Patience is a Virtue

Thelma here...I was told by a little birdie that I need to get my act together and write some entries on this dang thing. So here we go...

Tuesday brought another bunch of good times and lots of laughs.  Louise and I started the day off right this time.  Got up at 6:15 to make sure we made it early to the morning meeting.  We got seats!  The female intern who gave the morning hand off report was fantastic.  Straight to the point.  Therefore, we made it out of the meeting at 8:30.  What to do you ask?  Go home of course!  We spent a lazy day in, until Siri and Ingrid #1 texted us to meet them at Kili Coffee Lounge and then to go and get our paintings.  This is where I had to learn some patience.  We waited for our drinks, waited for our food, waited for our dessert, and really waited for our bill.  I got a bit restless there at the end.  We finally got done (2 hrs later) and walked over to the painting studio to find our instructor, Sace, had gone home for the day.  So, a trip solely to pick up paintings ended without the paintings.  Lovely.

So far Wednesday has made me learn patience...kind of.  Louise and I started the day off right again today, making it out of the house by 7:00 to get the the meeting early for seats.  Well - halfway on the walk Louise says "uh oh."  He got the immediate doomed feeling of having to run to the toilet.  Lovely.  So we continue to walk (at a very brisk pace) to the hospital so that he can make his way to the only western toilet on the compound.  He went to the bathroom and I went to the room to get some seats.  15 minutes later he rushes through the door and sits down next to me.  I asked how it went, and he eventually replied that there wasn't any toilet paper in the bathroom.  If you want to know more details...I suggest you ask him at your own risk.  Oh hell.  He told me to just say it...surgery cap and mask.  Desperate times call for desperate measures...and quick thinking.  Needless to say, after the meeting we went to the shop at the hospital and bought a roll of toilet paper to keep in our bag.  After that we headed back up to the operating room around 9:00.  We met the resident, talked about the upcoming surgery, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  10:00 came and I decided to wander around and force our friend Anna to come to surgery with us.  So, we waited and waited again.  10:30 came and we finally got a patient in the room!  Yeah, no.  No blood.  No surgeon yet.   11:15 comes and they still haven't started.  By this time I am getting quite annoyed, and Louise and I looked at each other, walked out of the room, and never went back.

Afternoon came around and we went into town to have coffee and get our paintings.  We then went to the supermarket and were followed around the store by a child who told us he was hungry.  Ingrid broke down and bought him some muffins and I gave him some money.  Probably was a lie, but I can't turn away from a child.

The entire house went out to eat at El Rancho for dinner.  You may think that this is a mexican or southwestern restaurant.  Wrong!  It is Indian of all things.  And boy was it delicious.  We all had a great time over 5 bottles of wine for 8 people.  This is when Siri, Marte, and I came up with the most brilliant idea for St. Patrick's day!  We decided to have matching green Kanga's (african dresses) made for us all to wear out on Saturday.  This will be the first St. Patty's day that the girls have ever celebrated.

After dinner, we all came home, talked, and drank 4 more bottles of wine.  Delicious.

Thursday has been a great day.  Louise was hungover and his colon still wasn't being very nice, so we decided to skip work today.  Such a great decision.  We made pancakes and french toast for everyone.  It was a bit of a sad morning, however, because Ingrid 1 and Ingrid 2 left us to head to Pangani - but we will all be reunited in Tanga on Monday.

The afternoon consisted of heading to town to buy our Kangas!  We got the material and the lady in the street is currently making our dresses.  Surprise though...Louise decided to have an African shirt and 3/4 length pants made in the same fabric.  We are going to look AMAZING!  Can't wait!

So tonight we are planning on having a relaxing night in, eating Panda Chinese, and having a great time.

Cathartic Painting

Monday the 12th was a great day. By morning, the flood had receded in our house. We woke up at our usual time and headed to the hospital. No power = no breakfast. Awesome. When we arrived to the hospital at 7:32 we were abruptly surprised by the 20-30 extra people present for change over. We thought that it was overcrowded before...Ugh. Turns out the local medical students are back from their testing break. Thelma and I were not too impressed. To calm our feelings and our stomachs, we went to find some breakfast. 30 minutes we returned to the meeting. It still wasn't over and because of all the people, we couldn't hear a thing. So...we stood there patiently, sweating like frogs on a hot plate! Awesome. We made an effort twice that day to print our evaluations for this rotation, but alas...no power. The power was even out at the hospital for a bit. Real nice. We retired for the day at 10 AM and went home.

Having had so much exposure to medicine here, we have decided to join our Norwegian friends on an early 2 week vacation to the coast including Tonga, Pemba Island, and Zanzibar. Apparently, traveling is the thing to do here. The medical students are used more as a supply of money rather than anything else. So...we are going to make the best of it. We spent the rest of Monday morning planning some of our trip and reserving our hotel on the island of Pemba. The beaches look gorgeous and I can't wait to enjoy the Indian Ocean. This leads me to another point. My sun burn from Friday is now itching and driving me crazy. Awesome.

That afternoon, we had our painting class. It was so much fun. We went through and picked out the paintings that we wanted to do. We got to select from a huge variety of paintings that the local artist has done. Once we had our selections, I purchased a nice Kilimanjaro hat to wear. Ingrid thought it was embarrassing to sit next to me while I wore it, but I quite like it. Anyways, we spent the afternoon working on our paintings. The supply were 10,000 shilling and the instruction was 10,000 shilling. That's a total of less than $13. It was an amazing deal. Our paintings looked great when we were finished. While waiting for them to dry in the sun, we went IndoItaliano and had some red wine to complete our artful afternoon. It was delightfully cathartic and very relaxing. I am so glad we decided to paint. We may need to do it again. :-)

That night the Norwegians cooked up their African version of their Norwegian style tacos. They were amazing. Also happy, Thelma was able to try on her new brassiere that she had bought at Nakumatt that day. They don't do sizes here, so she just guessed and guessed right. She will probably kill me for including this in the blog, but I don't care. :-) Thelma and I also found out that we matched into a Family Medicine  Residency. We don't know for sure where until Friday, but we are 99% sure it will be South Bend. We will keep everyone posted.

Our painting studio.

Ingrid 1 and myself with my new hat.
She was embarrassed.

First, paint the background.

Thelma actually didn't paint, but scraped.

Thelma looking good.

Step two, paint the images.

Louise looking good.

Ingrid 1 hard at work.

Our studio again. Siri took this photo.

My images painted.

Thelma's finally work or art.

Siri's final piece.

Ingrid 1 still working. she was the
slowest in the bunch.

The original by Sace, the artist teacher. 

The gallery. On the street of course.

Weekend: Sun Burns, Patty Melts, Pocahontas, & The Nile!

So we started off our second weekend in Moshi with a bang! We went to lecture Friday morning and called it a day at about 9 AM. The meeting was poorly attended. There is not much going on at the hospital right now because apparently the interns and resident physicians throughout the country are on strike. I don't blame them for wanting more money and better conditions. Anyways, we took the opportunity to relax and headed for the Impala Hotel for swimming and tanning. Funny story, the pool was looking a little on the green side, but it was so hot that we were desperate for relief. Awesome. Thelma and I, being as pale as we are, made sure to slop on the SPF 30 liberally. However, our efforts for protection fell short. Apparently we are going to burn no matter what we do in this life sized tanning salon. The sun here is so hot and direct, that we are both quite crispy. Awesome. We weren't so bad compared to the Swedes that were apparently vacationing at the Impala. The lot of them were all burned in some way, but there was this one lady who was turning purple she was burnt so bad. To our surprise, they just kept on tanning any how! The Ingrid 1 and Martine, also at the Impala, told us that many Scandinavians get burnt on trips because they don't know how to handle the sun. We still quiver thinking about how much pain that one lady must be in still even now. Also while we were there, a Swedish man was sun bathing. He was also burnt, but only in the places that weren't covered with his shirt, shorts, towel, and hat. Yes! He was fully clothed and covered. He is gonna have the best tan lines ever!!  Too top it all off, the biggest of the Swedes did a canon ball into the pool. Gallons of water rushed over the edge of the entire pool as she displaced so much water at one time. It was hilarious.

Friday afternoon, we lazed around the house and planned the nights events. Thelma and I joined Ingrid 1 for a relaxing dinner at IndoItalian.  It was still very warm that afternoon and evening, so no surprise that Thelma and I were sweating even late that evening. There was an interesting situation though. While at dinner, a man and two boys sat down at a table close to ours. He is a white man from Europe, his accent to me sounded like it was from Great Britain. Anyways, he was playing games on phones with these two African boys, maybe ages 9 and 11. We have seen this man at the Kilimanjaro Lounge as well, but there he is usually with a young African woman. We are not sure what he is doing, but his behaviors seem a little odd. He seems to me like on of those pedophiles captured on police surveillance back home. We can't be sure, but its definitely creepy. After our relaxing, very warm evening meal, we returned home. The night we ended up going to Glaciers where we met many of our KCMC friends.

Saturday was an uneventful day, although it was nice to have power for the entire day. Thelma and I spent most of the day laying in bed and lubing each other up with aloe gel. Yes...our sun burns had bloomed into there full glory by Saturday afternoon. I hate sun burns.  Anyways, we decided that we would make patty melts and fries for the Ingrids, Sunniva, and our selves. We also made another batch of our delicious African Snickerdoodles. In order to prepare dinner, we made a trip to Woodland market. We bought a list of things including "ground beef." We are still not exactly sure what it is/was, but it worked well. The dinner was a success after about 4 arduous hours of cooking. We stuffed our faces accordingly. The rest of the night was spent fulfilling my promise to Sunniva. A disney movie night together. So we enjoyed and sang the songs of Pocahontas together.

Sunday was again another lazy day although one of the hottest days we have had here yet. Thelma and I both read on our Kindles and lathered each other with aloe gel periodically. We made note of the heat by saying "I'M HOTT!!!" at least 10o times each. Despite the suffocating heat, we took a leap of faith and made personal pizzas with chipati, a flat, tortilla like bread here in Africa. It was a success. They were delicious. If  by now no one sees a theme, Thelma and I live for food and delightfully stuff our faces at every opportunity. :-)


Sunday night was one of the most exciting nights yet...with the exception of maybe Thursday night when Ingrid 1 thought that a bug was after her. She screamed in Norwegian and bounced around the porch like a terrified gazelle. It was quite hilarious as Martine kept instigating her terrified state, telling her there was a bug on her when there wasn't. Anyways, Sunday night we were all relaxing on the porch when Ingrid 1 (see a pattern) went inside and screamed in Norwegian again as she found part of our living room, entire hallway and most of Martine and Ingrid 2's room flooded. Yes...Flooded. Awesome. Somehow, the sink in the half bath had been left on. It flowed like the Nile all through the house while we naively sat on the porch. We spent the next 30 mins using our extra towels to soak up the water, wringing them out in the tub. It was real fun as anyone can imagine. We made light of the situation and laughed as we worked.

Ingrid 1, Siri, Martine, & Thelma at
Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge

Sign outside the lounge

Street just down from the lounge

Street Corner

Kili Supermarket  with the girls

Dulla Dulla Station

Nakumat

Flooded Hallway

Ingrid 2 and Martine's flooded room

Flooded hall

Slightly less flooded hall

Bathroom flooded after the
wringing of the towels.

Most likely to be inappropriate...

So Thursday, March 8th was quite different. Thelma and I walked to the hospital in the morning and were joined by one of the head surgeons from Singapore, Dr. Tan Ten Kok. He is a very nice guy and for most of the walk talked about our political system in the States and how he liked Obama. We obviously get along well. It is actually quite interesting to see America through the eyes of Africans. They very much love President Obama and sell fabric, shirts, and other items with his face on them, but I digress. After our walk with the Doc, we had our morning change over meeting and then we went to radiology lectures. We went home just after 10 AM. Long day.

That afternoon we went to town. Back to Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge we went. I had the amazing Avocado Shake again. Yum Yum. We also made a return trip to Nakumatt to buy food stuffs and Hot Bread Shop for some more cheese loaf. When we got home, Thelma and I made our best rendition of Snickerdoodles from our African supplies. They were delicious and the Norwegians loved them too!!

That night, the Norwegians made a broccoli and cauliflower soup that was amazing. After our dinner and wine, we went to Glacier's for what was supposed to be Karaoke. Just our luck, it didn't happen. We had already planned out our songs of Spice Girls, Celine Dion, and the Divinyls, but alas...we were left disappointed. Several of the girls decided to go to Arusha, about 45 mins away. Thelma and I stayed in Moshi with Sunniva and went to Alberto's. She is crazy fun and most likely to be inappropriate. Her interview tells all. :-)

Happy Birthday KCMC!!

So Tuesday the 6th marked the 41st birthday of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. It was a great day indeed. We woke up without power. Awesome. We attended a mastectomy and a hip fracture pinning. A couple of our Norwegian house mates joined us, Ingrid 1 and Ingrid 2. The Mastectomy was for a breast cancer unlike anything we had ever seen. The entire nipple of the right breast was completely scabbed over because the tissue was so friable. She well qualified for Stage 4 status with nodal involvement on both sides. She will not live much longer. Then we saw a hip pinning that was completed by a visiting Canadian surgeon. He had to use tools from the 1950s and supplies and techniques from the 1970s. He was a very impressive surgeon.

That afternoon, we joined our Swedish friends and Ingrid 1 to town for food and shopping. At the Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge, I had the most amazing milk shake - Avocado! I know it sounds gross, but was a most pleasant, refreshing surprise. I am gonna recreate them in the states for everyone I know!! After we finished our tasty treats, we went for a little shopping. We set up our painting class. Yes, we are taking a painting class in town. They are going to teach us to paint African paintings and we get to keep ours. We can't wait. Talk about the best souvenir ever. We also stopped at the hot bread shop. AMAZING!!!! It is like a full service bakery with loaves of fresh bread for about a $1. So awesome. We bought this delicious cheese loaf. We later made pizza bread with veggies using the bread. It was the best thing we had made yet! Later that night, I stayed in and finished reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Thelma joined the Norwegians for dinner at the Leopard Hotel.

Wednesday was a bunch of the same. Turns out that this week is seminar week - Emergency Radiology. Interesting topic since they only have x-ray and ultrasound here at the moment. So needless to say, there are a bunch of lectures over the coarse of 3 days on a topic that really doesn't fit here. Anyways, we went to a few lectures and called it a day at about Tea Break. Because the country was once under British control, they still have some of England's pastimes, tea breaks and driving on the left side of the road.

That afternoon we stayed in and read. The Norwegians put in a full day of teaching about sex to kids in schools. They said it was quite interesting. So we all stayed in and ordered Chinese food for dinner. Funny story, they deliver it on a bicycle. Unfortunately, he came in a car this time. The food from Panda Chinese is really good and they are of course the only delivery service. I never thought that I would be able to order Chinese delivery in Africa. We had to order out because there was no power once again. Awesome. We played Uno by candlelight until the food came. That night, Thelma tried to put on a pair of shorts for bed. She stepped on the of the shorts and they made a huge ripping sound. No hole made, but we laughed hysterically. No surprise there.

Beware the Ides of March

So...March the 5th marks our official first week in Tanzania. Why not start it with a bang? We woke up with no power. Awesome. The power had at this point been more off than on in the past 4 days. TIA. Anyways, without power, we were unable to make toast or coffee, so we decided to wait until after the change over meeting to eat at the canteen. Big mistake. The meeting lasted for 2 hours. Starving and suffering from caffeine withdraw, Thelma, Ana (a German comrade), and I, went to find what we could eat at the canteen. As we proceeded to checkout, we asked for 2 pancakes. The checkout lady said "you have one, there are no more.) Awesome. So, I ate an andazi (a donut without sugar) and Thelma had a pancake (a glorified crepe). Not 5 minutes later did people start walking our with pancakes galore. Awesome. We then watched a liposarcoma removal and went home for the day.

Later that afternoon, we went out to town. We had lunch at the Kilimanjaro Coffee Lounge. Thelma's burger was under cooked and she didn't eat it. I had chicken burritos. Funny story, their chicken burritos have peanut butter on them. I hate peanut butter. Fortunately, I had bread, fries,and guacamole to fill me up! Thelma had fries, but was later hungry. I finished my meal with a Frappiccino that was very delicious. Thelma had some wonderful vanilla ice cream. We then bought so trinkets and groceries and headed for home. Still no power. awesome.

That night, we went with the Norwegians to IndoItalian and had a great time. This is where we started our video interviews of our house mates. We started with Ingrid #1.

After a fun night out, we returned home. Finally, the power had returned.  We had high hopes that we would have power for at least a day.

Weekend: Lights out, Party on!

Our view of Kilimanjaro every morning.
This shot is from our porch.

Friday at the hospital was nothing special. Thelma didn't pass out on the toilet, so it was a fairly normal. We went to some lectures on research projects and watched a Choledocoduodenostomy - the removal of the gall bladder, ducts, and portion of the duodenum. After they open the lady for surgery, there were too many varices from the portal hypertension to continue with the procedure. They did not have enough extra blood to risk the procedure. So they just took a liver biopsy and closed her up. That brings me to another point. KCMC has a CT machine, but it is broken and the company says that it is too old to repair, so now they have to do exploratory surgery for everything. Cases like the one we saw Friday would have never happened if they had a functional CT machine. TIA!

(Thelma talking now...)

Friday afternoon is where it all began.  We got done with Surgery after lunch (which will always be the case), and sam decided to come over to drink beers on the porch.  The girls in the house had the day off, so just as he arrived Martine and Marte were going to the shop to pick up a few things.  They asked if I wanted anything, and I said maybe some alcohol.  This is when Martine told me about "konyagi".  Apparently it is a staple around here.  So I said - sure, why not?!?  They got back, gave me the bottle.  It looks like something taken off of a bomb shelter shelf from the 50's.  The ingredients are "fine-spirit, konyagi flavour, and de-ionized water".  Great.  So what they heck right?  I mixed it with some crystal light fruit punch and it was fantastic.  A few hours and half the bottle later I was told that you never know what the strength of the konyagi is.  That it could be anywhere from 20 - 60 percent alcohol.  Pretty sure mine was the 60%. 

So dinner time finally hits, sam leaves, and all of us decide to make some dinner at home.  This consisted of anything we could find in the cupboards.  So tuna salad, tomatoes, avocados, some nasty Norwegian fish stuff, hot dogs, and beans and toast.  It actually was quite lovely.  That was up until my second bite when we were all of a sudden cast into a world of darkness.  Power's out.  Wonderful!  We found some candles, Martine stole my headlamp, and we ate a romantic dinner for 7.  We made it out to the porch, put on some music, and just enjoyed each other's company.  Then at midnight...Glaciers.

Our driveway

Our house

Our porch

Dining room

Our smaller batherrom

The hall

Our bedroom

The other have of the kitchen

One half of the kitchen

All 11 of us squeezed into a cab fit for 7 and off we went.  Apparently "everyone" goes to Glaciers on Friday nights.  By "everyone" I mean half the town of Moshi and all of the students.  It is an outdoor club with tree houses, dance floor, and the worst bar service imaginable.  We danced, sat, talked, siri layed in the grass at one point, and had a great time.  So 3 am - where to next you ask?  A club with a cover charge of course!  Yeah - you heard that right.  A cover charge?  In africa?  What the heck?  Anyways, it was acutally quite nice with several levels, a pool table section with bus seats, dance floor, bar, etc.  We stayed there until about 4:30 am and then took a taxi back home.  Again.  Squeezing to fit, but just making it work.  Sleep came quite quickly.

Saturday morning I woke up at 10 only to see Louise passed out in his bed with his feet hanging out of his mosquito net.  I went to the kitchen to get some water and found all of the girls awake - looking like they didn't have an extremely late night out.  So annoying.  This was until I really got a good look at Siri.  It took a double take to really realize that here eyes were nearly swollen shut!  Remember how she layed in the grass? - that one mistake led to an allergic reaction of her eyes.  Anyways, they were all getting ready to head off to the Impala Hotel to go to the pool, which is only a short walk away.  I told them that I would go try to wake Louise and we would be on our way shortly.  Well.  Getting him to wake up was one thing, but the 'short' walk was another.  It was hot as hell, no wind, with the sun blaring down.  We started off walking, I was sure I knew the way.  Not. The. Case.  We ended up walking over 2 miles.  Only knew we had gone too far when we had made our way back to Glaciers.  So I called Siri - she told us how to get there, and we soon made it over another mile back to finally get to the hotel.  We had some lunch, got in the pool, lounged around, and walked back to the house.  This time, we were also shown a short cut, so yeah - it really is only a short walk. 

Saturday evening was pretty low key.  We ordered in some Chinese and watched Inception.

Louise again...

Sunday was very relaxing. It thundered and thundered, but never a drop of rain. We spent most of the day reading and went to El Rancho for dinner and had some pretty decent Indian food.

KCMC: Head to Floor

Tuesday the 28th was our first morning in the house and our first day at KCMC. We woke up to first of many  beautiful views of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We prepared our things and headed for the hospital. When we arrived, we set through the hospital in search of Mrs. Mongi. We find her by shear luck and she lead us to Aneth, the visiting student coordinator of sorts. Thelma and I paid her our $1060 a piece for some residence permit and our two months of housing. Awesome. While filling out our paperwork with Aneth, another student, Sam, walked in and said that he was here for general surgery as well. He has since become our comrade from New Zealand. After Sam finished his paperwork,  Aneth gave us her two cents of information, took us for a quick and pointless tour, and said that we should report for work the next day at 7:30 AM in general surgery. We spent the afternoon getting settled in and made a trip to Nakumatt, a westernized store that sells just about everything we could ever need, including 55' flat screen LED TVs. We also stopped at Vodacom and purchased a 3G internet SIM card. There is one thing in Africa that really works and that is the wireless phone and internet. Later that night, Thelma and I went to an IndoItalian restaurant with Sam, the Norwegians - Ingrid, Martine, Marte, and Siri, and the Swedes - Ana and Ulrika. Great times!

7:30 AM the next morning, we reported to surgery with no idea of what to expect. First, we listened to morning report. Apparently they had 72 patients in the surgery ward that morning. Insane. We began rounds in the ward. Before I can go further, I must explain the ward. As you walk in the door, you first see the entryway lined with cots of people in all sorts of different states. Some are recovering from surgery, some are prepared for surgery, some are vomiting in floor, and others appear to be on the brink of death. This was all in the first few feet across the threshold. That's when the smell hit us. The fragrance of vomit, urine, feces, and rot fill the air. Its a real nice place. Anyways, we started our rounds with the groups of residents and students. We bounced from bed to bed. Some had cancer, several had rotting diabetic feet, and some had liver failure. One man had traumatic injuries from a motor vehicle accident, including a basilar skull fracture. As we learned, there was going to be much to see over the next 2 months.  After rounds we didn't know quite what to do, so we left for the day. We had seen enough. That afternoon we borrowed a fan from Sam's house to put in our room. No big deal right? We were just going to borrow it for our time here and return it to his house at the end. Wrong! Within an hour we had a forceful email from Aneth saying that we needed to return it immediately. Sam's house lady had called her and told her we took the fan even though she said it was okay. News travels fast around here. Awesome. We also made a trip back to Nakumatt to get Thelma and I umbrellas and Sam a bath towel. Surprise! Nakumatt sells everything imaginable...except towels. TIA! Awesome.

Thursday, March 1 will be a day we will never forget. We were following our new morning routine of breakfast and preparing for a days work at the hospital. Thelma and I sat down for our toast and juice and all of the sudden Thelma complained of really painful abdominal cramping. She went off to the bathroom and I continued to enjoy my toast and coffee. Then, out of nowhere, there was a loud calamity. I didn't know where it had come from, but I initially thought it must be the house lady doing something outside. Just seconds later I hear another crash. I was just about to check to see if Thelma was okay when she opened the bathroom door and crawled out on fours and proceeded to roll over onto her back in the middle of the room. Breathing heavily, she explained that she had passed out while on the toilet. When she did, she slumped back and to the right knocking the lid off of the tank - the first loud noise. Then, the toilet seat broke off and flew to the left slamming against the wall - the second loud noise. Thelma at that point, completely unconscious, fell head first into the trash can. She awoke lying on the floor next to the toilet with her head still in the trash can with the bag over her face. Don't worry, we still made it to the hospital on time. We still aren't exactly sure why it happened, but shes been okay since and we find ourselves laughing out loud about it daily.

After the bizarre morning events, we went to the hospital for our first day in the operating room. We had no idea what to expect, but now that we have seen it, we know not to get sick or injured here. The first surgery of the day was hernia repair and lipoma removal. In the middle of the surgery, the anesthesia machine lost oxygen pressure and the mans O2 saturation went into the 40s for about 10 minutes or so. Not only that, he later woke up while they were still cutting. The surgeon never stopped and at the end he said it happens all the time. "This is Africa!" We were just blown away be the whole event, but little did we know what was coming up next. Just a door down, we walked in on a cranial lift procedure. Apparently, a kid had fractured his skull at some point, leaving a depression in his head. Let the barbarics begin! It was frightening as the surgeon, "sterile" (which I say very loosely), proceeded to use an old crank hand drill to enter the boys skull. After squeaking and grinding his way in, he then used a steel rod to pry the cranial bones back into place. The whole event was terrifying.

Again, we were done at around 2 PM. That is apparently when the operating rooms close for the day, whether they complete all the scheduled surgeries or not. Its all just crazy. TIA!! That night, we went to dinner with our friends at the Leopard Hotel.

Habari (Hello) Tanzania!

It was about one in the afternoon when we disembarked at Kilimanjaro International Airport. As we walked onto the tarmac, there in our faces was Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was amazing. We entered the airport, filled out the immigration paperwork and made our way toward baggage claim. Don't worry, it wasn't a long walk because its all in the same room, though it is a nice place. Of course, we stand there forever as the bags roll in. We get 3 of our four bags off the first cart, but one of mine was still missing. I have had my bag lost before, first after my trip to Greece and then again in Uganda, so I am well versed in what to do when a bag is lost. I was able to spare my skills as my bag was unloaded off the last cart about 25 minutes. Thank goodness. We gathered our things, met up with the Ana and Ulrika, and made our way to find our ride.

After a pleasant ride around the base of the mountain, we arrived in Moshi and the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC). Our driver dropped off Thelma and I at our house and we lugged our bags to our room. When we arrived, we were pleasantly greeted by Siri, 1 of 6  Norwegian nursing students with whom we share the house. Anyways, the house is better than we had expected. We have a kitchen, dining room, living area with couch and chairs, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, but one shower. Malinda and I share the largest room. We each have our own bed with foam mattress, desk, and vanity. So in African terms, this place is nice. Then, the adventure began.

Thelma and I somewhat settled in and decided we should go to town to help get ourselves situated. Our awesome new friend Siri loaned us 100,000 Shilling (~$75) and went to Moshi with us to meet another one of our housemates, Ingrid. Our mission was to get a SIM card, exchange some money, and get some food and water to hold us over for the night. Siri gave us some direction and away we went. First, we exchanged some money at the Bureau de Exchange. Then, we went to the phone store and there was nothing inside. Interesting. Then, a man stopped us and told us that we needed to go to his stand for a SIM card. All of the dialogue is in broken African english and being exhausted, we were just ready to get it and go. So we followed him to this stand. There are all kinds of SIM cards and this guy setting them up. It looked legit. Now, here's the thing. in Tanzania, you have to register your passport to get phone service. Weird. So the guy takes our phone and my passport and starts talking in Swahili to someone on the line. Next thing we know, we have a working phone from a stand on a street corner. Then, the guy said $30,000 Shilling for the card and setup. Did we get swindled...of course, but we didn't know it at the time. We are white. That's the way it is here. Awesome. Next. we found a "supermarket" and bought some bread, jam, Nutella, OJ, water, and of course Thelma had to have the $11,000 shilling Kellogg's cornflakes. Just be warned, there are whole frozen fish just laying in the freezer right next to ice cream. We left both for other shoppers. We then walked back where we left Siri and called one of the cab numbers she gave us. We stood there on the street side for 45 minutes until we gave up on him and flagged our own. Awesome. Thankfully, Siri told us how much to pay so that we wouldn't get ripped off.

For Thelma and I, it is just one thing after another. We arrived back at the house, put up our very few groceries, and went to our bedroom to organize things. That's when we realized we don't have any mosquito nets over our beds. Well, Thelma had brought two, but they are rectangular and designed to go over a four post bed. Neither of us had a 4 post bed. Awesome. We tried to rig one up, but it was not working. Then, the Norwegian's said there were extras in the closet. Perfect. We found two and went to hang them up. Easier said than done. I got mine up first, but it was missing the metal ring at the top that hold it open. Thelma found one with the ring already in it, so we put hers up. Guess what? After getting it up and set to the right height, it turned our to be designed for a crib and wouldn't cover even half her bed. Awesome. All the work for nothing. I found a metal ring and fixed mine. Thelma found her another net without a ring or a drawstring. For those not aware, apparently mosquito nets can be quite complicated. So, we finally get Thelma's together when we find it has a big brown stain on it. Awesome. Is is poop, or is it rust? In this house and in that closet, either are quite possible.

Exhausted from travel, our trip to town, and the net fiasco, I had a couple pieces of toast with jam. Thelma didn't feel like eating. We showered and passed out for the night at 7:30 with plans to start at the hospital the next day.