There's no Place like Home

Hey all!  This is Nat posting!  Sorry for my delayed post, but I had a little malaria scare (as Britty told you), but I'm feeling much better and the malaria test was negative!  While Kari, Britty, and Cari went on their wild adventure to the safari this weekend, I took the weekend to return to the small village, Tindinyo, where my family lives.  It was so awesome to see the again after five long years.  Of course they aren't truly my blood relatives, but while I was in Africa, they were my rock, the people I loved and trusted like my family, and still to this day, they are like my family.  I will tell you a little about how we met, so you understand our relationship.

As most of you know, I worked as a missionary nurse for a year in Kenya.  I worked in a small, rural hospital in the Western province in the pediatric ward as a charge nurse, fresh out of nursing school.  A month after I started my work in Kenya, I had appendicitis and after several days of waiting and wondering, I had surgery in this rural hospital that I worked.  After a week in the hospital, I was discharged and in true American fashion, I decided that I would do everything on my own, heal up a bit, and then continue my work in the hospital.  However, I soon realized that recovering from a major surgery was not something that I could do alone, especially in a developing country where the simple things in life were not so simple ( i.e. doing laundry, cooking food, etc.)  I asked around to find someone to help me and God brought me Jael, a 15 year old girl, who knew so much more about taking care of a house then I could even imagine.  Jael lived with me, cooked with me, taught me Swahili, watched American movies with me, learned how to use a computer, and so much more for the 2 months she stay with me.  We became extremely close and I visited her family in their home many weekends while we were together.  Her family became my family and she became my sister through this experience.  Even when she went to secondary school (a boarding school), we stayed close and we visited each other as much as we could. Leaving Kenya was so difficult, because I didn't know when I would return.  Thankfully, because of this mission trip to Tanzania, I was able to return Kenya.

The morning I was supposed to leave Tanzania for Kenya, we had no power.  I awoke at 3:30am to get to the airport by 6am.  Festo, our trusty taxi driver and friend here, picked me up promptly at 4 am and we went to the airport.  When I arrived, I couldn't find my passport anywhere.  Of course, since we were "off the grid", I didn't have anyone to call in the event that I lost my passport.  I looked at the girl at the counter and I pleaded in swahili, "Now what do I do?"  She said, "just relax and look in your other bag".  As I calmed myself and searched my bags, I found that I had put my passport and money in my big roller bag. "Stupid Mzungu!"  I thought as I thanked the airport lady and I went inside.  I filled out a form about who I was and why I was leaving the country and scanned my fingerprints (of course, I didn't have a pen and they didn't have pens for the public, so I had to beg an airport staff member to lend me his).  The plane we drove in had external propellers, which was a little disconcerting for myself, but overall our flight went well.

Plane Propeller

I had a few other minor issues in the Nairobi airport with getting my visa: picture the airport TSA lady holding my passport hostage while I ran down the street like a crazy, sweaty mzungu looking for an ATM that would accept my check card and then finding that the same airport lady accidentally put my visa in someone else's passport and gave the wrong passport to me (thank the Lord that I checked it before I crossed the street to the other terminal).  As I waited for my final flight, I grabbed a REAL cup of coffee from the same care that I once sat at years ago when I first began my journey to Kenya...best cup of coffee EVER!  My next flight was less than 45 minutes long and I landed in Kisumu, Kenya, which is in the western province, by Lake Victoria.  It was so interesting to be see the difference in topography between the dusty brown flat area of Nairobi and the lush, green bluffs of Kisumu.

I landed in Kisumu and as I waited for my brother, Dan, to come pick me up from the airport in his new car, I purchased a different sim card for our Tanzanian phone--apparently the Tanzanian sim doesn't work in Kenya, even though it's the same company that sells it.  As Dan pulled up, I saw Jael peak her head out the window of the back seat.  The last time I saw her, she had short hair that she had recently shaved, as per the regulations of her boarding school.  This time, since she had recently graduated from school, she had plaited her hair, so it was super long.  She looked so grown-up!  After a long embrace, we set off for our 2 hour journey back home.  Imagine if I were to have used matatus to get home, it would have probably taken 3-4 hours!

Jael and I in the car from the airport

When we arrived at the house, I greeted everyone and as per custom, Baba David said a prayer of thanks in Swahili for the safe journey.  In the 5 years that I was gone, a lot has changed in the house including new furniture, updated toilet room (before there was just an outhouse), a new sink in the living room (since it is custom to wash your hands before every meal), and a more permanent exterior of the kitchen, which is separate from the rest of the house. We sat and had tea and then Mama Everlyne and Jael brought in some flowers and sang a welcoming song.  We did a lot of catching up that night.  Baba loves to talk about the differences in Kenyan culture and American culture.  Of course, one of his first questions to me was "So, what do you think of Trump?"...that was an interesting conversation!  That night, it rained and hailed so hard that parts of the tin roof were leaking.  The sound of the hail on the tin roof was almost ear piercing.  I forgot how much it rains in Tindinyo.

Kenyan Family's Kitchen

The next day, Jael and I walked to the local primary school, where Baba David is the principal.  When I left, the school was not permanent, meaning it was made out of mud and wooden rods, so the kids actually would have to reapply mud to the school after the school day.  Now, the school is permanent and made out of bricks. Of course, this is a small village in rural Kenya and I am the only white person around, so people get pretty excited when they see me and even more excited when they hear that I can speak some Swahili.  A large group of class 2 (2nd grade) girls were following Jael and I for 30 of the 40 minutes it took us to walk back home.  They were so giggly and cackled at me as I talked with them and almost got hit by the pikipiki (motorcycle).

Dan has a small duka (shop) near our family home that he and our other brothers, Derrick and Delwit, work at.  Jael and I spent a lot of the rest of the day hanging out there with Derrick and taking selfies, which is probably one of Jael's favorite past-times.

Jael, Derrick, and Delwitt in the family duka

Duka Selfies

Duka Selfies

The next day we went to Jael's school, so she could get her transcripts for her college.  We rode a pikipiki (motorcycle) part of the way to her school...yes 2 of us plus a driver on one motorcyle.  I about died, and of course, I chose that day of all days to wear a jean skirt (not a lot of "give" to straddle a motorcycle).  We survived the pikipiki adventure and went to the office to get clearance from the school to get her transcripts, which entails each of her teachers signing off that she doesn't owe any money for lost items.  This was a much longer process than I realized and we ended up staying there all day, waiting for her teachers to walk by so we could have them sign off for her.  This left me a little sunburned and crabby, but it was worth the wait, because she did end up getting her transcripts.  Jael said that some people have to do this process for several days before successfully being "cleared" and getting their transcripts!

Soon after we arrived home we found that our other sister, Sylvia, had journeyed home from her work.  She is currently working in the town "Mukumu" in a duka (shop) near the hospital that I used to work at.  It's about an hour and a half car ride.  Sylvia loves to talk and tell stories, so of course when she arrived home she told us this hilarious story about a customer who didn't pay for a soda and she chased after him and ended up in a funeral procession van that was driving away, pleading with him to give her the money for the soda and screaming for them to stop the van.  She didn't have any money or phone with her, so the man took pity on her and gave her the money for the soda plus her the money for her fair back to the shop in a matatu.  She better put that one down on her resume!

Sylvia and I in her duka

The night for dinner, we had kuku (chicken), which is customary to make for an honored guest, and Jael and Mama brought out a cake that they had baked at Mama's house at the hospital, where she lives during the week.  The tradition is the "Honored Guest" cuts the cake and then feeds a piece to each person in the room, from the oldest man to the youngest woman.  Kenyans really know how to welcome a person home!

The next day Sylvia left early in the morning to return back to work in Mukumu, she had only come to see me.  Jael and I had planned to go to the nearby town called Kapsabet, which I have never been to, but I decided that we should go to Mukumu so we could surprise Sylvia and I could see the hospital again.  After riding in 2 matatus stuffed with people (and a live chicken), we arrived.  Sylvia was so surprised!

Going to the hospital was so surreal, but most of the people I knew there had moved to different places, so I didn't greet to many people.  Currently, the wards are stuffed full of people because and the doctors of public hospitals in Kenya have been on strike for more than 80 days and Mukumu is a private hospital, so they had doctors!  It made me think about the nursing strike that we had in Minnesota for over a month.  I can't imagine not having any doctors for almost 3 months and the strike is still on with no signs of agreement!

The children's ward where I worked

The Surgical Theater where I had surgery

We visited with Sylvia and a friend of Jael's for a while and of course we had to head in to Khayega, where the local free market is.  Saturday is the biggest market day in Khayega, so there were lots of people around, including many men on pikipikis (motorcycles) taunting, "Mzungu, Mzungu. How are you?!"  We ate at a restaruant in Khayega and headed back to Mukumu to visit with Sylvia and bring her lunch.

Khayega Market

Corn Mill

We arrived home late in the evening, but in time to eat dinner and go to sleep.  As is our family tradition, we sat around the living room, ate dinner and watched the news in both Swahili and English.

Welcome Cake

The next day was a pretty melancholy one for me as I had to say goodbye to my family early in the day to travel back to the airport.  Baba joked that he was going to lock me in the house so I couldn't leave and that Brian would just have to cry and do nothing about it.  After taking many pictures and saying goodbye to Mama, Baba, Derrick, and the family dogs Scooby and Rex (who is actually a girl); Baba said a final safe journey prayer in Swahili and we set off in Dan's car for the airport.  Along the way, we spotted a matatu with a giant picture of Trump on the back, which we all thought was hilarious, so I of course had to take a picture.

Trump Matatu

Saying goodbye to Del, Dan, and Jael was pretty gut-wrenching and emotional for me because I just don't know when I will be able to travel back to see them!  I am so thankful that I was able to travel to see them; I just wish I had had more time to see them and the other friends that I left in Kenya.

Last Selfie

I arrived back at the airport and found our trusty taxi driver, Festo, waiting for me.  Apparently, he had misunderstood me on the timing, and had arrived at 12pm instead of 6pm.  Oops!  Thanks Festo!

It was an awesome adventure and I can't wait to go back!

Until Kesho,
Nat

Do you know what I mean?

Today was more of a low key day. The day started with a presentation by Brittany and I in the main auditorium for the all-nurse Tuesday morning meeting. Last week Cari and Nat presented on "What is Cancer?" and Brittany and I continued that presentation with "What is Chemotherapy" and "Safe Handling of Cytotoxic Medications." It was an hour long and had time for questions at the end. One thing we noticed here (and I can't remember if we have mentioned it before)- is that during these presentations, everyone is so polite. If they have a question or comment at the end of the presentation, they ALWAYS start off by saying, "thank you so much for your nice presentation on chemotherapy, I was wondering..." B and I decided that we are going to bring this polite practice back to Station 88....(For example, "Thank you, Kristin, for your nice demonstration on foley insertion. Although you explained everything really well, I wanted clarification on what we do with this part of the kit?") LOL!!

After the presentation we headed back to the homeland- the Cancer Care Clinic. This week there is a pharmacist from Germany, Peter, who is here doing a workshop on safe handling and preparation of cytotoxic medications. He has been around the last few days, observing and taking notes on what could be done to improve the workflow here. Since there are a few differences between here, Germany, and America, we have a lot of things to discuss!! We sat in for the first few minutes of the workshop (there were a few pharmacists, other doctors from other wards, and a few other people I didn't quite know) and were introduced, but gracefully made our exit when the presentations started. We will actually be presenting tomorrow during the workshop on the nursing side of chemotherapy administration. After discussing the agenda with Peter, we all agreed that it would have been interesting to sit in on the workshop, but we simply do not have time! Another day..

We headed over to the infusion center (which was empty) and began working on two things: protocols and the power point presentation for tomorrow. Brittany and I chugged away on protocols, and Nat and Cari started to make the presentation. We worked for a few hours, and then decided to head home for lunch, we were starving! We made the familiar 15 min trek and arrived "home" to some seriously wonderful smells. Fatuma had started to prepare lunch. While she finished cooking, we debriefed on how the rest of the afternoon would go. We had a delicious lunch of rice and lentils (seriously, I don't know how that woman can make something that seems so boring SO DELICIOUS!).

Walking back to the CCC, we encountered a Norwegian man who is here as a physical therapy student. We have been running into more and more muzungus, I'm not sure if they were here all along and we have been in our own bubble, or if they all just arrived, but there are so many here now! He invited us to a BBQ tomorrow evening at a neighboring house, one of the girls they traveled here with is having a little birthday party with all new friends she has made here. We appreciated the invitation but we actually have other plans. Furaha invited us all to have dinner at his house with his wife and child, and we are really looking forward to it!

In the clinic, we continued to chug away at the protocols. Currently, the oncologists see a cancer diagnosis, and look up in their books etc on what the protocol should be for the treatment. This can be a really time consuming task, they then have to hand write out the whole protocol in the "orders," and then again in the MAR. We are attempting to create documents that can be their "protocol sheets"- where they can turn to the file cabinet and pull out the protocol for neoadjuvant Breast Cancer- for example- and the chemos and dosages will be typed and printed in the treatment box. Hopefully this will save them a lot of time and headache. We currently have made almost 40 sheets with different types of cancers, etc. We plan to have a big meeting tomorrow with the oncologists and the pharmacist, to review them and hopefully finalize them so they can start to be used! It's a time consuming process but the protocols look really nice and they should be really helpful.  Here's a pic of just some notes (aka chicken scratch) that I took while confirming with Furaha which protocols and cancers they want, as you can see, its pretty detailed!

One of our favorite times of the day is at the end of the infusion day- when we are all working on our presentations/protocols etc. This is the time where Furaha comes over and checks in with us to see what questions we have. Since he is busy all day with patients, we usually just make a list of questions and things to clarify with him (sometimes there are multiple protocols and different lines of chemotherapy- and not all of the chemos are available here- so we don't want to write up a whole protocol if it isn't even relevant). After we get the questions answered, we usually just start chatting with Furaha about anything and everything. Upon chatting with Furaha, we realized that our taxi driver, Festo, had taught us a HORRIBLY OFFENSIVE phrase but told us it meant something else ("I'm hopeless"- we were using the phrase a lot when it came to swahili, because usually one or most of us is confused about what is going on). When I mentioned it to him yesterday, Furaha almost fell over laughing. Literally had tears in his eyes. It was so embarrassing but also so funny at the same time. I don't know why this stuff keeps happening to me- first I spray him in the face with saline and now this. Anyway, at least he is a good sport about it. After laughing and laughing, he asked us if we wanted to know what it meant, and when we said yes, he started laughing again and it took him a while to get it out. Needless to say I will not be repeating it here on this blog! Thanks a lot, Festo.

We were able to finally pay Oliver (the other oncologist) for the disposable bone marrow biopsy needles that we purchased with the Fairview Medical Mission grant money. We might have mentioned this before, but the most direct and easiest way was to have Oliver purchase them from a supplier he has found in Belgium ($9 per kit)- and have us pay him back in Tanzanian Shillings. It took almost a week of pulling out the maximum limit at the ATM to reach the $950 we needed. It was the equivalent to over 2 million shillings!!!! We counted and re counted and basically felt like ballers when we handed it all over today. It was quite a bit of cash to hand over, especially since 950 US dollars can go a very long way here. These bone marrow biopsy needles will last them a year.

Here's a pic of a patient that was in the clinic today. Through Nat, and broken swahili, we were able to communicate a little bit with him. We gave him some Play-Doh (Thanks, Liz!) and he was so happy! It was so fun, he was such a cute and polite kid.

Until Kesho (tomorrow!)
-Kari

PS: The title of the blog post is something that WE CANNOT STOP SAYING. I don't know why it happened or how it happened, but now, almost every other sentence ends with, "you know what I mean?" I think we are spending too much time together and I regret to admit that I am the largest perpetrator of this annoying habit. We are all calling each other out on it and it's pretty much dominating our conversations. Hopefully by Zanzibar this weekend this phase will have passed! If not, it may be a fun drinking game ;)

PSS- haven't mentioned the McKroket today. Well here we go.. next week we will all be reunited with this delicious dutch "hamburger" from the McDonalds in the Netherlands. YES!

The Underwear Bush

                We were told that we would be getting a new house guest for the week. All we were told was that he is an Ethiopian doctor. So when we arrived back from the safari we were surprised to see a white male with a Scottish accent greet us. Minor miscommunication (which we are getting use to) being told he is Ethiopian.  

                Our new roommate is named Ryan and he is a surgeon from Scotland. He is here with a group of coworkers and they come to KCMC every year to teach the new surgeons about how to use a laparoscopic machine that was donated by their hospital years ago.  There group has been coming for 11 years and it is nice to see how organized and stream lined their time here is. We hope that station 88 can continue sending our nurses every year and continue on our new bond with the cancer care clinic.    

                Today was a chemotherapy day. Kari and I did a morning presentation on how to calculate drip rate. After practicing a few calculations with the nurses we headed over to the infusion clinic to help the nurses put their new skills into practice. Today we realized how challenging changing a person’s work flow can be.  Having the nurses not only do drip rate calculations but also stand there and make sure there chemotherapy is running at the correct rate is a tedious task but much needed. We felt like Nazi’s continually making sure that the nurses were calculating correctly. Hopefully the nurses are not to upset that we just added more work to their routine.

                Today was a crazy day. Not only was there many patients to be seen in the infusion center but also a pharmacist from Germany named Peter is here and is also trying to help streamline some of the processes in the infusion center. We have made a plan to have a group meeting with the Furaha, Oliver, Jane the RN, Peter and the CCC pharmacist to discuss some changes that will hopefully help improve the workflow.

                On a side note our poor Natty was not feeling well today, she had a headache, fever and upset stomach. Being that she just returned from Kenya we decided it was best for her to be tested for Malaria. Luckily she was negative and we think she is just a bit dehydrated. So we are pushing fluids and sending her to bed early. Hopefully tomorrow she will be good as new.  (Also, the rapid malaria test looked like a pregnancy test, they pulled it out of a box and put a drop of blood on it.. one line means negative and two lines means positive!)

                After work we headed home so tired from the day. When we arrived home we were pleasantly surprised to see we had an underwear bush! Fatuma our house keeper had done our laundry and had no room left on the clothes line and decided to put our underwear and socks on the bushes outside. Money doesn’t grow on trees but I guess underwear and socks in Tanzania do! Below is the greeting our new house guest will get when he comes home today.

                The other girls decided to go to one of the restaurants that were recommended to us. We were told that this was a very popular muzungu place that we would probably like. So they called our trusty cab driver Festo and were off. They said it was so nice to eat some pizza and pasta, we all our missing our American food.

                So now it’s off to bed for us here. Tomorrow Kari and I will be doing a 1 hour presentation on what is chemotherapy and safe handling. This presentation will be to the nurses from the CCC and hospital. Wish us luck!

Until tomorrow,

 Brittany

Lions and Zebras and Warthogs, OH MY!

Nat managed to get up on time and out the door - thankfully Festo (who is not on Africa time- we have noticed) showed up right on the dot at 4am to take her to the airport. Kari heard her rustling around and being the key holder, leapt out of bed to unlock the door (not without struggling to get out of the mosquito net....but we are getting better!) The doors here require a key to lock and unlock - and Kari had the key tucked away after the "incident" we had a few days ago. The rest of us got ready and were picked up at 8am in a tan colored 8 passenger Land Rover by our Safari guide, Kili (like Kilimanjaro). We all jumped in the vehicle and headed into Moshi town to pick up the other two people who would be joining us on our 4 day safari. We all guessed maybe it would be an old bird watching couple or maybe a young married couple. To our surprise and delight, it was 2 girls from Australia who we our age! Kirsty and Becky (the Australian girls) piled in the car and we were off! 

We chatted and found out that Becky was in her final year of medical school studying to be a OB doctor. She has been traveling Europe and Tanzania for 3 months now and is planning on heading home in a few days. Kirsty is a high school biology teacher who is taking a year off. She flew here to meet Becky to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. After TZ she is heading to Thailand as well as a few other SE Asia countries for 3 months. Needless to say we found plenty to talk about with a biology teacher and MD student.

We drove 3 hours to the first park, and we quickly realized that once you get outside the city, donkeys are the equivalent to our deer. They are everywhere! We drove until we hit Tarangire National Park, where we stopped to have a boxed lunch along with many other safari goers. As we ate lunch, Kili paid our entry fee and we were off! We knew the top of the Land Rover came up but we weren't quite sure how until we came back from lunch and it was all set for us to go. It was super nice to be able to peer out the top and see everything that was going on. 

First things first. They really need to start showing the Lion King on the plane ride to Africa! Most of our knowledge of African animals has come right from that movie. This movie would have been a great refresher to watch before our safari. Thankfully, Kili knew all the names of the characters in the movie and it helped us along the way (telling us the warthog, aka "Pumba" was over there). The highlight of the first day was when we turned the corner and came across dozens of elephants crossing the road and heading right towards us (slowly, of course). Some were rolling in the mud to get away from the heat. We were in awe of how many there and how majestic they looked. 

Some of the other animals we saw at Tarangire National Park include; impalas, giraffes, elephants, zebras, jackals, guinea fowl, baboons, blue monkey, black face velvet monkey, ostrich, and our first cat sighting- two females and a cub lion! 

After spending 4 hours driving around and seeing all the animals, we headed out towards our camp site. Kili offered to bring us to a Maasai village to see how they live. The Maasai are a tribe that are really only prevelant in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. There's only about 1.6 million (800 million in Tanzania and 800 million in Kenya) that currently live and practice the Maasai lifestyle/traditions. We agreed and stopped by. The Maasai live in small huts that are visible from the road.  One man has many wives and each wife builds a small hut to live in with her and her children. The huts are made of sticks, mud, dung, and wheat/hay for the roof. Inside the house there is one bed for the entire family and a small place to make a fire for cooking, and an area for holding dishes. When we got there, they performed two tribal dances and included us. They dressed us in traditional garb and welcomed us into their village. We toured the house and saw the schoolhouse. Becky had spent one week in a Maasai village during her time here and explained to us parts of their culture. It is vastly different than ours and difficult to put into words. If you are curious about them, look it up on Google and you'll understand what we mean. 

We headed to our campsite which felt more like a retreat than a campsite. We sat down to a gourmet dinner made by our camp cook, George. We all shared a bottle of wine and also enjoyed a few beers that we purchased at their bar. We were really living in luxury with the canvas tents that had twin beds inside- up on a bed frame. They were two to a tent, and Cari thought she'd attempt her first camping experience sleeping alone. (spoiler alert- she said she slept better that night than during the whole trip combined).

In the morning, we had a great breakfast and packed up our stuff to head to the Serengeti. We drove for another few hours, stopping at a view point looking over the Ngorongoro Crater, where we were going to be on the third day. After arriving at the Serengeti gates, we enjoyed a boxed lunch that George had prepared while Kili paid the park fee. We continued driving into the Serengeti with the roof open, quickly realizing that large dung beetles could whip into the Land Rover (even while going 60km/hr on the highway)! As we were driving, we all heard a large scream from the back- a beetle had zoomed past Kari's face (she ducked and panicked, naturally) and hit Cari in the forehead. Cari leapt up despite the fact that we were going so fast, screaming bloody murder. Kili and George thought this was hilarious- and pointed out that they do not bite! 

The Serengeti was absolutely enormous. We came across what seemed like thousands of wildebeest and zebras. This is their migratory season and it was quite the sight. We also saw hyenas, one cheetah, a slender mongoose, lots of birds, a couple camels, baboons, hippos, and topi. The highlight of day 2 was when the guides spotted a leopard close to the road, hiding in some brush. We spent a few minutes waiting for the leopard to come out, and he gave us quite the show. He walked along a tree branch and headed in between the land rovers, and eventually crossing the street, posing for us. 

We pulled into the new campsite in the Serengeti and it was rainy and gloomy. It was definitely not as luxurious as the first camp site! It was explained to us that this campground had no fence, and there was a possibility of lions, hyenas, and other animals waltzing though the site. In fact, there were several giraffe just a football field away. Kili asked us if we wanted more of the Kilimanjaro beer and we all agreed, deciding we needed a drink to get us through this night! He explained to us to that normally there's a "mobile bar" that comes through the camp sites (there were quite a few camping areas all spread out) but because of the rain it was not coming today. We hopped in the car and went to a small canteen just 5 minutes away. It was crazy to think there is an operating shop in the middle of the vast park with all the animals around. While there, we saw our first Buffalo! Upon returning to our site, we saw Zebras and Buffalo standing in the driveway, and there were Buffalo RIGHT THERE like a few feet away from where our friends were waiting. It was so amazing. We cracked open the beers and thought that if we were going to die, being eaten by a lion is quite the way to go!

We had another amazing dinner prepared by George (can he just come home with us?!) and crossed our fingers for a good nights sleep. Kili told us we would hear the lions grunting between 4-5am every day to mark their territory, but "don't worry, they are more afraid of you than you are of them" HA!  Brittany decided she needed to take 50mg of Benadryl to get through the night. Not only were the animals loud, the other campers were loud as well! Cari and Kari barely slept a wink- listening to hyenas rummage though the garbage, neighbors snoring, and lions grunting. Brittany slept really well - having her malarone dreams all night. Kili had told us the evening before to be ready at 6am for a quick breakfast and a morning drive. 

We headed out as the sun was rising. We saw giraffes (one was VERY close!), topi, our first sighting of a male and female lion on their honeymoon (more on that later..) hippos in the pond, more lion, and rounded out the morning drive with more giraffes and elephants. You know you are getting spoiled when you look out the window and think, "oh, just some zebras, nothing special" We learned that the young baby zebras were actually brown and white, and they turned black and white when they get older. We were due back at the camp for brunch at 11 before heading to Ngorongoro Crater. We were served more food than we could eat (this was becoming a theme here) and packed up - leaving the Serengeti around 2pm. We continued on to the Crater.

We made it to our third and final campsite- and it was quite nice. Not as nice as the "resort," but a step up from the Serengeti. We were camping up on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. There were a lot of people at this campground, including people from Norway and Germany. We showered while our tents were getting set up and relaxed a bit until dinner was ready.  We had to get used to the "squat" toilets, because they didn't have the "western" toilets we were used to. We quickly learned to always carry a roll of toilet paper with us!!! Everyone ate together in the makeshift dining hall. At camps like these, each Safari group has their own guide and cook. The cooks travel along and bring a mobile kitchen. When arriving at the camp grounds, they get set up using the very limited facilities they have- normally just a sink and tons of counter space. They each prepare the food for the people on their respective Safaris. It was an interesting experience. We ate dinner in a huge shelter with tons of other people, but it was still somehow an intimate setting- chatting with the people in your own group and eating the food personally served by our cook. 

Kari and Cari decided to take advantage of the earplugs that Kari had brought. Kari also decided it was time for 25mg of Benadryl, taking it slow!! Maybe we were all just so tired, or used to sleeping with the animals so close by, but it was the best night of sleep we all had gotten! It actually got REALLY cold overnight. We didn't have a way to check how cold it actually was, but we were guessing at least 35 degrees. We got an early 6am start again to do our final drive though the Ngorongoro Crater before heading back to town. We saw rhinos in the Crater (along with many, many other animals), which completed the "Big 5." The big 5 are the 5 most dangerous animals to hunt on foot. The animals are: Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Lion and Leopard! We were ecstatic we saw all 5!

This is where we experienced the coolest/most terrifying moment of all of our lives. We drove up to another honeymooning lion couple as they were lounging on the side of the road. There were quite a few Safari vehicles around, seeing the huge cats close up. The female lion soon got bored and decided to start wandering between the pack of land rovers, flopping herself down right in front of us. Kili explained that these lions were on their "honeymoon" which means that when the female chooses a male to mate with, they mate every 30 minutes for 3 days straight!!! That's quite the feat. The female lion started provoking the male by growling and nudging him with her paw. Kili explained this was a sign that they were about to get it on.... if you know what we mean. Everyone watched and waited, while more Safari vehicles started showing up. This did not please the male lion and he started showing his teeth and growling a little at the cars. We started to get a little nervous but Kili wasn't fazed. The female got bored and started wandering around through the cars, ending up directly in front of Cari's window. Of course, everyone was panicking and snapping photos. Cari quickly slid the window shut and almost peed her pants. The male and female lions laid next to each other and- boy- was Kili right! The next thing we knew the male had hopped on the female and we had a FRONT ROW SEATS, let me tell ya. It was quick- probably less than 15 seconds. They laid down and rested as we were all freaking out. We must be the fertility group because we not only saw these particular lions as well as the lions mentioned earlier, but we also saw lizards mating, giraffes mating, baboons mating, and zebras mating. It was pretty funny and turned into a running joke between us. 

Random thoughts/fun moments of the weekend:

1. Cari's use of "The Travel John." For those of you who are not familiar, this is a personal, disposable urinal bag that changes the liquid into a gel. We got the idea to bring them from a nurse we work with while we were delirious on a night shift (thanks, Dausyn!). Every morning, Cari emerged from her tent, carrying the gel filled travel john 
2. We had a blast chatting with the girls and learning Aussie phrases. "Cans" can refer to beer, they say "mate" all the time, and use words like "reckon" and "heaps"! Super fun. We also learned that one of the girls will be at the same hotel we are staying at in Zanzibar...at the same time! We will definitely be meeting up in a week to swap stories and have a beer........or two.....or three......A funny quote Kirsty said when we were talking carrying children vs. adopting, "I feel like carrying your own child is like baking a cake from scratch!"
3. Cari has yet another new boyfriend, this time a married man (!!!) who was a safari guide/cook. He was giving Cari the eyebrows every time he passed by her, and has already asked her to go on a "date" in downtown Moshi sometime this week...she declined....respectfully reminding him that he was married.
4. Kari almost got her camera taken away by the Ngorongoro Crater Rangers. They stopped to talk to Kili and by instinct Kari turned on the camera she had. The flash popped up and it appeared that she was taking a picture. The rangers immediately told Kili that it had to be deleted, but there wasn't actually a photo that was taken! They didn't believe her and had to look through the camera to make sure.
5. A rule we had to follow when leaving the truck was to always shut the windows, because as Kili said, "if you leave the windows open, baboons come in and steal your stuff"

As a parting picture...here is us, the whole group, in front of the Land Rover. George, the cook, is on top. Kili is on the end of the group, next to Kirsty, Becky, and then the three of us!

-Kari, Brittany, & Cari

Going off the grid...

Today has been a day of many firsts.  While our day started out in our typical fashion (lying in bed and wanting to sleep longer, drinking tea, eating toast and eggs, Brittany rushing us out the door, followed by our 15 minute walk to campus), there were many firsts seen today that will be explained along the way.

Today was the last day that we needed to split up into two groups to divide and conquer.  While Kari and Brittany went off to teach one of our last presentations, Nat and I went to the weekly Wednesday morning conference.  Today’s presentation was given by doctors from the Pediatric Department and the topic was on Anthrax.  It is so interesting to learn about diseases that we are so unfamiliar with, because we do not see them as often in the US.  Anthrax is currently an endemic in Tanzania, especially in Ngorongoro which is where we are headed on our safari tomorrow.  Nat is convinced that we are all going to get Anthrax….not sure why she is so worried about it being she won’t even be joining us ;-) 

After the conference finished, Nat and I strolled to the clinic.  From far off in the distance (which was really only like a block away so I should probably get my eyes checked), we saw multiple people dressed in orange.  I jokingly said that it was probably prisoners, and by golly, it was.  The prisoners were here at the hospital cutting the grass.  Seeing the prisoners wasn’t the surprise because we occasionally see them in ditches back home (picking up garbage…that could be interpreted wrong).  The surprise was that they had given all of them what looked like a machete to hack away at the grass, which is how they cut it.  We realized that they had prison guards standing by, however there were only two guards for about 8 prisoners, they did not appear to have guns which seemed odd because we have seen police officers carrying HUGE weapons here, and they had placed machetes in all of the prisoner’s hands.  Nat and I casually walked past them and hoped for the best…we are still alive!

Kari and Britt finished up the last presentation for the hospital nurses, and Nat and I saw patients in the clinic with Furaha.  It is extremely interesting to see how their process flow compares to ours.  Wednesday is technically a “chemo day”, but the patients first stop in the clinic to see the doctor, he reviews the chart and their most recent labs and current condition, and then they walk over to the infusion center if everything looks ok.

We walked home for lunch and it was HOT!  This morning was cool, cloudy, and felt like it was going to rain.  Nat was fairly positive that it was going to rain all day, but she shall remain a nurse and not go into meteorology…it is sunny and very hot! 

When we got home we were greeted by Fatuma, our housekeeper and cook, and she SADLY informed us that there was no running water in the house.  The look of panic on all of our faces (well probably not Nat’s as she was used to this in Kenya) was evident.  Thoughts started swirling in our head…how will we flush the toilet?  How will we shower tonight?  Are we going to have to smell for our first day on the safari tomorrow?  How are we going to boil more drinking water?  Where should we stop for more drinking water?  Crap, we need to wash our hands and we can’t….pure panic mode.  It turns out that the hospital campus and doctor’s compound, where our house is, were all out of water, so it wasn’t just us.  I cannot even imagine the hospital wards not having running water right now.  These situations make us truly appreciated what we have so much more.  And thanks to my mom and sisters, I carry hand sanitizing wipes along when I travel, and we were able to use those to at least wash our hands.  I carry them because you just never know when you are going to need to wipe down the tray table on an airplane.  (Fun fact: Did you know that those are the dirtiest part of the plane?  Some people change their baby’s diaper on it!!!!!!  Ick!  Sorry, get some sanitizing wipes.) 

After lunch we headed back to the clinic to prepare for the nursing students coming for a short presentation and a tour of the cancer clinic.  While setting up we realized we had the wrong adapter for the projector.  But do not fret, Nat and Kari learned a trick where you stick a pen into the outlet to move part of the opening and then the other adapter fits.  Thankfully the outlets have an on/off switch so the girls didn’t electrocute themselves.  However, the students no showed so they risked their lives for nothing!

This afternoon we worked on the clinic’s chemo protocols and made some great head way.  We are so hopeful that these protocols will make the workflow easier for the doctors and nurses, and make a little less work for them on a daily basis.  We then headed home and prayed that we had running water….and we did, yay!!  So as we started to unwind, Nat decided that she was going to shower.  So here she sat, nice and clean and enjoying the relaxing evening.  Well guess what happened next.  Yep, we lost power again.  We then decided that we should probably all go shower quick before it got dark and we couldn’t see.  I headed to the bathroom to shower, and the water was out AGAIN!  We all moaned and groaned about how clean Nat was and we wished we would have showered too.  We started to brainstorm about how we would shower with a big pot from the kitchen, and Nat even demonstrated how to squat and wash yourself with a bucket of water.  In the meantime, someone (out of habit) flicked on the faucet and there was water.  I have never seen any of us move so quickly!  Brittany, Kari, and I sprinted to the bathroom!  Thankfully we have two bathrooms and we all took the fastest shower we could, so we could clean up before it went out again!

So here we sit…still without any power.  We ate and did the dishes with Nat’s trusty headlamps, and I wrapped two of my headbands around my head, stuck my iPhone on my forehead, and turned on the flashlight.  #resourceful

We all packed our bags (still in the dark) for our weekend ahead.  Tomorrow morning at 4:00 a.m. Nat is being picked up to be brought to the airport, and then is flying to Kenya to visit her Kenyan family.  Kari, Brittany, and I are being picked up at 8:00 and are going on our safari.  We are heading to Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, and Ngorongoro crater.  We will take a lot of pictures.  Say a prayer that we all return back to Moshi safe and sound on Sunday!  We do not plan on having access to our phones/computers, so will be off the grid for the next 4 days.  We will make a post Sunday evening (Sunday morning for you all), and tell you all about our weekend!

Sorry there are no pictures posted here.  I am racing against the clock so I can get this posted before my computer dies being I can’t plug it in…

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week and a great weekend!

Xoxo,

Cari