A hell of a lot has been noteworthy over the past few days, so bear
with me. Let’s start with Thursday.
We said our goodbyes and left TCDC on Thursday morning. The non-Duke
kids departed to Arusha and the surrounding areas, while all twelve of
us piled onto a TCDC bus en route to Moshi. We first stopped at
Machame, then to Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC), and
finally to Kibosho before stopping for a quick lunch in Moshi. We went
to a bakery called Abbasali Hot Breads, presumably owned by an Indian
or Pakistani specializing in fresh bread, pastries, and the like.
After wolfing down a few samosas, we set back on the road, stopping in
Marangu, and finally reaching Rombo around 4:00pm.
The bus dropped us off right in front of our house, where we were
greeted by Marcella, a nurse who doubles as a housekeeper for the
volunteers who come to work at Huruma. It was apparent almost
immediately that she spoke very little English – something that we
would find to be common in this region of Tanzania. Our house was
separated into two buildings – one with four bedrooms and a central
living room, and another with the kitchen, laundry room, shower, and
restroom. After a quick glance around the place, Spencer and I each
quickly unpacked into our own rooms and headed out with Marcella, as
she had offered to help us with groceries and settling in at first.
We headed out to the sokoni, where we were surprised at the selection
of vegetables and fruits available in such a small town. We bought
some ndizi (bananas), machungwa (oranges), nyanya (tomatoes), vitunguu
(onions), karoti (carrots), pilipili hoho (green peppers), parachichi
(avocadoes), and maharage (beans). Both of us returned anxious and
excited to cook our first meal in our new home.
Unfortunately, that euphoria lasted all of ten minutes. We came home
and turned on the lights, only to discover that we did not have power.
We headed to the kitchen and found that our entire set of appliances –
stove, oven, and refrigerator, all required electricity – meaning that
we would not be able to cook anything until the power returned.
We called Marcella and attempted to explain our predicament in broken
Swahili. She replied with a ‘yes, maybe I’m coming’ – the phrase which
we would quickly learn to mean that she had no idea what we were
trying to say. She came to visit us again, and after a series of
questions we learned that rolling blackouts had been commonplace in
Rombo for a few months now. We would have power during the day
(6am-6pm) on Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and would have power
during the night (6pm-6am) on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
nights. Despite this schedule, we did not have power on this Thursday
night, indicating that the blackouts did not necessarily have to
follow the timetable that Marcella had provided for us. This
significantly dimmed our hopes of cooking that night and cooking in
general.
Since it was already dark, and asked if there were any restaurants
nearby. She led us to the Lutheran Hostel Restaurant, (which at the
time seemed like an eternity’s walk away but in reality is only ten
minutes from our home), which boasted a pretty expansive African and
Western menu.
As is custom in most African restaurants, only a few dishes on the
menu are regularly available – the other items may be available on a
day to day basis. After realizing that the vast majority of the dishes
on the menu were unavailable for that evening, I settled on some
curried chicken and rice. After nearly a two hour wait – as is also
custom in most African restaurants – we finally received our food. It
was pretty good, but not as great as the food I had grown accustomed
to at Mama Elda’s at TCDC. Slightly disappointed with the overall
progress of the day, we quietly walked back home with Marcella.
As I gazed up at the awesome African night sky, I couldn’t help but
feel as if I was alone. This small town, essentially goes dark and
silent after the sun sets, was to be my home for the next month. One
of the things I had looked forward to the most about this month –
being able to cook my own food at my own leisure – did not seem
possible. I was disappointed, frustrated, and despondent that the next
month of my life was going to be very, very difficult.
Waking up at 7:00am is difficult as it is, but waking up in a tangled
mess of mosquito net and attempting to turn on the lights in my room,
only to find that we were still without power made it all that more
difficult to get out of bed. I walked over to the shower room and
turned on the water heater, then proceeded to brush my teeth and get
ready to take a shower.
The seconds that followed my turning on the shower were probably the
most surprising and unpleasant of my life. Rombo is at a relatively
high altitude, and it’s definitely chilly in the morning. Shivering, I
turned on the water, expecting a warm and pleasant shower. Instead, I
was met with a jet of water that could have been colder than ice. It
was then that I realized that we did not have a hot water heater – we
had an electrically-powered heating shower head. Unfortunately, seeing
as there was no power, this shower head did not succeed in heating the
water in any way. So, I proceeded to take the coldest shower of my
life, vowing to never use that shower head again. That night, I heated
water in a pot and used that water to take a bucket shower with hot
water. It wasn’t a shower like back home, but at least I’d be able to
take a hot bath when the power was on.
Marcella picked us up from the house at 7:45 and walked with us to the
hospital, which was only a two minute walk across the street. She led
us to a relatively large room, where the hospital staff had gathered
for the morning prayer. We stood in the back of the room, sticking out
like two sore thumbs as the entire room began to sing a
beautiful-sounding hymn. After the song, one of the nuns took to the
front of the room and made a few announcements in Swahili. Then, to
our surprise, she broke into English, stating that there were two new
guests at the hospital, and asked that we introduce ourselves. We
slowly made our way to the front of the room, where everyone was
watching us with bated breath. We introduced ourselves in belabored
Swahili, explaining that we were volunteer engineers who would be
working with medical equipment at the hospital for the next month. The
head nun noticed that we were speaking quite slowly and deliberately,
so she politely informed us that we were allowed to speak in English.
Spencer and I both sighed with relief – and the entire room broke out
into laughter. Yeah, I felt a little like a fool for trying to impress
them with my Swahili; but in the end I thought it was worth it.
Immediately after prayer, we were whisked away by the head nun (whose
name we learned was Dr. Rena) to a smaller meeting room, where we were
introduced to all of the physicians at the hospital. We again
explained who we were and what we would be working with for the next
month. After introductions, Dr. Rena led off the morning meeting for
the doctors, where they discussed prominent cases from the previous
day and night. This, unfortunately, was all in Swahili, so it went
over our head – but it was still pretty cool to be included in the
meeting itself.
When the meeting was over, Dr. Rena led us to the minor operating
theater, where she said that an operating table was not working
correctly. She let us into the room, where a doctor and a nurse were
attending to a man who was bleeding profusely from his hand. It
appeared that he had sustained a serious thumb injury, and his wound
needed a significant amount of dressing. What struck me at first was
the fact that he was standing up – and then I realized that there was
nowhere for him to sit, because the table in the center of the room
had been raised to a height that made it impossible for anyone to sit
on it. Thus, our fixing the table would make it amenable for this man
to rest more comfortably as his bleeding hand was attended to.
Obviously, this added an element of pressure to what was already our
first attempt at fixing a piece of equipment.
Operating tables are usually adjustable for height. They can be raised
or lowered, in a mechanism similar to an office chair. One pedal
allows the table to go up, while another allows the table to go down.
In this case, the down pedal was missing two screws, which kept it
from sitting firmly on the assembly and prevented anyone from properly
pressing the pedal down. This was easy enough to fix – we luckily
found two screws of similar size in the room itself (probably the
original screws that simply fell out) and placed them back in the
proper positions. We lowered the table to its lowest setting, and the
bleeding man finally got to sit down as the doctor and nurse finished
dressing his wound.
Obviously, the rest of the day was less intense. Dr. Rena introduced
us to a nursing student named Joshua, who gave us a grand tour of the
entire hospital, which took almost three hours. We went home for a
brief lunch break before returning to the major operating theater,
where we had promised to pick up some broken equipment during our tour
of the hospital. With two blood pressure cuffs, an automatic blood
pressure monitor, and a pulse oximeter in hand, we headed back to the
house to work on the equipment with the rest of our tools. It turned
out that both the pulse oximeter and automatic BP machine only needed
batteries, and that the two cuffs were minor leaks – all very easy
fixes. We went back to the hospital, returned the equipment to the
operating theater, and headed back home for the day. It was quite the
productive first day.
That night, we miraculously had electricity, so we proceeded with our
plan to cook our first meal at home. With the ingredients we had, we
made vegetarian chili and guacamole. Unfortunately, the power went out
intermittently during our cooking process, so both the beans and
carrots were undercooked by the time we ate them. It wasn’t the
greatest meal, but it sufficed.
On Saturday, we decided to head to Moshi and explore the city. It took
around one and a half hours to reach by Noah, a minivan packed tightly
with ten passengers in addition to the driver. We met up with a few
friends for lunch at a place called Indoitaliano – which served, as
you might think, both Indian and Italian food. It was pricey, but
pretty delicious. We hung out and talked at the restaurant for a while
before heading to the market area, where we met up with a few more
EWH-ers. We all decided to spend the night with our friends staying in
Kibosho, a small town just north of Moshi at the foot of Mount
Kilimanjaro. We were all craving some home cooked food – so we decided
to buy some ground beef from a butcher shop at the market, cheese and
bread from the hot breads shop, and a few vegetables to make some old
fashioned, American-style cheeseburgers. Although it took some time to
do all the prep work, the resulting burgers made everything
worthwhile.
We spent the night at Kibosho, and made our way back to Moshi then
Rombo this afternoon. The past few days definitey raised my spirits
from where they were on Thursday, but I’m still a little apprehensive
about our living and eating situations while in Rombo for the next
month. Weekends will surely be a good time, but staying active and
having fresh food everyday is still something that worries me. Here’s
to hoping this first full week in Rombo goes well.

Until next time, kwaheri!

Cheers,
Amogh

It’s been exactly four weeks since I arrived here at TCDC, in
Tanzania, and found myself writing a post about my initial thoughts
and reactions about this country, this program, and the journey that
was about to begin.
Tomorrow will mark the both the end of that first journey, and the
beginning of a second one. These four weeks in Usa River at TCDC have
been incredible – the people, the experiences, the language, and my
classmates have made this month pretty remarkable. I have learned a
great deal in the past four weeks, but in some ways, I feel as there
is still very, very much to learn.
I’m really excited to have the chance to move out on my own, immerse
myself in this culture, and truly challenge myself at the hospital and
beyond. I’m not really sure what that experience will be, nor can I
really say that I’m prepared for it – but the fact that the
opportunity to work in Rombo, become close with the hospital staff,
and have a positive impact on Huruma Hospital will present itself
tomorrow has me really looking forward to my final four weeks in
Tanzania.
I will miss my host family – Mama Elda, Baba Prosper, and all of the
children – dearly. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a return trip to
Arusha within the next month to visit them once more.
My initial thoughts and reactions from Rombo and Huruma will follow in
the next few days. Until then, kwaheri!

Cheers,
Amogh

Weeks are going by pretty quickly here at TCDC. Classes have been more
of the same, with Swahili getting a little more challenging and Larry
getting more entertaining by the day. We’ve covered a myriad of
devices up until this point – I’m sort of nervous about applying my
knowledge when we’re presented with actual devices, but I guess that
confidence will just come with time.
The rest of the group heard about our cooking exploits of the previous
week, and by popular demand, we set up a group-wide dinner event for
Thursday night. The menu was pretty similar to our last cooking
adventure – chili, guacamole, and Mexican rice. A few other kids
volunteered to make chapatis as well, so we had quite an evening of
food to look forward to.
Kisanji was a great help in getting all of our groceries together. He
even had someone go to Arusha and bring back a block of cheese! As
some of you may know, I absolutely adore cheese, so I was more than
excited at the prospect of having some for the first time in a few
weeks.
All of our Swahili teachers were invited, as were the host families of
those who lived at TCDC (including mine). Lora and Larry also joined
in – it was great to have everyone together for one big gathering
before we all head off to our respective hospitals next week. The food
was obviously delicious – the cheese and guacamole finished faster
than I could have imagined. Al in all, it was a night of great food
and great company.
On Friday, we went on our third and final hospital visit as a group –
this time to Salien Catholic Hospital, just outside of Arusha town.
This was our first experience with a private institution, and there
were quite a few differences compared to our previous times at Mt.
Meru. First of all, there was a fundi – a technician whose job it was
to take care of any medical equipment that needed repair at the
hospital. This reduced the number of pieces available for repair by a
lot – but those that had not yet been repaired seemed to have more
complicated problems. Spencer and I found ourselves a suction machine,
which coincidentally, had been worked on by two of my friends from
back at Duke – Ankit and Nabil – last year during their time in
Tanzania with EWH. Unfortunately, their repair job had lasted but a
year, as the machine no longer provided suction.
We opened it up, connected it to power, and tried to test whether the
motor was working. Unfortunately for us, electricity at the hospital
was erratic at best, making it rather difficult to figure out what was
wrong with the machine. Eventually, after fighting with the power for
about two hours, the motor gave in and began to smoke. This seemed
like a sign that the machine was simply beyond repair – so we moved
on. All in all, it wasn’t as productive of a visit as our visits to
Mt. Meru had been. This is slightly discouraging, since we’ll be
posted at Huruma Hospital in Rombo, Tanzania, which is also a private
Catholic hospital.
Anyhow, a few of us are headed out to Arusha tonight to check out the
nightlife! Chances are that I probably won’t end up writing about it
(sorry Mom), but I’m sure it’ll be a blast!
Until next time, kwaheri!
Cheers,
Amogh

Editor’s Note: I know I’m more than two weeks behind on entries, but
internet has been scarce and it’s been busy over here! I’ll do my best
to get all of my updates up as soon as possible!

The African night sky is a thing of beauty - jet black and speckled
with an unbelievable number of stars. The moon shines so beautifully
bright that you can see your own shadow. With no light pollution
whatsoever, you can even see the faint glow of the clouds of the Milky
Way.
Lora and Larry generously gave us the day off today, so we made a trip
to eastern coast of Tanzania, to a region called Pangani to for the
three-day weekend. We went as a group of fourteen, and booked rooms at
a place called Peponi Beach Resort. We left TCDC on Saturday at 6:00am
on a public bus, on what was supposed to be a five-hour journey to the
coastal city of Tanga. Unfortunately, our bus made stops in each local
village along the way, extending our journey by almost four hours.
Eight and a half hours in a crammed coach bus was definitely not fun,
so by the time we reached Tanga, we were ready to get to our resort
and the beach. The owner of the hotel had said that the resort was
only 31km away from Tanga, so we thought it would be a relatively
quick dala dala journey before we’d be able to relax on the beach and
wade in the waters of the Indian Ocean. Obviously, we were mistaken,
as it took an hour and a half for our dala dala to traverse through a
dirt road studded with rocks and reach the resort.
Despite our general traveling misfortunes, we were stunned once we
reached the resort. It was located right on the beach, with a dining
area, bar, pool, and volleyball court right next to the shacks meant
for guests to stay in.
The beach was absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful blue water and what
seemed like an endless coast. It was great to change pace and be able
to relax and enjoy an incredibly beautiful and serene seascape.
On Sunday, we all decided to take the boat trip offered by the resort.
With snorkeling gear and delicious packed lunches in tow, we headed
out just before noon on Pepi, an awesome mid-sized boat with just one
glorious, triangular sail. After about twenty minutes on the water, we
came across a tiny sandbank that had escaped the ebb and flow of the
oceanic tide – a beautiful, white patch of sand literally in the
middle of the ocean. One by one, we found that we could swim in the
water, which during low tide was extremely shallow. The water was
incredibly clear and warm – nothing like the murky waters of the New
Jersey shore to which I had always been accustomed.
On Monday, we headed back home on a bus journey that would again take
us all day. We left at around 1:00pm from Tanga, and I arrived back at
TCDC just before 10:00pm. After wolfing down dinner, catching up with
my host family, and writing a few things down, I headed to bed looking
forward to another week here in Tanzania.

Time is literally flying. Just a few days ago I was struggling to adjust to a new country, a new language, and a myriad of new people. Now I can definitely say that I feel right at home.

I’ve gotten much, much better at Swahili. With a reasonable arsenal of vocabulary and a pretty good understanding of the grammar rules, I’m proud to say that I can hold my own with native speakers. Our lessons this week focused on vocabulary associated with the market– fruits, vegetables, and clothing, in addition to common phrases heard in and around the sokoni.

We got to test out our bargaining skills on Wednesday, as our entire group went to the nearby Tengeru market to do some shopping. We each set out to find something interesting and bring it back to class without doing too much damage to our wallets.

The market itself was an incredible sight – hundreds of vendors and even more sellers, selling everything from parachichi (avocado) to maharage (beans) and heaps and heaps of secondhand clothes and shoes. I dabbled in the clothing market for a while – my roommate, James, found a vintage Colorado Rockies sweatshirt from the 1994-1995 season. I didn’t really find anything that stood out to me, so I made my way to the fruit and vegetable market. It was definitely cool to try out our bargaining skills in real life – especially since we were, for the most part, successful. I ended up buying a few avocados – but others ended up with sugarcane roots, cassavas, and watermelons. All in all, our group ended up with a good haul.

On Thursday, James and I offered to cook dinner for Mama Elda and the family. The locally available ingredients are especially amenable to Mexican food. We decided on a menu of chili con carne, rice, and guacamole – mainly because we had almost all of the necessary ingredients at home already. Our chili was pretty hearty – we started off with onions and tomatoes, and added in some garlic, green peppers, carrots, and beans in addition to some ground beef. I threw in a little taco seasoning I brought with me here (thanks Mom!) and it turned out to be quite excellent. Our guacamole was also really, really good – the avocados here are simply out of this world.  Our family definitely enjoyed the food – our host father took three servings – the most we’ve ever seen him eat!

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On Friday, we went on our second hospital visit to Mt. Meru. Since we had already visited the hospital once before, we got right to work on equipment that had still needed to be fixed from last week. Spencer and I started on a suction pump, which we eventually found to be beyond repair due to corrosion of a plastic seal surrounding the piston that generated the suction. We took the pump apart and helped another group fix their pump, which had some parts missing.

Soon after, a nurse asked the two of us to follow her. With no project to work on, we happily obliged. She led us to the operating theater, where man of Korean origin, named Dr. Lee, greeted us. He had an electrosurgery unit that needed repair, and asked if we’d be willing to fix it. Since we wouldn’t be able to work in the sterilized surgery compound, he brought us the ESU, a voltage regulator, and an attached power strip used to power the unit. With our hands full, we headed back to our working area.

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Electrosurgery units are typically used to make incisions through cutaneous layers with minimal blood loss. Alternating current is used to directly heat the tissue itself, through an electrode. The first thing we considered when troubleshooting the unit was its initial power supply, which came via the voltage regulator. Fortunately, we found that the regulator was working correctly, providing the standard 220V alternating current. Next, we took apart the power strip that the regulator was wired to, in order to make sure that the unit was receiving the same 220V AC. Unfortunately, one of the switches on the strip had been broken, thereby delivering no voltage to any of the outlets supplying the unit. We bridged this switch with a strip of wire to allow current to conduct in the correct pathway, and we were able to draw voltage at each of the terminals of the power strip.

We then connected the unit to the live power strip to test out whether we had solved our problems. Unfortunately, we then found that the power switch on the unit itself had also been broken. We weren’t able to find any spare switches that fit the circular opening on the face of the unit, so we headed into Arusha town to find a switch that would be able to fit.

We were lucky to find an electronics store nearby, that too with an Indian owner. I was excited at the opportunity to practice my Swahili bargaining skills, but he was more willing to speak with us in English. We found a toggle switch for 2500 Tsh (about $1.60) and headed back to Mt. Meru, where we inserted our new purchase and tested out the machine. We found a fresh banana peel and found that it cut the tissue with ease! All in all, it was an awesome hospital visit that saw us fix something important once again.

We’re off to the coastal city of Tanga this weekend, so I won’t be able to post until I get back. Hopefully it’s a blast!

Until next time, kwaheri!

Cheers,

Amogh

Safari. In Swahili, this well-known word literally means ‘journey’ – and our journey in Ngorongoro Crater today was certainly an incredible one.

Ngorongoro Crater is the largest intact caldera in the world. Formed nearly three million years ago after the collapse of a colossal volcano after eruption, the crater measures 100 square miles in surface area and is approximately 2,000 feet deep. The original volcano is estimated to have been anywhere between 15,000-19,000 feet tall – comparable in size to the tallest mountain in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro.

The crater is a breathtakingly beautiful home to an amazing population of animals, including rhinos, hippos, elephants, gazelles, wildebeest, zebras, ostriches, buffalo, and lions – all of which we were able to see. We cruised around the various areas of the crater, each of which has its own unique vegetation and animal population. The lions laid low for the most part, quietly observing the grazing zebra, gazelles, and wildebeests. We were even lucky enough to spot a lone cheetah, eyeing its wildebeest prey from afar.

Our surroundings were eerily quiet, save for the gentle brustle of tall grasses in the wind. It was fascinating to see nature at its finest – competition and predation naturally at work, each working to form a perfect balance.

Words really fail to describe this experience. It was exhilarating, soothing, and awe-inspiring all at once. Our one day in this incredible treasure of nature was one I will never forget.

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Our first full week here flew by pretty quickly. Between classes, lab, and planning trips for the weekend, I didn’t get that much time to write about everything, but I’ll do the best I can.

Classes during the week settled into a regular schedule. In Swahili, we moved into using verbs in the present tense, allowing us to construct full sentences and really start conversing with our host families in Swahili. Getting to speak the language at home with Mama Elda and the children has proven to be really beneficial – it’s a way for me to practice the basics that I’ve learned, while also learning quite a bit from them. Learning a language for the first time since high school has been surprisingly fun, so Swahili classes in the mornings tend to move along pretty quickly.

Engineering lectures with Larry up until this point have been pretty basic – we’ve talked about the most common problems that we’ll experience – power supply problems and user error – while also talking about troubleshooting a number of different devices. This week, we covered ventilators, oxygen concentrators, fluid pumps, ECG’s, and blood pressure monitors. I’ve had prior experience working with each of those devices, so the lectures basically went through a lot of material I was already familiar with.

After lecture, we proceed into our labs, which ended up being pretty cool and useful this week. Our first lab was to build a handy battery-powered LED flashlight, something that will definitely be useful in the future. Using an LED, one battery, a little bit of perforated board, and solder, we were able to create a pretty solid flashlight that allowed us to get acquainted with some of the tools and equipment that we’ll be using for the next two months.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we worked on building power supplies, which involved understanding the concept of converting alternating current to direct current. On Tuesday, we built a simple half-wave rectification circuit with a diode and resistor, then extended the circuit to include a diode bridge for full-wave rectification of the AC voltage signal. This circuit did a decent job of converting AC to DC, but the resulting DC voltage had a small amount of ripple, indicating that the output was not always going to be consistent.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we extended our diode bridge circuits to include an array of capacitors and a potentiometer.  This decreased the amount of AC in the output voltage, while also allowing us to adjust the output voltage to the piece of equipment that our circuit would power.

All in all, labs this week gave me was a really, really good review of basic electronics and two really useful devices for the next few weeks.

The week culminated in our very first visit to a hospital – Mt. Meru Hospital in Arusha – on Friday. Without really knowing what to expect, we arrived at the hospital and found a heap of equipment outside a small building, which housed even more equipment. Larry quickly assigned each of us tasks – from a big box of old blood pressure cuffs to broken light fixtures used in the operating room.

My partner, Spencer, and I were assigned to work on an oxygen concentrator, which was supposedly out of service since June 2010. This was pretty daunting in itself, since our concentrator was bigger and looked more complicated than anything anyone else was working on.

We turned the machine on, and were greeted by a loud, buzzing noise. After turning the machine back off, we removed the casing and found a nine-volt battery that powered an internal alarm system, designed to indicate when the oxygen concentration was lower than the desired level of approximately 98%. Of course, with the machine not working properly, this alarm proceeded to sound quite loudly until we figured out that the battery was the power source for the alarm.

After this realization, we proceeded to check the wiring associated with the motor that powered the device.  After checking through each connection, we plugged the power back in, turned the machine on, and the motor started to work once more! My best guess at the problem was simply a loose connection between the power and the circuitry that provided the energy to start the motor.

However, the lack of power to the motor wasn’t the only thing wrong with our concentrator. The canister of water used to bubble the purified oxygen gas before use had been detached from the tube that supplied the gas, thereby rendering the machine useless. The original design kept this water canister hanging off of the device, leaving it prone to being broken. Using a conglomeration of spare tubing and connectors found around the hospital equipment closet, we were able to create an airtight seal that would allow the oxygen to pass into the canister of water. We then housed the canister firmly against the body of the machine to prevent it from breaking again.

To test whether we had really fixed our concentration, we lit a match and exposed it to the pipe that theoretically contained purified oxygen. When the flame was exposed to the gas, it burned beautifully bright, confirming that the gas coming out of our machine was indeed pure oxygen.

Fixing our concentrator took almost the entire day, and though we worked on other equipment – a heater, a lamp, and a wheelchair – it really was the project that stood out to me the most. I had no idea that I was capable of fixing a piece of equipment so essential and valuable, and proving that it finally worked was pretty rewarding. What made the experience even better was that the nurses asked us to help them carry it to the ward and place it in an empty patient room, presumably for use in the near future.

Overall, our trip to Mt. Meru was probably the best experience I’ve had here thus far –which is promising, since we have three more visits in addition to an entire second month of hospital work. The hands on experience of approaching and troubleshooting a problem was really, really awesome.

This turned into quite a long entry so I’ll hold off for now. This weekend should be pretty amazing – I’m off to Ngorongoro Crater tomorrow for my first ever safari – I can’t wait!

Until next time, kwaheri!

Cheers,

Amogh

In our very first weekend in Tanzania, we had the opportunity to pursue, as Albus Dumbledore would say, that flighty temptress, adventure.

Saturday began bright and early. As a group, we met in TCDC and hopped aboard a bus bound for the nearby farming village of Tengeru. We were greeted by Noel and Joshua, who would be our tour guides for the rest of the day. They introduced themselves and talked about the growing cultural tourism industry –which not only provides tourists with a glimpse of the natural beauty of Tanzania, but also gives them a perspective of how the people native to this land have lived for hundreds of years – and continue to live.

We began with a tour of the village’s own biodiesel plant, which began with a quartet of lovely cows. Their urine and manure is collected, mixed, and naturally fermented by bacteria, making it possible to extract methane gas, which is used in the kitchen. The remaining waste products are then used as fertilizers for the coffee and fruit farms, tours of which would soon follow.

We proceeded to tour the farmlands, which were stunningly beautiful. Banana and papaya trees were literally everywhere, providing ample shade for the shorter coffee plants to flourish. Noel explained that if a family owned farm property, the coffee traditionally belonged to the father, while the fruits like banana and papaya were traditionally owned by the mother.

After touring the farms, we headed to a beautiful courtyard, where we got a demonstration of how freshly picked coffee beans are processed to produce the cup of coffee we all know and love. We started with beans which had been dried for some time. After making us foolishly try and peel the beans by hand, Noel put the beans into a large wooden mortar, and proceeded to mash the beans with a wooden pestle. After the beans were shelled, Noel separated the shells from the beans by simply blowing on them – the lighter shells blew away in the wind, leaving the raw coffee beans ready to be roasted.

Each of us took turns roasting the beans to a dark brown, and each of us again took turns grinding the roasted beans with the wooden mortar and pestle again. Noel then added hot water to our freshly ground coffee…and voila! What resulted was a very, very good cup of coffee.

After coffee and lunch, we took a bus to nearby Lake Duluti, which was once a volcano that collapsed on itself after a series of eruptions.  One of many crater lakes in this region, Lake Duluti is small, but has a maximum depth of 800 meters. As Noel and Joshua explained, Lake Duluti has always been a place of religious practice, mainly because of its incredible beauty and serenity. Located at the foot of Mt. Meru, the crater lake is surrounded by a dense forest and a series of caves, which are now used as places for prayer.

As a group,we hiked around the lake in the forest, which was, at times, terrifying. Often times we found ourselves walking on ledges, but the adrenaline rush was definitely worth it. Plus, the views of the lake and Mt. Meru were breathtakingly beautiful.

On Sunday, James and I finally got a chance to sleep in (or, as the British say, “have a lie in”). At around 11am, a group of us got together to venture into Arusha town, one of the biggest towns in northern Tanzania. The journey to town was an adventure in itself.

The major mode of public transportation here in Tanzania is the ‘dala-dala’, which can be loosely described as a bus. A more apt description, however, would be a large SUV with five, narrow rows of seats and very, very little standing room. This tiny ‘buses’ can cram about 28 people inside – and they do it with regularity. One man, acting as a ‘conductor’, has half of his body outside of the window, calling and looking for people to pick up. The upside to this fascinating mode of transportation is its frequency of stops and incredibly cheap cost. The one way journey to Arusha from TCDC, which took about half an hour, cost exactly 500 schillings, which roughly converts to $0.30.

The city itself was surprisingly busy, especially for a Sunday afternoon. The people were really very nice – quite a few people took the time to greet us and ask us what we were up to in Tanzania. They were keen to offer directions, and we didn’t have that much trouble roaming around the city. We stumbled upon a pizzeria and coffee bar, and being the Americans that we are, decided to try Tanzanian pizza and take advantage of some Western style restrooms. The pizzas were pricey, but they were quite good. After lunch, we walked around a bit more, and then made our way back to the dala-dala stop and headed home.

All in all, it was a busy but awesome weekend. The power has been going out at midnight almost every night, so I’d better get this up as soon as I can. We’ve got a full day of classes and labs tomorrow, so I’ve got to get some rest.

Until next time, kwaheri!

Cheers,
Amogh

Well, Day Two was a lot more routine than Day One, but it also went by much, much faster. We began the day, as will become custom, with Swahili class. Instead of being confronted with the grammatical onslaught that was the first day of class, however, we discussed vocabulary words we had picked up from our homestays and talked about what we liked and disliked about our stays thus far.

I’ve got to say that I was extremely lucky to be assigned a homestay in TCDC – from the looks of it, my living conditions are much, much better than the others living in various locations in the Usa River area. Many of the others’ chief complaints were the lack of toilets and showers – something that most people from the West aren’t used to. Kisanji seized this opportunity to give us all a demonstration on how to properly use the bathroom when confronted with a latrine pit instead of a toilet. Needless to say, this was quite interesting. I’ll leave it at that.

The rest of the day was spent with Lora and Larry, as we went through EWH orientation and the first elements of our technical training. We did an icebreakers – two truths and a lie – and got to know one another pretty well. Apparently the vast majority of the people in our group are avid skydivers…which is bizarre to me, seeing as I’ve never met anyone who had been skydiving before.

I’ll keep this short, since today was relatively uneventful. We’re headed out of TCDC for the first time tomorrow, to an unknown destination! We’ve got to meet everyone bright and early at 8:30am, so I think I’m going to head to bed.

Until next time, kwaheri!

Cheers,

Amogh

After a long, long series of flights and connections, I finally arrived in
Tanzania yesterday evening at about 8:00pm local time. After going through
customs and collecting our bags, we met up with Lora, our on-the-ground
coordinator, and hopped aboard a bus, with all of our bags piled on a pickup
truck that followed us from behind.

After a half hour journey on an essentially deserted road, we arrived at
MS-TCDC (Training Centre for Development Co-operation), which is
approximately 20 kilometers east of Arusha. After we unloaded our bags, we
proceeded to meet our host families. In my case, I was greeted by my host
mother, Mama Elda, who is a Swahili language instructor at TCDC, and my
homestay partner, James, who is a fourth year student at Bristol in London.

Luckily, my host family stays on the training center campus, so our home was
only a short walk away. Mama Elda showed James and I our room and headed off
to bed. I unpacked for a while, but went to sleep rather early knowing that
my first full day here in Tanzania would be quite an adventure.

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 (yes, Mom, I woke up before 11am) and got
ready for the rest of the day. I was pleasantly surprised to find a shower
in the restroom – something that was not at all common for my fellow
classmates in their respective homestays. After a breakfast of hard boiled
eggs, toast, and samosas (yeah, samosas!), James and I headed over to the
classroom. Our class session was supposed to begin at 8:30, but by the time
everyone found their way back to TCDC from their homestays, it was 9:00.

We met our Swahili teachers – Mama Lyimo, Madam Rita, and my personal
favorite, Kisanji , who is the most happy-go-lucky man you’ve ever met. We
began with an overview of our Swahili instruction for the next four weeks
(which looks to be pretty intense) and an introduction to basic structures
in Swahili. The language itself is pretty simple – there are no gender
issues with nouns, quite a few words from English literally carry over, and
all pronunciation is phonetic. What I found most fascinating, however, were
the striking similarities in vocabulary between Swahili and my own native
tongue, Marathi. A number of nouns like gari (car), ananas (pineapple),
and embe (mango, which is absolutely delicious here), sound very similar
to their Marathi counterparts. In addition, pronouns describing family
members, like Mama, Baba, Kaka, and Dada , are also similar to their
analogs in Marathi. However, in Swahili, Kaka means ‘brother’ (instead of
‘uncle’ in Marathi) and Dada means ‘sister’ (instead of ‘brother’ in
Marathi).

Kisanji taught us a few songs that made use of the vowels and
consonants used in Swahili, which we all had to sing a number of times
before breaking for lunch. I was looking forward to lunch, not only because
I customarily enjoy eating meals, but because it would be the first meal I
would be able to eat with the majority of my host family. When we got home,
we were treated to a meal of rice, pinto beans, spinach, and ugali – a
traditional East African porridge made from maize flour. It was very, very
different from what I have been used to, but it was definitely tasty. Mama
Elda asked me what types of food that I liked, and was happy to hear that I
loved Indian food and spicy food in general. We ate with Mama Elda and two
of her three children – a son named Fortune and a daughter named Faith, who
are still a little confused by our presence in their home. Having never
grown up with siblings, it was interesting to feel like somewhat of an older
brother.

After lunch, James and I headed back to class, where we continued with
Swahili lessons with Kisanji. We learned a series of basic greetings, with
my favorite being mambo, which is slang for ‘what’s up?’ After practicing
these greetings in various dialogues, our group headed outside, where
Kisanji gave us a grand tour of TCDC. It’s a beautiful place – very clean
and very green – complete with a number of classrooms, a cafeteria, a
library, and a bar, which I’ll be visiting in a few minutes.

After the tour, we went to afternoon tea, where I got to know a few of the
others in the group a little better. A group of us then went to the gym on
campus, which was much nicer than I had expected. Shortly after, James and I
made our way back home, where we had dinner with Mama Elda and the rest of
the children. Unfortunately, Mama Elda’s husband was late coming back from
work, so I haven’t had the opportunity to meet with him yet. Hopefully I’ll
get to soon.

Our dinner consisted of rice, lentils, spinach, fried chicken, and to my
delight, chapatis, which are apparently very popular here in Tanzania.
They are made exactly the same way as we do in India, and are just as
delicious. All in all, it was a very good meal.

Anyhow, I think it’s time to head out and explore the campus. Today has been
absolutely incredible…I can’t wait for what’s in store tomorrow and the next
eight weeks!

Until next time, kwaheri! 

Cheers,

Amogh