We headed back on the road today to Msimbu Regional Dispensary. It was about a two-hour drive with Babu at the wheel. The roads are getting much better now since it hasn’t rained in several days. I really enjoy our day trips out to the smaller regional hospitals because we get to see a lot of the surrounding countryside, which is amazingly beautiful and lush, and most of the medical equipment have easy fixes! I didn't realize it until we started traveling outside of Kisarawe village, but we are nestled near the base of a mountainous region near the Pugu Hills. This leads to some pretty spectacular scenic views of the largely uninhabited peaks and valleys as we make our way up and down the mountains. At the hospital, we were able recalibrate several weigh scales, fix two electronic blood pressure cuffs, a Hemocue machine (the other one would have worked too but needed lithium batteries we didn’t have), and did a system check on an Alere Pima CD4 analyzer. Msimbu, while one of the smaller hospitals, was really neat because it is completely solar powered!
When we came back, we had dinner, consisting of…
You guessed it, rice and beans and fish! We were all starving, having missed lunch again because of our day trip, and it was exactly what we needed to recharge for our adventure around town for a coconut (to be explained tomorrow).
And the best thing ever was our sweet waitress, Rachael (who has really good English…pretty rare here in the village), was so excited to meet foreigners! We immediately became her best friends and when I suggested that we get a picture, she was over the moon. It’s pretty funny to me that Africans love all foreigners, but especially Chinese people. They get confused when I tell them I’m from the U.S., so I just tell them I’m Chinese and they just accept that I just happen to have perfect English!
Another power outage tonight, we must have just gotten lucky the first week we were in Kisarawe, so I have to post this before my computer dies!
Stay tuned to find out what’s left on my Kisarawe bucket list tomorrow!
Cheers from TZ,
~Irene
