Snowflakes in Africa

My last day at the hospital has been my favorite clinical day so far.  One of the nurses asked us the previous week to bring in Christmas decorations for the floor.  So we bought some garland and made a bunch of paper snowflakes the night before.  We had Christmas music playing as we cut out the snowflakes, which reminded us all of home and our childhood.  The next day, we brought them to the hospital to decorate.  My patient in the morning was only 6 months old.  So he was too young to be taught how to make a snowflake, since he wouldn’t be able to use scissors.  He was discharged toward the middle of the day though, so some of us showed some of the older patients how to make the snowflakes.  A lot of the parents were interested in how to make them as well, so we taught a bunch of the families.  The nurses thought they were wonderful too.  After lunch we took a bunch that we had made and some of the ones the patients had made to hang up around the hospital.  I don’t think South Africa associates snowflakes with Christmas, but the pretty cutouts looked really nice.  Many of the nurses kept saying how we should color them, or that they would bring in colored paper tomorrow.  I don’t think they realized that the cut outs were supposed to be white snowflakes, but they still looked pretty regardless.  Two of the girls and I made a chain of the snowflakes to hang above the table in the procedure room for the kids to look at.  I had so much fun at then end just playing with the kids and teaching their parents the technique of making snowflakes to bring back home to show their other children.  Not only was today fun but it reminded us of the approaching holiday that we would get to spend with our families.  So the whole day was exciting with anticipation even though it also indicated the end of this wonderful experience in the one of the most beautiful places.

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