This is probably my last blog entry before I return to the States for the Holidays, because I'm on the way to Southern Tanzania tomorrow. I went to Dar Es Salaam last week. I bought a bunch of paintings, so I'll have an awesome apartment when I get back, and I bought a bunch of gifts. I also got to spend some time on the beach on Friday and Saturday, which made me feel a bit smug, since I hear there was snow in Iowa and Minnesota. Yesterday and the day before I was in a small village called Mang'ola for drug shopkeeper training. I'm starting to be able to understand more Swahili so it's easier to understand what's happening at the training and if people are enjoying the training and finding it helpful. I got to interview some of the women at the training to help Karla with her article too, which was fun, they seemed to get a lot out of the training, although it's hard to tell for sure because Tanzanians are too polite to say otherwise. That's about all that's new here. I'll see you all pretty soon.

The past couple weeks have been marked by some sadness for MIHV. The district medical officer, who happens to be the uncle of one of our staff, passed away this week. The sister of another co-worker passed away this week as well. For the wake and burial I wore traditional African clothes. I thought everyone would get a kick out of it, so some photos are below. Wakes in Africa last for several days, day and night, and women are responsible for cooking, so I learned how to cook dishes called pilau and kichumbali.

Other than that I continue to work on preparations for drug shopkeepers and MAISHA training. I am also excited to help Karla with a newspaper article for her class. I am hoping she can publish it somewhere and people can hear about some of the cool stuff we're doing here. I'm leaving for Dar Es Salaam tomorrow to go to a friend's graudation and see the sights. After I return I'll be going out into the field to a village called Mang'ola Barazani for drug shopkeeper training. Then I'll be travelling to Southern Tanzania to visit a hospital and school that are "friends of MIHV" and see if the hospital is a good place for medical volunteers to work. On our way back from Southern Tanzania we will visit Zanzibar for a few days. That will get me pretty close to time to come back home for a while, but if there's time I'd like to climb Mt. Meru as well, we'll see how it goes.

I've been working in the office and at the hospital for the past couple weeks, so I don't have any new photos, but I've been keeping quite busy. I've been working on arranging things for our next drug shopkeeper training and beginning to design a curriculum for MAISHA (maisha means life in Swahili) training, which is a group of taxi drivers that we want to train in basic emergency response and community health so they can educate their customers and families. One nice story to follow up our first drugshopkeeper training: Jolene, our Country Director, had a bit of a stomach bug, and sent one of the MIHV staff to a drug shop to try to buy a partial dose of the medicine she needed (she already had a partial dose from when we had done a survey to see if they would sell them before training) and they refused to sell her the partial dose. So apparently, the eduation is having an impact. Today, I am doing a presentation on chronic diseases for my co-workers and members of the District Council Health Management Team.

This week, I was out for a bike ride and I saw a large crowd by the side of the road. I stopped to see if I could help. A woman had been hit by a car, and her arm was badly broken, but other than that she was ok. I couldn't do much to help so I made her a sling and helped carry her to a car to get her to the hospital. We then saw her in the hospital the next day, but had to send her to Arusha for surgical repair of her injury. Other than that events at the hospital are about the same as usual, but I've been trying to learn as much as I can about prevention and primary treatment of rheumatic heart disease. I'm not sure why I found the prevalence of this disease so much more surprising than other infectious diseases. I guess because I thought all it took was a little amoxicillin and the problem was solved, which is pretty much true, but as with everything else, somehow it gets more complicated here.

I have a busy month and a half before I come home. I'll be helping build a school this weekend. Next week I'll be continuing to prepare for drug shopkeeper training and MAISHA training. Next weekend, I think I'm going to Moshi to do some hiking around the base of Kilimanjaro. After that, I'll be going to southern Tanzania to visit a site that would like to host international medical volunteers, then back to Dar Es Salaam for my friend Eveline's graduation. Then drug shopkeeper training. In December, travel will keep me busy. I plan to climb Mt. Meru and then relax in Zanzibar. I found out that I can climb Mt. Kilimanjaro for free in April, so that's pretty exciting.