Name That Movie

OK I'm offering 500 Tanzanian Schillings to the first person who can name this movie....I watched last night.

As you can see, the white wall in the house makes for a nice movie screen from which its possible to project movies.

Wednesday is teaching day.....another lecture for the nursing students - today I gave a lecture on "Obstetric Hemorrhage". It is the first time the students have received any "clinical" lectures so sometimes I find it difficult to gauge their level of knowledge. But with an average test score of 50% either teacher or students are not doing so well!

Tuesdays and Fridays are now "operating days" - so any gyn cases that need to go to the OR go on Tues or Fri. Yesterday we had two laparotomies for adnexal masses - first was a 40 year old with large adnexal mass probably mucinous cystadenoma. Second was a postmenopausal female with large adnexal mass - turned out to be a dermoid cyst - probably she had for a few decades.....

Weather here has been beautiful last few days with lower humidity. Seems like the rainy season is behind us. Need to spend more time outside and back to the mini lake (Chemchemi) here for swimming.

Hope you are having more seasonable weather back home!

The Market

Almost all prices for goods in Tanzania are negotiable. There are exceptions like business products sold in Dar Es Salaam, however, almost anywhere else, you are expected to negotiate. Nowhere else is this more true that at the market. Today was no exception.
I just returned from the market to buy a few things, some fruits and vegetables, cooking oil and flour.....and just as always, I have to negotiate with the same vendors I see everyday.
But things are getting worse. I mean each time I go to the market more peoople approach me with items to buy and each is looking to sell me something for an inflated price.
Today the same thing happened. I rode my bike down the street to the market. The first person who saw me began shouting "Doctor, Doctor" and ran up to me with a handful of oranges. The greeting was heard by a bunch of other people who took it as a sign to draw near as well, and within minutes I was surrounded by at least a dozen people with fruits and vegetables, toilet paper, tooth picks, watches, shoes, etc. all yelling and screaming to buy their items.....
Today was a little bit different, there were more people, maybe 15 total, all urging me to buy something. Being a white guy in the market here, the locals know that they can inflate the prices on everything. And as much as I know it is a higher price there is no way to bargain! So I get all of my essentials and give the loudest person money. Next time I need to buy something I'm going to make a list and give to one of the nurses.......

I gave my nursing students a quiz today - just a simple 12 question test on anatomy/physiology of reproductive system. I asked the students after, what they though of the questions and most said that the questions were easy......The average score was a 50%, the highest score was 10 correct and the lowest was 2 correct. It was the first quiz I've written, so I tried to balance hard, medium, and easy questions! I included questions like name the largest artery in the body to questions differentiating between hormones involved in HPO axis......interestingly enough, one of the students who scored the highest, missed the answer to largest artery in the body!

At night its been quiet as usual. It helps having the projector that I bought in Dar es Salaam - the last few nights my neighbors have come over for a movie, popcorn and wine; we have been watching Godfather (part II last night)......

That's it from here. If you can think of any suggestions on how to improve test scores in Tanzanian nursing students let me know!!

Mother's day

Happy Mother's day!

Today was "Nurses day" - so all of the nurses are scheduled to work their normal duty hours but find time to ask all of the doctors for gifts! or money.....
It was busy today..... Started the day with an elective repeat c-section for twins at term with one previous c/section. Both male babies with good outcomes. Then another c/section for twins due to prolapse of the cervix and obstructed labor. Both male babies with good outcomes. Then had a ruptured ectopic. Tomorrow should be another busy day with a scheduled repeat c/section and TAH.

Hope you are doing well back home. Sorry to hear about the unseasonably cold weather in DC and Chicago! Its been in the 30s all week here....but in Celcius, so I can't complain!

Teaching

Started teaching the nursing school students yesterday! From 12pm to 2pm I gave my first lecture - "Anatomy of female reproductive system".

When I walked into the classroom it was difficult to keep a straight face because all of the students (twenty) stood up and greeted me as I made my way into the classroom.....something perhaps American students should do too? :)

Every lecture is preceded by a prayer and then greetings between teacher and students.

Luckily I prepared enough information to teach for 2 hours though this was difficult.

I took before and after pictures of my class to see if you can identify how many students were sleeping after the lecture, but I was happy to see only one student nodding off at the end :) So I agreed with the principal to give lectures to the second year students once a week for 2 hours.......it is a little bit of work to prepare the lectures but a great review for me and fun to teach these students!