Anecdotes about TZ Hospitals

I've not been writing much lately because for the past few weeks I have continued to be sick and I'm trying to stay away from being whiny and all "woe is me."  But I thought I might make a few observations about my experience because going to the doctor's here is totally different than in that states and it's probably nothing like you might think.

•  Most of the hospitals in Mwanza have a lot of up-to-date technology. Now, they don't have everything that we have in the states (i.e. dialysis machines) and what they do have is not kept up properly. But some people may be surprised to know that I got x-rays and an ultrasound on equipment that's just as nice as in the states. Unfortunately, the power is not always consistent, so when I was laying on a table getting an x-ray, the power went out. So I had to lay in the dark for about 30 seconds until the generator kicked on. It was no big deal to me but I just wonder what happens to people who are on life-support. What can 30 seconds of not breathing do to a person? And it's horrible to think that a nurse probably has to choose which of the people in her care she will manually push oxygen. Horrible. This just shows how important infrastructure is. I have a TZ coworker who always says, "No power, no life." That's literally true in this case.
• You can't really go to just one hospital and have everything done that you need. I think I went to 6 different places to have various tests. This can make it extremely confusing because there is no one consolidated medical record for me. I had to start charting my own record in a notebook I have at home so as be ensure that I'm not missing anything and so I could tell each new doctor the whole story. I can't imagine how difficult this process would be if a person did not know how to advocate for themselves. How can doctors see trends and know the whole story if there is no record on file? I only realized that some things that were done had been done incorrectly once I had everything written in one place. No one would've ever caught that had I not done it. Again, Tanzanians have such a high mortality rate. Gee, I wonder if this has anything to do with it?
•  The people at each hospital I went to throughout this whole time were all super sweet to me, calling me their sister and welcoming me a million times to come back again (I hated to say to them that I hoped never to return). For example, when I had to put a medical gown on, the nurse locked the door and had someone outside standing guard while she stood guard inside. I don't know that it was necessary to do all that, but I do appreciate the gesture and the privacy. I wish they'd done the same for Tanzanians. Two times I was brought through a room where a Tanzanian person was partially undressed and getting an examination and one other time they left a door open while another really sick woman was getting dressed in a chair. Guess there's no such thing as HIPPA here.
• This is no war-zone, so when you go into a big hospital it's not like there is blood and guts everywhere. However, because there is a lot of disorganization and people are pretty much left to their own devices to go from one section of the hospital to another, you'll see really sick people just sitting/walking around. I saw a little kid with a whole cast on his arm (fingers to shoulder) just whimpering in pain; another skinny skinny skinny kid with a huge growth on her neck that obviously impaired her ability to eat or turn her head; a guy laying by himself on a gurney in the hallway, eyes rolled back in his head with a catheter bag in (I know this because the bag was sitting on the bed 1/2 full); one woman was sitting in the waiting area behind me and I guess she just got too tired because she just slumped off her chair and onto the floor and laid there, head down and all. I guess I'll stop there, but you get the picture. Sad stuff.
• It cost me less than $300 USD (paid in TZ shillings, of course) to have all of my medical tests done, including consultations and medication. That includes an ultrasound and about 10 x-rays. Crazy!
• I love the fact that in Tanzania you can just show up at a hospital and get something done. You don't have to schedule an appointment or anything. By word of mouth I heard that there was a pretty good urologist in town. My colleague and her TZ husband took me out to find the place. We just walked right in and he sat me down to talk about what was going on and give me advice. Not only that, I saw him 3-4 times and texted and called him a bunch and he didn't charge me a thing. Awesome! 
• You don't need a prescription for medicine in TZ. There are tons of pharmacies on every street and you can just walk right in and ask for whatever you want. Most pharmacies just carry the basics to treat the most common ailments (malaria, amoeba, cough, etc) and it's all ridiculously inexpensive. Unfortunately, the medicine that I am on for the next few weeks isn't easy to find and it's not at all cheap. I went to a big pharmacy in town that usually has everything. I told them what I needed, they gave me a bag of medicine and sent me on my way. Before I left the store, I clarified which medicine was which because they had put some of it in an unmarked envelope. But once I got home I realized that they'd sold me the wrong stuff. I had to drive the 1/2 hour back into town to return it. Once I got there they insisted that it was the right one. They have these 2-3 guys that sit at a desk in the corner and their job is to look up in a medical book what prescription you want and then give you the equivalent that they have. Unfortunately, the "equivalent" that they had was completely not the right one. They gave me medicine for heart failure instead of for bladder problems. I insisted it was wrong and returned it. Again, here in TZ you have to be your own advocate. Thank God for Google and my forethought to actually look at the literature inside the box.

By the way, when you read about all the tests I've had done you might think I'm dying or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. Basically my bladder wasn't fully emptying so urine was left and was developing constant bacteria. I'm on medicine for the next few weeks to get it all fixed up. I'll be glad when it's all over!

Grocery Shopping

On the way home from work today I made a quick trip to a new grocery store that I wanted to check out. Mwanza is growing every day and there are a ton of little grocery stores that tend to carry much the same things. Cereal, powdered milk, pasta, canned beans, olives, capers, olive oil, etc. I am always on the lookout for a place that has some variety, so I decided to check this place out.

My coworker was with me as we perused the isles and she stopped at the cereals, picking up a bag of muselix. She was asking the cashier how to cook it and what to do with it so I explained to her that it was like a cereal and that it did not need to be cooked. I said you could eat it raw or you could put milk on it and that it was healthy because it had nuts and oats. A few minutes later I found a bottle of tahini (a rare but not uncommon thing) and my coworker wanted to know what it was used for. In English I tried to explain what I use it for (hummus and felafel usually). Then I went to checkout and the cashier wanted to know what I use the tahini for. Explaining it in English was hard enough, but in Swahili. Yeah, that was a lost cause. Then she started asking me about other things in the store and what they were used for. How do I explain in Swahili what rosewater is used for when I'm not even sure in English.

It just struck me as funny that all the grocery stores in Mwanza have these same items and no one knows what they're used for. Surely there aren't enough westerners to support a dozen stores that all sell the same things that no local person uses. Well, I guess if all else fails with my job with women I could maybe find a use in a grocery store in town.

Tumaini Jipya (New Hope)

It's Ash Wednesday* and the season of Lent has snuck up on me fast this year. I have been sick for the past three weeks with malaria, a persistent urinary track infection and a bacterial infection. The malaria started 3 weeks ago; I took medicine but it came back again 2 weekends ago along with the UTI. So I took different malaria medicine and an antibiotic. But by the following weekend the UTI was still there and, in fact, had doubled in count and had brought with it the bacterial infection. So now this week I have been getting daily antibiotic injections and have been going to a urologist and getting tests to make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with me, since I never had this issue before moving to TZ and have had it pretty persistently for the last 6 months. Anyway, I write all this to say that the last 3 weeks have been pretty crappy. Chris has also been sick and doped up on medicine for the past week and together we've made quite a pair.

When I'm sick I tend to get cranky. I don't make a good patient. I like to always be doing something, so to sit and do nothing, resting and recuperating is not easy for me. And when I'm away from home and feeling yucky and stuck in the house doing nothing, I find myself falling into self-pity and doubt. I start to focus on all the things that I don't like about my life instead of the things that I do like.

So I have decided that I am going to try to take a moment each evening in Lent to talk to Chris about what I liked for the day, what went well or what was positive. There are so many things that go right each day, but it's so easy to focus on what went wrong, especially here where things seem to almost always play out differently than I expect. I am going to try to think of this Lenten season as a time of renewed hope, "tumaini jipya." A time to remember that I am here in this exact place for a specific reason. That reason may never be revealed to me but I must have hope and faith that I am where I am supposed to be and that my life is playing out the way it should.

For now I want to say how thankful I am to be here with Chris. There is no one I'd rather be home sick with than my best friend and hubby. That has to be the best thing about this whole Tanzania experience so far. Time is not as jam-packed here as it is in the states and Chris and I get to spend a lot of time together. I feel like our relationship has grown and changed and gotten so much stronger over the past year. And I am so happy to be doing this with him.


*Well, it was Ash Wednesday when I started writing this post.

A Week of Challenges

This week started out with a bang with me being asked by my boss at work to attend a week-long training on Quickbooks. Why would I be asked to attend a Quickbooks training when I'm not an accountant? Well, that one I'm still trying to completely figure out. Basically, I think he wanted someone to attend who could institutionalize the knowledge and really absorb what was being taught. I could attend and then later help our administrator (who is not very good at computers) to set up our accounts and get them running. So, I willing jumped in and then realized, duh, it's going to be taught in Swahili!

Luckily, I caught most everything that was being said because the program is in English so the class was pretty much more Swanglish than straight Swahili and that's a lot easier for me to understand.


The training class listening intently.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately because it got me out of 3 more days of training?), on Tuesday night I got sick with malaria and an infection and have been pretty much in the bed ever since. I had malaria (first time ever) last week, took 2 days of medicine and thought I'd kicked it. But then over the weekend I started feeling signs of a bacterial infection. I tried to rest, drink water, take care of myself so it would go away, but alas "nimeshiwa" (I didn't succeed). 


This is my breakfast for the next few days. Since arriving in TZ I've pretty much constantly been on some sort of preventative or curative medicine. I don't even remember the days when I didn't take medication.

What sucks even more is that Chris is sick too. He's got amoeba and an infection. They say misery loves company (though I wouldn't really go so far as to say we're "miserable," more just uncomfortable), but I would argue against that notion in this case. Although it is nice to have company while being confined to the house, it also is a pain because neither one of us feels much like doing the necessary things around the house, cooking, cleaning, making food, etc.

Poor Smokey wants so bad to come in and play because she's been neglected by us all week. Too bad she can't help around the house; but just don't think she'd get the dishes as clean as we prefer them to be.


Looking in from the kitchen door. "Isn't there anything I can do in there?"

First World Pleasures in the Developing World

Did I tell you Mwanza got a new bakery in town?

 
Oh, yeah!

And it's gooooOOOOOd. I'm also happy to announce that the chocolate glazed doughnut is pretty good too. I ate that one too fast this afternoon and didn't get a picture. Maybe next time, people.

Real Mass

Chris and I went to a 3 1/2 hour Mass in Swahili today. How's, that for devotion, huh? Well, I don't know about that actually but it sure sounds good. Or crazy. The parish was having 74 baptisms and 91 first communions this morning. In the past we've gone to a different Mass because we know how long these services can take but we decided to bite the bullet and go see what it was about.

I have to say, it was quite enjoyable. I didn't take any pictures because we were way up in the back of the church, outside actually, and it wouldn't have really shown anything. But it was neat, for sure. The girls were all dressed in fancy, frilly white wedding-ish gowns (which I always find kinda creepy, even in the States). Most of the people who got confirmed or baptized were middle school-age-ish. And it was all quite a celebration. After each child was baptized he/she stood in front of the church waving and everyone in the congregation raised and waved their hands and kigelegeled (made that ululating sound with their tongues). Everyone afterwards were taking pictures and it was just very joyous. We even got asked to be in a picture with two cute girls.

All in all, I'm glad we went to that Mass today. It felt like an important thing to do as part of the community and it was neat to be a part of the cultural event. (Though also, now next time I won't feel so bad if we skip the long Mass and go to the shorter one. ;)

Office Assistant

I'm doing some work at home this afternoon and since it's so hot I thought I might try to work outside under our little covered sitting area*. I learned two things from this, the afternoon sun is too hot and too strong to be deterred by the little bamboo covering. And, Smokey LOVES it when I work outside, which I guess technically is her office.



It was too much for me, so I had to move back inside. That didn't deter my little office helper though.




*which is affectionately called "The Embassy."

Adventure Weekend

One of the promises I made myself in this new year was that Chris and I were going to get out and do more fun things. We have a tendency to get in ruts and not do anything different or not get away from the humdrum of daily life.

So this weekend I was really happy when I came home from work on Saturday afternoon and Chris suggested we go out to lunch. We never go out to lunch! We had heard of a new fast food restaurant in town so we decided to check it out. Mwanza has no lack of restaurants, but all the restaurants have the same kinds of food, either Tanzanian (ugali, rice, meat, fish, veggies) or Western (pizza, burger, pasta). The new fast food place doesn’t have anything that’s way too different (mostly chicken), but I got the chicken shwarma wrap and it was good! I just like anything wrapped up in a tortilla-like thing. And this had french-fries and coleslaw inside the wrap. Even better!

After lunch we went over to the new bakery in town and it was AMAZING! I wish I’d taken pictures, but I’ll definitely go back, so I can do it then. They had both Tanzanian and Western treats including doughnuts, croissants, mendazi, samosas, cake, cookies, and bread. We went a little overboard and got a huge cookie, a doughnut and a slice of carrot cake as big as my head! We took our horde home and shared them. The doughnut was by far the best thing we tasted. I feared it would just taste like the same old bread they have here. But it was so good. Light and fluffy, fried to a nice crisp and the cream was amazing. Afterwards I was so sick to my stomach I had to take a nap to sleep my sugar hangover off!

Our other adventure for the week was on Sunday. The 5 lay missioners in Mwanza headed about an hour out of town to try a restaurant we’d heard mention of. It’s a place right on the lake and it serves western food and steak. 

 

The profits from the restaurant go toward two schools and an orphan program. We discovered that the founder and Executive Director is a fellow alumnus with me (NYU’s social work program). He’s younger than me and has been here 7 years already. Yes, it made me feel a little inadequate but it also inspired me to keep working and great things can happen. The place was very relaxing and the food was good. It was a great adventure and I definitely think we’ll be going back there again!

Tembelea

Just returned from a nice visit with some new friends. I'll tell you what, Tanzanian's know how to welcome people. We Westerners could learn a thing or two. They cooked us a wonderful meal, served us drinks and cookies, and Bibi Nancy even gave me 2 different fabrics to make a dress. Really nice folks.

In "Case" You're Keeping Track

Tanzanian Court System: around 5 (I've lost track of exactly how many times we've gone)
Reids: 0

Here's the pattern thus far of our court case from the robbery in July.

October sometime: This was our first court hearing and it was rescheduled for November 7 or sometime around there.

November 7(ish): rescheduled for December 6

December 6: rescheduled for December 21

December 21st: rescheduled for January 10

Today, January 10: rescheduled for January 24th (even though it's a public holiday and the court will be closed)

Each time we go to the court we spend about 2-3 hours waiting outside for our name to be called. Then we go in, along with the investigator who is pressing charges (if he shows up) and the accused robber. They talk for a minute or two and for one reason or another they reschedule the court case. The reasons thus far have been: too many cases for the day, the investigator isn't there, the translator isn't there, the judge isn't there.

Next time I propose that we're not there.

Epiphany

I just realized that today is Epiphany. And we skipped Church. I don't like skipping Church on a regular day, but I like even less on special days like this. But we're having a purely Tanzanian issue right now. With all the rains we've been having, our bridge is out of commission. Unless, of course, you feel comfortable driving over jagged rocks precariously piled on top of rebar as the only thing between you and the gushing creek below. Call me a worrier, but that's not really the way I want to go. We've found another rout, but there's this one puddle that I have to drive through and it's about as deep as I think is advisable before you start doing some damage to the car*. Well, last night we got some more rains and both Chris and I were a little nervous to head out not knowing the current state of the bridge** nor how much deeper the puddle is. So we made the decision to stick to home this morning and explore on foot to see if we can find some other alternate paths.

So, long story-short, we just finished a walk (abruptly interrupted by rain) and found another route that I think will hold out for as long as these rains continue. But we still missed Church. So, happy Epiphany, everybody.


*On that same road earlier in the week, while transporting a new missioner, I made a bad mistake and got stuck on a rock in a puddle, stalled, restarted the car and backed up, dragging the big rock with us. That little mistake caused 370,000 Tshillings worth of damage (around $240).

**Guys in the neighborhood on a daily basis will go out there and pile smaller rocks, dirt and grass on it. But then it'll rain and it all gets washed away again.

Happy New Years 2013

I don't have any reflective or thoughtful messages about the ending of one year and the beginning of another. We've had our ups and downs this year, for sure. But I can honestly say that at this moment I feel really good. I'm excited about 2013. We've got a lot to look forward to and I hope we'll be more confident and competent to accomplish more work-wise here in Tanzania.

To ring in the New Year last night we had a little gathering at our place with the newly-expanded MK community, having just welcomed 2 new lay missioners on the 30th. It was no "Reid Annual Christmas Party" but pretty close and we all enjoyed good food and good company.






Mark and David welcoming Veronica, one of the new missioners.


Fr. Jim and new missioner Rich get acquainted.

After spending the morning in Church and after a rainstorm, we made our way back home to find that the bridge leading to our street was overflowing with water.




Yeah, this is a bridge.

This is the main way to get to our house and we didn't know if the other ways would be overflowing too. So we just waited it out until the water was low enough for us to walk across.


I had new shoes on so like a Tanzanian, I just took my shoes off and walked the rest of the way home barefoot. Here's hoping I don't start 2013 with worms!

An End to the Holidays

The holidays are over and we're immediately back to reality.



We hope to get the painting done today so we can clean and move the furniture back in. We have someone coming to stay with us for a week starting Sunday and are also having a New Year's party on Monday. So we've got a deadline! Then we can jump back into the rest of holiday spirit. To keep that momentum going, here's a video of our Christmas sleigh ride to Musoma last week:

Merry Christmas

Chris's Birthday

We had a great day yesterday for Chris's birthday, celebrating in a very different way. We are in Musoma for a brief pre-holiday visit and managed to coincide it with the annual shopping spree with the kids from Lisa's Pride. Taking 25 children living with HIV/AIDS shopping in the market was certainly an experience! We had a great time.

They each had 25,000 shillings (about $15 US) to spend as they wished. I was in a group with 4 girls ages about 12 years. They each bought brand new dresses with little coverups and used shoes. After the shopping we shared a meal and because it was Chris's birthday we brought a cake and sang happy birthday. What a great day!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot (?) Like Christmas

I haven't made my usual assortment of cookies this year, but I've managed to get a few done.


My cookie cutters are dogs, seals, fish and (of course) lions. So ask me someday to tell you about the Christmas and Hanukah stories that involve these animal. Have you heard about how the seals originally had the idea to light the lamps at Hanukah? Or how lions help to keep the elves regulated and working at a quick pace? True.


I had to use some mangos so tried out these cookies. Meh...


Old tried-and-true.


The annual Fortes Christmas party lived up to the hype. Open bar. Great food. Total Christmas ambiance. Wish we could fast-forward to next year's already.


Chris approved.

I'd much rather think of all these Christmasy things than what our house looks like right now.

Wood paneling removed (and sitting for 3 days waiting for someone to come collect it!) and cement cleaned up a bit. Next is to paint, though I can't imagine how many coats it'll need to actually absorb and look semi-clean. Fa la la la la la la la la.

And So It Begins

With all the bugs and such I've not had too much time to tackle these mangos. But I've gotten a good start.


And so it begins.


Making puree.


What does Chris think about all this mango? "It's alright," he says.

I forgot to take a picture of this because I was so mangoed-up and sticky, but I also made this. I had to doctor it up a bit African-style (used pepitas instead of cashews, a chinese-type cabbage similar to bok choy, and green pepper instead of red). It was really good though. I'll definitely it make again. Maybe even tonight.

Third World Problems... Again

I don't think that I've mentioned our recent bug problems on this space. Chris has talked about it on Facebook and he put up some pictures and a video, but I think I've been too busy being stressed about mangos. This is a reincarnation of the bugs that visited us back in October, which you might've heard about already. Long story-short, for a few days in October and then again this month, we've had termite-like bugs swarming out of our wood-paneled walls in the evenings. The bugs are relatively harmless (well, except that they eat through wood and have ruined the walls) but it's quite a nuisance and messy and destroying the house. In October the bugs came for 2 days and then that was it. So we didn't really do anything about it. This time it's going on 5 days and the number of bugs have been increasing each time. Last night we noticed that the bugs are flying out and then burrowing into the walls in another spot.

Here's what I'm talking about:


We've been trying to get the landlord to take care of the problem but as we saw the situation getting worse every night we decided to take action. Today we've had an exterminator spray the room and the perimeter of the house and this weekend we're having the paneling ripped out. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully this will be the end of our shida ya wadudu (bug problem)!

International Human Rights Day

December 10^th is International Human Rights Day. It also marks the end of a two week campaign called 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), which started on November 25^th, International Day Against Violence Against Women.  This 16-day period was started as an international campaign by the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue, strengthen local work on GBV around the globe, link local and international GBV work, and other key issues targeting local and international GBV work.

Before moving to Tanzania I worked as a community educator in the field of violence against women. Through this work I became very close to these issues and developed a passion for the field specific to human rights. Moving to Tanzania has enlightened me to the fact that the struggle toward social justice is the same all over the world. Our cultures may be vastly different, we may live drastically different lives and problems may be more dire in some locations, but ultimately the equality and social justice issues that people face are the same globally and a similar mindset that supports inequality in America is the same as in Tanzania. 

Everyday for the past five years I have been listening to people's stories about the atrocities they face: a woman who has been beaten all day by her husband and ran away leaving her 10-month-old child at home; a friend of a family who's child has been stolen and brought to another town to be sold across the border; a victim of violence who has been charged by the police in order to file a police report; a child who has been molested for decades by a trusted family member. All of these things are normal circumstances for people all over  the world. It breaks my heart every time and I still don't understand how we can live in a world where these things happen with such frequency. 

But what breaks my heart just as much are the apathy and doubt that the general public feels about such things. I can't tell you the number of times I've found myself in heated debates with people who think we are fighting for social justice by pushing down other people (i.e. that we are trying to take away rights from men) or who try to claim that someone deserved to be hurt because they were in that situation in the first place or who say that people need to be hit or humiliated so they know they are loved. It's these kind of false, hurtful claims that continue to allow violence to happen.

I don't have anything profound or thoughtful to say. I just didn't want the day to completely pass without calling attention to the issue of human rights and to challenge the few readers at this space to do their little part. It doesn't need to be anything big or profound that you do. If everyone corrected misstatements and misperceptions whenever they heard them, we would no longer live in a world that supports inequality. 

Doing something says something. But doing nothing also says something.

I Wasn't Lying!

These are actually from a friend. This doesn't include what's growing on our tree. Keep the (cooking) suggestions coming.