government holdups and lots of good friends

July 2, 2007

Alexis and I are finding our way around Karatu, led by our Peace Corps volunteer friends and some of the high school students nearby. Today we are officially on our own, except we are being guided by Octavian who is the student who leads the high school health club. He is an excellent guide in understanding and maneuvering through the town. We have had many conversations about health care in Karatu and also about his own career path that started in a remote village and hopefully will culminate in him becoming a physician.

We have run into problems with government officials. Apparently immigration is cracking down in Tanzania much like it is in the U.S. So our first meeting with the head physician of the hospital was very discouraging. We were not sure if we were going to be able to work in the hospital at all, as the officials were being harsh and holding up volunteers. The good thing is that as long as we didn’t give up, neither did our Tanzanian (and Peace Corps) hosts. So after many events and conversations, we are now set up to start in the hospital beginning tommorrow.

It is a very good thing that Alexis and I came ahead of everyone because we also have had to look for extra housing last minute. The cool thing is that our Peace Corps friend has graciously offered his home to all of us for this week and the hospital introduced us to a wonderful woman who will be able to provide affordable housing and meals.

I am excited to begin at the hospital. There is an American nurse visiting as well as an American engineer, an Austrian medical student, a German medical student, and an American Doctor will come next week. So we will all be working alongside each other at this 100 bed hospital. Our patients look to be a large number of maternity (a cesarian section every day, we hear) and a large number from the Masai villages. We hear that malaria is the number one illness and HIV/TB are also problems.

Thanks to our Peace Corps friend we are also going to be able to visit local health offices with some of the students from the health club at the local high school.

Alexis is taking lots of great pics and videos, so we will have lots more to show you when we return.

Salama

rach