Day 5 – Nyakato

                Today has been a blast. After breakfast I went into town with my cousin and her husband. It takes a long time to do much of anything in town but over the course of the morning we went to the bank twice, an office supply/copy store, a pharmacy, and to visit the Regional Medical Officer (RMO). Paula has been here 9 years so she has a strong relationship with most people she does business with and they are all incredibly nice.

                The RMO is an important person for the hospital because he is the man in charge of all the Tanzanian physicians in this part of the country. Nyakato has a brand new birthing center but needs a full-time doctor that can do C-sections in order to open its doors to the public. Before I left I bought a couple of shirts at JC Penney’s with a size 19 neck (since they aren’t available here) just for this guy to give him some extra encouragement to find Nyakato a doctor quickly. He was an outstandingly nice guy and his face lit up when Paula showed him the shirts. Examining them both he holds up the white one and says. “Now dis, is di shirt of a dokta!” He took a lot of interest in me and made special care to provide me background on any issue that was discussed.

                Traveling through Mwanza, not surprisingly,  is not like traveling down the streets of KC. There are Coca Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sprite, and 7up displays everywhere. Not only are entire house facades converted into large billboards but a whole row of houses looks like a large vending machine, and of course they don’t forget to use the roof space as well.

                Returning home after the morning in town meant it was time to prepare some food. There are all kinds of fruit trees in the back yard. I think they have a couple orange, lemon, and guava trees. The great thing about fruit here is that it is generally fresh and it tastes delicious. However, it is dangerous to eat anything without cleaning it first, especially the outside skin. To solve this issue we fill a tub with chlorinated water and soak the fruit for at least 15 minutes. Today we made pumpkin soup, potato salad, egg salad and avocado salad. I can't say I was too crazy about any of them but it was cool that I got to make it all. The avocado we used was huge and the pumpkin, although green on the outside, looked delicious on the inside.

                I’m still adjusting to the time change, we are 8 hours ahead of Kansas City, so I’m going to head to bed to take a nap. Hopefully I won’t sleep through the whole night but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Talk to ya soon!