Yes, I was double-fisting wine, but I deserved it. Really.
Per our schedule, Jean and I go off campus every Friday to a community clinic a little outside of Tygerberg. It's part of a township, and apparently that's where our Hope project sees our pediatric patients. Anyhow, since this was our first time driving to the place, we met up with our attending that morning so that we could follow her.
And about two turns before our clinic, our attending - rushing to get there on time because we had a full roster of patients to see that day - turned right on a yellow, and crashed into a car running the red light.
Thankfully, only her car bumper was damaged, and everyone was safe. But we then proceeded to wait on the edge of this township for police to come investigate the accident and for the tow truck to take her car. And Jean and I stood around her, in our crisp long-sleeved white coats in the searing African sun, and tried to look as intimidating as possible to ward off carjackers and rapists. And hey, it must have worked, because we only had to glare at five or so men that approached us with offers to help, if we would only give them our phone number. Right.
So after that was all sorted out, we finally got to clinic, two and a half hours late, where we proceeded to see the entire day's clinic in two hours. High five for Northwestern efficiency! It also helps that all of our primary care clinics are triple-booked. Seeing patients in five minutes? No problem. Different language? Makes history taking even easier!
After that rather stressful morning, Jean and I met up with the Canadian boys and took off for wine country, Stellenbosch -- just twenty minutes east of us, and quite the scenic road trip at that. Now, I'm not usually a drinker, but that was definitely one sweet reward.
