Week 1: Travel, Trust, & Takeaway

The messy magic of settling in and showing up

Our first week here has been a lot. A lot of good, a lot of food, a lot of fun, a lot of tiredness. We left Tampa on Thursday, 6/5, but didn’t arrive until Saturday, 6/7, so I suppose it hasn’t actually been a week yet. We had tumultuous travel days, from preparing to answer questions at 3 am in Dar, to being woken up and asked to move rooms 4 times over 48 hours. Lucy and I enjoyed our time in Dar, although I noticed she was starting to get a bit stir crazy with the heat, the restrictions, and the inconveniences. I gently reminded her to chill out a bit since we were now on Tanzania time, meaning everything is a bit slower and patience is key. During our stay at Gallivanters Hostel, the power went out at least 30 times, reminding us we are most welcome back in Tanzania. The intermittent power outages and the constant switching of rooms and lack of reservations reminded us that we are not in America, and we must become patient with ourselves and others.

After arriving in Iringa with a full military escort (just kidding, they were either picking up or dropping off someone special at the same time we arrived), we were feeling relieved to be back in Iringa instead of Dar. It was much cooler, calmer, and provided us with a stable place for our extended stay. Nothing felt better than walking into our room and realizing we were able to settle. Fueled by a little bit of rage and pent-up anxiety, I quickly flung everything out of my bags to place on the single shelf that we were provided. It beat living out of our duffle bags. With a renewed sense of excitement, we decided to head into town for a long-awaited Neema lunch and some quick surveying of our new host town. We had some brief communication stress while trying to connect with our bajaji driver Tito, since he does not speak any English. We were finally able to communicate our pick-up time for the following day, with a brief panic that we may be kidnapped, but ultimately it was a translation error.

The next day, we headed to the hospital for our meeting with Dr Tabitha and Father Benjamin, dressed in fancy pants and a skirt for Lucy. We arrived at the hospital and tried texting Dr Tabitha that we were here on WhatsApp. With no response, we waited for 1.5 hours, trying to determine what would be the respectful next step. We finally wandered toward the bathroom and stood there thinking it was occupied until a patient came up and unlocked the door for us. Wazungu wajinga (silly white girls). We then executed the next step of our devised plan of asking anyone, literally anyone, where Dr Tabitha or Father Benjamin was. We stumbled upon a friendly-looking, well-dressed man to ask if he knew their location. He pointed us deeper into the hospital, and we began to search, but then decided it would not be polite without being welcomed in (they are very big on formal welcoming here), so we turned around and asked again. He then revealed he was a guest as well, and we were a touch embarrassed by our wrong assumption. We searched for Fr. Benjamin’s office and found his assistant/security guy(??), who called Dr Tabitha. She answered on the first ring. He informed us that Fr Benjamin was in the theater today, so he would not be able to meet us. Dr Tabitha arrived shortly after and took us to meet Dr Magdelena, whom we would be shadowing in internal medicine. We left after that, hungry from waiting around for nearly 2 hours. We returned to town and ate at Neema again (shocker), did some work, then went to Clock Tower for dinner. We walked back at dusk and stayed up a little too late (we will regret this later). 

1) Image of the Emergency Department at Tosamaganga 2) The road that leads to our hostel 3) Lucy and I in the bajaji on the way to meet Tabitha at the hospital 4) Dinner with the owner of our hostel and his colleagues

Our first full day started with a bit of stress since Tito was almost 30 minutes late picking us up on our first day. But it’s all good…we’re on Tanzania time!! (Not really, we were super stressed because he came recommended to us about being very timely) We then made it to morning meeting, which began at 7:50 am. Due to our tardiness, we had to stand in front of everyone and endure the stares of being “fresh meat” in the hospital. Despite our bumpy navigation of the beginning of the journey, I was determined to be brave and meet each situation with confidence, even if it was feigned. 

The rest of the week, we began to settle into our routine of rising before the sun (not an easy feat for me), dressing, eating, and leaving for a windy ride to the hospital. This first week, we spent a lot of time in an outpatient clinic, listening to case after case of hypertension, diabetes, and non-compliance. As the week wore on, we wondered if this would be our reality of listening to the same chronic complaints for 8 weeks. Luckily, we were able to slip out and latch onto ward rounds where we saw inpatient cases from cancer to cost challenges. One theme we saw recurring throughout our week was the USAID and PEPFAR stickers adorning nearly every medical instrument and chair. This prompted our ongoing research into what will happen now that funding is being slashed. What will happen to the patients? 

During our time outside the hospital, we braved the open-air market, full of smells, sights, and shouts, where we bargained for bananas and an avocado for ‘kesho’ (tomorrow). After securing our own coffee, milk, and honey, we kindly asked Josephina to heat some water. When adding the milk, we were confused to find it chunkier than expected. Powering through, we shook it a bit and squeezed some into our instant coffee (since it wouldn’t pour). It did not dissolve. We took our chunky coffee outside to enjoy and soon realized we had bought yogurt and not milk, despite the “100% whole milk” written in English on the label. I did not enjoy my handcrafted drink after all, a bit discouraged by the oil blobs collecting at the surface. 

This week has been full of both mundane and magical moments where we laugh, we listen, and learn from our mistakes. We continue to use our power as listeners to gather knowledge, both critical, like where the bathroom is, and non-critical, like how to say yogurt, all while practicing patience and keeping an open mind.

1) Ugali, beans, greens, & chicken 2) Delicious Indian food at Ruksana, an Indian restaurant down the hill 3) Entrance to the horse farm we visited with Mr. Ahmed 4) Selfie of Lucy, Devotha, & I in the common area of our hostel