Mikindani

Very enjoyable weekend in Mtwara!

We arrived in Mtwara Friday evening and had dinner with a Dutch couple who are good friends of my neighbor and in Tanzania visiting. Both are doctors and just finished spending 6 months in southern Sudan working for "Doctors of the world". It was very interesting to hear their perspective on work/life in southern Sudan and to compare notes on different NGO's.


Saturday evening was a treat! We drove into Mikindani, a short drive just north of Mtwara along the tarmac road. Mikindani is an old trading port that used to be the main port in the southeast before the development of Mtwara. We ate dinner at the "Old Boma" an old hotel built in 1859 that has magnificent views of the Mikindani bay and Indian Ocean. We met up with a few other volunteers who are placed in Mtwara. Before dinner walked through the town of Mikindani, and then relaxed in the hotel while the buffet was being prepared. Excellent food, wine and company....

Lazy relaxing day today. We skipped snorkeling because it was overcast and very windy, tough conditions for seeing the aquatic life and coral well....I layed out on the porch with a book and my ipod.

I'm reading "Africa - A biography of the continent" right now. Very interesting - Mostly an account of the history of the continent from an evolutionary point of view covering a huge time period, essentially from the beginning of life up to recent events.

I don't go to Mtwara that often (perhaps once a month) so I find taking in the landscape and peope living in the nearby villages very interesting. There are many small villages scattered about along the tarmac road. And in between villages are thousands of acres of thick bush, with dense forests of palm trees. It is easy to imagine dinosaurs or the earliest mammals roaming throughout the terrain. It is a very surreal feeling, kind of like traveling back in time hundreds of thousands of years ago. Of course this is where life began and the evolution of humanity took place! It is interesting too to observe how people live; I imagine not much has changed (in terms of individual lifestyles) since humans evolved and became hunters and gatherers, because most people in southern Tanzania are substinence farmers living off the land.....

Its back to work tomorrow and on call on Tuesday. Hope you had a nice weekend!

Stone Town

A few more pics from Stone Town, Zanzibar.

(From top down - 1. View from Archipelago's, a popular spot for brunch among Wazungu's (European/Expats) 2. View from dinner table along the beach. 3. Another shot from the table along the beach. 4. Congestion in one of the many narrow alleyway streets in stone town. 4. Approaching one of the larger markets from the main road).

Black cloud

I'm beginning to think I'm a black cloud when it comes to trauma cases because I only get called from the male surgical ward in the middle of the night. Last week I ended call with a stab wound to the lower abdomen, evisceration of small bowel. The other night two patients came in just after I fell asleep around midnight - stab wounds to the head and arms. For a country that is relatively peaceful there sure is plenty of violence (at least in Southeastern Tanzania during the middle of the night).

I took this picture the other day while walking back from dinner just before sundown, reminiscing about my last call night suturing scalp wounds in the theatre...Once the sun goes down the clouds do look a little black :)

Lindi

Took a day trip to Lindi last Sunday. Lindi is the largest town along the coast between Dar Es Salaam and Mtwara. Although nowadays Lindi is known to be a relatively quiet, "sleepy" town. The town center has many old colonial-era style buildings which look like they have been unoccupied for many years....
We wandered around town for a while. Not many restaurants or shops, but found one good restaurant that served kukuu na chipsi (chicken and fries).
Spent the afternoon at the beach (sorry Chicagoans reading this in freezing weather). It was too hot for sunbathing and low tide was too low for swimming. Most of our group fell asleep in the shade under a palm tree.
It was definitely a worthwhile day trip but I don't think I'll be going back to Lindi any time soon.

Donations

Call day on Wednesday was interesting. Started with a ruptured ectopic, then a c-section for obstructed labor. A D&C followed for retained placenta. I was back home resting by 1pm as usual. The call night itself was quiet until about 2am. I came to Maternity to assist in delivery. When I arrived the patient was complete and pushing. Review of the partograph showed entirely normal fetal heart tracing. Routine episiotomy cut b/c of tight introitus. Pt delivered with severe shoulder dystocia, nuchal cord, and terminal meconium. The baby died within 5 minutes after delivery.

Fetal heart tone monitoring in L&D uses Pinnard Fetoscopes, frustrating for me because documentation of short/long term variability is impossible. Frustrations continue. I've decided to publish wanted, classified ads in professional OB journals for used/old CTG/CEFM machines. Must be someone willing to donate to the hospital here. In the meantime I'm waiting for dopplers to arrive from Dar. Postal service operating very slowly this time of year!

Tomorrow is a Sikuku (holiday) here, no work. Going to relax tomorrow. Dinner with the neighbors, assignment to prepare a salad. Can't screw up salad, I think.
Sunday taking a day trip to Lindi, one of the larger near by cities on the coast. Maybe some snorkeling and wandering about the city for a while.....

Another picture of Stone Town, Zanzibar....many more to come.
Hope all is well back home.

B-Day, January 7th

My B-day was pretty uneventful:( (January 7th - in case you forgot:).
I went to work as usual and then had dinner at the Abbey Guesthouse. Eggs and rice :( pretty pathetic b-day dinner. After dinner I had a couple glasses of nice wine but then developed a bad headache:(....
It was the first time I've celebrated my B-day in the middle of the summer.... and in 30 degrees (celcius:)!

The picture is from Zanzibar....I'm hoping one day I can upload the rest of the pictures, and not go over my internet limit!

On call tomorrow again. Getting into routine here which is nice. Non-call days i am done by 3/4ish and on the bike and swimming by 5. Nights are very quiet! Have to find new books to read or new DVD's to watch.

No travel plans in the near future. Neighbors are going back to Dar in a couple weeks for a conference for volunteers who have been here over a year.....

first blog of 2008

Hope your new year is off to a good start....any new year's resolutions?

The picture is from the coast of Zanzibar, taken from the dinner table at a restaurant on the beach. Hoping to upload the rest of the pics from Zanzibar soon, I can't on my laptop because I'll exceed my internet limit of 100MB and end up paying my months salaray again....

Its been back to work this past week. Got tested for Malaria yesterday b/c feeling a bit feverish and fatigued but had a negative result. Probably viral syndrome. Feeling better today. Biked up to the pond and swam for half an hour today....then just returned from dinner at the Abbey. Today we were served meat and rice. The other night we had pizza (surprisingly good).

At night I find myself either reading or watching DVD's. Its safe to say there is almost absolutely nothing to do here at night. In the last few weeks I've watched 3 seasons of "Prison Break" about 44 episodes (its addicting....) and now i'm in the middle of reading a couple of books....."The state of Africa" and "Footprints of God"....The first a very detailed history of Africa, before and after independance....and the second an interesting sci-fi book that made its way around Ndanda.

That's about it from here. I am on call tomorrow night.
Sunday we have a "Secret Santa" party with the nurses. I had to spend at least $5,000 schillings to buy one of the nurses a present. Someone unknown to me to do the same and then exchange on Sunday. Monday of course is my B-day. No special plans as of yet.....