Day 41: Oct 15: Bumpy roads

Breakfast this morning was a great change of pace...we had omlettes! And the Tanzanian tea and coffee is excellent as well.

Hellen picked us up from the YMCA this morning, after getting stuck in quite a bit of traffic, due to the torrential downpours this morning. Unfortunately, because of the awful traffic in Dar Es Salaam, she had to leave her house at 5:30 this morning and didn't get to us until nearly 10!

We experienced a bit of this traffic with her once we got in the car. Unlike Egypt, where people create 4-lane highways out of a 2-lane street and can take alternate routes in order to keep traffic flowing, it seems like in Tanzania there are very few main roads, and you just have to sit and be patient. Once you get out of the traffic, you're likely to be on dirt roads littered with potholes and bumps. Being a passenger on these roads literally feels like a rollercoaster. Here, the seatbelts prevent you from hitting your head on the roof.

We accompanied Hellen on a couple of errands, one of which was to the drugstore to obtain some medication for the clinic. This was an interesting experience as well. The drugstore was this bare room with plastic chairs and a bunch of employees with computers. There was a counter to one side, with a bunch of different products behind the salespeople, and in the middle of the room, some employees were sorting drugs into a basket on the floor. We waited for probably 20 minutes, during which time we didn't even get everything we had come for. In the middle of the wait, the power went out for a couple minutes, causing the employees to lose data on the computer etc. But this is a common occurance, and everyone just rolled their eyes and waited for the power to come back on. Incidently, Hellen mentioned that the clinic was in dire need of a back-up generator for such purposes. I can't even imagine the effect power outages on a hospital!

After a few more errands ( which included getting a cell phone and staking out an international ATM), we made our way across town to the hospital that Life Project funded. It's beautiful. It's located right next door to a busy school, and is off of one of those infamous roads. It's clean and brightly painted, and all it lacks are the patients. The clinic is currently waiting to be approved by the Tanzanian government in order to receive funding to provide affordable or free healthcare. Apparently the approval process is quite involved!

We got a tour of the lab, the observation rooms, the stockroom and the patient care rooms. In all, the clinic has 13 beds and 12 staff. While we were there, a 16 year old girl who is HIV positive came in for treatment. She was on some medication, but was not eating properly so the medication was not working. She was given IV, but while we were there, her condition worsened drastically. To make a long story short, she contracted a brain fungus in her weakened state, and needs medication from Nairobi in order to survive. Hellen has someone bringing the medicine tomorrow, but it's a 16 hour drive each way!

The primary purpose of the hospital will be to diagnose and treat malaria, which surprisingly kills far more Tanzanians than HIV/AIDS. Additionally, the clinic will host workshops to encourage mothers to be tested, as well as to educate them on mother/child tranmission of HIV. Apparently a huge problem with the epidemic is that people refuse to be tested for AIDS because if they test positive, there isn't anything that can be done for them. In fact, there's a lot of propoganda against being tested! They'll even write "my brother don't test" in Swahili on the windows of the dusty buses.

After our sobering experience, we walked across the street to the school. This was quite a contrast to the hospital because it was teeming with life. As we walked by the classrooms, little heads poked out to say "good morning!" We spoke with the "head teacher", who said we can start teaching English tomorrow, and then the 5th and 6th grade teachers were sent in to show us their English books. Essentially, they get the day off tomorrow, and Karla and I will just be teaching! We're excited, but a little nervous. We were introduced to the children, who were all standing in the courtyard (surprisingly well-behaved!), and they all welcomed us. They're probably pretty happy to have a change of pace tomorrow too!

Karla and I walked back to the clinic to meet Hellen, and she took us to the grocery store to get water and food. Then she dropped us off at the hotel, and we made ourselves a late lunch of good ol' PB and J (tastes like home!), before setting out on foot to explore the city a bit.

Back on the ranch just before sunset, we mapped out our lesson plans (we need you Becca!), and shared a dinner of chicken and chips. We overheard a very interesting convo between a Tanzanian and an American about whether or not politics are a good thing (the American said yes, the Tanzanian said no). It got us thinking a lot about the residual effects of colonization, which will be interesting to think about as we grow accustomed to the culture.
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