So let me tell you a little more about life here! It's going well,
and God provides what I need each moment at a time. Like this
afternoon - we found an enormous 'Zain' store where they were able to
get me a new cell phone and reestablish (hopefully - the process is
still happening) my old number. This is because yesterday, on the way
home from work and a beer with a couple of the engineers still in
town, I was pickpocketed. No, this wasn't just my phone falling out of
my pocket -- as I was climbing way into the back of a dalladalla
(basically a large van where people cram on top of each other), some
guy offered to help Merete with something. In the meantime, he reached
in through the window and grabbed my phone. I was actually totally
unaware until she started yelling and lost hold of his blanket wrap
she'd grabbed just as she saw him do it. It seemed sort of surreal
then, and I'm so glad Merete was aware and doing something about it.
Speaking of that relationship - it's very different than my previous
Californian/Texan roommate, but I think communication is opening up
slowly and we're working well together.
Hospital work is crazy -- today we didn't seem to have anything to do,
until we picked up a blood chemistry analyzer that wasn't working
because "it blew." Well of course we had to see what that meant, so
we plugged it in, and 3 inch + flames shot out of the plug connection
at the back of the box. I was controlling the power switch and turned
it right off, but it was quite exciting (and fortunate that we didn't
hurt our instructor who happened to be holding it on his weekly visit
today). We finally got it working, though it's going to have to go
through a lower voltage power supply (US is 110V, the rest of the
world is 220V - you can imagine what kind of problems this would
cause!). Later this afternoon, we were asked to help re-plumb an
anesthesia machine to run oxygen over the anesthetic instead of
nitrous oxide, because it's much cheaper. After trying to run the
system backwards and hook it up to an O2 concentrator, all to no
success, we now have to go shopping tomorrow to see if we can find
adapters to plug the O2 tubing into the nitrous oxide input. The
system is designed to prevent us from doing it, but we're going to
try! (....sigh...)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
What I'm here to do
Just a brief note to let you know that I am finally doing what I came to Tanzania to do. Merete and I moved into our new homestay on Saturday, and began working this morning at our first hospital in Arusha. I think I may refrain from saying names of hospitals, just to keep things private, but I'd be more than willing to share with those who don't know.
My new home is a large house - our host parents have 8 grown children who have moved out, but show up occasionally, and 5+ grandchildren living with them. The kids are a lot of fun, from ~6 yrs to 16, and the 27 year old son is frequently there, too. We're continuing the trend of being well fed and well included - last night the power went out, and since the main evening activity is TV, I was able to provide a battery-powered viewing of Oceans 11.
The home is no longer in the protected walls of TCDC, so we walk outside and get much more comments, calls, and were followed home by a group of elementary aged boys walking just far enough behind for me to know they were laughing and thoroughly enjyoing themselves. I've hit the point where it is no longer amusing at all to have young men call me out, though I'm still fine with the under 5 crowd and their greetings or stares.
I also no longer have access to a free internet area, so it is unlikely that I will be posting more pictures soon... come back here in August to see the backlog. In the meantime, I will try and return to paint pictures of what daily life is like at home and work.
My new home is a large house - our host parents have 8 grown children who have moved out, but show up occasionally, and 5+ grandchildren living with them. The kids are a lot of fun, from ~6 yrs to 16, and the 27 year old son is frequently there, too. We're continuing the trend of being well fed and well included - last night the power went out, and since the main evening activity is TV, I was able to provide a battery-powered viewing of Oceans 11.
The home is no longer in the protected walls of TCDC, so we walk outside and get much more comments, calls, and were followed home by a group of elementary aged boys walking just far enough behind for me to know they were laughing and thoroughly enjyoing themselves. I've hit the point where it is no longer amusing at all to have young men call me out, though I'm still fine with the under 5 crowd and their greetings or stares.
I also no longer have access to a free internet area, so it is unlikely that I will be posting more pictures soon... come back here in August to see the backlog. In the meantime, I will try and return to paint pictures of what daily life is like at home and work.
Monday, July 6, 2009
The things that make life interesting
The last post pertains to Zanzibar, but in a short week's time, we've had classes and done a 2 day safari to Ngorongoro crater and Tarangire national park. The animals were incredible and the landscape even more so. But my intent right now is to write a little bit about life here at TCDC. The safari gave me a good deal of time to think, and it was great, but mostly I'll just have pictures.
Today was quite a long day. First of all, our Kiswahili classes only have one week remaining, so we are attempting to cram as much into each class as possible. Unfortunately, that means that I am reaching a saturation point and I don't necessarily retain concepts from day to day. It's a little bit (okay, a lot of bit) frustrating. This morning we had a very good explanation of subjunctives, then slogged through a conversation between a doctor, technician, and engineer at the hospital. I have enough trouble remembering technical terms in English, much less the huge variety of words in Swahili that I don't have to use at home at all - meaning they are not reinforced in any way. On the other hand, this is just Monday. I've got all week to master the language! .....(hopeless sigh)......
Afternoon lab was quite exciting, to say the least. Today we learned about electrosurgery units (ESUs). The basic concept is that a current is sent through the very small tip of the pen, often known as a bovie pen, and dispersed to a huge plate underneath the patient. This creates a great deal of heat disappation right at the tip of the pen, which is what cuts or cauterizes. There are a few variations on this, but we got to try it out today... Imagine 22 engineering students in a room, huddled around a single large chicken leg, uncooked of course. We have an ESU that is to be donated, but instead of using the included tips, we've just made one out of a piece of wire. The two students running the demonstration at first were very carefully, cautiously turning up the power while the more testosterone driven students kept goading them to 'turn it all the way up!' Finally, we did get the power going enough to effectively cut the chicken, emitting the smell of burning flesh and the opportunity for us to tattoo the poor drumstick with anything and everything. All in all, it was incredibly entertaining and just one more reminder that I would probably find it very enjoyable to do surgeries. Though hopefully, I'll have practice on many more dead pieces of meat before having to cut into a live person. Don't worry - I'm not considering tattooing as a profession.
Even with all the fun in lab, we managed to get out significantly early, so many of us decided to take the opportunity to visit "Cradle of Love: baby home," which is just down the road from TCDC. I think many people echoed my sentiment of having wanted to visit the home since we arrived, but the solid steel gate and high walls were somewhat intimidating, along with the posted hours that weren't very complementary to our schedule. But despite it all, we mustered up the courage to knock and enter, only to find a beautifully manicured lawn, large newly-built house, and well kept gardens. We were directed around the back of the house, where about 4 young women from the US, Britain, and Canada, were giving out bottles and tending to squirming little bundles on a blanket on the lawn. I walked forward under the laundry hanging to dry, and one little guy ran up with arms outstretched to be held - an instant welcome. We were also welcomed by the staff and volunteers, though I think they may have been a little bit overwhelmed by the nearly 10 people who showed up. It was so refreshing to sit on the lawn, holding small children, laughing, playing, and reveling in their joy at just being cuddled. One little one, Vivian, was lying down and didn't seem as aware as her counterparts. Turns out she was blind and mentally disabled. And so to give her just as much love as those who could reach out and ask, I rocked and sang to her for the rest of the afternoon. Of course, children are no respectors of occupied laps, so at one point I was a jungle gym for three little squirmers. It was beautiful.
Along with watching the children, it was rather entertaining for me to watch how the young guys in our group interacted with the babies. Some definitely had more comfort level than others, and I even got a little glimpse into which ones may be putting up more of a strong face than is there when we're just students together. Come about dinner time, children started crying and we brought them all inside, most of the group scattering (some out of panic?) to get out of the way. Katie and I asked if it would be helpful for us to stay, and we were handed bowls of oatmeal and spoons. I was surprised to see how fast the children shoveled their food in, and even that they could eat so much! The home is very well run, at least as far as we could tell from one afternoon. It is supported wholly by donations, many from the director's church and the US. I can imagine that it is difficult at times, though, when volunteers are scarce or donations run low. Even with a mass of people there, arms were still too few to hold all the little ones - it was par for the course to hear someone crying for attention or frustration. On the other hand, it was very neat to see them interacting with each other. Friendships and conflicts seemed well established, like having 29 brothers and sisters under the same roof. I'm rather glad I don't have quite so many.
Katie and I stayed around long enough to occupy the thoroughly grubby children, handing off the last ones to bathe, and tearing ourselves away from the ones sitting in swings or playpens unattended and tearful. This feeling of helplessness for them, knowing that money won't do half as much as someone to hold them each and listen to their little stories and first words, is exactly why I promised not to return to the states with a child in tow. But overall, I'm so glad we went. This was probably one of the more real reminders as to why I'm here. Even while we were there, a couple of the children were throwing up from some sort of unknown stomach bug, while a few others were struggling through Malaria. In that case, money and resources do help... so I won't promote a complete abandonment of fundraising and beneficence. But I will remind myself and others that this isn't just something to go hold the cute African babies and feel good about yourself with a cute picture. These are children with lives that could change the world if given the chance. And even those that will never make it far from their seat where they must be spoon fed for the rest of their lives, they are precious gems to be loved and cared for as much as the next.
Today was quite a long day. First of all, our Kiswahili classes only have one week remaining, so we are attempting to cram as much into each class as possible. Unfortunately, that means that I am reaching a saturation point and I don't necessarily retain concepts from day to day. It's a little bit (okay, a lot of bit) frustrating. This morning we had a very good explanation of subjunctives, then slogged through a conversation between a doctor, technician, and engineer at the hospital. I have enough trouble remembering technical terms in English, much less the huge variety of words in Swahili that I don't have to use at home at all - meaning they are not reinforced in any way. On the other hand, this is just Monday. I've got all week to master the language! .....(hopeless sigh)......
Afternoon lab was quite exciting, to say the least. Today we learned about electrosurgery units (ESUs). The basic concept is that a current is sent through the very small tip of the pen, often known as a bovie pen, and dispersed to a huge plate underneath the patient. This creates a great deal of heat disappation right at the tip of the pen, which is what cuts or cauterizes. There are a few variations on this, but we got to try it out today... Imagine 22 engineering students in a room, huddled around a single large chicken leg, uncooked of course. We have an ESU that is to be donated, but instead of using the included tips, we've just made one out of a piece of wire. The two students running the demonstration at first were very carefully, cautiously turning up the power while the more testosterone driven students kept goading them to 'turn it all the way up!' Finally, we did get the power going enough to effectively cut the chicken, emitting the smell of burning flesh and the opportunity for us to tattoo the poor drumstick with anything and everything. All in all, it was incredibly entertaining and just one more reminder that I would probably find it very enjoyable to do surgeries. Though hopefully, I'll have practice on many more dead pieces of meat before having to cut into a live person. Don't worry - I'm not considering tattooing as a profession.
Even with all the fun in lab, we managed to get out significantly early, so many of us decided to take the opportunity to visit "Cradle of Love: baby home," which is just down the road from TCDC. I think many people echoed my sentiment of having wanted to visit the home since we arrived, but the solid steel gate and high walls were somewhat intimidating, along with the posted hours that weren't very complementary to our schedule. But despite it all, we mustered up the courage to knock and enter, only to find a beautifully manicured lawn, large newly-built house, and well kept gardens. We were directed around the back of the house, where about 4 young women from the US, Britain, and Canada, were giving out bottles and tending to squirming little bundles on a blanket on the lawn. I walked forward under the laundry hanging to dry, and one little guy ran up with arms outstretched to be held - an instant welcome. We were also welcomed by the staff and volunteers, though I think they may have been a little bit overwhelmed by the nearly 10 people who showed up. It was so refreshing to sit on the lawn, holding small children, laughing, playing, and reveling in their joy at just being cuddled. One little one, Vivian, was lying down and didn't seem as aware as her counterparts. Turns out she was blind and mentally disabled. And so to give her just as much love as those who could reach out and ask, I rocked and sang to her for the rest of the afternoon. Of course, children are no respectors of occupied laps, so at one point I was a jungle gym for three little squirmers. It was beautiful.
Along with watching the children, it was rather entertaining for me to watch how the young guys in our group interacted with the babies. Some definitely had more comfort level than others, and I even got a little glimpse into which ones may be putting up more of a strong face than is there when we're just students together. Come about dinner time, children started crying and we brought them all inside, most of the group scattering (some out of panic?) to get out of the way. Katie and I asked if it would be helpful for us to stay, and we were handed bowls of oatmeal and spoons. I was surprised to see how fast the children shoveled their food in, and even that they could eat so much! The home is very well run, at least as far as we could tell from one afternoon. It is supported wholly by donations, many from the director's church and the US. I can imagine that it is difficult at times, though, when volunteers are scarce or donations run low. Even with a mass of people there, arms were still too few to hold all the little ones - it was par for the course to hear someone crying for attention or frustration. On the other hand, it was very neat to see them interacting with each other. Friendships and conflicts seemed well established, like having 29 brothers and sisters under the same roof. I'm rather glad I don't have quite so many.
Katie and I stayed around long enough to occupy the thoroughly grubby children, handing off the last ones to bathe, and tearing ourselves away from the ones sitting in swings or playpens unattended and tearful. This feeling of helplessness for them, knowing that money won't do half as much as someone to hold them each and listen to their little stories and first words, is exactly why I promised not to return to the states with a child in tow. But overall, I'm so glad we went. This was probably one of the more real reminders as to why I'm here. Even while we were there, a couple of the children were throwing up from some sort of unknown stomach bug, while a few others were struggling through Malaria. In that case, money and resources do help... so I won't promote a complete abandonment of fundraising and beneficence. But I will remind myself and others that this isn't just something to go hold the cute African babies and feel good about yourself with a cute picture. These are children with lives that could change the world if given the chance. And even those that will never make it far from their seat where they must be spoon fed for the rest of their lives, they are precious gems to be loved and cared for as much as the next.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
More Zanzibar
View of the sunset from the Dhow -- notice the local flowers that were stuck in the railings.Alex and I. We met the night before when I told him I was studying Swahili, and he claimed to teach Swahili.... But lo and behold, there he was as one of the guides/sailors on our cruise!
Spice Tour collage - view from the air is us leaving mainland Africa to cross to Zanzibar. The surrounding pictures are coconut, cloves, ginger, tumeric, nutmeg, vanilla, and fuzzy-something-tree. You can guess which is which!
Selected Zanzibar Photos
I can't help but take pictures of the adorable children who ran up to our group, starfruit juice dripping off their hands and chins.
After we got our faces painted with the red plant that Masai use to paint themselves, I decided that I might as well let Jinesh be my brother for the day so as to not confuse the locals any more than necessary.
One of our guides climbing a massive coconut tree with nothing but a rope tied around his feet. 'nough said.
The view from our incredible dhow cruise - clear blue-green water, old sailboat,and guitar on board. What could be better?
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The end of the story or How I lost my shoes
For the rest of the Zanzibar story - hopefully this won't take too long.
So after the spice tour and a non-stop day (remember, this is still the day we arrived), we took an hour bus ride to the northern tip of the island. I definitely have much more respect for how big Zanzibar is, after that day and a good 2 hours of bus on Monday.
So on to how I lost my shoes: That evening, we made up a good percentage of the tourists and locals at a 'full moon' party. This was initially very baffling, because there was certainly no full moon... but the chance to dance on the beach and relax was worth the inconsistencies with the name. Katie and I stayed with the latest group - dancing barefoot, watching incredible acrobats, wandering around in the sand, and having quite a time. The bar was a sort of collection of roofs and some flooring, but largely sandy beach. So you're probably starting to get the picture-- dancing barefoot, left the shoes under a seat where someone was, they left before I did, shoes got picked up... yadda yadda. This might have turned out differently when we left, except that just as we were gathering the last stragglers, someone came to find me because they knew I had EMT training. One of our group members had started to have trouble breathing after laughing at a really funny joke (we still don't know what this joke was), and he started burping uncontrollably to the point where he couldn't take a deep breath. This continued as we tried to get him home, calm him down, and do something with absolutely nothing. Another EMT in our group was woken up and nearly 2 hours later we had a local doctor there with some medications that finally helped. All in all, now that our friend is doing fine, it was a really good experience. I learned that 1) scene control is incredibly important, especially with bystanders who get scared, want to help, some had been drinking, and general chaos. 2) I learned how helpless you can feel without the tools you know and need to address problems - just one more insight into helping here at the hospitals. In this situation, a stethoscope, bp cuff, and perhaps oxygen would have been so incredibly helpful.
All this in one day - I think the consensus was that the first day was the best day of the trip. Sunday and Monday, however, were both pretty spectacular, as well. Sunday we spent the morning on the beach in pristene blue-green waters of the Indian Ocean. A rather heavy rain gave us the opportunity to stop for lunch on the beach, and that afternoon we took a cruise on a dhow - an historical sailboat with food, drinks, snorkeling, 2 small kayaks, and a view of the sunset. The cruise was followed by an incredible barbeque dinner with calamari, octopus, fish, prawns, chicken, chapati, spiced rice, and salad. At this point, we all were reaching breaking points, but we still had one day to go. So Monday, was concluded with a bus ride to the opposite side of the island for more beaches where we found shells, sea urchins, starfish, and more sunshine.
On our way to the airport to catch a 5pm flight back to the mainland, our bus suddenly broke down at 4:30... Within 3 minutes we had hailed 2 daladalas, transferred everyone and their stuff to the cars, and were at the airport 8 minutes later. Though we were many still in our swimsuits, almost not allowed to get on the flight, and quite the disorganized group, we made it home safely and finally home to our beds here. Overall the trip was a success. Hopefully I'll be able to load pictures soon - words don't do the island justice... though pictures are also so inadequate for describing the incredible lushness we saw.
So after the spice tour and a non-stop day (remember, this is still the day we arrived), we took an hour bus ride to the northern tip of the island. I definitely have much more respect for how big Zanzibar is, after that day and a good 2 hours of bus on Monday.
So on to how I lost my shoes: That evening, we made up a good percentage of the tourists and locals at a 'full moon' party. This was initially very baffling, because there was certainly no full moon... but the chance to dance on the beach and relax was worth the inconsistencies with the name. Katie and I stayed with the latest group - dancing barefoot, watching incredible acrobats, wandering around in the sand, and having quite a time. The bar was a sort of collection of roofs and some flooring, but largely sandy beach. So you're probably starting to get the picture-- dancing barefoot, left the shoes under a seat where someone was, they left before I did, shoes got picked up... yadda yadda. This might have turned out differently when we left, except that just as we were gathering the last stragglers, someone came to find me because they knew I had EMT training. One of our group members had started to have trouble breathing after laughing at a really funny joke (we still don't know what this joke was), and he started burping uncontrollably to the point where he couldn't take a deep breath. This continued as we tried to get him home, calm him down, and do something with absolutely nothing. Another EMT in our group was woken up and nearly 2 hours later we had a local doctor there with some medications that finally helped. All in all, now that our friend is doing fine, it was a really good experience. I learned that 1) scene control is incredibly important, especially with bystanders who get scared, want to help, some had been drinking, and general chaos. 2) I learned how helpless you can feel without the tools you know and need to address problems - just one more insight into helping here at the hospitals. In this situation, a stethoscope, bp cuff, and perhaps oxygen would have been so incredibly helpful.
All this in one day - I think the consensus was that the first day was the best day of the trip. Sunday and Monday, however, were both pretty spectacular, as well. Sunday we spent the morning on the beach in pristene blue-green waters of the Indian Ocean. A rather heavy rain gave us the opportunity to stop for lunch on the beach, and that afternoon we took a cruise on a dhow - an historical sailboat with food, drinks, snorkeling, 2 small kayaks, and a view of the sunset. The cruise was followed by an incredible barbeque dinner with calamari, octopus, fish, prawns, chicken, chapati, spiced rice, and salad. At this point, we all were reaching breaking points, but we still had one day to go. So Monday, was concluded with a bus ride to the opposite side of the island for more beaches where we found shells, sea urchins, starfish, and more sunshine.
On our way to the airport to catch a 5pm flight back to the mainland, our bus suddenly broke down at 4:30... Within 3 minutes we had hailed 2 daladalas, transferred everyone and their stuff to the cars, and were at the airport 8 minutes later. Though we were many still in our swimsuits, almost not allowed to get on the flight, and quite the disorganized group, we made it home safely and finally home to our beds here. Overall the trip was a success. Hopefully I'll be able to load pictures soon - words don't do the island justice... though pictures are also so inadequate for describing the incredible lushness we saw.
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