Arrival in Cape Town and to HPCA

Hello from Cape Town!
I have arrived, and am quite content in this new, beautiful, vivacious city. I am struck by how fortunate I am to be here for almost a year; I cannot imagine a greater opportunity fresh out of St. Olaf with a bachelors in sociology and anthropology.
I will be in Cape Town through June of 2011, studying gender and sexual health in end-of-life care. I will be working with the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA), and in collaboration with the University of Cape Town School of Public Health and Family Medicine to evaluate recently instated gender guidelines at HPCA.
What does gender have to do with palliative care you might ask? It's a question I've already gotten a lot. HPCA has developed the gender guidelines to highlight the way one's gender affects one's experience with end-of-life care. It is important to realise this is not only a question of promoting awareness of womens' issues, but rather of better understanding of the role gender plays in providing the highest-quality-possible, wholistic, palliative care.
This research project presents me with a steep learning curve: I have already learnt so much about all that HPCA values and how important addressing gender is in end-of-life care, but I have a great deal to learn, and a wonderful opportunity to spend time doing so.