Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today officially marks one month since Melissa and I arrived in
Tanzania and it seems like things are finally settling into place.
I know it’s been a while since I last posted but we had some pretty uneventful days between then and now.
Monday and Tuesday we helped Rehema, who heads the home based care program, with some data entry and I helped her put together a presentation for a training that was taking place later in the week.
She has discovered that we can type quickly and as a result, I have become her go-to typer.
On Wednesday almost everyone left to conduct the training which was scheduled for Thursday and Friday in a region that is a couple of hours away.
Dr. Tambukwa went as well which meant Melissa and I were on our own with absolutely no work to do.
Wednesday we hung around the office and ended up coming home about half way through the day since we saw no point in sitting at work with nothing to do.
On Thursday we decided that despite not being given the go ahead from Dr. Tambukwa, we go ahead and work on a project with one of the German doctors, Rudi (I mentioned his wife Elizabeth in another post I think).
The project involves getting records from patients who were admitted to the male ward during two separate months and collecting data regarding malaria testing and diagnoses from the files.
While it sounds like an easy project, it looks like it might be on the harder side.
First there is the issue of getting the files which means going to the records department, home of Mr. Msafiri who loves loves loves talking.
Once we pull the files (another tedious process compliments of the confusing filing system) we then have to decipher what is written in them.
It appears doctors world wide have terrible hand writing and in addition to that little problem, the files all seem to be thrown together haphazardly.
Despite these challenges I think the project will be interesting and will give us something to do with our time.
Obviously any Walter Reed projects that come up will take priority but I don’t think any conflicts will arise.
In addition to talking about the project, we talked with Rudi about all sorts of international health things, especially problems that are exemplified so well at the hospital.
He’s been working in international health for a long time and, boring as it may be for Melissa, I really enjoy hearing his perspective on things.
Thursday afternoon we came home early again and went for a walk around the neighborhood. We ran into two Tanzanian guys who wanted to marry us...luckily I always have a ring on so I can pretend to be married. Melissa on the other hand gets full declarations of love despite her claims of having a boyfriend or fiancé back home. Friday was when we met with the records department and began sorting through things and preparing data to pull files. We came home after work and didn’t do a whole lot...we went to watch a DVD later in the evening and spent 20 or so minutes trying to figure out how we got the DVD player to work last time. Yesterday and today the weather has been amazing which probably means more rainy days soon. Today we finally went in to town with Jane (Jenny...there is confusion over this since Jane is often pronounced Jenny) and she showed us some restaurants, the market and a mini-mart where we bought a massive bar of Cadbury chocolate which we plan to eat tonight to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Now that we know where things are I think we will be heading into town a lot more often. We also saw a whole lot of white people (sadly most looked much older than us)...by a whole lot I mean 5 or 6 which is way more than the 1 or 2 we usually see.
There isn’t a whole lot else to report. We are getting more American visitors tomorrow and I’m not sure how long they plan on staying but we have discovered that when there are visitors (that aren’t us) the office buys mandaazi (donut things) for tea which is fantastic. Our quest to learn Swahili is coming along very slowly...it seems like telling people we don’t speak Swahili is not an option...if they don’t speak English they just keep talking as though we understand. There have also been a lot of hilarious conversations with people who speak minimal English because they fail to use the correct pronouns. She could mean he or she...I could be you or I...etc. Final thing to report: the things I want most right now from home are my pillows. The ones here just aren’t doing it for me...
