Well, as predicted I haven't had a whole lot of time to spend on the computer. So I can't possibly explain everything that I've been up to, but I can give you the general idea. I spent two weeks with my homestay family in Stone Town. They were really nice, but spoke very minimal English (although it was great they spoke any at all) so communication was hard, but I think we managed fine most of the time. There were a couple of funny incidents though. Once, during dinner, i decided to question if something had potatoes in it, but after [View Full Entry]

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From Malawi it was time for the last two legs of our African trip: into the Tanzanian Highlands and via Dar es Salam to Zanzibar, the Spice Island. After a long drive through a valley filled with the magnificent baobab trees (which look like they have been stuck in the ground upside down) we arrived in Iringa were the drop in temperature was noticeable- we even considered digging out the woolly hats again. The campground was great - guarded by Masai warriors who appeared silently out of the night and scared the crap out of everyone. Everyone was tired after an [View Full Entry]

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Well our time in Zanzibar is quickly winding down... hard to believe this is our 4th week at the hospital!! Lately, it has been overrun with medical students... mostly from the UK, which is annoying when trying to go to clinics. But we've managed to have a good week. Aiden & I went to HIV clinic on Monday, which was amazing. The Dr was so incredible. She's been treating HIV for years, but has only had access to anti-retroviral medications (life-prolonging HIV meds) since 2005. They are provided free of charge, with sponsorship through NGO's and the Bill Clinton Foundation. They [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday morning we took a taxi to the coast, where we caught a boat going to Chumbe Island - a small island 6 miles off the coast of Zanzibar. Like much of Zanzibar, Chumbe Island is composed of "coral rag forest" - basically fossilized coral beds covered by a thin layer of dirt that only certain types of trees can grow on. Chumbe is surrounded by protected coral reefs, and we spent yesterday afternoon snorkeling and hiking through the protected forests on the island. Last night we stayed at the eco-lodge on Chumbe. There are half a dozen or so bungalows, [View Full Entry]

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Some pictures I couldn't upload last time... [View Full Entry]

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of Africa. Barack Obama is the most popular person in Africa, and so we thought we should mention a little bit about what people over here think about him, given the heated political battle back home. There are actually fairly few American tourists in Tanzania at the moment, and so, whenever anyone finds out where we're from, we're frequently asked, incredulously, if we think Obama can win. The people here are VERY excited. This we were expecting. But we were not expecting Obama to generate so much goodwill toward America even before the election. The people here are simply excited tha [View Full Entry]

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Sorry for the delay since our last post - we have had a difficult time finding internet for the past few days. On September 9, we descended into Ngorongoro Crater for our last day of wildlife viewing in Tanzania. We saw some very large herds of resident wildebeest and zebra, as well as hippos, elephants, lions, gazelle, hyenas, etc. - basically everything but giraffes. We also managed to see a black rhino! Apparently they had had a difficult time spotting rhinos for several days because of the cold weather, but the rhinos were back out grazing in the warmer weather. It [View Full Entry]

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My advice to you... Never attempt to deliver your baby in Africa. Or at least not in Mnazi Mmoja Hospital. Have spent the last 2 days on the maternity ward / labour & delivery. I will try to describe it as best I can.... sorry for all the non-medical people reading the blog..... but may be interesting for all to read anyway I suppose. And especially interesting for Katy and Rachel. All the women in labour are in one giant ward.... today every bed was full, so about 20 women. They seem to be checked about twice a day. There is [View Full Entry]

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I acknowledge that I have been extremely tardy on adding an entry to this blog. Unfortunately, I've been tied up most of the time, enjoying the constant 25 degree or hotter weather and beach time. Most of the good stuff Shanda has already told you about, the swimming with dolphins, the sunset cruises and fabulous beach weather. Don't worry though, I have put in my time at the hospital. I am getting exposed to a lot, blood and pus mostly, but these are memories to last me a lifetime. Since there's no CT for hundreds of miles and you never know [View Full Entry]

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On the 9th September after about 10 days of hectic waking up Gestapo style and having the tents down, breakfast out, dishes washed, then queuing single file to be hosed down and de loused before we got back on the van at 6am, we set off for a nice relaxing few days on the island of Zanzibar, which is a two and a half hour ferry ride from the port of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We were crammed into the bus at 5am and driven to the port, which was filled with hundreds of locals selling cashew nuts, bananas and copies [View Full Entry]

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