Out of the Crater

7/10/11

Today  I went on a safari in the Ngorongoro Crater with Grant and Russell, two other volunteers staying working here at FAME. The crater, which is the result of some ancient volcanic activity, is filled with grasslands that host some of the larges herds of mammals on earth.  The scenery was breathtaking; my pictures don’t come close to doing it justice.

7/11/11

            First full week of work began today : )  I am working on three projects at the moment.

1. Performing interviews of patients once they have been seen to evaluate their retention of important information. (e.g. ways to prevent spreading disease to family)  My translator Joseph is a nineteen year old Tanzanian who is currently awaiting the governments decision on which university he will attend. Joseph wants to study Environmental Science, a field that is in need of young progressive thinking people. I wish him the very best. Joseph speaks very good English, and we spent some time comparing our favorite music.

2.     2. I am developing cards that will be placed inside the medication packets that have information and pictures on them depicting important information about the medication. I am trying to come up with a symbol for food, this is what came up in Google search, however I was quickly informed that a knife and fork are not great ways of depicting food when a significant portion of our patients here don’t use utensils when they eat.  Well. Back to the drawing board. The hardest thing I find about education in Africa is not the language barrier, but the cultural differences. To teach someone something it is important to first understand who you are teaching. This being said the Tanzanian people are some of the nicest people on earth and I am shocked by how welcoming the staff and people in the surrounding village are.

3.       3. I am designing, building and implementing a composting system here that will hopefully be operational within a week so that there can be usable compost before I leave Karatu in September.  They have tilled several acres of land here and are growing vegetables to be used by the staff and volunteers.

 This is FAME from an afternoon hiker. The volunteer houses are found middle, the hospital is in the back right and you can just see the Outpatient clinic back middle partially obscured by trees