We were excited to have our first day with an agenda. We woke up early, got breakfast, packed our pockets with everything we needed for the day and headed out the door with our white coats and stethoscopes. If we didn't stand out enough already, we sure did this morning.
When we got to the hospital, we went to the administration area to meet the medical officer and go to the Ob/Gyn wards. We showed up and waited at her door for a little while since she wasn't there. After awhile, one of the nurses gestured to us that she wasn't here on Mondays. Oh, good to know. Neglected to mention that when we met and talked on friday. Hakuna matata... (yes, they actually say that here)
We decided to wander around a bit and see if we could figure out where things were and get oriented. After our first turn we got stopped by the chaplain who chatted us up for awhile and then asked us to come with them to the ward where he asked us to lay hands on a young woman and pray for her. Not a clue what he said, but he was very passionate!
We ended up shadowing Dr Lee for the day and got to hang out with him in the orthopedics clinic where we learned we're all a bit rusty on our anatomy... Good thing Lindsay brought some books along to brush up! Got to see some interesting things but so far nothing too crazy.... There was a young woman with some sort of congenital malformation where her pinky finger was curled up and attached to her hand and she wanted to have surgery before going to school but it was too soon before school started. Another guy that came in had been in an accident where a machine had sliced off all 4 fingers on his right hand and one of them had gotten infected in the healing process. Not really anything different than what we would do in the states... But there was one guy who had an open fracture of his tibia and since skin grafts don't heal well here due to high post-op infection rates, the wound was still open and healing very slowly. Pretty gnarly but amazing that it wasn't infected!!
After clinic, Dr Lee gave us a tour of the hospital and then took us to another great place for lunch. Also a tourist hot spot and we also found out that lots of people go there to dance every Thursday. I'm sure we'll check that out at some point before we leave, with escorts of course!
After lunch the hunt for a place to live was on. It was unfortunately a frustrating and fruitless search. We are safe and doing great at the hostel, but having our own kitchen and a place to do laundry would be nice.
For right now, we're ending the day watching world cup at the local foreigner pub watching world cup soccer with a kilimanjaro lager.... Life is good :)
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Super Size Me...
We’ve now been in Arusha for 3 days and I think we’re kinda starting to get the hang of things. We still haven’t really figured out what we’re going to do for dinner on a daily basis but hopefully we’ll figure that out soon. Going out for food can really add up and it would be really nice to have a place to ourselves where we could cook our own meals. Dr. Lee is checking out a place for us so we’ll see what turns up.
This weekend has been fun getting to explore the area and today we got to go on a hike where everything in terms of plants and bugs is 50x bigger than anything we’ve got in the states. We got to hike up to our friend Roger’s village at the top of Mt Meru. We got into the village just as church was finishing and got to hear them singing which was so beautiful and amazing. Roger later told us as Lindsay and I were goofing around singing on our hike that they think European/American women have beautiful voices. We thought that was pretty funny considering we thought they had beautiful voices and harmonies (and considering that Lindsay is tone deaf). Some of his friends came up and talked to us (in excellent English) and asked where we were from. When we said we were from the west coast, he flipped open his book and in the back there was a world map and sure enough, there was Portland!!
We continued our hike into a national forest area where we bumped into a few other tourists and got a bit muddy hiking to find a waterfall. It definitely was no hike for wimps. We were hopping over rocks, climbing up a few spots that were almost straight up and the last 45 minutes or so to get to the village was at a 45 degree incline. Roger was running it as we were carefully trying to find our footing. Apparently he runs it every morning for a workout and then runs back down. Go figure… Upon leaving the village the rest of the hike to the waterfall was down a narrow path that was very muddy and we were very careful not to slip, except for Roger of course. Once we got down to the stream, we hiked in the stream for most of the way up to the waterfall. We took a ton of pictures, which we’ll post if we get a chance here, but it may need to wait until we get back to the states with faster internet. Needless to say, we definitely got our exercise in for the day and will be sore tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow… we start at Mt Meru in the morning. We will be starting together on Ob/Gyn and then likely split up once we feel a bit more comfortable. But we thought for at least the first few days, sticking together and learning our way around the hospital and meeting the staff would be a good idea.
Our trip thus far has mostly been fun and exploring, but I think the real reality of why we’re here hits tomorrow. On Friday when Dr Lee took us to The Blue Heron, we bumped into some nursing and medical students from the UK who were not exactly thrilled with their experience here at the hospital. I think they were very taken aback at what they saw, and we might be as well. I’d like to think that we’re a bit better prepared and understanding of the things that we’ll encounter in the coming weeks, but only time will tell. Some of the things that I am glad to know before we start are 1) “Shikamoo” is the greeting of respect for an elder or superior. 2) They do not by any means have the same resources that we do and are much more rustic in their approach to women in labor, for example. And 3) go with the flow. We didn’t come here to preach at them, fix the system, or perform miracles. We came to be an extra pair of hands to help with what they do every day.
We’ve had the chance to meet plenty of fellow travelers including some UN interns at the Greek Club Sports Bar where we were watching the USA vs Ghana game. A very sad loss, but even more sad was the fact that many of the other Americans in the bar were the obnoxious ones that give us a bad name in foreign countries. We also discovered that there were a couple Canadians at the bar as well who noticed us being dorky tourists and taking pictures holding the World Cup sign. We found out this morning that they were staying at the same hostel! Sadly they left today, but it was nice to meet some other English-speaking friends and hear about their travels. They’ve been traveling to different places around the world since last fall and had some great stories.
We’ve also met a girl from Boston/DC/Arizona named Daaimah (pronounced die-ee-mah) who has been very friendly and helpful and we’ve all become fast friends. She’s here with SIC (Students for International Change) doing some inventory on how projects over here are going. She’s worked for a vaccine company in the past and was trying to study for and take the MCAT but her work schedule was just too busy. We think she’s still interested in applying for med school at some point, but she’s got her hands full for now! She’s going to be here until the end of July and we’ve talked about going on Safari together before she leaves.
The people here are all very friendly, but we definitely get stared at a lot. As Linds said in her blog, I think we’re all getting a little tired of being stared at and called “mzungu” (white person) but I guess it’s something that we’ll have to get used to. The kids are adorable and typically either run when we wave or give us a huge smile back. One asked Lindsay to take his picture, laughed when she showed it to him and then apparently got mad that she didn’t say “bye” and threw some sort of dried branch at her. We’ve also discovered that they like to “pound it” instead of high five, which is very entertaining.
For all the mzungu’s back home… =)
This weekend has been fun getting to explore the area and today we got to go on a hike where everything in terms of plants and bugs is 50x bigger than anything we’ve got in the states. We got to hike up to our friend Roger’s village at the top of Mt Meru. We got into the village just as church was finishing and got to hear them singing which was so beautiful and amazing. Roger later told us as Lindsay and I were goofing around singing on our hike that they think European/American women have beautiful voices. We thought that was pretty funny considering we thought they had beautiful voices and harmonies (and considering that Lindsay is tone deaf). Some of his friends came up and talked to us (in excellent English) and asked where we were from. When we said we were from the west coast, he flipped open his book and in the back there was a world map and sure enough, there was Portland!!
We continued our hike into a national forest area where we bumped into a few other tourists and got a bit muddy hiking to find a waterfall. It definitely was no hike for wimps. We were hopping over rocks, climbing up a few spots that were almost straight up and the last 45 minutes or so to get to the village was at a 45 degree incline. Roger was running it as we were carefully trying to find our footing. Apparently he runs it every morning for a workout and then runs back down. Go figure… Upon leaving the village the rest of the hike to the waterfall was down a narrow path that was very muddy and we were very careful not to slip, except for Roger of course. Once we got down to the stream, we hiked in the stream for most of the way up to the waterfall. We took a ton of pictures, which we’ll post if we get a chance here, but it may need to wait until we get back to the states with faster internet. Needless to say, we definitely got our exercise in for the day and will be sore tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow… we start at Mt Meru in the morning. We will be starting together on Ob/Gyn and then likely split up once we feel a bit more comfortable. But we thought for at least the first few days, sticking together and learning our way around the hospital and meeting the staff would be a good idea.
Our trip thus far has mostly been fun and exploring, but I think the real reality of why we’re here hits tomorrow. On Friday when Dr Lee took us to The Blue Heron, we bumped into some nursing and medical students from the UK who were not exactly thrilled with their experience here at the hospital. I think they were very taken aback at what they saw, and we might be as well. I’d like to think that we’re a bit better prepared and understanding of the things that we’ll encounter in the coming weeks, but only time will tell. Some of the things that I am glad to know before we start are 1) “Shikamoo” is the greeting of respect for an elder or superior. 2) They do not by any means have the same resources that we do and are much more rustic in their approach to women in labor, for example. And 3) go with the flow. We didn’t come here to preach at them, fix the system, or perform miracles. We came to be an extra pair of hands to help with what they do every day.
We’ve had the chance to meet plenty of fellow travelers including some UN interns at the Greek Club Sports Bar where we were watching the USA vs Ghana game. A very sad loss, but even more sad was the fact that many of the other Americans in the bar were the obnoxious ones that give us a bad name in foreign countries. We also discovered that there were a couple Canadians at the bar as well who noticed us being dorky tourists and taking pictures holding the World Cup sign. We found out this morning that they were staying at the same hostel! Sadly they left today, but it was nice to meet some other English-speaking friends and hear about their travels. They’ve been traveling to different places around the world since last fall and had some great stories.
We’ve also met a girl from Boston/DC/Arizona named Daaimah (pronounced die-ee-mah) who has been very friendly and helpful and we’ve all become fast friends. She’s here with SIC (Students for International Change) doing some inventory on how projects over here are going. She’s worked for a vaccine company in the past and was trying to study for and take the MCAT but her work schedule was just too busy. We think she’s still interested in applying for med school at some point, but she’s got her hands full for now! She’s going to be here until the end of July and we’ve talked about going on Safari together before she leaves.
The people here are all very friendly, but we definitely get stared at a lot. As Linds said in her blog, I think we’re all getting a little tired of being stared at and called “mzungu” (white person) but I guess it’s something that we’ll have to get used to. The kids are adorable and typically either run when we wave or give us a huge smile back. One asked Lindsay to take his picture, laughed when she showed it to him and then apparently got mad that she didn’t say “bye” and threw some sort of dried branch at her. We’ve also discovered that they like to “pound it” instead of high five, which is very entertaining.
For all the mzungu’s back home… =)
Friday, June 25, 2010
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Todo...
The last few days have been quite the wild ride. We left at 6:15 am on June 23rd from Portland and arrived at Kilimanjaro international airport at 8:30 pm on June 24th. Needless to say we were exhausted. When we got off the plane in Kili, we were somewhat on pins and needles waiting to find out if our luggage made it, if we had a ride from the airport, and if a room had been reserved for us at the hostel. Fortunately, everything went off like clockwork. We got our visas, all of our luggage arrived and Dr. Lee was waiting for us when we came through customs. He had already reserved a room for us at the hostel and the room was ready for us when we arrived 40 minutes later.
It’s not exactly the presidential suite (ahem, Mom, Melinda and Mary Lynn!) but it’s safe, we have beds, toilets and showers and the people are very friendly and helpful. We had to wander around a bit this morning to find some bottled water and enjoyed our first expedition around Arusha. We found a supermarket with basic amenities and bought some bottled water and hand soap. When we got back to the hostel we decided that we needed to find Mt Meru hospital and Dr Lee and get a little bit of help figuring out the city. We made a new friend, who we think is named Roger. We think he’s the Maasai guard for the hostel, but he took an hour or so and showed us around, showed us how to get to the hospital, taught us some swahili and bought us some chapati which we happily munched on. We’re not entirely sure what chapati is, but we think it’s some sort of flour and water, fried flatbread. Lindsay referred to it as “an elephant ear without the cinnamon and sugar”.
Dr. Lee wasn’t at the hospital when we stopped by the Roger, but he said he could meet there in about 40 minutes. We wandered around a bit and met him back there where he took us to run a couple errands where we could get sim cards for our phones, exchange some money and introduced us to a local quiet haven: The Blue Heron. The Blue Heron is a bit of a local tourist hang out with very friendly staff and they have free internet if you just buy a drink! Fantastic!
All in all, I’m quite proud of our navigation skills and am very thankful that everything has worked out. We’ve learned a few swahili phrases and managed to make the locals laugh. Lindsay has already been told she has a “crazy memory”.
It’s not exactly the presidential suite (ahem, Mom, Melinda and Mary Lynn!) but it’s safe, we have beds, toilets and showers and the people are very friendly and helpful. We had to wander around a bit this morning to find some bottled water and enjoyed our first expedition around Arusha. We found a supermarket with basic amenities and bought some bottled water and hand soap. When we got back to the hostel we decided that we needed to find Mt Meru hospital and Dr Lee and get a little bit of help figuring out the city. We made a new friend, who we think is named Roger. We think he’s the Maasai guard for the hostel, but he took an hour or so and showed us around, showed us how to get to the hospital, taught us some swahili and bought us some chapati which we happily munched on. We’re not entirely sure what chapati is, but we think it’s some sort of flour and water, fried flatbread. Lindsay referred to it as “an elephant ear without the cinnamon and sugar”.
Dr. Lee wasn’t at the hospital when we stopped by the Roger, but he said he could meet there in about 40 minutes. We wandered around a bit and met him back there where he took us to run a couple errands where we could get sim cards for our phones, exchange some money and introduced us to a local quiet haven: The Blue Heron. The Blue Heron is a bit of a local tourist hang out with very friendly staff and they have free internet if you just buy a drink! Fantastic!
All in all, I’m quite proud of our navigation skills and am very thankful that everything has worked out. We’ve learned a few swahili phrases and managed to make the locals laugh. Lindsay has already been told she has a “crazy memory”.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Let the chaos begin
So as I'm beginning to think is going to be a theme of our trip, it's time for us to learn to fly by the seat of our pants. We found out last night that our housing option fell through. We were going to be staying with a family a little outside of Arusha, but it turns out the bedrooms that we were going to be staying in will be occupied by a brother who will be in town and an uncle who recently became ill. We're all pretty bummed about it, but we do have a back up. We'll be staying at Centre House Hostel and Molly and Dr. Lee are trying to help us reserve a triple to stay in at least temporarily. BUT, at least we have a ride from the airport and a place to stay for awhile and the entire time if needed.
We're not thrilled about this change, but it is a short walk to the hospital. Please pray for our safety and that the bed bug problem that Molly encountered while she was there has been taken care of!!
Much love,
Amy
We're not thrilled about this change, but it is a short walk to the hospital. Please pray for our safety and that the bed bug problem that Molly encountered while she was there has been taken care of!!
Much love,
Amy
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Falling into place...
I've never done one of these before but bear with me and we'll see how it goes!!
First of all, a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you that have helped to make this amazing trip possible. We are leaving in 13 days and I'm excited/nervous/scared and yet still have school to finish up!!
Some updates -
Tickets have been bought and we are leaving June 23 arriving in Arusha on June 24. We are leaving Arusha on Aug 18 and arriving back in Oregon on Aug 19. I've been shot, drugged and prophylaxed and am ready to go with probably not a clue of what I'm about to encounter. We're also going to be staying with a family while we're there that lives a little bit outside the main city of Arusha which I think we're all excited about and will be a great opportunity to learn more about what life is like on a day to day basis and get a chance to practice our Swahili! We've also collected a bunch of supplies that we'll be taking over to donate to the hospital. We've also met a couple doctors who will be there in July (Dr. Lace) and August (Dr. Temple). From what we've heard from Michelle, Hailey and Lindsay B who went last year, they are great resources and excellent teachers that we'll be able to learn from.
All in all, I think we've prepared as well as we can and we just have to sit back, enjoy the ride and go with the flow!!
All that's left is to finish up one more exam on June 18 and my first year of medical school is over!!
Much love,
Amy
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