Tanzanian Devil

I’m HOME

I just got home!  I will be writting a long blog from the last few weeks real soon I promise.  As soon as I stop eating home cooking and unpacking.

Continuing with my travel experiences:

 In Uganda we went to Lake Bunyonyi.  It is a beautiful lake with tons of islands in the middle.  We camped on one of them at a beautiful resort surrounded by hundreds of brightly colored birds, flowers and hand dug out canoes.  We then moved on to Kampala.  We went out for a night of dancing at the National Theater’s open-mic hip-hop night. I was nice to be in a big city, with its fast internet and cultural activities.

The next morning we caught a shuttle to Jinga, Uganda: The source of the mighty Nile River.  After a short safety briefing I spent the day White Water Rafting class 5 rapids on the Nile river!  I was a little unsure about the whole situation but I really enjoyed it.  I spend part of the day on what I will call the Team Upright Boat.  It really is the rescue boat which was amazing because I was literally the very first person to go over the rapids and then got a front row seat as the other boats tumble over them.  I also got to help rescue people by pulling them into out boat after their boats flipped.  I went over rapid that had a 6 foot water fall in the middle.  The best rapid was called Silverback in which I was flipped out of the boat but managed to hold on to the rope on the side of the boat throughout the remainder of the rapid.  I was intense, not something I would want to do often but I did enjoy it especially after I got the water out of my lungs.

We then headed to Sipi Falls near Mount Elgon.  Sipi is one of the most beautiful places I have been.  The views are amazing and there are 3 huge waterfalls.  We hiked to the base of one of them where it began to storm.  We hiked back up in the mud using banana leaves as failed umbrella and then explored a dry cave while the storm calmed down. That night we stayed at a lodge at the base of one of the waterfalls.  We then headed to Kenya where we stayed in Nakuru.  We traveled to the Menengai Crater where we did an intense 3 hour hike to the crater floor.  We then headed to Nairobi and went to see a movie in a real movie theater!  I not a big movie person but it was super nice to go to a real movie theater and see one of the many movies I haven’t even heard of currently playing in America.  We then rounded out our trip together with a wild goose chase for a Sushi Restaurant in Nairobi. 

That afternoon I headed back to TZ.  On the drive back the bus passed herds of Zebras and even two Giraffes crossing the road.  They were completely wild not even in the boundaries of a national park.  I really enjoyed seeing them because I hoped that when I came to Africa I would encounter wild animals (while is a car of course).  I was disappointed when it seemed that they were only in national parks.  But no, they really are cool animals living all over East Africa with out the influence of humans. Overall it was a great trip.  I have so many surreal experiences now I will have a ton a stories to tell my grandkids someday about how there grandma as once a crazy world traveler.

So now I am back in Moshi wrapping up work, Honesty will be having his pins removed on Thur and then hopefully starting physical therapy soon after.  Then I will be doing some last hiking in Lushuto and then heading to the coast near Pangani for some relaxing.  I am excited to be heading back to STL soon but of course now I am learning of all sorts of events that will be going on here when I leave.  I guess with setting a date to leave the reality that I will miss this place comes with it.

I am back home in Moshi!

Honesty is back at home doing well.  Joelle, Honesty and I went on Thursday morning and got him admitted to the hospital.  I the doctor was not very detailed in his anticipated outcome from surgery, “If God wills it to happen then it will work” was said several times.  Not exactly what I wanted to hear from his surgeon.  The surgeon was being followed by two medical students from the UK, so I got to hear the entire explanation of the procedure and was told that I could be in the operating theater during his surgery.  So Friday I went to the hospital excited and nervous to watch an orthopedic surgery in a country where things are always more of a production than anticipated.  When I arrived I was told that he was already done with surgery because the room had been double booked, I was disappointed but happy that we had finally accomplished getting him surgery. 

In hospitals in TZ there is one nurse for an entire ward of 5 to 15 patients.  I quickly learned that it is expected that the family bring food, feed, bath and do every other activity that the patient needs, including asking the nurse to give them their medicine when needed.  I was not prepared to stay the night at the hospital which is what was expected of me because I was standing in for his family.  His wife needed to stay at home with their children.  This took me a while for me to figure out because Honesty was just coming out of anesthesia and his Swahili was even more difficult for me to understand.  I called Joelle who brought a local female friend that is looking for work, a 2.5 hour process from Moshi.  When they arrived the girl quickly knew that she was not able to stay, because women can’t stay in the men’s ward.  Who would have known really…? Turns out we were fresh out of men in Machame Village whom had nothing to do and was willing given 15 minutes notice to feed and bath a complete stranger.  We were stuck.  When an Angel appeared, his name oddly enough is Gifty.  He was at the hospital taking care of his nephew, Goodluck who was finishing up his treatment for Malaria.  He said he would gladly take care of him.  Out of options, we trusted him.  Turns out that Gifty is truly a gift.  He is 19 and is finished with school and is looking for work.  He did not want any money for his efforts just wanted to help as he could.

His surgery is good so far, I was concerned for a few days that he would not regain movement in his fingers but each day he has improved.  He will need another surgery at the end of Aug. to remove the pins that were placed to stabilize his arm.  I have not seen him since he went home from the hospital because of my travels.  I will go to his home on Saturday because we are holding a Nutrition Seminar up in the village. 

I have heard however that he is doing well.  The fund raising walk that took place in Shimbwe that I briefly wrote about in my last long blog ended with a gathering at which Honesty gave a speech about the work that our group has done for him and the village.  I wish I could have heard what he said but I was traveling.

            So my traveling went really well no major mishaps but a course hundreds of small ones….Laura and I arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on Friday.  Ready for a big day of exploring the capital city we got up early Saturday morning and soon discovered that all of Rwanda has a national day of cleaning the last Saturday of every month.  Which means the entire city was deserted.  I really enjoyed the chance to walk around uninterrupted and see the views of the city.  Kigali is very hilly area with modern buildings on high hills overlooking iron sheet roofed homes with dirt roads.  Motorcycle taxies are all the rage in Rwanda and Uganda.  Laura and I used them often; they are a great way to see the city while on our way to some arbitrary destination.  On Saturday we were able to go to one of the Genocide memorials.  The entire museum was very well created and provided me with much needed information about the events of 1994.  It was difficult to see the pictures of the victims wearing clothing that is so familiar to me (tennis shoes, jeans, baseball caps), seeing that made it more real to me because it happened so recently.  We spent some time on Lake Kivu and the western boarder of the country where we came upon another memorial at a currently active church where 11, 700 people were murdered in one day as they were seeking refuge.  The window of the church was filled with the skulls of the victims.  A disturbing fact for me to learn is that there are currently very few dogs remaining in Rwanda because they were also killed during the genocide because there were eating the bodies of the victims. 

On a more positive note, we hiked a volcano in Volcano National Park, one of a few places on earth to see mountain gorillas in the wild.  Permits to spend one hour observing them close up costs $500, and are difficult to acquire.  While in the park, we were told that there was a possibly that we would pass one of the groups of research gorillas on our hike.  We were told that if we did see them on our hike up the mountain that we would not be allowed to stop to observe them or take any pictures because they are not suppose to be habitulized to contact with humans.   Well we did see them on our way back down the mountain!  I saw two large males, one of which is the silverback of the group.  He was only about 30 feet away from me, so cool! We were allowed to stay by our guide for about 5 minutes.  Overall Rwanda is a beautiful, small country, currently living in peace filled with hillside farms and wonderful paved roads and transportation system which was a very welcomed convenience.

I will be returning to the states….at least for a while.  I bought my plane ticket for Sept 17th!

Update

Honesty got his surgery and is now back at home. The doctor thinks he will do pretty good. He sill need another surgery to remove the pins in 4 weeks. I will write the details when I get back to Moshi. I am in Rwanda, no phone as of now. I will be here about a week and then move on to Uganda and Kenya for a couple weeks.

Quick update

Good news, I went with Honesty today to Machame Hospital. He is now admitted to the surgery ward. He will have surgery at 1pm tomorrow and I will be in the operating room. I get to observe like the medical students! I will update again when I know a bit more. At hospitals here, there is no food service so I will be his family in the sense that I will be cooking and bringing food to him for the next 5 days. His wife cannot afforad the bus ride nor the time to make the 1.5 hour commute from their village (Shimbwe) to the village where he is having surgery (Machame).