Week One (May 9th- May 16th)
Experience
I got to the Fort Lauderdale airport around 11am on May 9th. I was supposed to travel from Fort Lauderdale- Atlanta- Amsterdam- Kilimanjaro- Dar es Salaam. However, due to storms in Atlanta, my first flight was delayed. This led to a series of delays and I realized that I would not make my flight to Amsterdam. It took a lot of time working with Delta agents to figure out a plan once in Atlanta but ultimately everything worked out as I took a flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg and then to Dar. Considering my lack of experience with international travel, I was surprised that I was not more nervous. Rather, I was still very excited and decided to go with the flow. I arrived in Dar at approximately 2:30am on Saturday, May 11th and Dr. Strong, the head researcher on the project, arranged a driver to pick me up. Over the weekend, I explored Dar es Salaam some, had some great food, and worked on my interview questions. I really enjoyed being in Dar and while I didn’t think I would ever want to live in a big city, I thoroughly enjoy being in Dar. Dr. Cogburn, the post-doctoral researcher on the project, and I traveled to Iringa on Tuesday. The drive took approximately twelve hours but it was beautiful and I am so grateful I got to see so many parts of the country, including driving through Mikumi National Park. Upon arrival, I got to meet my “host family” and they were lovely! I am staying with a woman named Getruda, and her two kids aged thirteen and six. I am very grateful to be staying with a Tanzanian family to learn more about the area and also work on my Swahili proficiency. On Wednesday, Dr. Cogburn and I took a bajaj to the hospital and it is about a thirty minute drive; I received a hospital tour and met some of the staff. Overall, my first week in Tanzania went amazing!
Research
Findings
I did not accomplish an extensive amount regarding research my first week in Tanzania considering my first day at the hospital was Wednesday. On Wednesday, it was mainly about meeting people and understanding the flow of the hospital. Since the hospital director, Doctor/Father Benjamin, was out of town, it was difficult to do much until I met with him. On Thursday, I attended my first morning meeting which is essentially a meeting for all of the hospital staff to get together so that the people who were on call throughout the night can discuss some of the most critical cases. After the meeting, Dr. Noel showed us around the hospital some more so that I could be better acquainted, including the female ward, male ward, ICU, and pediatric ward. After this, I met with Dr. Tabitha, one of the doctors who works in the female ward, and went on rounds with her to discuss each patient. I also learned about the varying medications available/commonly used. The hospital is quite large with an outdoor registration area, various outpatient clinics, female/male wards, dialysis clinic, operating theater, and hypertension clinic run by CUAMM, an Italian based organization working in the hospital. One of the challenges I’ve had thus far is my lack of Swahili fluency. While I understood that classroom Swahili is very different from what is used everyday, I expected to understand more than I actually do. While all of the doctors are fluent in English, I sometimes feel bad having to ask so many questions about what is going on and that I cannot communicate with patients as much as I’d like to.