Going to the state fair is one of my favorite annual things to do back home in SC. Mostly for the people watching and funnel cake, but the hastily thrown together roller coasters were my childhood favorite. Imagine you’re on the old wooden coaster with so many bumps you can’t stop chattering your teeth. Now add a ton of red clay mud and mini lakes and you have our ride to Masaki District Hospital! The hour long ride was one of the most stomach churning rides I’ve ever experienced, but with Babu (affectionately means grandpa in Kiswahili) at the wheel, we made it safe and sound. As I mentioned before, all the roads save for the main road coming into Kisarawe town are made of red clay, which causes havoc when it rains as it has been the last few days. We saw many buses and cars stuck in the mud… just waiting for the sun to dry up the road (see pictures below).But thanks to Babu and our trusty field car, we made it to Masaki!
Masaki Hospital is not too far from Kisarawe, and caters to smaller and much more rural communities out there. They just needed some help fixing up old equipment, and we were able to fix and calibrate a couple of sphygmometers and a ton of weigh and height scales. Sadly, the only thing we weren’t able to fix was their CD4 counter to help diagnose HIV/AIDs… Hopefully they can get a new one soon though!
By the time we got back around 5ish, none of us really had the stomach to sit down and eat a full meal, despite having skipped lunch, so we opted for some watermelon (tikitimaji), mango (embe), and avocado (parachichi) from one of the small vendors and enjoyed our fruit on the front stoop of our guesthouse overlooking the soccer practice in front of the school.
After talking with Dr. Dean, Claire, and Stephanie, we decided to try and do something fun this weekend! It’s already my last weekend here in Tanzania (I fly out next Thursday), so the current plan is to head to Zanzibar this weekend, which is famous for it’s white beaches, stone city, spices, and the Josani forest. I know it's pretty pathetic, but words can't explain how excited I am for a hot shower! (currently I have a spigot and a bucket and wash my hair by pouring water over my head into the squat toilet... tmi? #sorrynotsorry)
Cheers from TZ,
~Irene
