Detour: South Africa

So I'll take a little time away from my commentary on the food allergic life to share something else.

I have been planning a trip to South Africa, Cape Town in particular, for approximately two years. You see, being in medical school, I knew now would be a lovely opportunity to go before being bound down with contracts and job responsibilities after graduation. So I looked into my international rotation opportunities and quickly narrowed them down to Cape Town. (I don't speak Spanish, so that knocked out quite a few countries!)

So I've been working around Cape Town in my schedule for the longest time, it seems. Moved it around a few times based on testing schedules and interviews, but had it pinned down to the Spring 2014 for about the last year. It started to become more and more official looking as I got the paperwork sorted out for the school and my passport renewed. I also started to work on vaccinations, get travel insurance, etc...

As the autumn progressed, I was in touch with the school regarding the paperwork, for it obviously takes an extensive amount of paperwork to go abroad and practice medicine. There was a new administrator on the South African end which was complicating things, but we assuredly could get it done.

Along with all this, I was reading books and watching assigned documentaries on HIV/AIDS in Africa. I set up a rotation in an HIV clinic in America, figuring it would be a good experience--and it was, undoubtedly. I know for a fact that I want to work with HIV patients. I got more excited about going to the forefront of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Then I get an email regarding flooding in Cape Town, had I seen it in the international news? You all know, I've been busy traveling and interviewing and while I kept up to date with the headlines (those mornings newspapers in the hotels helped), I had not seen it. I searched a little and hey, there it is waaaaaaay down on CNN. Okay, regardless, a hospital getting evacuated for flooding is a big deal. No need to push, I can deal. Plus if there's flooding, there's definitely not paperwork getting done for the international medical student. I pushed my dates back from February to the end of March, the latest I could go and still get my six weeks in just before graduation.

I even made my hotel reservation. Bought that travel insurance. Have the travel guide sitting there, read through it, got excited about Table Mountain and botanical gardens...penguins! Dolphins! The Cape of Good Hope! (History major here!) Let alone the whole apartheid and Mandela drama that had taken place in Cape Town.

Mandela. The man is most definitely a legend and when I saw the headline news of his death, one might say the writing was on the wall. Mix in another idiom, three strikes, you're out.

It actually wasn't his death that truly that did my trip in, but rather the upcoming elections. The politics will be dicier with Mandela even nominally in the picture. Things get nasty on the TV in the US, but in other countries, elections can be a much different story (eh, Arab Spring anyone?). Taken in combination, it's not a safe place to send students. I would probably be fine, but it's the whole 'probably' thing. While I would be staying in Cape Town, I would be travelling into the poorer areas, where it would be more likely that events could occur. Things were more likely to occur there regardless and I had been warned, so add in the furor over elections, things were not going to be pretty.

So that's that. It's saddening and quite honestly, a bit heartbreaking. I've been dreaming of Cape Town for about two and a half years. Add in my vacation to London (not only was I a history major, I focused in British history--London is my mecca) at the end of it and I've basically got my dream trip to get me through the next few years of residency.

I've spent a few days moping about it, cancelling reservations and making phone calls. I'm moving forward now. It's difficult for me to not be active about anything in my life, so I'm considering my options. There's about three months to get something together, and I doubt anything will live up to South Africa in my mind and heart. There's options in Ethiopia and Ghana, but I'm not sure if Africa is a good place for me right now; like I'm trying to substitute something in for my dream. There's a nice opportunity for HIV/AIDS outreach in Jamaica, which is probably the most likely option going forth.

And who knows, I may just go to London anyway. A Christmas present to myself.