Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
A Tale of two hairstyles
The end of my time in Tanzania and the beginning of my time in Israel didn’t have too many similarities, but more was done with my hair in a four day period than had been done in the previous four months. While returning from a walk around town several weeks ago, one of my neighbors invited me to get my hair braided. I’ve always been interested in getting my hair braided, but a little afraid. I’ve seen how people look when they get off the cruise ship. Frankly, most white people look ridiculous with braids. So I turned down the offer, but told her I might return at another time. Over the next days, I kept thinking about getting it done. I figured now was my chance, they wouldn’t charge me very much money and it wasn’t too difficult for me to convince myself it was an important Tanzanian experience.
So Wednesday afternoon I went to the woman’s house and asked her when she would be free to braid my hair. She told me to come back at 3 and to give her some money to go buy extensions. This was becoming more of an affair than I had intended, but the extensions were less than two dollars so I figured it was still worth a try. When I returned she was busy braiding another woman’s hair. I was very surprised by how fast she could work. I had always been told getting your hair braided was an all day affair, but she finished this woman’s hair in about an hour. I sat around attempting to chat with the women in Swahili, but unfortunately as my time in Tanzania came to a close, the effort I was putting into learning Swahili decreased significantly, so my conversation skills were a bit limited and I often resorted to pantomime.
After she finished braiding the other woman’s hair, it was my turn. I sat down on the mat, my friend Teresa separated the extensions into braid sized pieces and she got started braiding my hair. I had never really thought much about how much you have to pull on someone’s hair to get those tight braids in and make them look good. It was a bit uncomfortable but certainly tolerable. My rear end also got a bit sore from sitting in the same place for a couple of hours, but I was easily distracted by the enjoyable conversation with the woman and her neighbors, visits from my friends from the office and the intrigue of children, most of whom hid behind rocks to get a peek of the action, but avoid my glance. After about two hours I was all set, they tied my hair back, showed me a mirror and I was on my way. It did look pretty nice, but I was quite self conscious about it. I still felt a bit like the person on the cruise ship. The other issue was that my own hair is pretty big, with long extensions added to it, it was gigantic, and difficult to sleep on. Between the two issues, the braids only lasted a day and a half. Even still, it was a worthwhile experience, and it convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that any attempt at dreadlocks would be a dreadfully bad idea.
I arrived in Tel Aviv at about 6 am on Sunday morning, then had about 12 hours to spend in town before the rest of the groups arrived. I hadn’t had a haircut since I was home at Christmas and I had heard Tel Aviv had many good salons so I thought I’d give it a try. Wandering through central Tel Aviv looking for salons was a bit intimidating. Many of the salons looked quite expensive and others were full of men who looked like they would judge me harshly for not having a haircut in four months. For some reason being judged harshly by a male hairstylist seemed much worse than being judged harshly be a female hairstylist, but after wandering around for several hours I found a salon that looked a lot more mellow and affordable. I got a good vibe from the place, so I headed in. The man cut my hair with reckless abandon, but in the end I really liked how it looked. I headed to the internet café to share my success with the world and then for the best lunch I’d had in a while.
Unfortunately, I'm a putz and I can't find the braid pictures anymore. I'll have Katherine send them to me again, but it might take a while to e-mail photos from Tanzania. I'll get them up as soon as I can.
So Wednesday afternoon I went to the woman’s house and asked her when she would be free to braid my hair. She told me to come back at 3 and to give her some money to go buy extensions. This was becoming more of an affair than I had intended, but the extensions were less than two dollars so I figured it was still worth a try. When I returned she was busy braiding another woman’s hair. I was very surprised by how fast she could work. I had always been told getting your hair braided was an all day affair, but she finished this woman’s hair in about an hour. I sat around attempting to chat with the women in Swahili, but unfortunately as my time in Tanzania came to a close, the effort I was putting into learning Swahili decreased significantly, so my conversation skills were a bit limited and I often resorted to pantomime.
After she finished braiding the other woman’s hair, it was my turn. I sat down on the mat, my friend Teresa separated the extensions into braid sized pieces and she got started braiding my hair. I had never really thought much about how much you have to pull on someone’s hair to get those tight braids in and make them look good. It was a bit uncomfortable but certainly tolerable. My rear end also got a bit sore from sitting in the same place for a couple of hours, but I was easily distracted by the enjoyable conversation with the woman and her neighbors, visits from my friends from the office and the intrigue of children, most of whom hid behind rocks to get a peek of the action, but avoid my glance. After about two hours I was all set, they tied my hair back, showed me a mirror and I was on my way. It did look pretty nice, but I was quite self conscious about it. I still felt a bit like the person on the cruise ship. The other issue was that my own hair is pretty big, with long extensions added to it, it was gigantic, and difficult to sleep on. Between the two issues, the braids only lasted a day and a half. Even still, it was a worthwhile experience, and it convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that any attempt at dreadlocks would be a dreadfully bad idea.
I arrived in Tel Aviv at about 6 am on Sunday morning, then had about 12 hours to spend in town before the rest of the groups arrived. I hadn’t had a haircut since I was home at Christmas and I had heard Tel Aviv had many good salons so I thought I’d give it a try. Wandering through central Tel Aviv looking for salons was a bit intimidating. Many of the salons looked quite expensive and others were full of men who looked like they would judge me harshly for not having a haircut in four months. For some reason being judged harshly by a male hairstylist seemed much worse than being judged harshly be a female hairstylist, but after wandering around for several hours I found a salon that looked a lot more mellow and affordable. I got a good vibe from the place, so I headed in. The man cut my hair with reckless abandon, but in the end I really liked how it looked. I headed to the internet café to share my success with the world and then for the best lunch I’d had in a while.
Unfortunately, I'm a putz and I can't find the braid pictures anymore. I'll have Katherine send them to me again, but it might take a while to e-mail photos from Tanzania. I'll get them up as soon as I can.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
My trip to Kili started with the typical Tanzanian travel frustration. I had planned to take the bus to Moshi, but a friend from work knew a person who was driving to Arusha, so I was supposed to get a ride from him, then take a shorter cheaper bus ride to Arusha. However, my ride was over three hours late, so then my friend arranged for me to ride with another person, but his car battery had just died, so we finally ended up beginning our journey about five hours after I would have left on the bus.
When I arrived at the hotel I was surprised to find that both the route and the number of days I was climbing had changed. I had been planning on climbing the Machame Route in six days and found out that the next day I was leaving to climb the Rongai Route in five days. I was a bit worried because I had heard your likelihood of success increases dramatically from a five day to a six day climb. Because of the change in route I didn’t know anything about where I was climbing, much less that Rongai is essentially in Kenya and about a four hour drive from Moshi.
We arrived in Rongai and after lunch and another hour of fiddling with equipment and other delays we were on hour way. There were four other American women about my age who joined us for the first day of the climb, then were slowing down to make it a six day hike. The walk was surprisingly easy and we arrived at camp a little before 7 pm. The camp we stayed at was at about 2700 m (about 9000 ft). It was starting to get chilly and by the time we ate dinner at 9 pm, it was downright cold. I’m sure it was much more of a shock for the rest of my group than for myself, as they were all staff from the Highview Hotel in Karatu, Tanzanians born and raised. I was excited to climb with them because I felt a little weird about the traditional Kilimanjaro trip where you talk a little to your guide and mostly with whatever other random white people are climbing in your group. Climbing with the group from Highview and knowing a little bit of Swahili helped me have a much richer experience, becoming great friends with all of the porters, cooks, and guides.
The next morning, I awoke to incredible views of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and after breakfast we headed out for our day’s hike. We hiked for three hours, stopped for lunch, then hiked for another three hours. We finished the day at a camp at about 3900 m (about 12,700 ft) and I continued to be surprised both by how easy the climb was and by how cold it got at night.
I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you about the worst part of the trip. I took a special type of diuretic to prevent altitude sickness while I was headed up the mountain. The medicine was fine and didn’t have any ill effects except for the expected having to pee more. I had to get up at least once, sometimes twice a night to go to the bathroom. Because it got so cold at night, this was always at least a 20 minute process. The first ten minutes devoted to determining how much of a necessity going to the bathroom actually was (it was always an absolute necessity), and the next ten minutes devoted to putting on my coat, and hiding under my sleeping bag until that got warm, then putting on my boots and headlamp and navigating my way to the pit latrine. This certainly disabused me of any notion that I might enjoy snow-camping. (Maybe when I can attach a heated bathroom to my tent).
The next day was a short climb. We walked for about three hours up to 4700 m (15,300 ft). I’m surprised to find that I’m not feeling any effects from the altitude at this point. I was expecting my head to be starting to hurt. I did notice my appetite had decreased significantly and I was trying to force myself to eat as much as I could stomach. The other interesting development was that it was cold enough that I didn’t want to drink anything cold. I also didn’t want to drink any tea because it might make me pee even more, so I decided to mix my Gatorade powder in with the hot water. Hot Gatorade is a better drink than you might imagine, but probably not something I would recreate in warm weather or at sea level. Because we were leaving to summit at midnight, I took a nap right after lunch, then went to sleep for the night right after dinner.
I woke up to prepare to summit at 11 pm. I drank as much Hot Gatorade water as possible until it was time to go. It turned out that was a bit of a mistake. We set out at midnight and I was a bit nauseous until the water exited my stomach. We started our climb, four guides, eight people from Highview Hotel, and me. A couple people started feeling dizzy and nauseous and one of the guides took them back to camp and we continued onward. Then two more people were feeling bad, so another guide took them back. One more person started feeling really nauseous and decided to turn back with another guide. At this point I’m starting to get worried about how this climb is going to go because there are four of us and one guide. One of the four girls is having a lot of trouble staying warm and has been dizzy since just after we set out, so the odds of her being able to continue are looking slim, and the last guy in our group isn’t looking too good either. We have made it about 750 of the 900 m up to Gillman’s point, the first point along the crater that you reach and the horizon is just starting to lighten. I’m feeling great, the nausea has passed and I have a little flash of headache every now and again, but really I’m mentally preparing myself for having to turn around because the guide will have to go back with this sick person. She finally decides that she wants to go back, so the guide asks me what I want to do. I figure I don’t have much choice, they won’t let me continue on on my own, but I give it a try and ask. “Can I wait for the next group coming up and walk with them?” He looks down the mountain, doesn’t see any head lamps, and tells me that anyone who was behind us has turned around and returned to camp. “Can Esther and I keep going?” Esther has been feeling great the whole climb to this point, and has been rousing us up from breaks to continue onward. “Esther wants to go back, too.” That shocked me, so I tried one last thing. “Can I keep going on my own?” And the guide said, “Sure”, though I was even more shocked by that, I said okay, and turned to continue onward. The guide planned to take them back down and come back up to meet me as quickly as he could.
By the time we got all of that figured out, the sun was starting to rise, I climbed for a little bit, then took some sunrise photos. A little later, much to my relief I reached Gillman’s Point at 5695 m (about 18,500 ft), rested for a while, then continued on to Uhuru Peak. From Gillman’s Point to Uhuru Peak the climb was much easier than the climb to Gillman’s Point, all of the ascents were short and the sun was coming out and it was warming up so resting was no longer more painful than continuing to walk. I really enjoyed this solitary winter wonderland in the middle of Africa. About an hour and a half after Gillman’s Point, I reached Uhuru Peak 5895 m (19,344 ft), snapped some photos of myself, then turned around to return back. I met with my guide again at about the point I left him, about 750 m above our camp.
Upon return to camp several of the guides and porters greeted me and gave me hugs and helped me carry my things. I’m pretty sure if I had looked any more tired they would have just carried me to my cot. After an hour nap and lunch, I hiked another six miles down to our camp for the night. This was the most difficult part of the trip for me. My legs were extremely tired, mostly from the descent and I was quite sleep deprived. I got to camp and fortunately dinner was already ready for me, unfortunately, I still had no appetite from the altitude. Then, I pretty much went to sleep for the rest of the night.
The next day we woke up early to head out of the park. My twelve hours of sleep had revived me and I was feeling good again. We left the park at about 1 pm and headed back to Karatu. Our trip back to Karatu was another adventure for another time. A trip that should have taken 4 hours took about 10 hours, but we made it and I got to eat a ridiculous amount of kaichumbali (a vegetable salad with tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onions, and carrots) on the way.
As an epilogue of sorts, Saturday night Katherine and I went to a party for Highview Hotel, part of the celebration was for those of us who climbed the mountain. One of the highlights of this was our assignment to the VIP table, which involved us having to switch seats four times in five minutes to adjust to the moving location of the VIP table. The other highlight was the magistrate, who had had a few too many dragging me up on stage during the hotel owner’s speech. I wriggled away as quickly as possible. Also, today I heard that I am now famous beyond Karatu, as the crazy running white girl, I was on Tanzanian television last night for this trip up Kilimanjaro. It’s pretty funny, but not that exciting because I think all you have to do to get on the news is pay the news people to come cover your story (I think Zara Tours, the company I went with, paid ITV to come).
When I arrived at the hotel I was surprised to find that both the route and the number of days I was climbing had changed. I had been planning on climbing the Machame Route in six days and found out that the next day I was leaving to climb the Rongai Route in five days. I was a bit worried because I had heard your likelihood of success increases dramatically from a five day to a six day climb. Because of the change in route I didn’t know anything about where I was climbing, much less that Rongai is essentially in Kenya and about a four hour drive from Moshi.
We arrived in Rongai and after lunch and another hour of fiddling with equipment and other delays we were on hour way. There were four other American women about my age who joined us for the first day of the climb, then were slowing down to make it a six day hike. The walk was surprisingly easy and we arrived at camp a little before 7 pm. The camp we stayed at was at about 2700 m (about 9000 ft). It was starting to get chilly and by the time we ate dinner at 9 pm, it was downright cold. I’m sure it was much more of a shock for the rest of my group than for myself, as they were all staff from the Highview Hotel in Karatu, Tanzanians born and raised. I was excited to climb with them because I felt a little weird about the traditional Kilimanjaro trip where you talk a little to your guide and mostly with whatever other random white people are climbing in your group. Climbing with the group from Highview and knowing a little bit of Swahili helped me have a much richer experience, becoming great friends with all of the porters, cooks, and guides.
The next morning, I awoke to incredible views of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and after breakfast we headed out for our day’s hike. We hiked for three hours, stopped for lunch, then hiked for another three hours. We finished the day at a camp at about 3900 m (about 12,700 ft) and I continued to be surprised both by how easy the climb was and by how cold it got at night.
I suppose now is as good a time as any to tell you about the worst part of the trip. I took a special type of diuretic to prevent altitude sickness while I was headed up the mountain. The medicine was fine and didn’t have any ill effects except for the expected having to pee more. I had to get up at least once, sometimes twice a night to go to the bathroom. Because it got so cold at night, this was always at least a 20 minute process. The first ten minutes devoted to determining how much of a necessity going to the bathroom actually was (it was always an absolute necessity), and the next ten minutes devoted to putting on my coat, and hiding under my sleeping bag until that got warm, then putting on my boots and headlamp and navigating my way to the pit latrine. This certainly disabused me of any notion that I might enjoy snow-camping. (Maybe when I can attach a heated bathroom to my tent).
The next day was a short climb. We walked for about three hours up to 4700 m (15,300 ft). I’m surprised to find that I’m not feeling any effects from the altitude at this point. I was expecting my head to be starting to hurt. I did notice my appetite had decreased significantly and I was trying to force myself to eat as much as I could stomach. The other interesting development was that it was cold enough that I didn’t want to drink anything cold. I also didn’t want to drink any tea because it might make me pee even more, so I decided to mix my Gatorade powder in with the hot water. Hot Gatorade is a better drink than you might imagine, but probably not something I would recreate in warm weather or at sea level. Because we were leaving to summit at midnight, I took a nap right after lunch, then went to sleep for the night right after dinner.
I woke up to prepare to summit at 11 pm. I drank as much Hot Gatorade water as possible until it was time to go. It turned out that was a bit of a mistake. We set out at midnight and I was a bit nauseous until the water exited my stomach. We started our climb, four guides, eight people from Highview Hotel, and me. A couple people started feeling dizzy and nauseous and one of the guides took them back to camp and we continued onward. Then two more people were feeling bad, so another guide took them back. One more person started feeling really nauseous and decided to turn back with another guide. At this point I’m starting to get worried about how this climb is going to go because there are four of us and one guide. One of the four girls is having a lot of trouble staying warm and has been dizzy since just after we set out, so the odds of her being able to continue are looking slim, and the last guy in our group isn’t looking too good either. We have made it about 750 of the 900 m up to Gillman’s point, the first point along the crater that you reach and the horizon is just starting to lighten. I’m feeling great, the nausea has passed and I have a little flash of headache every now and again, but really I’m mentally preparing myself for having to turn around because the guide will have to go back with this sick person. She finally decides that she wants to go back, so the guide asks me what I want to do. I figure I don’t have much choice, they won’t let me continue on on my own, but I give it a try and ask. “Can I wait for the next group coming up and walk with them?” He looks down the mountain, doesn’t see any head lamps, and tells me that anyone who was behind us has turned around and returned to camp. “Can Esther and I keep going?” Esther has been feeling great the whole climb to this point, and has been rousing us up from breaks to continue onward. “Esther wants to go back, too.” That shocked me, so I tried one last thing. “Can I keep going on my own?” And the guide said, “Sure”, though I was even more shocked by that, I said okay, and turned to continue onward. The guide planned to take them back down and come back up to meet me as quickly as he could.
By the time we got all of that figured out, the sun was starting to rise, I climbed for a little bit, then took some sunrise photos. A little later, much to my relief I reached Gillman’s Point at 5695 m (about 18,500 ft), rested for a while, then continued on to Uhuru Peak. From Gillman’s Point to Uhuru Peak the climb was much easier than the climb to Gillman’s Point, all of the ascents were short and the sun was coming out and it was warming up so resting was no longer more painful than continuing to walk. I really enjoyed this solitary winter wonderland in the middle of Africa. About an hour and a half after Gillman’s Point, I reached Uhuru Peak 5895 m (19,344 ft), snapped some photos of myself, then turned around to return back. I met with my guide again at about the point I left him, about 750 m above our camp.
Upon return to camp several of the guides and porters greeted me and gave me hugs and helped me carry my things. I’m pretty sure if I had looked any more tired they would have just carried me to my cot. After an hour nap and lunch, I hiked another six miles down to our camp for the night. This was the most difficult part of the trip for me. My legs were extremely tired, mostly from the descent and I was quite sleep deprived. I got to camp and fortunately dinner was already ready for me, unfortunately, I still had no appetite from the altitude. Then, I pretty much went to sleep for the rest of the night.
The next day we woke up early to head out of the park. My twelve hours of sleep had revived me and I was feeling good again. We left the park at about 1 pm and headed back to Karatu. Our trip back to Karatu was another adventure for another time. A trip that should have taken 4 hours took about 10 hours, but we made it and I got to eat a ridiculous amount of kaichumbali (a vegetable salad with tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onions, and carrots) on the way.
As an epilogue of sorts, Saturday night Katherine and I went to a party for Highview Hotel, part of the celebration was for those of us who climbed the mountain. One of the highlights of this was our assignment to the VIP table, which involved us having to switch seats four times in five minutes to adjust to the moving location of the VIP table. The other highlight was the magistrate, who had had a few too many dragging me up on stage during the hotel owner’s speech. I wriggled away as quickly as possible. Also, today I heard that I am now famous beyond Karatu, as the crazy running white girl, I was on Tanzanian television last night for this trip up Kilimanjaro. It’s pretty funny, but not that exciting because I think all you have to do to get on the news is pay the news people to come cover your story (I think Zara Tours, the company I went with, paid ITV to come).
Friday, May 2, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
The Marathon
On Monday, I ran my first half-marathon. It was generally a positive experience, and I finished in 2:10, not too bad for my first one. However, it was also one of the most ridiculous experiences of my life. We enlisted the help of a local runner in recruiting participants. He recruited about 200 international elite runners. There were no other runners besides these runners, David (another volunteer) and myself. So my time, that I was pretty happy with, was about 30 minutes after the next closest woman, and I think about 25 minutes after David. Everyone was waiting on me to start the awards ceremony, so I had mixed emotions of embarrassment and pride as I crossed the finish line. These feelings were soon enhanced. It turned out that several of the women who ran the race didn't finish. This meant that I finished 20th (and last) amongst women. However, prizes were given to the top 20 men and women finishers, so I won 5,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $4) and had to go up on stage to claim the prize. The runners were generally very kind and congratulated me on finishing the race, and my prize. Some of my office colleagues made fun of me for finishing last. Katherine and Natalia took pictures of the race, so when I receive them I will post them here as well. I'm sure everyone can appreciate the humor of me lined up next to several Tanzanian Olympians. There have been a lot of other activities around Karatu that deserve comment as well. I'll write about them tonight and post soon.
Monday, March 31, 2008
My family came to visit for a week and a half. The beginning of the trip was not too great as their flight was delayed, and the next day our trip to Lake Manyara turned into a bit of a debacle. However, after that our trip was great. We went to the Serengeti for two days. Unfortunately we weren’t near the migration, but the scale of Serengeti is still beautiful and awe inspiring. Then we went to Ngorongoro Crater. The highlight of the trip to the Crater was the cheetah sighting. I had been hoping to see it each time I went and it finally happened. They were up running around as well, so it was interesting to see how the wildebeests and zebras reacted even though the cheetahs obviously weren’t on the hunt.
The next day I introduced my family to Karatu. We met some of the people I work with, though many people were out in the field for trainings. My mom was very excited to meet my friends at the market, so that was our next trip. They had also been very excited to meet my family. In fact, they had been asking about my mom for at least a month. She made new friends by taking some great photos, and Karla made friends by passing out candy. Next we visited a local orphanage because some people I work with were going there donate an Easter meal and others were going to film a commercial. Everyone had a great time playing with the kids, and I think my family was struck by the kindness of the children. That evening, we enjoyed dinner and watched a drama troupe performance at Highview Hotel. It was similar to other drama troupe shows I’ve seen, but I was glad to share the experience with my family because I knew my mom would like it, though I’m not sure my uncle Mark appreciated the high pressure sales tactics of the performers after the show.
That Thursday we took it easy. We did some souvenir shopping, then I introduced everyone to ugali. Ugali is made from corn flour and its texture resembles very thick mashed potatoes. It’s not my favorite food, but it’s not bad, and I felt it was an important part of the Tanzanian experience.
The next day we woke up early to travel to Lake Eyasi. While there we were able to meet the Hadzabe people, a hunting and gathering tribe in that area. They were especially skilled at finding honey, and the honey they generously shared with us was delicious. Interestingly, one of the types of honey tasted like mango juice. Then we drove to Lake Eyasi to see it. I had been near the lake, but never on the shore. I was surprised at how low the lake was, even though rainy season has started. We then met the Tatoga people. They are pastoralists, similar to the Maasai, who graze cattle. This was probably my favorite part of the day because the women were preparing for a wedding and we joined in the singing and dancing.
The next day we relaxed around the house and Gibb’s Farm (a fancy hotel nearby) and played cards and scrabble, and on Sunday it was time to leave. We traveled to Moshi so we could see Mt. Kilimanjaro, then back to the airport for my family’s departure.
Since then we conducted a drug shopkeeper training. It went well, but it didn’t seem like it would initially. In retrospect planning the training for the day after a five day weekend was a mistake, but after everyone arrived and we adapted the training for the participants we weren’t expecting it went well. We reviewed information about history taking and danger signs, discussed childhood illness, STIs, family planning, and their role in educating the community.
Now I am preparing for MAISHA training next week. It will be a tight squeeze to get everything ready in time, but it seems that in Tanzania everything falls into place at the last minute. I continue to train for the half-marathon and I’m preparing to spend four weeks in Israel on my way home from Tanzania. I’ll return to Minneapolis on June 20 and start classes two days later.
The next day I introduced my family to Karatu. We met some of the people I work with, though many people were out in the field for trainings. My mom was very excited to meet my friends at the market, so that was our next trip. They had also been very excited to meet my family. In fact, they had been asking about my mom for at least a month. She made new friends by taking some great photos, and Karla made friends by passing out candy. Next we visited a local orphanage because some people I work with were going there donate an Easter meal and others were going to film a commercial. Everyone had a great time playing with the kids, and I think my family was struck by the kindness of the children. That evening, we enjoyed dinner and watched a drama troupe performance at Highview Hotel. It was similar to other drama troupe shows I’ve seen, but I was glad to share the experience with my family because I knew my mom would like it, though I’m not sure my uncle Mark appreciated the high pressure sales tactics of the performers after the show.
That Thursday we took it easy. We did some souvenir shopping, then I introduced everyone to ugali. Ugali is made from corn flour and its texture resembles very thick mashed potatoes. It’s not my favorite food, but it’s not bad, and I felt it was an important part of the Tanzanian experience.
The next day we woke up early to travel to Lake Eyasi. While there we were able to meet the Hadzabe people, a hunting and gathering tribe in that area. They were especially skilled at finding honey, and the honey they generously shared with us was delicious. Interestingly, one of the types of honey tasted like mango juice. Then we drove to Lake Eyasi to see it. I had been near the lake, but never on the shore. I was surprised at how low the lake was, even though rainy season has started. We then met the Tatoga people. They are pastoralists, similar to the Maasai, who graze cattle. This was probably my favorite part of the day because the women were preparing for a wedding and we joined in the singing and dancing.
The next day we relaxed around the house and Gibb’s Farm (a fancy hotel nearby) and played cards and scrabble, and on Sunday it was time to leave. We traveled to Moshi so we could see Mt. Kilimanjaro, then back to the airport for my family’s departure.
Since then we conducted a drug shopkeeper training. It went well, but it didn’t seem like it would initially. In retrospect planning the training for the day after a five day weekend was a mistake, but after everyone arrived and we adapted the training for the participants we weren’t expecting it went well. We reviewed information about history taking and danger signs, discussed childhood illness, STIs, family planning, and their role in educating the community.
Now I am preparing for MAISHA training next week. It will be a tight squeeze to get everything ready in time, but it seems that in Tanzania everything falls into place at the last minute. I continue to train for the half-marathon and I’m preparing to spend four weeks in Israel on my way home from Tanzania. I’ll return to Minneapolis on June 20 and start classes two days later.
Monday, March 10, 2008
I haven’t written for a while, in no small part because other that work and training for the half-marathon not too much has happened. I finally got the results to our Secret Shopper Survey, and they were really good. In the fall 45% of drug shopkeepers would not sell partial doses to patients, now 90% of drug shopkeepers will not sell partial doses. (This is important for preventing antibiotic and anti-malarial resistance). More drug shopkeepers are referring people to the hospital or advising customers to go to the hospital if symptoms worsen and the percentage of secret shoppers who felt confident in the treatment they received increased as well.
Since then, I’ve been continuing to work on a new Drug Shopkeeper curriculum to continue to work on the weaker areas of “history-taking” and recognizing danger signs. I’ve also been working on a study protocol for some research about Rh incompatibility and finishing up some details about MAISHA training.
We found out last week that the President of Tanzania will be coming up to Karatu for our marathon and the opening of the Healthy Mother Healthy Baby Center. It will be an exciting and busy time for us and should bring a lot of positive attention to MIHV and malaria awareness in general.
Since then, I’ve been continuing to work on a new Drug Shopkeeper curriculum to continue to work on the weaker areas of “history-taking” and recognizing danger signs. I’ve also been working on a study protocol for some research about Rh incompatibility and finishing up some details about MAISHA training.
We found out last week that the President of Tanzania will be coming up to Karatu for our marathon and the opening of the Healthy Mother Healthy Baby Center. It will be an exciting and busy time for us and should bring a lot of positive attention to MIHV and malaria awareness in general.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Joe had an urgent need to see some photos from the Serengeti, and occasionally I try to be a good girlfriend so here goes. Our trip to the Serengeti was incredible. The beauty of the Serengeti was strangely familiar, as much of it was prairie land. Obviously, the zebras and giraffes weren’t part of our summer drives across Iowa, but anyone who has ever driven across Kansas or Nebraska knows that Serengeti, the Maasai word for “endless plain” isn’t too far off. Because of the size of the park it was more difficult to see animals up close than in Ngorongoro Crater, but it seemed more natural and thus more interesting.
We had the opportunity to stay in a tented camp out in the middle of the Serengeti. According to the national park rules, camps like this have to move every three months and ours had just moved two weeks ago, so we couldn’t have breakfast any earlier that 7:30 for fear that the animals would come.
As most of you know, President Bush came to Tanzania last week. It was interesting, because even though I’m in the country I heard most of the news of his trip from friends and family back in the states. He didn’t come to Karatu to see us but his visit did essentially shut down the town of Arusha, two hours away. Ken, another volunteer, was leaving to travel to Zanzibar that day. He had to walk about 2.5 miles with his luggage to get to the Arusha Airport because the one road to the airport was closed. The president did spend a lot of time focused on malaria projects, which is, of course, an important part of our project. I think some people around the office are hoping we can use that picture of him wrapped in the bed net to make a poster.
At work, I’ve been continuing to work on organizing the MAISHA training and I am eagerly awaiting the results of a Secret Shopper Survey we conducted last Saturday. The results of that survey will help us assess if the first Drug Shopkeeper training was successful and give us an idea of what we should focus on for the next round of training.
We had the opportunity to stay in a tented camp out in the middle of the Serengeti. According to the national park rules, camps like this have to move every three months and ours had just moved two weeks ago, so we couldn’t have breakfast any earlier that 7:30 for fear that the animals would come.
As most of you know, President Bush came to Tanzania last week. It was interesting, because even though I’m in the country I heard most of the news of his trip from friends and family back in the states. He didn’t come to Karatu to see us but his visit did essentially shut down the town of Arusha, two hours away. Ken, another volunteer, was leaving to travel to Zanzibar that day. He had to walk about 2.5 miles with his luggage to get to the Arusha Airport because the one road to the airport was closed. The president did spend a lot of time focused on malaria projects, which is, of course, an important part of our project. I think some people around the office are hoping we can use that picture of him wrapped in the bed net to make a poster.
At work, I’ve been continuing to work on organizing the MAISHA training and I am eagerly awaiting the results of a Secret Shopper Survey we conducted last Saturday. The results of that survey will help us assess if the first Drug Shopkeeper training was successful and give us an idea of what we should focus on for the next round of training.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Since I last wrote, the volunteer population in the Minnesota office has doubled. Ken, a fourth year medical student from Temple, and Katherine, a soon to be first year medical student, have arrived. Our trip to Serengeti was postponed until next weekend, so we’ve been keeping busy in other ways. I’ve been working on getting a couple research projects started regarding maternal alcohol and water quality, and I’ve been preparing for MAISHA training and a survey for drug shopkeepers that will help me design the next curriculum for shopkeepers who have already had one round of training.
Our trip to Ngorongoro was incredible. I was able to see lions and rhinos, which I hadn’t seen in my travels yet. In fact, the lions came as close as 10 feet from our vehicle. There were also a lot of baby zebra, lions, warthogs, and even baby rhino around. It was hard to shake the song “Circle of Life” out of my head.
The drama troupe that performs at the monthly market day had to conclude their performance early due to rain so the new volunteers missed it. Ken and Karen will leave before the next market day so we went to a local hotel where they perform on Saturday night. They performed a traditional dance from Zanzibar, Southern Tanzania, and did some acrobatics as well. At one point during the act one of the performers bends himself in various directions to fit through a narrow metal cylinder. I think it was pretty stressful for Katherine, who was quite concerned that he would get stuck.
Sunday morning two of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area came over for brunch. Veronica, the Maternal-Newborn Care assistant manager, is staying with us right now because her house isn’t quite ready yet. The chapati she makes is very crepe-like, so needless to say brunch was quite fancy and delicious.
I also found out this weekend that my mother, my sister, and my uncle will be coming to visit me in Tanzania in mid-March, so I’m quite excited about that.
Some interesting things happened in Tanzanian politics this week. The prime minister resigned amidst a corruption scandal, in which he received $150,000 per day over two years through dealings with an electricity company. and the president decided to clean house and fire the entire cabinet. He will probably rehire many of them who weren’t involved in corruption, but I think it’s great that the president has decided to take such a bold stand on corruption.
This coming week, we’ll be conducting a secret shopper survey in the drug shops, heading to Rhotia, a nearby village, to do some clinical work and community observation, and President Bush is coming to Tanzania, so we are hoping he will visit us in Karatu on the way to the Crater.
Our trip to Ngorongoro was incredible. I was able to see lions and rhinos, which I hadn’t seen in my travels yet. In fact, the lions came as close as 10 feet from our vehicle. There were also a lot of baby zebra, lions, warthogs, and even baby rhino around. It was hard to shake the song “Circle of Life” out of my head.
The drama troupe that performs at the monthly market day had to conclude their performance early due to rain so the new volunteers missed it. Ken and Karen will leave before the next market day so we went to a local hotel where they perform on Saturday night. They performed a traditional dance from Zanzibar, Southern Tanzania, and did some acrobatics as well. At one point during the act one of the performers bends himself in various directions to fit through a narrow metal cylinder. I think it was pretty stressful for Katherine, who was quite concerned that he would get stuck.
Sunday morning two of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area came over for brunch. Veronica, the Maternal-Newborn Care assistant manager, is staying with us right now because her house isn’t quite ready yet. The chapati she makes is very crepe-like, so needless to say brunch was quite fancy and delicious.
I also found out this weekend that my mother, my sister, and my uncle will be coming to visit me in Tanzania in mid-March, so I’m quite excited about that.
Some interesting things happened in Tanzanian politics this week. The prime minister resigned amidst a corruption scandal, in which he received $150,000 per day over two years through dealings with an electricity company. and the president decided to clean house and fire the entire cabinet. He will probably rehire many of them who weren’t involved in corruption, but I think it’s great that the president has decided to take such a bold stand on corruption.
This coming week, we’ll be conducting a secret shopper survey in the drug shops, heading to Rhotia, a nearby village, to do some clinical work and community observation, and President Bush is coming to Tanzania, so we are hoping he will visit us in Karatu on the way to the Crater.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Back to Karatu
After two days of travel, I arrived in Karatu Tuesday evening, and because all of the sleep I got was on planes, I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life. The next day I took it easy, but did visit my friends in the office. I had almost forgotten how much fun everyone here is while I was gone.
On Thursday, it was back to work, and Friday, Karen, the other volunteer, conducted a planning workshop. It was really great. It can be difficult to track people down to make plans when they are out in the field, so it was wonderful to be able to sit down with everyone and make sure our plans all work together.
After work on Friday, I went out for a jog, and upon returning home my friend Margaret was at my house. She told me there was a man under a tree across the street that was quite sick. He had been throwing up for three days, and had walked from a town that is over six hours away by car without eating or drinking. He had been working in Serengeti, but got sick and was trying to return to his home near Mt. Kilimanjaro. Needless to say he was quite confused.
I made him some oral-rehydration solution. He was able to drink it, but soon vomited again, so we took him to the health center for some additional help. Because his pulse, blood pressure, and temperature were normal they asked him to come back the next day if he was still sick. There were some men in town who tried to help him find some food and a bed. My guess is that he had an electrolyte abnormality, and needed IV fluids, but I did not have access to the necessary lab tests or an IV, so I couldn’t do much more to help. Unfortunately, I don’t know what became of him.
This weekend, Karen, Veronica, and I went for a short hike to the Elephant Caves and a waterfall. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t seen any wild buffalo or elephants because we could tell they were nearby, but next weekend we will be going to Ngorongoro Crater, and the following weekend we will go to Serengeti, and we won’t have any difficulty spotting wildlife there.
MIHV is planning a half-marathon for malaria awareness on April 25. I am excited about this because, initially we had planned to organize a full marathon, which I had no intention of training for. Karatu is about a mile above sea level and the surrounding area is very hilly, not a good place for a first marathon, if I were interested in participating in a marathon in the first place. We changed the plan because many local marathoners are training for a marathon about one month after ours. They were interested in a training race, but running another marathon would have been too much. This works out great for me personally because I think a half marathon is something I can do, so I look forward to participating, even though I probably will be the last one to finish.
This week, a new volunteer, Ken, is arriving. He is a fourth year medical student from Temple University. We are planning to work in the clinics at some of the local health centers and do some community observation regarding water sources, latrine availability, standing water, cooking fires, etc. I will also be putting the finishing touches on our MAISHA training materials, for a training at the beginning of March and working with the District Pharmacist to plan the next round of Drug Shopkeeper trainings.
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to post yet because I look stupid in the photos from the elephant caves. Oh well, plenty of photos to come.
On Thursday, it was back to work, and Friday, Karen, the other volunteer, conducted a planning workshop. It was really great. It can be difficult to track people down to make plans when they are out in the field, so it was wonderful to be able to sit down with everyone and make sure our plans all work together.
After work on Friday, I went out for a jog, and upon returning home my friend Margaret was at my house. She told me there was a man under a tree across the street that was quite sick. He had been throwing up for three days, and had walked from a town that is over six hours away by car without eating or drinking. He had been working in Serengeti, but got sick and was trying to return to his home near Mt. Kilimanjaro. Needless to say he was quite confused.
I made him some oral-rehydration solution. He was able to drink it, but soon vomited again, so we took him to the health center for some additional help. Because his pulse, blood pressure, and temperature were normal they asked him to come back the next day if he was still sick. There were some men in town who tried to help him find some food and a bed. My guess is that he had an electrolyte abnormality, and needed IV fluids, but I did not have access to the necessary lab tests or an IV, so I couldn’t do much more to help. Unfortunately, I don’t know what became of him.
This weekend, Karen, Veronica, and I went for a short hike to the Elephant Caves and a waterfall. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t seen any wild buffalo or elephants because we could tell they were nearby, but next weekend we will be going to Ngorongoro Crater, and the following weekend we will go to Serengeti, and we won’t have any difficulty spotting wildlife there.
MIHV is planning a half-marathon for malaria awareness on April 25. I am excited about this because, initially we had planned to organize a full marathon, which I had no intention of training for. Karatu is about a mile above sea level and the surrounding area is very hilly, not a good place for a first marathon, if I were interested in participating in a marathon in the first place. We changed the plan because many local marathoners are training for a marathon about one month after ours. They were interested in a training race, but running another marathon would have been too much. This works out great for me personally because I think a half marathon is something I can do, so I look forward to participating, even though I probably will be the last one to finish.
This week, a new volunteer, Ken, is arriving. He is a fourth year medical student from Temple University. We are planning to work in the clinics at some of the local health centers and do some community observation regarding water sources, latrine availability, standing water, cooking fires, etc. I will also be putting the finishing touches on our MAISHA training materials, for a training at the beginning of March and working with the District Pharmacist to plan the next round of Drug Shopkeeper trainings.
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to post yet because I look stupid in the photos from the elephant caves. Oh well, plenty of photos to come.
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