Amy's on a Safari

Phase II

Good morning from Arusha!  Kim and Megan made it to the Outpost about 10 PM and my bus finally rolled in at about 1 AM.  It is good to be together!  I'm excited to begin the next phase of my trip! 

The bus ride was an adventure.  Eunice from Bega Kwa Bega was waiting at the bus stop in Iringa with me when we were greeted by Pastor Kimbavala.  He has been a pastor in the Iringa area for 6 years at churches with companion congregations in the St. Paul synod.  It turns out he was on my bus to return to Arusha for seminary classes.  In fact, it turns out he was actually assigned to the seat next to me.  It was a very welcomed coincidence that we would be traveling together.  The trip was terryfiying at times.  I think I clenched my jaw for the first 6 hours during the day and the last 4 hours during the nights (I seemed to chill out a little bit during the 4 hours in the middle.  Yep -- it was a 14 hour bus trip with 3 less than 10 minute potty breaks.  I was definitely on a fluid restrictions.  There were 2 wazungu on the bus for most of the trip, but by the end I was the only mzungu.  Boy did I feel grimey!  Windows open for 14 hours (no air) made my hair and eyeballs feel nasty.  Every time the bus slowed down it reeked like urine, vomit, etc.  In all fairness, the bus seat was more comfortable than the Delta or KLM seats, but it was a cozy ride since I had my back pack on my lap for the whole trip. 

When we were waiting for the bus in the morning (which was an hour late), Pastor Kimbavala reminded me of a saying that we had already talked about numerous times during my trip:  Americans have watches and Tanzanians have the time.  All things considered, but Tanzanian bus drivers don't seem to have the time...

I'm ready to explore the North.  We're headed out for town for a few days, so I probably won't have internet again until we return to the Outpost on Friday. 

Hope all is well!  Thank you for anybody who sent prayers and happy thoughts my way during my bus ride yesterday! 

Feeling like a tourist...

Today I got our my safari hat and wore capris when we went to visit Isimila -- boy did I feel like a wazungu.  Isimila was cool.  It was a miniature Grand Canyon and bit like Bryce, except that there were 300,000 - 400,000 year-old tools scattered every where (balls for sling shots, hand axes, spears and knives).  The rest of the day has been pretty lazy. 

Although most of you probably won't care (this is for my Grandma) I have seen some birds that I can identify and even used my binoculars to do some birding one afternoon.  So far my favorite has been both a male and female African Paradise Flycatcher.  I have also seen a common bulbul, lots and lots of pied crows and some other little green bird with a yellow belly and bright blue head.

Tomorrow I head to Arusha.  I'm hoping for a safe day of travels.  If I'm lucky, I might get one or 2 quick bathroom breaks during the 12-14 hour trip.  I don't know how many kilometers it is, but it will be a long trip.  For those of you who might reference a map, I'll be traveling through Morogoro and Chilanze before heading to Moshi and finally Arusha.  There is a shorter route that goes from Iringa to Dodoma, but apparently the road is very, very bad and this route is not recommended.

Wish me luck!  I hope to check in with you all from Arusha! 

Kangas and more...

Yesterday while wandering Iringa I bought a kanga.  Although I don't exactly know what I will do with it, I thought it was only appropriate that I purchase one to bring home from my first trip to Tanzania.  There is a Swahili proverb that says "a woman cannot be happy until she has got at least 1,000 kangas."  I think I will be happy bringing home just one.  Kangas come in a huge array of colors and patterns.  A lot of the kangas in Tanzania are also printed with a proverb.  I bought a bluish purple kanga with dark printing.  The proverb printed on it is "mazoea yana taabu tabia zikilingana."  The shop keeper couldn't translate this proverb for me, but assure me that it was "good".  She also steered me away from the "very bad" kangas.  So far my phrase books and dictionaries have not been of any further assistance.  You can learn more about kangas here.  

We have enjoyed some quiet days in Iringa.  There are two other people here from the original Ilula group - the rest of returned to Dar to fly home.  We take a short hike to Gangilonga Rock - I think this counts as a training hike since we started at the an elevation similar to Denver.  I didn't wear my boots though.  In fact I took this hike in sandals and a skirt (For those of you who like to argue the definition of a hike versus a walk, we were gone for about 2 hours and I did carry water).  The view of Iringa was terrific from the top of the Rock.  Yesterday we visited a batik shop run by some Italian nuns (they also have a cooking school) and had a tour of Tumaini University.  I was also able to visit with the pediatric PT at Neema.  It turns out that she received most of her training from Sue Murr when Sue was teaching up in Moshi.  Tomorrow we are planning a short trip out to Isimilia.

In Iringa we have spent quite a bit of time with the MN folks from Bega Kwa Bega that regularly spend their winters in Tanzania.  They have been so welcoming of our group.  Last night we even had dinner at one of their homes -- it was my first rice free meal in Tanzania!  It has also been interesting to learn more about the depth of the relationship be the St. Paul synod of the ELCA and the Iringa district of the ELCT. 

On Monday I will travel from Iringa to Arusha.  I hope to make one more entry on this blog before this trip, but just in case it doesn't work out, please pray that I have a safe journey.  I'm looking forward to meeting Kim and Megan and continuing my adventures in the North! 

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words (Part 2)

Girls carrying water to school in Tungamalenga.

Humphrey (son of Barnabus and Alice in Tungamalenga)

A student in one of the form I classes at the primary school in Tungamalenga.  I could just about keep up with the swahili and hesbati (math) lessons in this classroom.

In Tungamalenga, I met my prayer partner Farajah and her husband Abraham.  They have 10 month-old twins Grace and Gloria.

This little girl at the Masaii preaching point that we visited was contstantly teasing me by posing for pictures, but it was extremely difficult to actually catch her in any one spot long enough to actually get her picture. 

Masaii boys headed out to play.

I hope you all enjoys some pictures.  I will have lots more to share when I get home.  It took nearly 3 hours for me to get these pictures up on my blog, so pictures may be few and far between. 

I will be spending the next several days in Iringa and then on Monday I will take the bus north to meet Kim and Megan in Arusha.  It's hard to believe that the first phase of my trip is nearly coming to an end.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words (Part 1)

11 people packed in the back of a Land Rover to travel to a mobile HIV clinic site.

Examining a baby at Ilula Hospital.

Balancing Bible act on the way home from church in Ilula.

A toddler with malaria on the day of discharge from Ilula.

View from guest house at Ilula Hospital.

"Height and Weight" Tanzanian Style:  All children 0-5 years are weighed monthly.  Every baby comes to clinic with their own weighing pants.  The bigger kids do their best to hold onto the while they are weighed.  I am happy to report that at this mobile clinic nearly all of the children had gained weight and not one baby hit the ground. 

Can you imagine stirring enough ugali to serve 800 hungry students?  This man in the kitchen at Imagi Secondary School uses a 2x4 to get the job done.

Baby after getting weighed.  Despite the heat, many babies are very well bundled and even wear hats. 

To Tungamalenga and Back

For the those of you who have been there, you know that the trip from Iringa to Tungamalenga is long, dusty, bumpy and a bit unpredicatable.  I have a "reserved" seat in the front of our bus where I sit with a clear view of the road with all its bumps and oncoming buses, bikes, people, cattle and etc.  Although this is my preferred place to sit to prevent car sickness, it isn't always a good thing to see what's ahead.  On the way home we were forced off the road and into the ditch by an oncoming bus.  It was a little nerve wracking to be sitting on the downhill side of the bus.  It took nearly all of us to push the bus out of the soft dirt ditch and back up onto the road.  On the way to Tungamalenga I was feeling a little quesey, but I thought it was just from the ride.

We were greeted by a group from the church who were singing, dancing and waving branches.  After my first of many Fantas of the weekend, we checked into our hotel and took a quick walk around the village.  Funny thing was that I was feeling sicker, not better.  I excused myself from dinner and went to bed early.

It wasn't a fun night.  I made frequent trips to the bathroom throughout the night and as my GI system got more and more confused.  I think we had sqashed all the big bugs before before we went to bed, but there was a lizard that kept me company.  At least that's the only friend that I could see with my head lamp.  I had been looking forward to church in Tungamalenga, but spent all day Sunday which was also my birthday) in bed with a fever.  I did make it out to the porch in the evening and even pulled out my binoculars to look at some birds (Grandma you should be proud).  By the next morning I was feeling better and ready to experience Tungamalenga.


I had been warned that news travels fast in Tungamalenga.  I know there were many people praying that I would recover quickly and the most frequent question of the day was "how is your stomach?"  I also received meals and eggs from concerned people from the village.


On Monday I spent time at the dispensary where I spent a while working with a man who had had a stroke some time ago (Enoch), visited the demonstration plots for agriculture project, toured the primary school (with Alice), met with a HIV community support group and had the opportunity to meet my prayer companion and her family.  It was a wonderful day!  People were so welcoming.


On Tuesday I spent spent a little more time at the dispensary and a lot of time up at the primary school.  I spent quite a bit of time teaching ring-around-the-rosie and head and shoulders, knees and toes to the kindergarteners.  Then I spent some time in first grade swahili - it was a perfect spot for me.  Before lunch I spent some time under the big baobab tree talking with community members. 


On the way home we stopped at a Masaii village not too far outside of Tungamalenga.  Most of the men were out with the cattle, but the women and children greeted us with song and dance.  They provided warm soda and jewelry and we bought even more jewelery.  Global Health Ministries also provided each person with a small flashlight.

I continue to have a great time in Tanzania.  Tonight I will move from Ilula to Iringa (a day earlier than I had predicted).  Since I'll be in town more, I should be able to get some pictures in my blog soon.  The next couple of days I will spend some time with the PT at Neema and maybe visit the district hospital as well.

Please continue to send your thoughts and prayers this way.  Also, please pray for rain in the Iringa/Tungamalenga area!  

On the Way to Tungamalenga

Good morning!  Today we are on our way from Ilula to Tungamalenga.  We stopped in Iringa for business (that means most of us are trying our best to be patient with slow internet).  From Tungamalenga most of the group will head out on safari in Ruaha, but Randy and I will stay in Tungamalenga. 

I just spend 50 minutes trying to include some pictures on my blog, before I gave up.  I guess for now you will have to continue to use your imaginations.  It is beautiful here.  Although they could use some rain to keep the corn and tomatoes growing, it is much greener than I had anticipated.  People have been very busy working in the fields.  It would seem daunting to me to head out to the huge fields with a single hoe.  No space is wasted -- the crops are planted right up to the houses.  I knew there were mountains in the area, but had no idea they would be so big.  It makes me a bit concerned about setting my eyes on Kilimanjaro for the first time..  Yesterday was probably the warmest day since we arrived -- it definitely felt like we were near the equator when we went out for an afternoon walk.

In addition to our time at the hospital, we have taken trips to visit the Ilula Orphan Program and Imagi Secondary School.  I think I wrote about IOP previously, but I'm too afraid to leave this page to go back and check.  Imagi has lots of MN ties.  It was crazy to spend an hour driving to the middle of nowhere to find a school with 800+ students.  Although many of the buildings are finished, others are without roofs.  I did not go in the dorms, but some people in our group did.  There are 4 bunks per small room and each bed sleeps 2 for a total of 16 kids per room.  It made our accommodations at Ilula seem quite spacious.  It was mealtime when we were walking around and I witnessed a man stirring a gigantic pot of ugali with a 2x4.  Before we left the school, the students did a performance of singing and dancing.

On Thursday I went along on a mother and child mobile clinic.  We traveled beyond Imagi another 10 k.  They say the road keeps going, but I'm not exactly sure.  The more away from the main road we got the more of a spectacle we created.  Babies were afraid of us and the older children were curious but very shy.  The  mothers were most interested in our cameras and kept coming back with more people to get their pictures taken.  I spent most of my time at the clinic helping to take weights.  This was nothing like height and weight at Gillette.  The mothers present their child's growth record and then hang their children by shorts with suspender like straps to a hanging scale.  The kids who are a little bit older try their best to hold onto the hook on the scale.  While some of the babies are quite content hanging from the scale, others are terrified.  In other parts of the clinic women received pre-natal check ups and birth control and babies were vaccinated.

I have spent quite a bit more time in the wards at Ilula Hospital as well.  Although I have not done as much PT as I had hoped, I have learned a great deal and have a list of ideas for myself or other PTs who may visit in the future.  It is quite an experience just to be in the wards.  The rooms are crowded and there is really no such thing as privacy.  Families to stick by each other and help each other out the best that they can.  Families are responsible for providing patients with food and water and are often seen sharing what they have with others.  It must be such a challenging place to heal, especially when so many around you so ill.

I have spent the most time with a little boy who sustained burns to his back and buttocks when he fell in a camp fire.  He spends most of his days and nights under a cage covered with a sheet to keep the flies off of his burns.  He must be in an incredible amount of pain, but he smiles and laughs as we work on stretching out his legs.  His mom is such a strong woman.  She has done her best to follow recommendations for positioning and stretching.  Yesterday I was at the bedside when the nurse came in to clean the boy's burns.  It was terrifying experience for me, I cannot imagine how it was for the little boy and for his mother.  That was the only time I have seen the boy's mom cry.

After spending a few days in Tungamalenga, we will return to Ilula for one last day.  After that most of the group will be heading back to Dar.  Kelsey, Ken and I will head to Iringa for a few more days.  I am looking forward to spending some time with the PT at Neema.

Continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers.  I hope everything is well back home in MN!   

Pictures Ilula

Nope -- not going to work on this computer.  Please check out the blog Ilula Friends.   Maybe they had better luck with pictures. 

Ilula

Kam wene!  (Not sure exactly how it's spelled, but it's HeHe for habari gani). 

We made it to Ilula on Friday night just in time for dinner.  It was a long bus ride but I'm happy to report that I did not get car sick along the way!  I also got to see my first giraffe, buffalo, elephants, impala, zebra and baboons.

We are staying on the grounds of Ilula hospital.  The view is amazing from our porch.  We have a cook who is making all of our meals -- all sorts of fried goodies and bananas for breakfast and a variety of rice, beans, peas and etc for lunch and dinner.

On Saturday I traveled with a group to a monthly HIV outreach clinic in a nearby village.  104 people came through the clinic that day to receive medications and counseling.  Most were adults, but there were a handful of children too.  I worked in registration, where my recall of swahili numbers was actually helpful as I recorded weights and checked record numbers.

On Sunday morning I spent a very short amount of time in hospital rounds before I went to observe an c-section of a woman who delivered term twins weighing 6-7 pounds each.  It was definitely different that my OR experiences in the US...  It was an wonderful experience to hold a healthy newborn all wrapped up in a kanga and deliver him to his dad and other waiting family members.  

After the c-section, I quickly changed back into my church clothes and we attended church in Ilula.  I survived introducing myself in swahili.  The music at church was amazing -- I really felt like I was in Tanzania! 

On Sunday evening we made a quick trip into Iringa.  I was not able to find a computer at an internet cafe, but I did buy a SIM card for my phone and made a quick call home before my airtime ran out.  Hopefully I can manage to buy some more minutes today.

On Monday morning and this morning I spent much of my time completing rounds in the hospital with our team.  Sickness and disease are everywhere and in some cases there is so little to offer.  So many of the patients have multiple diagnoses yet very vague past medical histories.  I have spent quite a bit of time with a little boy who feel into a campfire about 2 weeks ago and sustained burns to much of his backside.  People have said that until I spent time with him, they had not ever seen him move.  I am happy to say that not only did I teach his mother how to do stretches to maintain his range of motion and get him standing, I was also able to make him smile.  It will be fun to continue working with him the next several days.  One thing that is very similar here to the patients and families that I work with back home is the insight and of parents (especially mothers) regarding their child's condition and the presence of hope even through extremely difficult times.

Ready or Not

I had to do some creative re-packing this morning when I realized that my pile of stuff that I intended to carry on the plane did not come close to fitting in my carry on bag...  I shoved some stuff around and squeezed more stuff into my already full duffel bags.  Here I am with my big red duffel that has all my stuff for 6.5 weeks in Tanzania, including all of my gear to climb Kili.  I thought about digging out my safari hat for this picture, but I think at this point it is wiser to leave the zippers on my red bag zipped up.     

Anticipation

After more than a year of planning, I leave for Tanzania tomorrow! Trip planning has consumed a huge chunk of my time lately. I've been up early in the morning and have stayed up late at night researching, coordinating and learning. It feels like as soon as I cross something off of one of my many lists, I think of 2 or 3 more new things to add. Although my to do lists are still actually quite long, I feel like I am in a good place to begin my journey.

In January I will be traveling with a group from Shoulder to Shoulder to the Iringa region of Tanzania. We will spend most of our time at the Ilula Health Center but will also visit other dispensaries and mobile clinics in more rural areas. Although I really do not have any idea what my days at Ilula will actually be like, I have no doubt that there will be plenty of patients with rehabilitation needs to keep me busy. I hope to teach staff, patients and families what I can. This will also be a learning experience for me and I am sure my perspectives on health care, resources and disability will be challenged over and over again. If you would like to learn more about Ilula, watch this video. (If the first part of the video to too bleak for you, fast forward to about 3:30.) During January I am also very excited to spend a weekend in the village of Tungamalenga, home to my church's companion congregation in Tanzania.

After spending a few days in Iringa, I will head North to Arusha to meet my friends Kim and Megan. We have several adventures planned, but first we will spend some time exploring the Arusha area and adjusting to Tanzania. Next we will don our safari hats and set out on a 6 day safari. We will visit several parks, including Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Lake Manyara. After our safari, we will spend another day in Arusha before we begin our trek up Kilimanjaro. We will be taking a 7 day trek on a variation of the Rongai route. We are calling February 17, 2011 "K-Day" because it is the day we hope to reach the summit at 19,340 feet. After Kilimanjaro, will fly to Zanzibar to spend the last days of our trip recuperating on the beach.

While I am quite certain that not everything on my trip will go as planned and there will be plenty of obstacles to negotiate, I am certain I will have an amazing experience. I feel fortunate to have had so many family and friends support me in pursuing this trip and ask you all to keep me in your thoughts and prayers during my travels.

Usiku mwema!