New house in Lindi

I like my new house. Its pretty spacious - 3 bedrooms, two baths, living room and kitchen. The water isn't working yet, but hopefully the plumber will come on Monday. The house is mostly furnished, there's sofas in the living room and bed and dresser in the bedroom, but i'm still waiting on a couple of pieces of furniture to come this week.

I love the backyard, its really a lot of space. There are two mango trees and two banana trees. In one of the pictures you can see the back of my house from the the backyard. In the front, there is a little cabana like house that is supposed to house the "askari" - guard, however, I haven't hired a guard, yet, I like to use this space for outdoor cooking or reading, etc.

There's a dog house! Sadly, though, they told me that my dog ran away! I was so sad to hear this bit of news. Though at least i won't have to worry about feeding a dog or listening to any barking noise at night. If I find anyone selling puppies, i might have to get one.


The pictures above = the little cabana like space in the front yard where an askari can work (= sleep). The other picture is the front of my house.

There is a large gate that surrounds the house and the white gate with black doors is the "front" of the gate.

Above = the dog house. The picture above the dog house is a view of the back of my house from the backyard. Its probably a hundred yards of space surrounded by a gate.

Mangos waiting to fall. There still not yet ripe, maybe by next month

banana trees

The bed in the "master bedroom" The two other bedrooms do not have furniture in them yet, hopefully this week.

Work, weather, life, and other frustrations

Work has been going well. But very busy. Worked in clinic last two days and felt like i saw about one hundred patients. Had one case in the OR - a salpingectomy for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Tomorrow we have four cases scheduled, two VVF repairs, one hysterectomy and one anterior colporraphy. Hopefully we will have electricity because the last time we tried operating, the electricity went out in the middle of the case.

It is so hot!! By 9am it feels like about 100 degrees. This morning the hospital driver forgot to pick me up at the hotel so I walked to the hospital. Only a 15 minute walk but it was uncomfortable to be in the sun for that long! I'm trying to remember to consciously drink extra water because its easy to quickly get so dehydrated here!

Finally saw my house! Its nice! 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, etc. The house is almost on the top of a very large hill/very small mountain. maybe 300 or 400 feet above sea level? Its about a 15 minute drive from the hospital, the first 10 minutes is a drive up a very steep hill.
House comes with a dog. Have yet to see the dog, but looking forward to meeting him/her!
Too early to tell if electricity will be a problem, but seems likely that it will be an issue.

People are very friendly here! But sometimes they stare at me like i'm a alien from another planet with 3 heads. Its not too bad in the hospital because people assume i'm a doctor, but in the city, there are very few wazungus, so if people see a white guy, they definitely give you an extra long look!

My diet hasn't been great. I've been eating two meals a day because its been so busy during lunch time, i skip lunch. I eat a hard boiled egg and bread with margarine for breakfast and dinner is local tanzanian food which can be very tasty but usually is fried and unhealthy. There is one new very nice hotel which seems to have a nice restaurant but I haven't tried the food yet.
Solution seems simple. I have a "household helper" who is waiting to come and help take care of the house and who also is capable of cooking! And the market in town has some good looking vegetables. The fish is very fresh and there are plenty of butchery's scattered about.

That's it from here! Hope everyone's well back home.

Hotel Chemi Kumi and Hospitali Sokoine

I've been staying at the Hotel Chemi Kumi for the past week.
The hotel is located right on the beach with a beautiful view looking out into the ocean. Often spend quite a lot of time, while away from work, sitting at the restaurant chilling out, relaxing with a drink. Its so hot during the day that its nice to get a cool breeze from the ocean to cool you off.
There's a family who owns the hotel and the children and their friends manage everything and do a very good job. The kids do everything - cook, clean, wash clothes, etc. The other day there was a party at the hotel and about a hundred people came for the party. Local tanzanian flavor music was playing all night.
The rooms are small but "cozy". There is usually no running water so I shower pouring water from a bucket over my head:) At least the water is hot:)

Electricity is an issue, in town and at the hotel it usually shuts on and off and the most unpredictable times.
Work has been going well. Spent the last couple of days working in the clinic. There are enough patients to keep me busy until mid afternoon. I usually finish work at 3pm if its a light day or by half past 6 on a busy day (last Thursday). Normally every Wednesday and Friday the Ob/gyn department has cases scheduled in the OR but didn't have any cases to do today. The main OR is under construction so we have been using a temporary OR near the eye clinic. The other day the electricity went out in the middle of a c-section. Luckily i had some light coming in from the window close by the OR table and we were closing the abdomen when lights went out, so it wasn't too difficult to finish the case:) but i'm not sure what happens when lights go out at night during a c-section. One of the nurses said that the anesthestist shines light from a cell phone onto the field to help the surgeon see. I'm not sure if she was joking or serious but wouldn't be surprised if she was serious. Fortunately there is a generator in the hospital so I think that the generator usually functions during the black-outs. There's also a lantern sitting in the changing room but i'm not sure if it works.
The hospital actually had 2 Gynecologist from Holland working up until last month. One of whom worked in the hospital for 4 years and made a very large contribution to the hospital - taught staff, brought in a ton of equipment, medications, and even started 3 research studies. Its definitely nice to have some foundation upon which to hopefully build upon. One of the Tanzanian medical officers was trained in some gyn procedures and now is capable of doing VVF repair and a few urogynecologic procedures in addition to routine general gynecologic cases.

The pictures are from Hoteli Chemi Kumi, and view of the ocean.

Lindi

Things are going well here in Lindi. Arrived Wednesday evening and met the Doctor-In-Charge of the hospital at a hotel where I'm staying for the next couple of weeks until the house that I've been assigned to is ready. Spent the day yesterday becoming familiar with the hospital and meeting a ton of new people. Again today, spent the day getting to know people and had first case in the OR - Anterior colporraphy for cystocele.

One of the biggest challenges is going to be to improve my Kiswahili, because fewer people speak English here in Lindi compared with Ndanda, so I'll need to get a better grip on speaking in Kiswahili - it will definitely make things much easier.

I've decided this blog will be a short one, the internet connection at the internet cafe here is decent compared to those in Dar and up north but its at least twice as expensive and I'm quickly running out of minutes!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to Mtwara. I'm going to take a Dala Dala (overcrowded minibus) to meet a bunch of other volunteers for Renee's farewell dinner. Renee's been working as HIV doctor for a gov't hospital in Mtwara for the last two years.
Will hopefully write more this weekend.