The greatest gift that these two months will offer is the gift of learning. It has been only a week since I’ve arrived, and I have already learned so much. Many of the learning experiences I’ve had fall under the idea of “expectation.”
expectation, noun.
A strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.
As much as I’ve tried to completely do away with any expectations before my arrival in Botswana, I still found myself mildly surprised by tiny things every day. For example, when I was picked up from the airport, I blinked twice before I realized that the driver was sitting on the right side of the car, not the left. Each morning, as I cross the street, I have to consciously remind myself to look to the left first — or, wait, is it the right? either way, I look both ways twice — before trying to cross the street. Even the smallest human behaviors that we take for granted are spun around and tossed at us: when someone on the same path approaches from the opposite direction, it is the custom in Botswana to stay to the left side of the road while the other person passes on your right. I’d subconsciously expected for that to be the same. Other things were rather pleasant surprises, such as the contradiction of my programmed mental image of Africa as a flat, barren desert with starving and half-clothed children everywhere. In fact, Gaborone is actually quite developed, and has smoother paved roads than those in Houston.
I’ve learned a lot from my conversations with people. Jaks (pronounced “Jakes”), an aspiring real estate business owner, told me that he believed that the biggest issue holding Botswana back was the younger generation’s passive attitude of entitlement. They expect that the government will provide jobs, and lack initiative and entrepreneurial spirit. While I haven’t been able to observe that for myself, Alexandra and Lila have mentioned something similar regarding taking initiative to accept more responsibilities.
More traditional learning formats have also taught me a lot. Tonight, I joined the other UPenn residents and med/PhD students to go to a lecture by Nicola M. Zetola on “TB Transmission: Do We Need New Paradigms?” The main message is that the old view of Tb was that there were two forms: latent and active; however, new research suggests that there is a spectrum of progression for Tb. Additionally, classifying the infectious agents into 8 different lineages show the global biogeographic population structure of the different pathogens. For example, the tuberculosis-causing pathogen, M. africanum, is found only in West Africa. Also, the “ancient” vs. “modern” Tb lineages show different clinical presentations (the “modern” lineage tends to be more aggressive and kill people faster). I learned quite a lot about the second infectious killer in the world.
With 7 more weeks to come, I can’t wait to see what else I’ll learn while going to their Bontleng satellite clinic, (possibly) Scottish Livingstone Hospital, and observing at the different wards in PMH!