Karanga Butter + Ndizi = Delicious (peanut butter and banana)

So the last few weeks I have been working a lot at the dispensary.  The form IV students have started taking their national exams so I am no longer teaching them.  The exams are pretty intense, three weeks of testing, and a guard with a gun sits outside the testing area.  I am still teaching the form III students.  We just finished up Regulation of body temperature, and are now moving on to Reproduction.

At the dispensary I have been doing a lot of things.  I have been testing for HIV at the maternity clinic.  Giving vaccinations during the watoto (children) clinic.  They give polio, measles, and a combined diphtheria, tetanus, peruses, HepB, and Hib vaccines.  I’ve also learned to test for malaria.  It involves doing a finger prick and smearing blood on a slide.  Staining the slide, then checking with a light microscope if the plasmodium are present in the blood.  I’ve also been seeing a lot of patients with different nurses or doctors and helping dispense drugs from the pharmacy.  They get lots of patients with malaria or other sorts of infections (UTI, ARI, ear infection skin rashes).  A few patients have teeth extracted, which they use a local anesthetic, but still looks pretty painful.  Then quite a few patients come in from motorcycle accidents. 

This last weekend we made a trek to Mbamba bay on Lake Malawi (called Lake Nyasa in Tanzania).  The drive takes about 5 hours, but three of those are on unpaved roads.  You travel through a couple of mountains passes and the roads are real rough.  However, the journey is worth it.  We stayed with the Nuns of Chipole who run a guest house in Mbamba bay.  We spent three great days at the beach.  The water was refreshing, the sun was scorching, and we had a lot of fun fooling around with the little kids who were also at the beach.  We showed them how to play Frisbee, and they showed us to eat unripe mangos (involved hitting it against a rock and digging out the pit with a stick).  Also I got a short ride in a hang made canoe (short because we tipped).  On the last morning all and I went for a short hike up the hill rising from the beach.  It offered a spectacular view of the surrounding beaches and lake. 

This week I’ve taught about sexual reproduction at the seminary and helped at the Dispensary every day.  Highlights so far have been going for a bike ride through the roads and trails surrounding Hanga (though Al’s last minute spill was unfortunate), and Robert, the goalie at the trade school who sings and lays on the ground when he gets bored waiting for the ball to move to his side of the field. 

We will be celebrating St. Benedict’s graduation on Saturday and the Seminary’s on Sunday.  Also, the trade school is supposed to be playing Songea Boys in a football match, all of which should make for an exciting weekend in Hanga.

Crazy Cats Across Tanzania

So we got a nice friend of a friend invite to hang out with some Peace Core members over the weekend. Al and I caught the 7:30 bus into Songea so we could make it to the 10:00 o’clock basketball tournament. We got paired up with “fierce” Eddie for the three on three one and done tournament. Our first round game was against the Wolves, who used a sharpie to draw claws on their fingers and wolf tattoos on the their biceps. They were pretty pumped about the tournament. Luckily Eddie wasn’t so much fierce, but very calm and possessing a silky smooth J. The game was hard fought, and we ended up spending about 75% of the time playing defense. We pulled out the game and were christened the favorites for the rest of the tournament. Surviving a second round scare when Eddie was hampered by a rolled ankle we proved to be the cream of the American basketball player crop in town. After a few good humored complaints about our team only being 33% Peace Core members, we received the bracket to remember our accomplishments.
The afternoon was spent wandering around Songea. The major accomplishment was buying some bikes. Eddie, our teammate for the bball tourney, helped to negotiate the price. My bike is a blaze orange 15 speed Apollo Meltdown. It is a bit small, but it shifts great, and the breaks work, both of which are rare in TZ. Our night involved a talent show, where the peacecore members showed a lot of musical talents, which was really great to hear. Then we hung out, with American music playing. It was great taking a short vacation back to the States for a night.
The next day we said our goodbyes to the PCVs and saddled up our new steeds. It took three hours, and 2 liters of water, but we rode back to Hanga safely. It is nice to travel a bit on our own for the first time in Tanzania. Also we doubled or tripled our contact list on our phones with the numbers of lots of other Americans we can hang out with if we need to get away for a few days.

Later this week…
I learned how to test for malaria and HIV. We had one positive HIV test while I was working, which was a bit of a surreal moment. Also had a great meal including the Tanzanian version of pizza, a fresh salad, and bananas (Sundays have been turning out great).