victoria hospital

i can’t believe it’s my last week of placement already. yes, this is the reason why i’ve come to south africa in the first place -- to practice social work in a foreign setting.

how different are the cases here when compared to hospital social work in canada?

well, i'd like to think that people in canada don't abandon their children as often as i'm seeing here. i also find myself calling for homeless shelters for my clients upon discharge quite often. two weeks ago, i worked with a guy in his 40s who was abducted by 3 men at an ATM one evening and was subsequently drugged up and threatened at knife point before getting dropped off the next day at his ex-wife's flat. today, there was a 15 years old guy in his school uniform bringing to us his mother who suffers from mental illness. apparently she has been wandering the streets as of late, and he wanted to get help for her. perhaps those are the exceptions to the pre-discharge planning that i spend most of my days doing, but yea, i find the exceptions do seem to creep up and get treated as the norm around here sometimes.

i guess not all of cape town is as beautiful as i’ve painted thus far. cape town looks different depending on the pair of lens you put on… and where you look too i guess. there are times and places where it’s inappropriate for my camera to see what i see. but if photography is about capturing what you want to see over and over again, then perhaps there are memories and documentations that i could do without!

(picture of protea: south africa’s flower)