"The rhythm of life starts now."

Today on the bus ride back from our first day at the hospital I feel like I really saw the true face of Cape Town. We weren't just a group of students from the US walking around, we were actually temporary members of the community. I was trying to take in every thought I was having and trying to memorize every sense I was feeling and I looked over to my right and saw "the rhythm of life starts now" scribbled on the wall of the bus. I actually felt the meaning of the sentence and realized in that exact moment that everything I was about to experience was going to permanently affect the way I live my life.

I have been assigned to the oncology unit at the Red Cross Children's Hospital for the remainder of time here and I feel so blessed to be there. I lost a close friend at the age of 6 to leukemia and today I stood next to a young boy and his mother as they were being told the boy had leukemia for the first time. He was told he wouldn't be joining his classmates for his first day back to school on Monday and not even a tear was shed by him nor his mother. I didn't know if this was a culture thing or whether they didn't fully understand the horror of a cancer diagnosis but I couldn't help but freeze for a moment with sorrow for this boy and wonder whether it was better to not know.

I also had the pleasure of putting together some puzzles with a 5 year old girl receiving chemo therapy for her cancer. She was one of the liveliest children I have ever encountered and she even made me pinkie promise her that I was her friend. She asked my mom's name, my dad's name, my brother's name, and my sister's name and made me promise to tell them they were friends too.

After only this first day at the hospital some of us decided to go out and fully enjoy the amazing opportunity to be in South Africa. We did our first grocery shopping (very interesting brands here) and then we caught a taxi over to the waterfront... finally some other tourists! We were FINALLY not the only ones taking a million pictures of absolutely nothing and yet some of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. We did some shopping, found some amazing african shops, and walked through the warf. We ended the night with a dinner out on a deck overlooking the harbor as the sun set (I know... so cliche but you're jealous) and a meeting with a group back at the apartments.

We've only been here 2 days now and I feel like I have seen so much and yet almost nothing compared to what I'll have seen by the time I have to come home.