The Good:
- People are really nice. You'll get greeted everywhere you go.
- People are generally pretty chill too - except on the road - there is road rage everywhere.
- Beautiful, beautiful outdoors - mountains for miles and miles and great hiking.
- Nice malls that have nearly everything you could need/miss from the US (things of note not here: mac and cheese, specialty hair/beauty products, sanitizer).
- New house to myself (2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 large kitchen, 1 living room). But granted, the other residents who came were not so lucky and had to choose between an old run-down place or a share with another person the equivalent of my space.
- Relatively stable electricity, internet, running water. Occasionally there are outages of all of those, some places longer than others. Max at a friend's place was a few days without running water. My electricity was out max couple of minutes I think.
- Getting housing, electricity, internet, water paid for.
- US dollar to rand exchange rate is very favorable now. (1:16)
- I get to have a housekeeper for an affordable price. She is so awesome - cleans my house, the dishes, does my laundry - even irons all my clothing.
- You can get a functional car for $3000-$4000, and because cars don't depreciate much, you can sell it for about the same.
- There are regular activities you can participate in weekly: Salsa lesson, terrible tuesday hill run, hash (hiking group), trivia night wed.
- All different types of restaurants: Chinese, Portuguese, Indian, Middle Eastern, American, Pizza, Ethiopian...
- There is a Chinese store that's pretty close by (there used to be 2, but one seem to be closing down). And I get to cook Chinese food more in Lesotho than back in Houston.
- English is the official language (although most people speak Sesotho to each other, and rural people speak only Sesotho).
- The clinic months have set 8am to 5pm hours.
- Being able to transfer really sick patients to Bloemfontein in South Africa
- Hospital: having a radiologist, a cardiologist, ENT, ophthalmology, surgery, orthopedics. Having a CT scanner and ultrasound for echocardiograms.
- Getting to try some exotic fruits: guava, passion fruit
- ...
The Not-So-Good:
- Things moves at an insanely slow pace - like 10x as slow
- People can be pretty unmotivated- sometimes if you request something, and it's a little out of the way, they may just tell you it's not possible when in fact they just don't want to get up and do it.
- If you want something done right away, you have to do it yourself.
- Road rage plus really bad driving. Lights and stop signs are suggestions, so is driving on the left side of the road.
- Not completely reliable internet, electricity, running water (though fairly good).
- City has one of the highest homicide rates - this is especially in the industrial areas and for personal reasons.
- A lot of bugs - some even get into the house especially since I don't have screens.
- The winters get wicked cold, and the summers can get pretty hot. Only space heaters, no general heaters or AC in the house.
- Super loud church worship music (although the sermons are pretty good)
- Not always having a warning about things.
- Taking forever to submit to IRB to approve research projects.
- The hospital months (every 2 months): emotionally draining because you are acting similar to an attending, making more decisions, and having to live with the results of those decisions. A lot of deaths - nearly every day. Having to do blood draws and IVL insertions yourself. Lack of a sense of urgency even when there are sick patients. Lack of resources in general - occasionally running out of 22G needles, alcohol swabs, small syringes, even gloves. Reading own X rays.
- Having to go through the greetings before you get to ask any substantial question. E.g. on the phone: "Hello 'Me" "How are you?" "I'm good thank you"...
- Starting every social event an hour late if you are lucky (most of the time it's two hours late).
- Having a refrigerator for a house - or so it feels like it in the winter.
- Asking hospital personnel to do something, but you see they've been sitting and chatting or on their phones for the last hour and the task has yet to be done.
- People walk at a snail's pace.
- ...