Day 18 – Monday – Most Productive Day Yet!

                 So it’s the start of a new week and what better way to begin a Monday than with power! I woke up and helped prepare breakfast before heading down to the clinic to fight for everyone’s free time so I can get the right information about Nyakato. I started in the lab where Meaghan was taking samples from patients for the lab tech to process. She helped me figure out what materials and time go into performing each test. I put these into a spreadsheet that will eventually calculate the exact cost of performing each test based on the latest price information available. Unfortunately however, to do this takes a lot of Jimmy and Dr. Bon’s time. I got as much information from Meaghan as I could and then went to Miriam’s, the HR manager, office to look through some records on the amount of each procedure they have done at the clinic. This is where my day starts to get challenging. The records aren’t exactly what I would call easy to read. They are all in pen or pencil and a procedure that’s called one name on one page will be titled something completely different on the next. I’m not anything close to a medical professional so sorting through these abbreviations and names will be a challenge. I took the records back to Paula’s to digest them and put the information Meaghan gave me into a useful format.

                At the house Paula and Sele were working on some financials for a new construction project so I got a little sidetracked helping them on the computer. Sele really wants to learn how to use excel and asked all kinds of questions. Some of the things he wanted to do were new to me so we all spent about two hours learning about the program.

                I apologize for talking about excel as much as I do. I know most of you probably don’t care about it but it’s kind of the reason why I am here so when I talk about my day there’s most likely going to be a bit or two about excel.

                I went back to the clinic to get a document with all the prices Nyakato currently charges. As I waited for Dr. Bon to finish with patients I talked with some of the locals outside in my minimal Swahili and their attempt at English. When you get to a point in a conversation where both people can tell the other person has no idea what they are trying to say you can’t help but laugh and it puts a smile on the kids’ faces. Dr. Bon and I stayed at the clinic until after dark (around 7:30) going over what I was making for him and how it would help him in his daily management of the clinic. He keeps gasping randomly and I thought maybe he had a respiratory condition. It wasn’t later until I asked Paula that short gasps in the middle of a conversation are like the minor “uh-hu’s” that we would say to let the other person know we understand.

                I decided to have dinner at Lucy’s tonight since Paula and Denny weren’t planning on eating. Lucy has cooked Chicken and chips (fries) along with some vegetables and rolls and it was all delicious. The power was off by this point so it was a candle lit dinner. Later I dove into the Swahili book. I’m almost done! Before bed, Paula made hot cocoa so I sipped that down and read until my candle burned out.

Day 17 – Sunday

                Sunday is a pretty relaxing day. I was supposed to go to church with Anar and Dr. Msengi but unfortunately I didn’t wake up in time and they didn’t want to disturb me. Since the internet is too slow here I won't be able to catch the online COR service like I could if I miss church at school.

                Sunday is Paula and Denny’s day off and they enjoy just doing things for themselves around the house. As they did some laundry, sewed, and read I grabbed my Swahili book and tried to get through another chapter. I’m really overwhelmed about the amount of grammar I’ve been learning so I’ll be excited to go back through the book a second time with more ease. I read for about an hour before the crew was ready to go to the orphanage to take the kids their new school shoes.

                The kids are a little behind their peers at school, especially in English so it has been a challenge for the orphanage volunteers to get them back up to speed. At the last parent teacher conference the matrons at the school told the Upendo crew that all of the kids were trying exceptionally hard and making big improvements. We decided to tell the kids that the shoes were for doing such a good job as opposed to just a gift. It’s adorable to see the kids try on their shoes. They are so excited when they get a pair and even if they are way too small they’ll find a way to cram their toes in because they want them so badly. We did miss pretty largely on a few sizes. It turns out that when kids trace their own feet they have a tendency to exaggerate the width and length of a foot. We’ll have to go back to Friday market next week and get three more pairs.

                We left the orphanage just before dark and played impromptu games of tag with the neighborhood children along the way. I love it here. At night we watched Harry Potter. I have never read or seen any of the Harry Potter books or movies so this was a big step for me. I can proudly say that I stayed awake through almost the entire first movie! Haha. They sure are long, and not quite as action-packed as a Lord of the Rings movie or another flick with a fanciful plot. Sorry all of you diehard HP fans, I don’t know if I’ll make it through them all.

Day 16 – Mock Independence Day - July 2nd 2011

                Today is the day we are having our Independence Day Party. We have invited all of the American missionaries around Mwanza and our British friends to join us for the celebration. It’s also Ed’s birthday party which means chocolate cake will be served too! Despite any old hard feelings, the British guys were good sports when we remind them that this celebration is in to recognize our forefathers telling their ancestors to go away.

                I spent the morning setting up tables and chairs in Paula’s backyard while she went around and picked flowers for center pieces from all the trees that bloom year-round. It was a nice setting. I think people got a little confused on what time to come though, since most everyone showed up an hour and a half late. I was so glad when they arrived and I learned they brought spaghetti and brownies.

                We spent the afternoon just talking with everyone and enjoying the nice weather. I really liked the diverse mix of people. From the U.S. we had people from Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon, Arkansas, and Ohio. From Europe the U.K., Austria, and Germany were represented. We also had one guy from Korea and of course a few from Tanzania. Not the average 4^th of July crowd but it’s cool.

                I think it takes a 4^th away from home to realize how lucky we are in the United States. In the U.S. we have power each day. In the U.S. we have roads and most everyone has modern plumbing. In the U.S. we have an informed public to fairly elect politicians. In the U.S. we have schools with teachers that show up each day. In the U.S. almost all of us grew up in a home with at least one parent. In the U.S. we don’t starve to death or know several people who’ve died of preventable diseases. In the U.S. we can find a good job so we have a reason to stay in school. In the U.S. we can own a home until we want to sell it. In the U.S. we have police officers who obey the law. In the U.S. we don’t have to soak our food in chlorine before we eat it to know it’s safe. In the U.S. you can swim in the lakes without getting a disease. In the U.S. you can get things done without having to bribe anyone. I think we have a good thing or two going for us.

                At night the power was on so we decided to watch a movie on the projector. The projector was awesome and we could see the movie perfectly. Unfortunately the speakers were from a laptop and we all had to huddle around to know what was happening. In Tanzania they sell DVD’s with 8 or 9 movies on each disk. To do this you sacrifice some quality and often get Chinese versions. The sound was so quiet that we decided to turn on the closed captioning. The person who was responsible for typing the captions was definitely not a native English speaker. The combinations of words they decided upon for the captions were anything but accurate. My favorite caption was, “Train speedy but is not” for the phrase, “It’s slowing down!” We watched the movie Unstoppable with Denzel Washington. Awesome movie.

Day 15 – Shoe Shopping (Tanzania Style…)

                I started the day by sleeping in until about 10:30. I didn’t mean to sleep this long but unfortunately it takes more than the alarm on a $15 Wal-Mart watch to disturb this guy’s hibernation.

                Friday is the day for the local market. On our list of things to fetch are 9 pairs of shoes, 18 pairs of socks, and 18 pairs of underwear. These are for a local orphanage that was started by an English girl named Carly, who is working at the clinic. Carly and her friend Vicky have been volunteering at Nyakato Hospital since I arrived and over the last two weeks I have gotten to know their story. They are both nursing students from the U.K. and it is Vicky’s first time to Africa. Carly came to Tanzania last summer where she was inspired to start Upendo Children’s Home, an orphanage that pairs donors and kids to make sure they get to go to school and grow up in a loving home. She spent the past year raising money, finding sponsors, and starting a home that now has nine children with plans to open a new facility next year that can house many more. There are quite a few British “blokes” volunteering at Upendo for the summer and since it’s only a 15 minute walk we all end up doing a lot of things together.

                After the Friday market and buying shoes in a rather interesting way (the children traced their feet in crayon so that we could get the right sizes) I noticed that after two weeks of being in Africa I FINALLY GOT SONBURNT! Only a little though and I’m sure it’ll go away in a day or two. I wasn’t about to go inside yet though since I needed to finish making the grill for our 4^th of July party tomorrow.

The nearly three hours of haggling for shoes combined with a slow day at the clinic created a perfect excuse to go out to dinner and relax. We went to a place called Isamilo Lodge upon the recommendation of the group that was here before us. The view was fantastic, the food was amazing, and the British volunteers joined us too so the company was pretty entertaining as well. Dinners out take a long time here in Tanzania. Our dinner at Isamilo was nearly 3.5 hours but we did get to learn a lot about the volunteers from the U.K. As it turns out, they don’t say a “Spot of tea,” just an FYI. There is one volunteer here named Andrew who came here a year and a half ago to help out in Tanzania and just didn’t take his plane back home. He lives here now and is a little bit like me with how inquisitive he is so we find a lot of fun things to talk about.

Oh! I should also mention that our cab driver for tonight was awesome. His name is Tumaini which is Swahili for “hope.” He was incredibly fast picking us up, had a well-kept car with A/C, and really wanted to learn English. We talked the entire way to the restaurant, about half Swahili and half English. A few more fares with this dude and I should get a lot of practice. We got pulled over on the side of the road to town by a police officer with an AK-47. This was comfortable for about zero seconds and he went the back door, opened it up, saw Marry inside and I think he took a liking to her so he let us go. We asked Tumaini to pick us up after dinner and sure enough, he was outside waiting for us when we went downstairs. You might think that this is rather normal, and it is for a service in the U.S., but in Tanzania, getting people to do things with even the slightest bit of haste is a big challenge. Our previous cab driver made us wait a solid 45 minutes after our predetermined time and when he finally arrived he realized he forgot to get a second car so we could fit everyone. As luck you have it this second car was on its last leg and broke down on the way to town. I think Tumaini will be hearing from us again.

It’s been a pretty full day but I feel like I don’t get a whole lot done here. It’s kind of like going to the Library and staying on the main floor. You certainly spend a long time there but don’t seem to get anything done. Of course here you don’t get too distracted by everyone talking to you as much but things just take a little longer to accomplish in East Africa. I’ll have to get used to that.

Day 14 – Thursday – How can I get things done without power??

                Okay, first off I want to apologize for not being very consistent with my postings. I have been trying to get more accomplished with the clinic and stay pretty busy during the day. Those reasons with the fact that I don’t get power consistently makes blogging a little difficult. That being said, some of these posts are me recalling the day after it has occurred or later. I just jotted down the bog points of each day so that I could come back to them later and write an in depth blog. Thanks again for reading and I hope you’ll leave comments telling me about home and also ways I can make the content better!

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                I woke up really early to help get breakfast going but am extremely tired from staying up late the night before. I had run into a couple questions about excel and needed to Google the answers. Meaghan was going to town to run some errands with Paula but would then be dropped off at Hotel Tilapia to use the internet. I decided to go along.

                We went to central market again. I wish you could all smell the intriguing aromas that fill the market. As you walk into the tin and tarp-roofed complex you get a nice whiff of tomatoes, ginger, and garlic. As you walk a little further you run into the butcher section where hunks of slaughtered cattle, pigs, and goats line the windows. I’m a carnivore at heart but you certainly don’t feel like eating the “fresh” produce they have to offer out of their non-air-conditioned shops. There is something about the flies and a strange orange layer of fat that keeps me walking past to the next isle.

            Paula has her routine stops at central market. We go by the pineapple guys almost every time and grab a couple. We all of a sudden have a new set of relatives as they cry out, “momma, brother, sista, come and see what I have for you.” If you keep walking back far enough you eventually come to the chicken section. Here you actually get to pick out your chicken. A little bizarre? Yes. Kinda cool at the same time? Also yes. As your work your way back to the entrance the bee keepers have rows of freshly bottled honey and wax for sale. We bought some mangoes, bananas, tomatoes, peppers, avocados, and pineapples along a few other things.

After the market we ran tot eh U-Turn where I got Siri some cookies for helping me out with a project at the clinic. They looked like Oreos and were labeled, “Milk Power!” I thought they had to be good. Turns out they were nothing like Oreos but still delicious. After a couple of hours of working on the internet at Tilapia we went home, snagging a newspaper on the way.

That afternoon I took a much needed nap then went out to dinner to celebrate Sele coming to America. We went to the New Mwanza Hotel again and I had the poached Tilapia. At home a few of us shared some pictures and I picked out several that would be good to help Paula in promoting the clinic. I’m really starting to like this place a lot but I’m also learning about some of the darker sides of the culture. Mainly that the leadership here makes some pretty short-sighted decisions and doesn’t seem to be too concerned with making things better at the cost actually having to work.

This last picture of the little girl is Sele's daughter, Jackie. She's a complete blast and full of smiles. Mary decided while she was here this trip to pay for her education all the way through college. What a great gift for a little girl who can already speak several words in two languages!