Immabe

I have made it to Tanzania! The flight from Toronto to Ethiopia was quite long but I mostly watched movies so it passed quickly.  The final flight landed me in Kilimanjaro airport, with views of the beautiful mountains Kilimanjaro and Meru on the descent.  After arriving and meeting up with some fellow program participants (there are 25 of us in total), we took the dola-dola (bus) to the training center where we will take Swahili and medical device repair courses.  The road from the airport to the training center is filled with life – many people walking along the road or waiting with motorbikes to pick people up and drive them along for a small charge.  The market in Usa River is very busy and there are a surprisingly large amount of Coca Cola ads everywhere.

View along the drive from Kilimanjaro airport to training center in Usa River

View of Mt. Meru from the training center

At the training center, we also met our homestay families. I am paired with Mikkel for the program, meaning we will live together for the summer and also work together during the 2^nd month of the program when we transition from the training center to host hospitals all over the region.  Mikkel is a Biomedical Engineer Master’s student at Denmark technical institute in Copenhagen and he is very friendly and has a great sense of humor. 

Mikkel lounging at the homestay!

My host mama, Neema (pronounced like Brazilian forward Neymar without the r) is beautifully funny and has a huge smile.  She teaches at a local university and is also helping teach the Swahili courses at the training center for our program and has been helping Mikkel and I with Swahili while at home.  We will need to learn quickly to be prepared for hospital work next month. Neema’s husband, Lughanu, was travelling back from a wedding tonight so we will meet him tomorrow.  The first thing that Neema showed Mikkel and I when we came to the home was a photo from her wedding day with Lughanu.  Neema’s sisters Hope and Pendo also live with us along with Neema and Lughanu’s daughter Lulu who is 18 months old.

From left to right: Hope, Lulu, Neema, and Pendo

For dinner, Neema and her sisters made a feast of potatoes, green peas with sauce, fish, avocado, banana, cucumber, rice, beans, and mango-passion fruit juice she made herself that is the best juice I’ve ever had. It’s pulpy, very sweet, and just overall fantastic.  I will definitely be well fed and am looking forward to trying all the new Tanzanian food!

Perhaps the biggest surprise thus far has been the music Neema was listening to in the car when we drove back from the training center to her home.  The first song playing was “Immabe” by the Black Eyed Peas so I will end this post as follows:

Immabe meeting Lugano tomorrow.

Immabe starting classes at the training center tomorrow in Swahili and medical devices. 

Immabe updating later this week on classes and settling in.

Immabe tucking under my mosquito net and heading to bed now – lots of airplanes and time changes today!