A Week of Enlightenment

Hamjambo,

Last weekend, we took a short day trip to the Marangu village at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We traveled with Eli and his wife Rose as well as another jubilee volunteer named Sharmika. We left around 10:00am and took an hour Dala-Dala ride to the village. We visited the Marangu gate, which is where the "coca-cola"(what the locals refer to as the easiest and most commercialized) route of Mt. Kilimanjaro begins. After walking around, we walked a few kilometers to a waterfall close by. The entrance to the waterfall is in the backyard of a family's house and we had to walk to down a steep path that had become slippery from the recent rain. The waterfall was beautiful (as you can see) and we had to wade through the river to get a closer look. Our fellow jubilee volunteer turned out to be "quite complex"(as our African friends put it). She was very picky and brutally honest about almost every activity we did and made our host unnecessarily uncomfortable at times. Overall, it was a fine trip.
Sunday was movie day at the Kyara residence. The closer we come to going home, the more we have started to act like Americans again. Our physical exercise has decreased significantly and
tendency for "couch-potato"-like behavior has increased (especially Ryan).
Our last work week at Mawenzi has been the most educational and productive so far. On Monday we met a doctor from Germany who just finished medical school and is awaiting acceptance to a residency in the US. We have followed her around in the Medical Ward with Dr. Nkini and she has been an invaluable resource. In addition, because of her additional knowledge, she has been acutely aware of the shortcomings of the hospital and has enlightened us about many areas that require immediate attention. She was especially upset that TB patients we left in beds next to other patients who had HIV. In one case, an old lady had a very serious case of TB but had not been given treatment yet. We had to track down the TB specialist ourselves and tell him about the urgency of her case or she might have been neglected until it was too late. We have started to help Melanie design a questionnaire for future volunteers so that the hospital can fully benefit from future support. We are also organizing a supply list for the hospital so that volunteers can bring any used supplies in the future. For example, it would be very easy for people like us to bring used charts from the states now that many hospitals are going digital. The hospital is in dire need of supplies and we would like to donate a sum of money to help as much as we can. If you were thinking about donating to a hospital in need, this is a great opportunity to do so. Thank you for your continued support.
We will see you soon.
Andy and Ryan