Day One

Sarah and I successfully completed our first day day of fieldwork. Yes!

Even though it's only been one day, I think coming here for fieldwork may have been one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. I have a feeling that the experience I will have here is different than anything I would have had in the states.

The hospital we are at is a state run facility. The layout of the building kind of looks like an "H" made of two separate buildings connected by walkways. During apartheid, white folks were in one building and everyone else was in the other. I still can't quite wrap my mind around this.

I learned that I'm going to be working in burns for six weeks and then rehumatology. This is very exciting. (Right now you are probably thinking: burns?...BURNS! Karen, you are one sick puppy...) It's true, burns are one of the most painful and disfiguring injuries that a person can have, but I've always been intrigued by burn injuries because even though the injury is nasty, people who are burned often have great recoveries and go back to living normal lives.

I learned that the majority of the people who get admitted to the burn unit here are lower-income folks who live in the surrounding townships. The number one reason people are burned: cooking injuries from explosions of paraffin stoves. Paraffin stoves are really cheap and not regulated, but many people are forced to use them because they can't afford a safer alternative.

The second reason people are admitted is because of domestic violence. Ouch. And the burns they see here are pretty intense, people don't get admitted unless over 20% of their body area is burned.

So, in any case, it should be a good learning experience, provided I don't pass out.