Nyumbani (home)

I have safely arrived back home.  I will be travelling to Aberdeen tomorrow to begin my next placement in the paediatric hospital there on Monday morning.  It is nice to be back, have a kettle and see my family...but also I will miss the warmth of the Kenyans, the warmth of the Tanzanians and the warmth of the Sun!

I understand that people have been asking after me, thinking about me and praying for me while I have been away.  Just be reassured that I appreciate it very much and that above all, God has been my carer and provider throughout.  Thank you for your part and God bless.

A tale of 2 Nairobis

So, just to update you, since Moshi I have been in Arusha, Tz then Kajiado Childcare Centre, Kenya and now I'm in Nairobi. 

I was assured by a couple of people how developed Nairobi is now compared to when I first came 6 years ago.  And right enough, the roads are smooth, there is plentiful running water, big supermarkets, everyone is walking around carrying nice-looking mobile phones and the diseases of prosperity are increasing rapidly - type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks.

But then I took a while to look a bit harder.

And I noticed that the roads are left incomplete with no markings, the plentiful supply of water is at the expense of the slum areas as it is redirected away from them to the wealthier areas, behind the big supermarkets are the old markets where the poorer people shop and the man carrying the nice looking phone is on his way back to his one-roomed shanty house.

A tale of 2 Nairobis.

Some pictures

My foot, first week in Muheza.  ITCHY!

Me and a nurse with xray, Teule Hosp

Female medical ward, Teule Hosp

Me attempting to pound some tea leaves at the chai factory, Lutindi Mental Hospital.

/

Just get a taxi

So for the last few days I have been at Lutindi Mental Hospital in the Usambara Mountains.

Highlights - the auction at church - people who have no money for the collection bring fruit instead and it is sold in an 'auction' at the end of the service and the money raised goes to the church!  Was pretty impressive to see.

The chai (tea) project - I LOVE TEA, so this was a dream come true!  The hospital runs lots of projects for the patients to get involved in as a means of therapy.  One is the chai project where tea leaves are picked from the surrounding area, ground, roasted and finally packaged.

The dala dala (public bus, more like a van) from Moshi to Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre - quite an achievement with all my luggage and it was only through sheer stubborness as I was fed up with people saying to me, 'Hey, just get a taxi like the other white people!'

Lowlights - Seeing with my own eyes the substance misuse problem in Tanzania and realising that it will potentially lead to severe consequences re Tanzania's development.

The journey from Moshi to KCMC - In hindsight, I probably should have just got a taxi!

Learning from experience

No guidebook can inform you how to practically live your life day by day in a foreign country - especially one so far removed from Scotland as Tanzania is.  How can I fit in when people don't understand my background and I can rarely speak to locals enough to tell them since they don't speak the same language, I go to the market and only recognise half the foods, I like milk in my tea and no sugar, I don't like reggae, come from a culture where achieving tasks is how we value success rather than how many babies I have, I need to apply suncream every few hours and drink 10 x more water than anyone else?!
 
I have learnt that it is all about learning and mentality.  If you come here thinking I'm an apple and you are an orange, you wont get very far.  You need to come here with the mentality that we are all fruit. (sorry for the bad comparison but I couldn't think of anything better off the top of my head!)

Every day you need to see as an opportunity to learn.  For instance, I learnt yesterday that I should always check fruit here before eating it after discovering I had just eaten a maggot-filled mango...  Also learning from others...while in Zanzibar there were 2 instances where people I met had lost their luggage...I still decided to check in my bag at the wee Stone Town Airport any way since the plane is tiny and I wanted as much leg room as I could get.  I went to Tanga, my bag went to Dar Es Salaam.  Learning from other people's experiences is important too!  (I got it back the next day.)

More serious, hospitally instances, a lot of the staff here have very little training.  The hospital relies a lot on them 'learning on the job', which some do better than others.  This has its positives and negatives but a definite positive for us daktari mwanafunzi (medical students) is that they believe a lot more here in letting us do things as a way of teaching us.  So last week the surgeon let me do half his operation!  Cutting, draining, stitching back up...an amazing opportunity for me.

 I am due to leave here tomorrow and go on to pastures new.  I will leave with mixed feelings.  Sad to leave my fruity chums but looking foward to having more learning opportunities as I go on to Lutindi Mental Hospital.

You know you're at Teule when...

• Problems with water and power are discussed for longer in meetings than patients are.
• Water is much more difficult to find than Coke.
• Dairy products are not part of your diet.
• A woman with a fan strapped to her head is viewed as socially acceptable.
• You get told off for being too quick.
• You get laughed at for wearing flip-flops. (used only for showers)
• Most minor surgery is done without any anaesthesia.
• Men need to wear trousers 5x too big to carry their hydroceles/inguinal hernias.
• White people are stared at more than those with massively swollen lower limbs. (parasites)
• Fractures are commonly due to falling out of coconut trees.
• 100 patients at one outpatient clinic, 100 blood slides for malaria every day, 100 ways to say hello! (almost)
• You can play with random children without being asked if you have a Disclosure Scotland.
• Relatives wait constantly outside, sometimes sucking mango stones.
• You pray for rain.
• I am the 6th most qualified person.

Hakuna Maji

“Hakuna maji” – a familiar phrase for me now since it’s been uttered every day for the past 2 weeks in the morning meetings and ward rounds.  It means, no water!  More recently, for the past 36 hours we have also had no electricity.  I am very pleased I brought my headtorch and that we have kerosene.  I wouldn’t like to imagine going through a whole day without my chai (tea J ).

In other news, I have still not got sick, it is still very hot and still everyone is being diagnosed with malaria.  It appears that some people have forgotten that there are other causes for fever in the tropics.  I have been working in paediatrics the past whiley and have been enjoying noting all the different reactions the children have to seeing me.  I have been surprised that most haven’t started crying until I have tried to put a stethoscope on them, and they do that even with the Tanzanian docs!  The art is to listen to their breathing through the screams and/ or through them gurgling breastmilk.

I feel pretty settled in here now – I am trying to not get frustrated with the pole pole (slow) pace of life but instead embrace it and enjoy it.  I am getting to know some student nurses and enjoyed going away for the weekend with my hostel-mates George, Ruth and Nicky.  I have started my project on childhood immunisations and have already achieved...managing to annoy the immunisation nurses by continuously asking them why there are pages of reports missing and nothing documented for entire months...  I have also got pretty good at making dishes from tomatoes, onions and rice/pasta, which nearly sums up everything that can be bought in Muheza!  Night routine= bucket shower, put fan on, apply insect repellent, tuck in mozzy net, set alarm for 6.30am, sleep. J

Hope you are really cold at home...heehee.  Love Emma