1) The Suction Machine that Sucked
Mikkel and I worked on a suction machine the first week in the hospital. When we got the machine (broken for some time), one of the collection bottles was still full with a few liters of who knows what mixture of nasty body fluids. We figured it would be wise to empty the bottle before taking back to the engineering office. There was a sink on the side of the room that seemed perfect. Mikkel started pouring the bottle down the sink and pretty much emptied it before we realized the sink drained straight to the floor. My hiking boots slightly damp with nasty body fluid concoction, we cleaned the floor with some mops and about a liter of methylated spirit (used as cleaning alcohol in Tanzania since clear alcohol might be mistaken as drinkable). The stench was quite possibly the nastiest thing I have ever smelled and I took breaks during thre cleanup to stick my head out the window. It was absurd. Luckily we were able to repair and return the machine... so all is well!
2) Hair in the Distiller (read like this)
Mikkel and I also repaired a distiller in the laboratory by removing a hair from a tiny tiny hole that the water intake was compressed into to force a stream of water into a collecting chamber for heating. We disassembled the machine and found the culprit clogging the hole. Just interesting that something as small and seemingly innocuous as a hair in the water supply can take down an entire machine. It was also a good generalization for how simple some of the fixes we made were - many required simple electrical knowledge and the willingness to disassemble and reassemble equipment to learn how it works.
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| Or was it a beard hair in the distiller? |
3) Tanga Beach / Pangani
For the final weekend of the program, we all took a trip to Tanga beach which was a 10 hour drive from Moshi. Since Friday 8/8 was a holiday (Nane Nane), everyone met in Moshi city on Thursday night to go out. No one booked a hostel and we all stayed out until 5AM for our bus departure. After quite a long and bumpy ride, we made it to the beach resort at Pangani for the weekend. Spent Friday playing beach frisbee and then went out on an old wooden ship into the Indian Ocean on Saturday to snorkle. We ate lunch on an island that disappeared with the tides and then I shared a huge seafood platter with Ari before a beach campfire and swimming late into the night.
4) Love Letters?
Mikkel and I made friends with some students named Benson and George at the secondary school near our house and played volleyball with them a few times. One day, they gave us a drawing book with drawings of airplanes, animals, and all sorts of scenes with messages throughout the book. Later that week, we received 2 envelopes from them and were told to open them later. I'll let the pictures below tell the story but we were quite confused about the letters...
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| Coloring Book with animal drawings |
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| Love letter? |
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| Story of the hyena clever |
5) Visit from the Boss
On our last day of work, the CEO of EWH (Leslie Calman) came to the hospital Mikkel and I worked at for 4 weeks to hear stories and see the work of the program first hand. We toured her around our house and told stories of our tribulations with the rats and shocks from the sink faucets. We also gave her a tour of the hospital, a summary of our repairs, and introduced her to many of the staff we made relationships with during our time at the hospital. We also had a great lunch at the "Western-style" cafe Tanz Hands in Usa River where we sat on couches to eat lunch and drink milkshakes. It felt a bit ridiculous to go straight from the hospital to the couch lounge lunch, but we had a fantastic time. On the last day of the program, everyone gave presentations and Leslie attended. She also spent the last night with us for our final bonfire and was an incredible person to get to know!
6) Last Day in the Office
Mikkel and I went to church every morning during our 4 weeks at Nkoaranga hospital. On the 2nd to last day, we gave a presentation overview of our work to the hospital staff and then one of the head doctors spoke some kind words about our work. On our final day, the hospital secretary Jeremiah led the church audience in a goodbye song to us (in Swahili) with everyone waving as we stood up in the church. It was heartwarming to feel all of the appreciation that they had for us being there while also sad to be leaving many of these people after only 4 short weeks.
7) Flight Home
During our stay in Usa River, we saw Kilimanjaro from our house only once, since the days were often cloudy and visibility wasn't good enough to see the peak. On the flight home, just as we passed the cloud floor, Kilimanjaro came into view, and it was quite a stunning sight that my iPhone was unable to do justice do.
8) FIVE GUYS
My first meal back Stateside was Five Guys with Brendan and Jason in the Dulles airport. It was sublime.
9) Back to Duke
I arrived back in the USA Mondya afternoon and then moved back into Duke Monday night. It's been a really quick turnaround and I'll definitely be reflecting more over my experience in the next couple of weeks (although maybe forgetting to update the blog...) It's been a lot of fun writing about the summer and I hope you all enjoyed my posts! Check facebook for more pictures... Kwaheri!
On our last day of work, the CEO of EWH (Leslie Calman) came to the hospital Mikkel and I worked at for 4 weeks to hear stories and see the work of the program first hand. We toured her around our house and told stories of our tribulations with the rats and shocks from the sink faucets. We also gave her a tour of the hospital, a summary of our repairs, and introduced her to many of the staff we made relationships with during our time at the hospital. We also had a great lunch at the "Western-style" cafe Tanz Hands in Usa River where we sat on couches to eat lunch and drink milkshakes. It felt a bit ridiculous to go straight from the hospital to the couch lounge lunch, but we had a fantastic time. On the last day of the program, everyone gave presentations and Leslie attended. She also spent the last night with us for our final bonfire and was an incredible person to get to know!
6) Last Day in the Office
Mikkel and I went to church every morning during our 4 weeks at Nkoaranga hospital. On the 2nd to last day, we gave a presentation overview of our work to the hospital staff and then one of the head doctors spoke some kind words about our work. On our final day, the hospital secretary Jeremiah led the church audience in a goodbye song to us (in Swahili) with everyone waving as we stood up in the church. It was heartwarming to feel all of the appreciation that they had for us being there while also sad to be leaving many of these people after only 4 short weeks.
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| My best Usain Bolt in our cleaned Engineering Office |
7) Flight Home
During our stay in Usa River, we saw Kilimanjaro from our house only once, since the days were often cloudy and visibility wasn't good enough to see the peak. On the flight home, just as we passed the cloud floor, Kilimanjaro came into view, and it was quite a stunning sight that my iPhone was unable to do justice do.
8) FIVE GUYS
My first meal back Stateside was Five Guys with Brendan and Jason in the Dulles airport. It was sublime.
9) Back to Duke
I arrived back in the USA Mondya afternoon and then moved back into Duke Monday night. It's been a really quick turnaround and I'll definitely be reflecting more over my experience in the next couple of weeks (although maybe forgetting to update the blog...) It's been a lot of fun writing about the summer and I hope you all enjoyed my posts! Check facebook for more pictures... Kwaheri!
What a terrific summer you had. We so much enjoyed yoyr blog and are so glad you made it home safely :) Hopefully we will see you in Raleigh in October!
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