Today was an extremely informative day!!! It was our first clinical/working day. We met a number a people and arranged various clinical sites. Things work in a more traditional manner here—before we can delve into clinical work we need to be introduced to the organization leaders and have the organizations determine we are a good fit for the site. We started out the morning by driving to a village called Mogoditshane which is about 30 minutes outside of Gaborone. We visited a daycare center, Kamogelo, which gives children that have been impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a second chance at life. The daycare accommodates 124 children ranging from 3-6 years of age; it provides the children with clothes, food, and education. It was decided that we would come back and perform growth and physical assessments on the children. Following our visit at the daycare center we went to a village called Metismotlhabe to visit a hospice called Pabalelong, a home of love and care. The hospice is run by the Catholic Church. The hospice opened in May and can accommodate ten patients: 4 double rooms and two private rooms. Many of us are interested in returning to the hospice to help in various capacities including home visits and assessments. After visiting the aforementioned sites we headed back into Gaborone and went to the Upenn-Botswana partnership office and met with Gill Jones, the coordinator of our experiences here. We made arrangements to meet with her and some of her fellow colleagues tomorrow to solidify more clinical opportunities and the possibility of taking part in a week long breast cancer awareness ride called the Journey of Hope. Tomorrow we are off to other clinical sites and are looking forward to embarking on new experiences.
-Grace Oppenheim
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