Living in the Kilimanjaro Region

I successfully made it three weeks without Wi-Fi! Here's what I've been up to for the past month...

19 July 2015

Once we arrived in Moshi, Allie and I wandered around the city for bit until we found an internet café. We hung out there for awhile, and slowly, more and more people from our program arrived to join us. It felt like it had been much longer than four days since we had left the school. For the rest of the day, we found a hostel to stay in, went out to eat where I got to order an American cheeseburger (the first cheese I’ve had since arriving in Tanzania), and shopped around looking at all of the street vendors in Moshi. Later that night, we met a couple of Australian guys who were also staying in our hostel and were traveling around Africa for the summer. They had some pretty cool safari stories to tell. We ended up going to a karaoke bar for the rest of the night, which was very fun. Even though none of us got up to sing on stage, we had a good time singing along.

On Sunday, we headed to Machame Falls with everyone. It started off cold and rainy in the morning, and many of us were not expecting the muddy hike we had in store. It took about two hours to hike to the waterfall, which included a very precarious set of steep, slippery stairs, but it was worth it. Even though the water was freezing cold, we were all very excited to get in. After hiking for another very long time to our lunch spot, we had a delicious meal, including pineapple mango juice, beans, beef, rice, bananas, avocado, and watermelon, among other things. When we had all had our fill, we drove the bus over to another smaller waterfall. This one had a couple of tall ledges where you could jump off into the water, and a few people were even brave enough to try it. At the end of our journey, I was covered in mud.

25/26 July 2015

On Monday, we went back to work at the hospital. We worked with Charles the whole day and finally got to start fixing things. The first thing we fixed was an operating lamp that kept flickering on and off. We also fixed a dry sterilizer in the maternity ward, and started working on an oxygen concentrator. That proved to be a lot more difficult to figure out than the other machines. However, oxygen concentrators are vital machines in most developing hospitals, since it can be hard to obtain oxygen tanks. The boy who was using it could not be without an oxygen supply for more than five minutes. After much testing, we left it to look at the next day and found a spare for the boy to use in the meantime.

The rest of the week was a mixture of meeting with doctors, repairing machines, and doing maintenance on the hospital autoclaves. It has been difficult to adjust to the much more relaxed pace here. Most people run on “African time”, which means if you’re anytime within an hour late, you’re still on time. Allie and I have spent a fair amount of time waiting around for people, but at least we haven’t felt pressured or stressed to finish a project quickly. All of the hospital faculty have been very welcoming and friendly; a few have even invited us to dinner. It has been very satisfying getting a couple home cooked meals again. On Thursday evening, we visited Dr. Kiwelu’s house and met his daughter and niece. It was quite an interesting experience. For music, he turned on a rotating disco ball player, while also watching the news at the same time. He also kept giving us beers while we were waiting for the food to be cooked. We arrived around 4:30, but we didn’t end up eating dinner until around 9, and by then, Allie and I were starving. We devoured the chicken and chips the doctor’s niece had made, which was delicious compared to the boiled eggs and potatoes we had been making all week.

Friday was a pretty relaxing day as far as work was concerned. We did a test run on the autoclave we had completely cleaned out the day before. While we waited for that, we talked with Charles more. He was excited to tell us that President Obama was visiting Kenya for a few days. It seemed like a very big ordeal. We also did a couple needs assessment interviews with two of the doctors there on Friday. We talked with them about the equipment needs of the hospital, if they were being met, and how they could be if they were not. Many hospitals from other countries donate their old equipment to Tanzanian hospitals without knowing if they need it or can use it.

We got off of work around 3 and went to catch a “Noah” to Moshi, which is a public van. They always stuff the vans as much as possible, generally with four people per row, and I ended up next to a man who was very talkative but did not know any English whatsoever. My Swahili skills were definitely put to the test, and we had a kind of broken conversation for the rest of the ride to Moshi. We were planning to stay with our friends who were working at a hospital just outside of Moshi for the night and go to a “Bongo flavor” concert, which is popular native Tanzanian music. All of us arrived at the venue about an hour after doors had opened, and there was a beauty pageant “Miss Tanzania” going on. As we waited, the minutes turned into hours, and we wondered if the singer would ever come out on stage. Frustrated and tired, about half of us called a taxi to go home at 2:45 AM, while the rest of the group waited it out. We were told the next morning that he started performing around 3, of course.

The next day, many of us went into Moshi to shop around a bit, and I also met with Pastor Elias Lemas for lunch, a pastor my mom and I had met the last time we were in Tanzania. It was very nice to chat with him a bit about his family and church. He also told me that he will be visiting Wisconsin in October, and I am excited to see him again soon.

Allie and I went back to Mkuu that evening, and when we got off the Noah van, we saw that Dr. Kiwelu was in town and waving us over. He insisted that we come over for dinner at his house again, so we went straight there, and prepared for a later night than we were expecting. It was a very similar night as Thursday, and we were both exhausted by the time we got home around 10:30 PM.

The next morning was an unusual opportunity to sleep in! We had a very relaxing day, and started off by getting some food at the market. In the afternoon, we were surprised by getting a couple new housemates from England. They’re two medical students doing a practical here at Huruma Hospital for four weeks. We showed them around the hospital campus and the town a bit, and they both seem very friendly. It’s nice to meet people that share a similar culture to us, and now we won’t be as lonely in the house!

30 July 2015

This week we continued working with Charles on various equipment throughout the hospital. One night he took us out to eat “kiti moto” for dinner which directly translates to “hot seat” or pork. The way it got the name was because people of a certain religion, Islam I believe, are not supposed to eat pork, so if they were ever caught eating it they would be in the hot seat! It was quite delicious, but I don’t know if I will ever be able to successfully maneuver through all the fat, bone, and cartilage they leave in the dish when they serve meals here. After dinner, we hung out at a local shop and Charles showed us many of the various snacks and drinks people get in Tanzania such as “Tangawizi” super gingery ginger ale, “Tusker” his favorite beer, “Zen” pineapple gin, and some very crunchy snacks that I cannot remember the name of.

On Thursday, we started organizing the hospital’s stockpile of broken equipment, which had been sitting outside for days in the wind and rain. We stacked an endless amount of outdated computers and circuit boards. We did find a few promising items to take a look at, including an operating lamp, some wheelchairs, exam benches, and a stationary bike that we had put a new seat and pedals on the day before.

Friday was another cleaning day. We wiped down all of the wheelchairs and benches we had found in the scrap equipment pile and put new tires on one of the wheelchairs. I’m looking forward to finding places in the hospital where they can use the things we’ve refurbished.

4 August 2015

This weekend a group of us went to Lake Chala! We all met in Moshi and took a bus from there. We arrived at the campsite at around 1:00 PM. Lisa and I decided to pitch a tent together and soon realized that neither of us had much expertise in that area. After everyone’s tents were up, we had spaghetti bolognese prepared by the cook that came with us on the trip. We ate the fanciest camping meals I’d ever had that weekend. When we were done eating, our guide showed us how to get to the lakefront. It was a bit of a hike, but it was very worth it in the end. The water was warm, and the lake was beautiful. Some people kayaked across the lake to Kenya, since the lake is split between the two countries. The rest of us swam around and enjoyed the water, which was quite warm.

The hike back up from the lake was a bit more work than the way down. We hung out at the viewpoint bar that has a view over the lake while we waited for dinner to be ready. Also, Collyn was celebrating his 21^st birthday, and we had red wine for the occasion, plus batter fried fish for dinner. We all wanted to watch the sun rise early the next morning, so most of us went to bed kind of early. The next morning we all got up at 6 AM and walked over to an unfinished house overlooking the lake to watch the sun rise. However, it was too cloudy to see much of it, so it was a little disappointing. The rest of the day was filled with hiking, swimming, kayaking, and more good food before we packed everything up to go back to our hospitals. It was a great weekend to see everyone.

On Monday, Allie and I started working on our end of program presentation. We created a tour of our hospital and showed some pictures of our projects, among other things. On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to visit another hospital in Himo that was under construction. They had just received a lot of medical equipment donations from Germany, so we spent the day testing their new machines and setting up equipment: oxygen concentrators, x-ray film viewboxes, computers. It was nice to have a change of pace. One thing I will not miss from Tanzania is public transportation. To go anywhere far from our hospital, like Moshi or Himo, we usually take the public vans called “Noahs”. They are meant to seat eight people, but on the way back, they fit fifteen in the van with three people in the trunk and the money collector hanging out the door. I felt very unsafe driving through the winding hills. 

Huruma Hospital

We arrived at our hospital on Tuesday afternoon to learn that our appointment with the head of staff Dr. Kyejo was canceled. However, we did meet Skola the housekeeper of the hospital hostel, and she showed us to our rooms, yes plural, each equipped with king sized beds. The only catch is that the water is only on for about half the day at seemingly random times, and of course, no hot water. For the rest of the week Allie and I tried to figure out a good eating schedule. We are on our own for food, which is very different from last month having all of our meals provided. Skola showed us to the market in town where we got a start on our grocery shopping. Allie and I are both hesitant to buy meat here, as it generally comes freshly butchered and on the bone, so thus far, we have stuck to mostly cooking vegetables and potatoes. I’ve also started washing all of my clothes by hand this week. I can already say that I will be very grateful for washing machines when I get back to the U.S.

The first day of work, we attended the morning prayer and debriefing meeting for the hospital staff. I think we only slightly butchered our introduction of ourselves in Swahili. After that we were given a brief tour of the hospital, and then we were supposed to meet with the hospital technician. Unfortunately, he was in Nairobi acquiring a spare part for an autoclave, and did not return until the next day. We did end up meeting some of the doctors, including a Sister who had gone to medical school in Ohio Dr. Daria. She has been very welcoming and friendly over the past few days and seems to understand American culture very well because of all the time she’s spent there.

While waiting for Charles the first day, Allie and I started looking at an infant incubator that was sitting outside. We were unsure what the exact problem was, but we got it running and just need to patch up a broken closure on the frame. The next day couple days we worked on doing inventory for the hospital, logging each and every piece of equipment the hospital has. It was slightly long and tedious, but we were able to see into all the different rooms, including maternity and surgical rooms.

Nights have been pretty low key here, since Huruma Hospital is kind of out of the way, nearing Mt. Kilimanjaro. On the positive side, the surrounding environment is beautiful, and we have a gorgeous view of the mountain not far from where we’re staying. There’s all sorts of little trails we can hike around in as well. Unfortunately, the internet connection at most cafes is too slow to upload pictures, so I'll be uploading them when I get back. This weekend we’re visiting some of the other students and staying in Moshi and going to a waterfall nearby on Sunday. We arrived in Moshi this morning after a long and crowded drive from our hospital. I'm looking forward to seeing the other students in the program again!

Goodbye TCDC

This week marked our last at the language school in Usa River. I'll be sad to say goodbye to everyone for the month. We will all be traveling across northeastern Tanzanian to work in 14 different hospitals in the Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions. Most of our classes this week focused on wrapping up and how to work in the hospital and do paperwork next month. It’s definitely going to be a lot of work. This week, some of the students started playing volleyball after class. I’m very disappointed we waited until the last week here to start playing because it was a lot of fun! I will miss being able to hang out with everyone frequently.

On Friday, we went to a new hospital, Tengeru. Our teachers told us that Tengeru is known for having a lot of thieves, which made us pretty hesitant to go there, but nobody had anything stolen. Right when we arrived at the hospital, I was allowed into an operating room where they needed a light and two autoclaves fixed, which are extremely hot, high pressure baths used to sterilize surgical tools. Camilla and I decided to work on the smaller autoclave, which ended up being a project that took up most of the day. After much testing, we found that the problem with the autoclave was a broken heating element by testing the resistance of the component. EWH will need to buy a new component to fix the autoclave. The second autoclave we found had a more dangerous problem, with a short in the circuitry somewhere that we could not find. Unfortunately while trying to find the problem, Camilla gave herself a pretty good electric shock, and we could not fix the autoclave.

Another adventure we had on Friday, was going out to eat at a local restaurant. At most sit down restaurants in Tanzania, it takes about an hour to receive your food after ordering. Being the impatient westerners that we are, we started getting antsy after an hour had passed. When we finally got our food, Wangui noticed that we had all received beef, when most of us had ordered goat meat. When it came time to pay the bill, there was much argument and debate over whether we had gotten goat, which is more expensive, or beef. This was also ten times more difficult because they only spoke Swahili. It ended up being about a two hour lunch break.

Saturday was probably the most relaxing day I’ve had on my trip thus far. I got to sleep in until 9AM! I walked over to TCDC for the morning and hung out outside and in the library a little. For lunch, our homestay dad took us out to eat at a restaurant where we had supu ya kuku na chipsi, which is chicken soup and fries. After lunch, he took us to see another house he owns which is close to a natural spring river. We explored a bit, and the river was beautiful. He also took us to see the new house he is building. As I was taking pictures, I showed his son Isaka. He loved taking many pictures himself, and he had a lot of practice. He’s soon to be a pro.

This Sunday, we visited a boarding school near Usa River to teach a lesson on circuits. The lab we did was building a heart rate monitor by soldering electrical components to a tinned circuit board. The students, who were high school age, enjoyed it a lot and did very well. Some of the students gave us individual tours around their campus, which was very modern, beautiful, and had many buildings. They were very excited to have us there. After the tour, we played some icebreaker games with them and talked a little about our different cultures. It was a very fun day.

When we got back from the school, many of us decided to hang around TCDC to play volleyball and soccer. It was also one of the Danish student’s 25^th birthday. One of the traditions in Denmark is to throw cinnamon on someone on their 25^th birthday if they are still unmarried. The trick is you also douse them in first cold then hot water right before throwing the cinnamon on them. None of the Americans had ever heard of this tradition before, but we all whole heartedly took part in it.

We said goodbye to our homestay family on Monday night, and they wished us luck and prayed for us. They have been so welcoming and gracious to us, and I’ve had such a good time staying with them. Allie and I are off to Huruma Hospital this morning, which is close to the bottom of Mt. Kilimanjaro. I’m ready to start the next stage of this adventure!

(pictures to come)

Ngorongoro Safari

Our class is getting better and better at speaking Swahili, and this past week we went on a field trip to the market. We prepared by learning a lot of vocab and phrases about fruits and vegetables, and bargaining. Unlike in America, where everything has a fixed price, there are many markets where you can bargain to get a better deal. Another cultural difference I've noticed is that many people assume you have a lot of money if you are white and may try to sell their products at a higher price to you. The school gave us each 2000 Tanzanian shillings (which is equivalent to about $1 USD), and we were asked to get as many fruits and vegetables as we could. My roommate and I walked away with a pineapple, four limes, green beans, and many tomatoes and peppers after we pooled our money. It was very busy in the marketplace. Young boys made money by walking around and selling plastic bags to people.

Lab last week seemed a bit more difficult and tiresome, especially after my partner Allie and I soldered one of our components too close to another on our power supply. After much time spent de-soldering the component, we were able to finish the next day and place the heat sink on easily. On Friday, we were at Mt. Meru hospital again. Collyn and I were able to fix the plug on our broken suction pump fairly quickly by getting a new fuse and wrapping a stranded wire around it to help increase the amperage rating. Once we put the new fuse in the plug, the machine started and ran nicely. We returned it to the maternity ward for use on the floor. After we finished, there weren't too many new projects to start working on, so I hopped around from group to group looking at their projects. Some people were fixing a cart, some space heaters, and one group even got an electro surgical tool running. 

Our room at the hotel

After working in the hospital all day, some of the group ventured into Arusha. We went to a cultural crafts market where we were crowded and pressured to buy anything and everything under the sun. We all got out okay eventually, but it was quite the experience. Going home, I had my first experience riding on a "dala dala" which is a van that drives up and down the main highway picking people up. They usually pack them very tight especially during rush hours, cramming up to 25 people sometimes! 

Lake Manyara

Ngorongoro Crater

This weekend our group went on safari to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro crater. The parks were amazing, and my photos do not do the beauty of the landscape and the animals justice. We started out bright and early on Saturday morning on the long drive to Lake Manyara. We saw many baboons there and some giraffe too. That night we stayed at one of the fanciest hotels I've ever been to and were waited on graciously the whole stay. We went swimming in their pool, and they made us some bonfires and fruity gin drinks. The dinner was delicious, and I definitely ate too much. It was nice to just relax for the evening and get to talk with all of the other students. 

The next day, we woke up at 5 AM before the sun rose to get an early start at the crater. We got ready as fast as possible and headed out right away. When we got to the crater, there was some trouble getting in and our car impatiently waited as Amy and the drivers sorted out the paperwork. When we finally went in, it took almost 45 minutes just to drive up the mountainside. It was covered in fog in the morning, so we couldn't see anything for the longest time. When the sun finally came out, we had reached the top, and the view was gorgeous. We could see out across the whole crater. I've decided I'm going to buy a safari car to travel the world in because you can see everything from all angles. It's an amazing feeling to stand and feel the wind the wind while descending into Ngorongoro crater. It was colder than I expected it to be even as we drove down into the crater, and I put most of my layers on until we left. The day was filled with vast savannas and animal sightings of all kinds. My favorite were the elephants who came right up to the cars. Many of the animals even seemed to pose for us. We also got to see lions napping in the sun, along with herds of wildebeest, impala, zebras, warthogs, and many others. 

Driving down into the crater

At the end of the day we stopped at a Maasai village, where they greeted us with singing and their traditional dancing/jumping. One at a time they pulled us in to join them. They told us about their culture. Most Maasai men take more than one wife. Each wife builds a separate house out of mud and sticks. After a long drive back, we finally arrived back at our homestay, ate, and went to bed. The weekend was exhausting, but well worth the trip. 

Visiting Old Friends

Wow another week flew by quickly! Our schedule has been so packed, it's been difficult to find time to get online. Our Swahili classes have been getting progressively more difficult, and they split us up by skill level today. By the end of last week, I felt like my brain had reached capacity. When talking with native Tanzanians, they say my Swahili is getting better, but I'm not sure that I believe them. I still feel pretty lost when conversing. The labs have also been getting harder. Allie and I made our first homemade flashlight one day and constructed a bridge circuit another day. It reminds me of working in circuits and electronics labs again. Working with a plain proto board instead of a breadboard is very different than a regular breadboard. It's a struggle to twist all of the connections together rather than having a bus you can easily place components in.

Homemade flashlight

Our classroom at the school

On Friday, we went to Mt. Meru hospital again. We continued work on the suction pump we had been working on last week, but found that we could only create enough pressure for a temporary fix. An original part in the machine was missing, so we ended up using an eraser to plug the hole that needed sealing. It was kind of disappointing that we could not fix it permanently, but at least we learned a lot about how suction pumps work. 

The notorious suction pump

After lunch, Jaya, Raiyan, and I started looking through the "Children's Ward" in the hospital, which was really acting as a large warehouse to keep unusable medical equipment. There is a huge open room there filled with broken equipment. We considered fixing some IV holders that needed new wheels, but they seemed to be too rusted to even be useful. Eventually, Collyn came back to the area where we were working with yet another broken suction pump. The pump would only turn on sometimes when the switch was pressed. We opened everything up and took a look at the circuitry inside. We soldered some loose connections, but were still having problems. We traced the problem back to a faulty plug through much multimeter testing and hope to bring back a new fuse to fix it next week. 

This weekend, Franael arranged to have me visit and stay with John, Anna, and their kids, the family I had stayed with the last time I was in Tanzania. It was very exciting to see everyone again, and all of the kids grown up so much. I got to meet Danny, their five year old son, who was very excited and energetic the whole time. He was usually jumping around everywhere and babbling in Swahili a mile a minute, but seemed quite excited to meet me. Baracka and Godluck had a lot of questions about America like what we do for fun and the kind of music that I listened to. It was very interesting to compare our cultures. Maybe one day they will be able to visit our family in Wisconsin.

From left: Baraka, me, Anna, Godluck, Danny, and John

On Saturday, Franael, John, and I and some of their friends from church took the hour long drive to Moshi to attend a wedding reception. There was much music, food, and people. The bride and groom even carried out the African tradition of feeding each guest African "cake", which is actually goat meat. On Sunday, I went to church at Kombelewa parish with Franael and John's family. The service was quite different from the service at the Pentecostal church last week, but similar to our Lutheran services in America. Pastor Peter and Franael asked me to give a greeting from our church near the beginning of the service, and I had to stand up in front of the congregation. I was able to follow along in the worship hymnal and even sing some of the hymns. Pastor Peter gave a sermon, and Franael translated most of it so that I was able to understand. 

Sunday evening, I traveled back to TCDC to stay with my host family again. I'm ready to take on another week!

The tree my mom and I planted 8 years ago

Kombelewa church

Pastor Peter

Coffee Plantation and Church

I've officially survived a week in Tanzania! I can't believe how quickly it flew by. This Friday was our first day in a hospital, and we went to Mt. Meru. We took a bus, and there was a lot of medical equipment ready for us to look at when we got there. Unfortunately, it was also raining a bit as well, and we were planning on working outside. We made due by working under some overhangs. The first project I worked on was creating ear pieces for a broken stethoscope. We were able to replace the broken pieces with some spare tubing.

The second project I worked on was a suction pump that wasn't exerting enough pressure. To begin, we took the entire machine apart. We found the reason it was not working properly was that the moving parts in the vein pump were sticking, so we had to clean it out with alcohol and lubricate it. The big challenge was finding a place to purchase machine lubricant. We ran around Arusha for almost an hour before an owner of an electrical shop just gave us some.

On Saturday, the group went on a trip to a coffee plantation. We had to uncomfortably squeeze all of us onto a small bus. It ended up taking about three hours to get there because the driver was driving quite slowly. Once we got there, it ended up being more of a hike than any of us expected. Since it had been raining, the trail was pretty muddy, and we were all slipping around a lot. We arrived at a small home, and the owner came out to show us to where he grew the coffee plants. He told us the process and the history behind the coffee plant. Then we made our way to the caves there. The caves were man made as shelter and defense during a wartime. We got to climb down and explore the them, while the tour guide told us about how the chagga, or warriors, defended themselves and their families. We ended up staying later than we thought we would, and we got back to our homestay at around 7:30PM.

Today, Wangui and I went to church with our homestay family. It was pretty fun! There's a lot of singing and dancing, with many different groups leading each song. I really enjoyed the music. During the service, they had all of the visitors introduce themselves, including me and Wangui. Our homestay sister, Deborah, was kind enough to translate for us. After that was the sermon. Sadly, I couldn't understand much of it. At the end of the service, they had a small reception for the pastor who had recently recovered from a stroke. Everyone was very warm and welcoming. I'm looking forward to starting another week of class tomorrow.

First Lessons

On Tuesday, we started Swahili lessons by learning all of the different greetings. So far, it’s pretty fun, and I especially like our small group and our instructor, Edward. I hope that these lessons will help a lot, so that I don’t always feel lost when Tanzanians speak to me. Our host mom likes to test us by only speaking in Swahili unless we ask her what she means. I generally just nod along, not understanding a lot of it. Lab wasn’t anything too exciting on Tuesday, just going through our tool kit. At the end of the day, some of the guys tried to play the season finale of Game of Thrones on the projector, and everyone was really excited. Unfortunately, it didn’t want to cooperate, and we didn’t get to watch it. I was also disappointed because my computer stopped connecting to the Wi-Fi, and it took me until this afternoon to get it working again.

Wednesday started out great, with delicious rice cakes for breakfast. During Swahili lessons we worked on the verb “to be” which covers a lot of get to know you questions. We usually get to sing a couple songs during class which makes it easier to remember some words. Acting out scenes in Swahili is another activity we do every day and is always good for a few laughs.

We went through our first real lab on Wednesday! My lab partner, Allie, and I practiced soldering different types of wires and resistors together. I think we will make a good team this summer. At the end of the day, Franael, who works at Nkoaranga parish called to say he was coming to visit me at TCDC. He and Pastor Fred stopped by shortly after. It was good to see them again.

When everyone was ready, the group walked into town to the supermarket. It was a little scary walking right on the highway because cars do not stop or slow down to go past you. It was interesting to see the supermarket with many shops, restaurants, and a bar nearby. I want to try to be more diligent in taking pictures soon. When Wangui and I got back to our homestay, the daughter Deborah was there. We asked if she could show us around the farm outside. She showed us the cows, pigs, chicks, and goats outside. She’s quite interesting to talk to. She told us about her goals; she wants to become a Swahili teacher one day and learn to keep a small garden herself. Our host mama also invited us to church on Sunday, which I am excited to attend.

Today, our lab was making an extension cord. We had to strip the wires and connect each one to the correct spot on the outlet. Our lecture was primarily on electrocardiograms, which I’ve covered a lot in school before. During lecture we always talk about common problems we might have to troubleshoot in the hospitals. Tomorrow is our first day in a hospital, and we’re going to Mt. Meru Hospital. I am very excited to be able to work on actual medical devices. We will also be close to downtown Arusha, so I hope we get the chance to walk around a bit.

The Beginning

After a long flight from O'Hare to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro, the last of the students for the Engineering World Health (EWH) Summer Institute arrived around 9 PM in the airport. About ten of us met our coordinator, David, loaded our suitcases onto a bus and traveled down the highway (which looked more like a country road compared to American freeways) to the Danish TCDC Language School. There, my host "parents" Chrystina and Isuya were waiting to pick me up. They loaded my things into their car and drove us to their home, which is right across the path from the language school. Even though it was late, they had food waiting for me when we arrived. My roommate, Wengui, was already fast asleep. I was exhausted from the trip, so I quickly got ready and went to bed.

Early the next morning I was awoken by a variety of animals, including birds, dogs, cows, goats, and of course, roosters. Chrystina had prepared a big breakfast for us, including fresh yogurt. We walked over to TCDC and went to language orientation. Throughout the morning I met many of the students there. There are people from all across the United States, England, and Denmark. Most of the day was spent learning some basic rules of Swahili and going over general information about the program. When we got home, their son, Isaac, was there. He came right up to Wangui and I, but wouldn't say a word. I gave him the coloring book I brought, and he seemed to love it, and started coloring right away.

Franael from Nkoaranga parish contacted me again, and I'm anxious to plan the visit, however, I think he wanted me to visit more weekends than I expected. I think that our group is trying to plan a safari for a weekend, and I wouldn't want to miss out on that. 

It's been an exhausting few days, but I can't wait to get started on the instrumentation labs and get to know people better!