Making Tanzania Home

Well, I cannot believe it’s been a full week since my last blog! The time goes by so fast when you are on a set schedule. I am now in a routine with everything and all settled in at home.  Monday through Thursday make for long days of class. I wake up around 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. every morning to ensure I have at least a half hour for breakfast and to ride the dala dala to TCDC to use the internet and check in with everyone back home.  So we have Kiswahili class from 8:30-12:30 with a half hour break for chai and then from 1:30 to around 5:30 we have a lecture about medical instrumentation/problems in the developing world and our lab. This week we made a LED “flashlight” and a variable power supply with some extra soldering practice (I’m getting better!). Every Friday we will be going to Mt. Meru Regional Hospital (My hospital assignment!) to practice and get some hands on learning. It was quite amazing, we arrived and there was a large pile of various equipment, wheelchairs and carts waiting for us! Unfortunately I got a little sick that morning so it was hard to work with an awful stomach ache but it was a great learning experience. It’s amazing the little things that can be done to fix large, complex machines! I can’t wait for next month when Soren and I will be there every day. This weekend was really fun. Saturday, I went to a market in Tengeru which was complete craziness, the biggest secondhand store ever but in market form! This week our group is going again on Wednesday (because it’s every Wednesday and Saturday) to practice our bargaining skills J After that, I went to TCDC and hung around until a going away party started for the family my Mama cleans for. It was a lot of fun with excellent food. The family is from Denmark and it was the craziest thing trying to listen to their four year old that mixes Swahili, Danish, and English in all of his sentences haha. Today I went to the Meserani Snake Park which was really awesome. We got to see all kinds of snakes, including the infamous black mamba, hold a baby crocodile, tortoise, snake and then ride a camel! It is a very neat center where they actually produce anti-venom for the local Maasai and help to sell their jewelry. I felt like I was back in Losho, Kenya seeing all of the Maasai beads and shukas. After that we headed back and explored Arusha a little more and I bought a soccer ball so I can play with my little brother! He’s taking me to a local soccer field tomorrow so I’m really excited! Ash is testing her cooking skills tonight in the kitchen and I’m going to on Tuesday- I fully intend to be able to cook like a Tanzanian by the time I leave :D Here’s some of my favorite pictures of the week, and happy 4th of July to all of you back in the U.S.!