Culture Shock...Almost

I met with the Afrikaans students on Thursday as well to learn a little fundoscopy. (where you examine the retina of the eye with a light and a magnifier called an opthalmoscope) The lights in the room where off so even from far away the pupil would glow bright red if the opthalmoscope was pointed into the eye. When close up, I could see the complete inside of the eye and all of its blood vessels that met in the middle. So cool! Those with bigger pupils or blue eyes were easier to see because of a lack of pigment. 

We drove to the National Hospital for the rest of our day where we learned about wound care which was performed on an obese lady with a severe, festering leg ulcer. Apparently, she has had this ulcer for over a year watching it grow and shrink, but never completely heal. Afterwards, we watched a small growth (I'm not sure what it's called) be removed from a man's toe, and then observed a clinical appointment in which a little girl had a full body rash.

For your viewing pleasure, I found this picture on Google of what her ulcer looked like, though hers was much bigger.

Something I learned at the Vryfees that afternoon is that NOBODY says "excuse me" or "sorry" when they bump into each other, so I guess they just pretend it didn't happen. After walking around the crowd for about 30 minutes I gave up saying it as well because if any acknowledgement of my gesture was shown at all, it was usually a look of confusion. A woman literally almost knocked me to the ground and didn't even turn to look. The surprising part is that everyone I have met in Bloemfontein so far has been very friendly, caring, and polite so I assume the "excuse me" phrase isn't in their culture. 

I also learned that people get really offended if you don't greet them before speaking to them. I approached a food stand and waited for the lady to ask, "can I help you?," but instead she just stared at me with an indifferent/impatient look on her face, so I went straight to the point and asked for a grape Fanta. She practically scowled at me and replied "Hello, I'm fine, thank you." In the United States, if you walk up to a McDonald's cashier who is busy, and (as I would say) hate-facing/mean-mugging every customer that walks in, they will probably get annoyed at your effort to greet them before blurting out your order.