Tales from Tanzania: 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.