Day 2 and 3 at the Clinic

7/5 – 7/6

Monday morning, I went running with Priyanka and Natalie. I was hoping that perhaps my foot would be miraculously healed. Nope. However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought because we were running on sand. Perhaps, I will be able to strengthen my leg while I’m here. I’m sure missing p90x. 

The next two days (Monday, 7/5-Tues, 7/6), I was in triage with Michael in the clinic. Triage is the busiest in the mornings. I learned a lot of Swahili. The important phrases:
Karibu! (Welcome!)
Karibu kiti. Panda uzito. Nina kupima mapigo yamoyo. Nina kupima joto.
The boys from the Scottish med school (or we call them "Team Scotland") took the liberty of teaching me a few Irish (3 boys are from Ireland) words. haha

The best teacher I’ve had has been Elizabeth, also known as Bibi (grandmother). She is a nurse at the Nyakato health clinic. Bibi, by far is my favorite person in Tanzania. She is always smiling, laughing, and just an overall bundle of joy. On the second day of triage, Bibi teaches me a Christian song in Swahili and how to say Praise the Lord (Bwana Asifiwe). What a blessing it is to have met her. She is my Tanzanian grandmother.

After the clinic, I decided to join the boys, Brittany, and Sylvia on the soccer field close to the grounds. We get to the field to kick around the soccer ball when a group of local teenagers came to play as well. For some reason, I get picked to be on their team. Haha. At the beginning it was me and the Tanzanian boys against the Irish boys and Brittany and Sylvia. Eventually, we split the teams evenly. I haven’t really played soccer since high school, but I enjoyed the game. I was so sore. Slowly, I became more comfortable playing and joking with the Tanzanians. They wanted us to come back the next day. Good game, good game.

There’s another lady who usually cooks lunch for the IHP workers and dinners for the medical students. She came back today and we were blessed with her AMAZING cooking. I will have to learn how to cook from her. Lucy is another lady, who welcomes us warmly and nurtures us with her delicious meals. Every night is a feast.

So at night, there’s really not much to do. This really is a vacation. I get to do what I love during the day and then complete rest at night. We could play games, or watch a movie from the limited selection, or read a book. People who have been here have read a ridiculous amount of books since they’ve gotten here (or perhaps just Priyanka, who can finish a thick book in a day). I, of course, wanting to pack light, thought books would only weigh me down. Luckily, Paula has a lot of books and people have brought a wide variety of books with them to the bungalow (what we call our house on the grounds).