California to Tanzania

7/8/11 0400

From California to Karatu

I left my father's home in Pebble Beach at 8AM Tuesday morning, met a shuttle at 830AM that transported me from Monterey to SFO. From SFO I took a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt departing at 2PM and arriving at 1015AM. At Frankfurt I bought some chocolate for a girl who is seen at the clinic once a month for  follow-ups on a heart surgery then at 1pm boarded another Lufthansa flight bound for Addis Ababa Ethiopia. It was raining in the highlands of Ethiopia when I landed  and we were quickly shuttled through security before boarding a smaller twin prop plan that would carry me to my final destination Kilimanjaro Airport (JRO). I arrived in Tanzania at 130AM the morning of Thursday July 7th. A taxi took me from the airport 45minutes to the Impala hotel in Arusha. The next morning at 11AM after a continental breakfast that featured the best mango I have ever eaten, and lots of it, I was picked up by Moody, the driver who took me the 140Km to Karatu. At 130PM I arrived at a small art gallery cafe in Karatu where I met up with Jessica (FAME volunteer coordinator), Caroline (FAME Staff) and Grant (volunteer and my roommate for my first four weeks here).

It is winter in Tanzania which means that the people here burn their trash at nigh to keep their homes warm, a practice that Grant told me about before I went to bed last night. I woke this morning to the bitter smell of smoke. I immediately remembered what Grant had said, assured myself halfheartedly that the building was not on fire, and went back to sleep. By 3:45 I had given up on sleep and sat down at my computer to write.

7/9/11 0500

Yesterday was my first day working in the clinic here at FAME. The clinic is almost entirely staffed by Tanzanian medical personnel and I got to shadow Dr. Ringo to start out my day. The doctors and staff speak Swahili and most speak a English a little bit, much better than my Swahili. We are in a region that has a large population of Masai, a traditional tribe in the area, and few of them speak Swahili which requires a translator for them to be seen by the staff here at FAME.

I spent the majority of my day reading reports on Tanzania health policy and education in a hope to better understand the people, culture and the country before I begin to formulate a curriculum. One problem that Jessica hopes to address is the issue with staff patient communication and in particular the patient's retention of critical information (e.g. how to take medication, how to prevent spreading disease, etc.). Starting on Monday I am going to be performing interviews of patients after they have been treated at FAME. The hope is to conduct 100 patient interviews which can later be repeated as an evaluation tool to determine the effectiveness of the new education and changes that we hope to implement. 

It is different here but I am settling in and am confident that I will come to love it here, maybe to much. I will try and update soon!

Kwa Heri,

Dave