Modern Medicine??

So the good news is I don’t have Malaria, the bad news is that I had to experience the not so modern ways of the Bagamoyo hospital to find that out. Before I continue, let me first say THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT DAD!

So earlier this week, I started feeling not so hot. Well correction, I started feeling very hot. In the states, this would just be shrugged off as the possible cold or flu but here, the minute anyone gets the slightest fever its off to get tested for malaria. Now having toured the hospital during orientation, I was already not thrilled about this trip. But following the orders of the resident medic, Gerry, I along with Project and two staff members went merry along. The process will never be recreated with words but heres my best shot. After arriving, I am seated in the waiting area, a concrete slab, while B in broken English and Kiswahili checks me in. Really all she does is pay 1000 shillings (about 70 cents) and tell them my birthday. We then are given a very official, can you sense the sarcasm?, record with the date stamped on it. We walk into an open air waiting room where are now in line for the doctor. I say “in line” however it seems to be whoever rushes to the door first sees the doctor. After waiting for what we think should be our turn, and noticing that wet mops are hanging to dry on a power line, we jump to the door. As we enter the room, we see the doctor sitting at a table. I describe my symptoms and she orders a malaria test. No, duh right?!! We head to the “laboratory” where, and I kid you not, I am poked with a tiny razor to draw blood. While waiting for the test results, we are told that we must pay 500 shillings (35 cents) before we get the results. We oblige and come back to find out that I in fact do not have malaria. Wahoo! but wait….we now must go back to the doctor and let her tell me that too. So now apply that same waiting process to this part of the story. So all in all good news no malaria, bad news I had to get pricked by a razor blade to find that out. Up side to the whole story: While waiting I saw a sign for other services at the hospital and among of these were skin graphing for 10000 shillings (about 7 dollars) and removal of ovarian cysts for an additional 10000 shillings. Now really, you can’t beat that!!

In case that story wasn’t enough to satisfy your third world needs, here’s some more pics!

Pictures!

Side view of the Catholic Church we have been attending. Homilies are a whole different kinda long in a language you dont understand.



The nastiest picture of monica's cut, no worries, it looks way better now!



The cutest little girl from my school reading a book on sports day.



Monica and I out at dinner. Yes, she does have clothes on.



Monica and one of her favorite students.



A group shot of kids in Monica's standard three class.



My favorite little girl Wendel from school. She is adorable and wow can she dance.



Madame Rachel and her mother. The most affection we have seen from her.



Monica with a child that may or may not be madame rachel's grandson? haha



An adorable kid at monica's school.



Me and some new friends at school, Omali, Joseph, and Mariki.

Five things you don't want to hear when getting into the shower

So last night I get out of the shower and offer this warning to my sister, project!
M:"Ok so I have three bad things you should know."
P:"Great the water is freezing!"
M:"Oh, ok four bad things, er, ok five things."
Project smirks!
M:"1. The water is freezing. (not that is is uncommon, but sometimes it reaches a new level of Artic.) 2.There is no water pressure. (at this point you start to use the ever ready and multi-use African bucket.) 3. (ok a little back story: After sweating all the time and then drying out and then sweating again, many people start to get this "rash". The remedy is a medicated soap. This soap only costs 300 shillings-30 centsish-and is jet black...this should have been our first warning) but 3. The soap smells awful...seriously I think I just bathed in chemicals and now the "entire" bathroom smells like it too! 4. well I use the term bathed loosely because it also won't create suds. So you are really just rubbing this paste all over your body....which leads to 5. It doesn't wash off. YEAH!!! This is Africa clean.

So Project proceeds to take her shower and afterwards tells me that in fact not only was there no water pressure, at one point there was no water. Yup! you guessed it, at random times throughout the day the water just shuts off. Oh happy times! The upside is that we still smell pretty good considering!

And because showering sometimes isn't possible, I decided to make my life a little easier...
As Project is getting out of the shower I tell her I need some help with something. She walks out of the shower and says, "You are cutting your hair!...with fiskers!" Yup with the help of lil sas and a pair of dull safety scissors I am now modeling my new african doo! Wait for the pics, I am actually really proud!

Love and miss you all!

Top Ten

10. babies in snow suits and security guards in trench coats in 88 degree weather (its winter here)
9. women balancing objects on their heads, we saw a woman carrying a tv and another volunteer saw one with a mini refrigerator
8. the place we stay is heavily secured with bars, electric fences and guards, no locals are allowed in, and our curfew is 10pm, we have come to find out it is know around town as "Mzungu prison"
7. the machettes right next to the childrens' toys at the Monday Market
6. Monica's classes' science book which includes pictures of acceptable things and what good kids do (pee in the river) and what bad kids do (play in the rain)
5. vehicles that come within inches of hitting you when the rest of the road is wide open
4. TFT, Tanzanian flexible time. if you are within a couple hours, you are on time
3. short, fat ties, I don't know if its for lack of fabric or if they are just childrens ties, but they are definately the style
2. local people apparently not being able to say the name 'Bridget' therefore I now respond to 'Project'
1. in a place that has neither running water nor roads, we are still able to update our blog

A Day In The Life

We haven't at all talked about what we actually do here, so here is a snipet of a typical day in Bagamoyo.


Our alarm goes off at 620 and we slowly make our way out of our mosquito nets to start the day. Sometimes this process takes a little longer depending how well we tucked them in the night before. At this point in the game however we are lucky just to get it around us.



Having showered the night before ALWAYS we quickly use our splendid bathroom to get ready and start the day. Remembering of course to not use the water to brush your teeth. Next its off to breakfast at the main house (about a 10 minute walk). After breakfast we head out to our placements (schools), where we spend the next couple of hours teaching english, kiswahili, math and science. Well really most of the time is spent playing, but we try.






These are pictures from each of our schools. The kids are great and love having their picture taken. Also is a picture from the infamous Madme Rachel! Gotta love it.




After placement its back to the main house for lunch. Throughout the week there are cultural excursions to help introduce us to the culture of Tanzania. This pic was taken when we visited a polygamist musical family. It was great to see so many generations dancing and celebrating together.



We then usually have some free time to either nap (don't worry we aren't taking many of those), shop, play cards, explore or go to the beach....probably a favorite.

Returning back to the main house, dinner is ready at 630 and after a long day its back to our room usually around 800. We shower and head to bed. Well after tucking in our nets!

Mzungu

Mzungu! Mzungu! Mambo! Mzungu! Walking down the streets of Bagamoyo this is what we hear day in and day out! Now if you weren't familiar with the language you might start to think this was some sort of greeting to visitors, and well you would be half right. Literally translated, mzungu means white person. And yes people, mostly children, yell this at you while you are walking down the street, shopping in the market, or really anytime they see you. This generally is accompanied by smiles and waves and a Mambo (hey/hello) but sometimes its just yelled to get your attention. Some days when we are feeling especially ornery, we look all around and yell "wapi" which means "where where". This is very confusing to the kids but usually they just get closer and point more feverishly at you. All and all its not so bad.

So I am not sure how many of you have traveled to places that require malaria meds but we certainly were not told about the crazy weird dreams that go along with taking this drug. I mean super crazy dreams every night that make absolutely no sense what so ever. The best that I have heard by far is for a girl here. She dreamed that she was running through what looked like star wars (like she was yoda) and had gary coleman on her back. Now here is the really really weird thing. This was days before he died. honestly we think she might be able to see the future.

Madme Rachel! Seriously, she should have a blog all to her self but in the interest of time I will try to some up her most famous characteristics. She is the mentor teacher at my school and she makes dr jeckle and hyde look like best friends. Today she cried when another volunteer left and made sad references to him all day. however usually she spends her free time hitting kids for asking questions. Yeah I think I have been avoiding talking about the punishment here but its really really hard to watch. Corporal punishment is not widely used but is absolutely present at my school. Feeling helpless is the worst but a smile and a hug seems to go a long way. so madme rachel really really likes to get her picture taken. Since I have been here she has asked me to bring the camera in at least three times. She poses and asks to borrow my sunglasses for her shots. Honestly its hard to describe, but wait for the pictures and you will see her in action.

Speaking of pictures....we are going to do our best to try and upload some this weekend. well if we have electricity and if the internet works and if jackie shows up to open the shop. Lots of ifs but we will try.
Sisi anapena! (we love you!)

Just add an "I"

A lot of people here speak some degree of englishi...and no that "i" is not a mistake. I'm not sure, but at some point a visitor must have taught them that every english word must end with a vowel. For example, a boy in my class is named John. Easy enough, right? HAHA nope. His name is said "Johni". A boy in B's class is named Godluck....said Good Lucki. Asking for a beer that you want cold, ask for it coldi. Someone does something well, you say goodi. The list goes on and on, but this sure is one thing that keeps us smiling and laughing all day.

Its tuesday afternoon here and just like in the states its back to work for the second day. We did however have a fantastic weekend. Most everyone here (about 20 or so) volunteers went on trips so that left 5 of us here. We spent the weekend eating, laughing, and teaching everyone to play pitch! Don't worry we still won everytime, but it was great to pass on the Wescott tradition of cards to others. This weekend also provided our first round of illness and accident. Bridget survived her first "African cold" and I survived a laundry fight with the air conditioner. Its hard to explain but while doing the laundry outside, I ran into the airconditioner and thank goodness for tetanus shots but I will have a scar to prove the battle :) Don't worry dad, mom we knew you wouldn't anyways. :)

While doing the laundry, we also developed a new language for determining if something was dirty or not. Mom, you would love this! So now, since we have to do all laundry by hand there is 1)Clean aka never been worn 2)Momclean aka wore once or twice but wearable 3)Beachclean: after several wears only acceptable to be worth to and from the beach 4)Africa clean: prior to this trip we would never wear this outfit so many times after sweating this much but here a little deodorant goes a long way. 5) Whew! Bag it...its done! Luckily we will be leaving all our laundry here so no worries for you!

Baadaye! Sisi tunapenda wewe!

Blogging is hard in the middle of Africa

so folks sorry we haven't been updating more but the internet is down here much of the time and better yet the electricity comes and goes as it pleases. Last night the entire city went out for who knows how long. and even if we have electricity and also internet, sometimes the shop owner disappears and there is no way to get into the internet cafe.

However with all that being said, it has been an awesome first week, and I'm not sure 9 weeks is going to be long enough. Bridget and I have both been placed in primary classrooms with children ranging from 4-7 years old. The skill levels are all over the board so sometimes it can be a little difficult to communicate with the kids. We have learned some key words and phrases to help out, like hapana:no, achakalele:keep quiet, andika:write, mzuri sani:very good and many others like this. While our schools are very different and what we do each day varies the one thing we would both say is that the kids make it all worth it. They really are so amazing and just want the positive attention and love from us. And trust me we are ready and willing to give as much of that as possible.

We are truly blest to have any amazing community here with CCS. Robert is our cook and he never disappoints. Seriously, I think that we are going to come home having gained weight and that is not okay with us. Bridget and I have a room to ourselves with bunk beds and get this our own bathroom....well a bathroom of sorts. It is a two foot by four foot area that has a sink, shower and toilet all in one. Wait for the pics, its GREAT! and also, ek I don't even want to say it..I have airconditioning at night. Seriously spoiled!

We have been making a list of things we miss and don't miss and here is what tops the lists. Things we miss: ICE (and more specifically sonic ice, yup no ice here), B:cherry vanilla diet dr pepper M:diet cherry limeaids, not sleeping with mosquito nets (seriously a 10 minute process at the end of a busy day is a real pain) and of course friends and family and moxie. Things we don't miss: driving everywhere (its really so nice to walk), rude people(everyone and I mean everyone is SO welcoming here and always smiling), having to be somewhere all the time...gotta love Tanzania time!

Thats all for now folks, off to a music festival, dinner and then to watch a futbul match (thats soccer here :)) Love and Miss you all! Kwerii