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