Amelia Wiggins’ Blog

rhinos and zebras and monkeys oh my!

last weekend i went to a game park with Cat and Polly. Cat is a doctor from the UK that is working here for a few months and Polly is the wife of a doctor that had been working here for a year, they are also from the UK.

before all that maybe i should give you a brief overview…There are about 12 doctors here now, most are young (late 20’s) from the UK, a few are from South Africa and one couple is from belgium. the south africans are required to do one year of community service after graduating med school, equivilent to my intership, so that is what they are doing. The UK graduate their docs by age 23 (they start med school at 18) and so a lot of their docs come to south africa to get experience and also explore. they are not required to do a residency the same way we are so they can practice here for a while and then go back and specialize if they want later. some doc stay only a few months and others a year or two. it’s an amazing opportunity to gain experience and knowledge they won’t get anywhere else!

so with all these young doctors running around it’s not hard to find things to do. we had a BBQ (a bry) on the lake last week, and went for a beach run then swam in the indian ocean!! polly, cat and i explored last weekend. we went to a game park, unfortunately it was raining so not a lot of animals were out roaming. but we did see buffalo, rhinos, monkeys, strange south african birds (gross!), and some deer like things (they have real names i forget). afterward we went to a town called Mtuzini (about 2 hours south of mseleni) and met another UK doc (Zoe) there that is friends with Cat. we spent saturday night at Zoe’s place and had a nice dinner at a local restuarant (this was a much nicer town than the one i’m in…there is only a hospital and small market to buy fresh fruit and bread here). after dinner we went to the local pool hall so play pool. funniest thing about that was that they had zebra grazing out back! (this pool hall was basically a hut with a table it, the zebra could have very well ventured inside! at Zoe’s there were monkeys playing in the trees…imagine reese chasing a monkey instead of roofus (our squirrel that terrorizes reese) honey!! haha

sunday we sunned in the pool (zoe’s house was very nice and had a pool!) i finally have an african tan! then took a long walk on the indian ocean before heading back up to Mseleni. it is breathtaking on the beach, and the water is so warm.

this weekend a big group of us are going to mozambique to camp on the beach!!

i have so much to write yet about this weeks event, i was busy in the evenings this week and it’s put me behind on my blogging

2 praises and a prayer request…1st praise bible study has been so encouraging. there’s just something special about worshiping with Christians from all over the world. reminds you how big God is. 2nd praise i got an interview at the new ortho program in grand rapids. we did it last night, the director and i arranged that i would call him at 1am south african time. i’ve never done an interview in my pajamas before! and the prayer request is for peace about God’s plan for my life as far as residency is concerned. (this program will take one, six of us interviewed)

more to come!!