived in Botswana before, and had a friend who hosted a Super Bowl Party. The game started at 1:30am and ended at 5:30am, but it was well worth it. We had nachos and chicken wings and pizza and beer and all was right in the world.

xoxo,

Adrienne

Lupita's brother is my hero

There was a lot of talk about Ellen's Academy Awards selfie, but I haven't heard anyone talk about how amazing it is that the among Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Brad Pitt, Angeline Jolie, and Lupita Nyong'o was her brother. He's even obsuring Angeline Jolie. I mean there's a lot to love about Lupita, for her style, for her speeches, for Patsey, but her brother is my hero.

Reminds me of when my friend C.J. was front and center in this pic after we won the championship in 2005. Although his two minutes per game average makes him far more legitimate in this picture than Lupita's brother.