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.