I survived... the second longest flight offered.

I decided that I'm going to just bite the bullet and create a blog for this summer.  Otherwise, I will likely never fully share all of my experiences, much less remember them myself by the end of the summer. 

 

Disclaimer:  I in no way think I am cool enough to have a blog.... this will likely be frequented most by my mom (hi mom!).  

After a 15 and a half hour flight, Michelle and I arrived in Johannesburg yesterday at 5pm Joburg time, 11am EST.  We were exhausted... I probably slept around 4 hours on the flight and spent the remainder of the time watching It's Always Sunny..., Wilfred, and a chick flick (I'm only human... well, only woman..) and pretending to try to fall asleep.  We survived though!  We also discovered the only flight that's longer is to Australia and it's about 16 hours, so we've survived the second longest flight there is.  High five!

I am officially a Johannesburg resident!  I will be living here for 3 months working with a medical male circumcision clinic conducting a couple of different research projects with another MPH student, Michelle.  We will be working for the AURUM institute on a CAPRISA fellowship. How in the world did I get to go to South Africa do you ask?  In a nutshell, Michelle is the coolest person in the world.  Basically, she was asked to work on the current project alone, then felt like she would be more comfortable with another person, so asked me along, as well.  Thankfully, the institute agreed and here we both are!  We're staying in a pretty janky, yet adorable hut-lodge outside of Joburg, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  The roof is actually a hut roof made out of hay.  The inside looks like any lower key motel, though, so it's really nice.  The people who run the lodge are so incredibly nice.  We went in this morning just to say hello and they offered us coffee, breakfast, etc.  There are locks on all of the windows and doors with bars, 24 hour security, and a security system with a pretty intense gate.  We've already decided we're going to be best friends with the security officer, he was laughing at us for being nervous about driving on the opposite side of the road.  And yes, we will be driving a car around AND on the opposite side of the road.  Tomorrow we will officially pick up our car and have practice driving.  I assure you, there will be many embarrassing stories about that later.  

We went to the AURUM institute headquarters in Joburg today, which is the institute we will be working for. Everyone was so incredibly nice, and it was a fantastic facility.  We also had a chance to learn more about the clinic where we will be working, and let me tell you, this place is amazing.  They have the capacity to circumcise up to 180 men a day, with HIV counseling and pre and post procedure counseling, which is incredible.  After the morning meetings, we met an incredible new friend, Sarah, who is also a CAPRISA fellow and has already lived in South Africa for 3 months. She took us to the mall and helped us try to set up South African bank accounts (which we need to be paid).  Setting up a bank account proved to be a huge challenge, and we still don't have one yet.  But it was very helpful having Sarah there and having my mom work out how to get some additional documents from the US, everything should hopefully be settled with that by tomorrow!  We also got sushi at the mall, which was incredibly cheap (and delicious).  The only picture I've taken so far is of Michelle and I at lunch and it was incredibly blurry.  Also, we're beautiful little jet-lagged creatures.  I'll just spare you the beauty altogether. 

I haven't taken too many pictures yet, today was a cluster of trying to figure out banking and pretending not to be jet-lagged in meetings.  We're hoping to get to bed relatively early tonight because we have a 8:30am start time tomorrow.  We're visiting the clinic where we will be working, which is in Tembisa.  Where we live, Midrand, is between Joburg proper and Tembisa, so we're only about 20 minutes from work and the main city.  

Some South African lingo I've learned:

"Is it?" means "Oh really?"

"Lekker" means "Good/cool"

"To let" means "To lease"

"Toilet" means "Restroom"

"Get it sorted" is just something they say... lots. Along with "Fetch"

"I'm going to go get it sorted and fetch the girls then!"

I will have more pictures soon!

I love everyone - especially those of you who actually read this thing.