woot

Mambo!

So it's Monday July 5th (this email won't be posted until later though, due to lack of wifi access), and it's been a week since MedOutreach arrived in Tanzania! We are now at Nkoaranga hospital, about a 45 minute drive from Arusha... although you can get there much faster if you take the 'pikipiki's' (the motorcycles). We saw someone wipe out on one yesterday; I think I will pass! Nkoaranga is at higher altitude and as a result is quite cold. The hospital we are at is fairly large, and has a maternity ward, a surgical theater, a moratorium, as well as other departments. Today was our first day working here; the medical and nursing students did rounds, where we met patients and learned their histories. The dentists spent the day pulling teeth, and were very satisfied with their day. Right now I can hear Chalice in the next room learning Swahili so she can communicate with her patients a little better. We have traded in 'panya kubwa's' (large rats) for 'sungusungu's'... giant biting ants! We probably look like we're performing an elaborate dance as we're climbing up the hill to our house, but we're just trying to jump over the ant trails. I don't know how, but in the 20 seconds it takes to run from the dirt anthill to the house, the ants managed to make it up our pants, shirts and into our hair.

Our house at Nkoaranga has a lot of character. We sleep on hospital beds, with hospital bedding, one of our kitchen sinks empties blindly into the wooden cabinet below it, we have an attic that few have ventured into (and come out alive), and our house is haunted by a cow carcass that lives in the attic. Although his head has since migrated onto our porch. At first it was creepy, but now we treat him as a sort of 'guard cow.' Our house has not been broken into, so I think he is doing his job quite well. The nice thing at Nkoaranga is that we have a kitchen here so we can make our own food. Although food in Arusha is quite cheap compared to Canadian standards, food in Nkoaranga is about ten times cheaper than Arusha, and it is nice knowing what you are eating. We occasionally go into Arusha to do groceries, and it reminds me of the movie 'The Beach,' when every month or so two people would travel to the mainland and come back with groceries, toiletries, etc... such is the excitement among us upon seeing Pringles or Diet Coke when people return.

Speaking of which, we're about to go on one of those shopping sprees before the stores close... It's a Sunday so the stores close early. Apples, navel oranges, milk and nutella are also hot ticket items in Nkoaranga, and we can't come back without them!

xoxo! Kasia