3rd September to 14th October: Tanzania, Kilimanjaro, Wormsies, and Good Friends

Nats and I have had a great time out here. We spent the last 6 weeks in Moshi, which is a medium sized, but quite rich Tanzanian town just at the foot of Kilimanjaro. We were living in the leafy suberbs and every day we walked 20 minutes over classic red African soil with beautiful kilimanjaro in the background to get to the hospital, which was a great start to each day! In the hospital we've basically been studying how to be a doctor in a low income tropical setting, and so far we've covered some paediatrics, malaria and a lot of detailed stuff on worms and other parasites. The lecturers are mostly really cool, if a bit disorganised.

We spent quite a bit of time looking down microscopes at people's poo to spot little eggs and worms which was pretty cool! But now Im terrified of the environment and I refuse to eat or drink anything, and Im convinced Im going to get sleeping sickness from ever fly that lands on me! Hopefully this will pass...

In the middle of this we also went to Pemba for a week to look at poo in even more detail, which was much more rural and poor, but very beautiful, and the people there were incredibly friendly.

The best part of the course so far is probably the people though. There are 60 of us, 40 from high income, mostly english speaking countries, and 20 from East Africa, including Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and South Sudan. Its a bit like going to uni again, and everyone is in the same place with nothing to do in the evenings except hang out together, and so its been a lot of fun. Its amazing spending this much time speaking to the east African docs, and hearing about their health system, and their lives, and their pay, and their views on their political leaders, corruption, development etc. Both kenyan and tanzanian docs have gone on strike during this course due to pay and conditions (e.g. they dont get paid during specialist training - which is crazy), and their goverments have just summarily fired them and taken away their licenses to practice. Pretty scary stuff. It just seems to be part of the negotiation strategy though, as their licenses are now being returned. mostly.

Loads of love to everyone!

xxx