Today was my last day in Kisarawe! Two weeks flew by, and I have mixed feelings over returning home so soon. We were able to accomplish so much in the past couple of weeks, fixing much needed medical equipment and providing technical support for Kisarawe District Hospital, and the Msimbu and Masaki Dispensaries. I think Katie, Nathan, and I all came in with pretty low expectations in terms of how we were able to help, but in the end, we were able to fix the majority of what the hospital needed us to fix, including; a portable autoclave, two oxygen concentrators, a portable sonogram, lab microscope, Hemocue and CD4 analyzers, a mortuary freezer, a ton of blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes, and weigh scales. We did this first to provide immediate help to the hospitals (as far as I know, the last time someone had looked at some of this equipment was from the last group of Clemson students last summer), but also to show the urgent need of engineering support at hospitals in more rural areas, which is a collaboration Clemson is currently working on in conjunction with Arusha Technical College. A lot of the equipment had been donated to the hospital, but was useless without working knowledge of how to properly use and maintain it.
Tanzanians, as a collective whole may be the most joyous and kind people I have ever met. From day one, Wilson, Weston, Mama Fatuma, Babu, Kaka, and the rest of the office staff treated us like their kids, making sure we were comfortably settled and felt at home in the village. Claire and Stephanie (from MUSC) were so helpful in all their travel tips, restaurant advice, and helping to get us settled! The small knit community of Kisarawe welcomed us with open arms. Not a day passed when we didn’t get bombarded with many “Karibu!,” “Mambo!,” “Shikamoo!,” and “Good day!,” while walking around town. Our friends Joni and Victor showed us around the village, and Stella took good care of us in her guesthouse. The hospital staff allowed us free reign of the hospital and let us set up shop wherever we needed, thanked us profusely when we were able to fix something, and understood when we were not. We formed what we joked as our “posse” of kids, who always found us after school, wanting to play or just be around us. I’ll miss Christina's cooking (kitumbua, chapatti, and ginger tea was the best!), dancing and joking around with the office staff, watching many many games of checkers, and living on the side of a mountain in a small rural village surrounded by coconut and banana trees.
While I’m excited to return to the States this weekend, and for my next adventure for the next two and a half months of this summer in Tokyo, Japan working at the University of Tokyo with the Amgen Scholars Program, I am sad about leaving the beautiful country and people of Tanzania. I look forward to next year, to have the opportunity to use what I’ve learned the past two weeks in the MedTech Creative Inquiry, to further develop sustainable medical devices specifically for rural villages such as Kisarawe, Masaki, and Msimbu.
For those of you wanting to know about the rest of the MedTech trip, no fear! Katie and Nathan will be here for two more weeks, and have plans to visit the regional hospital, Haydom Hospital, and Arusha! Katie is helping me by planning to post every few days an update on their latest adventure. Thanks for following!
Cheers from the TZ airport,
~Irene
