Habari za Safari?

Habari za safari? (How was the safari?)

Since my last post, I have been very busy continuing Swahili lessons and our engineering labs. We also had the 2nd hospital workday on Friday at Mt. Meru hospital in Arusha.  I worked on the suction machine from last week - we had gotten the suction working but there were no collection jars for the machine. This meant a trip into the city of Arusha to search for jars that could be vacuum sealed as well as other supplies for people working on other fixes. The major takeaways from the search for supplies:

1) It is very difficult to find supplies that you have in mind and especially difficult to find them in the same place.

2) Tanzanians are very helpful when searching for supplies and will direct you to other stores that may be more helpful.

3) Making bottles air tight can be very difficult. Jennie and I were able to vacuum seal tubing to the top of the bottles by retrofitting tire valves from an auto shop but the lid of the bottle was not air tight, which made the lid valves pretty useless. Next week, we will use peanut butter jars since they are sealed.

Air tight seal with tire valve and plastic cap

I also worked on a broken microscope with Ari.  There was a loose connection from to the light-bulb of the microscope that we stabilized with some extra wires and drops of solder on the light-bulb leads. The microscope works now, so should hopefully get some good use.

This weekend, the entire group of 28 of us took a 2-day safari to Ngorongoro Crater as well as Tarangire national park, both in Tanzania. The natural beauty here is astounding. We saw all sorts of animals and took many pictures - check Facebook later for all of them.   The drives and camping out at night also gave time to help build friendships within the group and I know people in the program more deeply now.  The weekend trip reminded me yet again how lucky I am to be able to spend a summer in Tanzania learning and applying engineering while exploring a beautiful place.  It's hard to fully express my gratitude to all of the people, programs, and planning that made this summer possible, but know that I am thinking of you.

Life at the homestay has been a lot of fun this past week and Lulu is getting more comfortable playing with Mikkel and I after dinner.  Right when we get home most days she runs up to us and hands us peanuts or a piece of banana before running back to Neema and her sisters in the kitchen. My host dad Lughano is in the capital city Dar es Salaam this week to help with wedding arrangements for his brother, but we hope to watch more world cup with him when he gets back.  June is almost over and there are only 3 more weeks until I move into my host hospital! Goodbye for now!