To Give And Receive: TFT

Time in Africa is difficult to explain. In some ways it is totally flying by...we're already over half done our training! And in someways it is creeping by, polepole. We had a lesson in time in our Swahili class yesterday. Our teacher, Kisangi, told us that time here originated as they followed the sun, the crow of the roosters, the brays of donkeys, etc. Because of this, times of the day were not very exact, which causes people to just estimate the meeting times. Sometimes we refer to time here as TFT. Tanzanian Flexible Time.

This past Friday, our class spent the day once again at Mt Meru Hospital, which is in the city Arusha. A group of us set out intending to finish working on the giant autoclave that we had started last week. This endeavor led us into the city in search of parts. We had a glass cylinder that was broken, and we needed to find a peice of plumbing to patch it with. Our trip into town proved to be very educational. It made me realize that our purpose isn't just to fix the equipment, but to also overome the obstacles that make this work difficult locally. We walked down the main road, in and out of many parts stores: electrical, plumbing, carpentry, hardware, etc. Most of these stores had the common thread of being really unorganized (to the untrained eye). I'm sure that efficiantly finding parts for repairs is a constant barrier for the local fundi's (technicians). In the end, we weren't able to fix the autoclave, but what I learnt was invaluable for my future work at Nkoranga Hospital.

Each year, when EWH Summer Institute students are finished with their terms at the hospital, they donate their tools to their respective hospitals. This year, our coordinator is taking it to the next level and is purchasing the tools locally. This is a positive idea, attempting to ensure that the right tools are accessible for fundi's here, and also that we contribute to the African economy. However, this task was underestimated, and our coordinator has had a hard time finding good tools for a good price for our group.

This past weekend was wonderful. It was actually the last full weekend we will get to spend with our African families, and we were so grateful.

First of all, our Baba treated us like gold this weekend. On Saturday he took us to meet his Canadian friends. We've been hearing a lot about them, and finally we had the morning to go and visit. We met Darryl and Shirley who are from Winnipeg, Manitoba. They've moved to Tanzania and have started to build what will soon be a beautiful resurt. Theyown lots of beautiful land with amazing views of Kili and Mt Meru. They have created a very comfortable and welcoming place, and hope to host people who come to visit Africa! You can check them out here: http://www.dashirlodge.com/.

Back at home, Lauren and I took big steps in our relationship. It's called laudry day. We washed our laudry by hand with the help of our African sister, Christina. At this point in time, pretty much every peice of clothing I have here was in the laundry. I will think twice before I let this happen again. After an hour and a half of back breaking labor, we were finally able to hang our clothes on the line. No one has ever been so intimate with my intimates! All you people out there with machines, you take your clean clothes for granted!

Maxima, one of my host sisters, has her own beauty salon on our compound. Obviously she specializes in the coarse hair of Africans...but she confidently took me on as a client. I've never recieved such a fast hair cut in my life. With spray bottle and kitchen scissors, she finished my hair within ten minutes. Not only that, but she charged me 2000TSH. Aka, $1.30. I obviously paid more than that, but I'm continually blown away by the cost of living here.

On Saturday night, we lived every students dream and had a party in a classroom at school! We had projector and speaker hook ups, and had a great night of bonding. I must give fun credit to our very own DJ Ray, as well as Shakira. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0

On Sunday, Baba James took us out for lunch! He really treats us like his watoto. In the afternoon, Christina and Zubeta walked us through dinner preparations. From 4:00 until 7:00 we were in the kitchen preparing different dishes. We made an African favorite, pilau, as well as a beef stew, veggie soup, and fresh fruit juice. I'm picking up on some trends in African cuisine: lots of oil and salt, animal fat stays on the meat, and you boil the heck out of everything. Maybe it would have been better if I didn't know these things... Still, the food is really tasty!

My roommate, Lauren, is a really amazing girl. I'm so happy that I get to spend so much time with her, and look forward to working with her! She also keeps a blog and is a little better on the details. http://kuishitanzania.blogspot.com/

I continue to feel privileged to be here. As our time of training and education goes on, I'm grateful for this time to adjust to life here before the real expectation begins. As I'm anticipating our second month of field work, I'll request some prayers for my group:

That we can work together constructively to solve problems.
That we will be able to communicate with the other staff well, and gain their respect.
That we would be able to see the needs of the individual hospital situations.
That we could rely on God's strength in the problems that we face.