Wrapping up in Tanzania

The conference is over, only a few hours left in Tanzania.  My time here was not always easy, but very memorable and so much has happened that I am still tying to process it all. Stepping out of the role of a university student and being a hands-on worker in a medical setting was refreshing. This does not mean I did not learn anything, in fact the opposite is true; I was like a sponge, soaking up information about engineering and culture these past two months.

I now also have the confidence to try to fix and troubleshoot devices. One of our projects involved totally rewiring a surgery lamp which I was hesitant to do at first because I had never done an electronics project of that magnitude. Here is a picture of Camilla with the original lamp insides that took 240V but stepped down to 24V and had 25 Watt special German bulbs. We could not figure out what exactly was wrong, it most likely a bad bridge or transformer so instead of wasting more time, we bypassed everything. We found 220V LED bulbs that could be found in Moshi for a reasonable 10,000 Tsh, ~$5.00 USD and altered the insides so that the bulbs could fit. This means that the hospital can easily replace the bulbs and the lamp will not get hot which is important for the staff in the summer months and long surgery. I really do not know if this surgery lamp will be used but I have hope.

The bottom of the lamp

The final product before we put the top on. You can see the hose clamps we had to use on the bulb holders because they were so much larger. There were not that many options of bulbs in Tanzania.

I made some great friends and really got to know the hospital staff. Below is another picture of Wingod, a student engineer who worked at our hospital. He really helped us out whenever he could and was always eager to learn.

This is me and Head Nurse of Orthopedics, Kwai. We had just returned one of many autoclave boxes we had fixed. These were really small items and simple fixes but they were really important to the hospital. 

I am definitely going to miss my Danish engineering partner Camilla. We had so much fun and kept each other sane with cookie and chai breaks. Due to lack of electricity, we made a lot of bracelets-below you can see our swapped flags-her with american colors and mine with Danish! Even though we came from different parts of the world, engineering and our curiosity to try more brought us together.

Exploring the beautiful Tanzania: pt. 2

Another picture dump! Living somewhat close to Moshi, only an hour away + 1000 tsh (50 cents), I have been spending a fair amount of time in the city. I have gotten to know most of the good hardware shops and coffee shops!

Here is a picture of some food I got in Moshi from the Kilimanjaro Lodge Cafe. All the fresh juices are really good here even though they are more on the expensive side--but well worth it and refreshing.

I usually stop by the Union Cafe, a very foreigner place, but they have awesome coffee and cake! Every so often I crave chocolate, its super expensive here, and the cake makes me feel better.

As for weekend trips- we visited some great waterfalls in Marangu. I even jumped off a decent cliff! while the weather was not the greatest, all of us EWH students had a blast!

This is the one I jumped off of though not as impressive as the first one.

Another great weekend involved camping at Lake Chala. This lake is on the edge of the northern Tanzanian and Kenyan border so we were able to see the sunrise over Kenya. Great kayaking, swimming and food!

Its been awesome to keep in touch with the rest of the EWH students in the second month. The weekends are always filled with lots of friends and seeing more of Tanzania.

And last but not least- here is a picture of Mt. Kilimanjaro from Machame Hospital!

Machame Lutheran Hospital: First Fixes

So now I have gotten into the rhythm of work here at Machame hospital and only really have one week left. Internet is really slow here, and while this is a bad excuse-- it is very difficult to update my blog except when I go into town.

So a little about the hospital: while this is a very small hospital, only about 250 beds, it does have a very good orthopedics department. It also has a large OB/GYN department so there are lots of pregnant ladies waiting around. In this hospital the last month of carrying the baby is free so many Masai women come up the mountain and stay their last month (how they decide its their last month I don't know!). They are all freezing cold because well its COLD on Kilimanjaro and it has been raining like crazy recently.

Camilla and I get up around 6:30 am and have breakfast so that we can walk to church at 7:40 am. Luckily we live in a guest house 5 minutes away on hospital grounds! There they do a quick service and have announcements - all in Swahili but because we go everyday, they know our faces and are much happier to talk with us. Our first fix was a fetal doppler machine (really it just needed batteries, gel and someone to show them how to use it). The OB/GYN nurses are really friendly but we are not sure if they will actually use this machine or if they use any of their infant incubators- all 5 are working.
                                                      Fetal Doppler Machine
                                     
 There are a few local technicians that we have been working with. They can do basic electrical fixes and we often go to them if we need something sawed. Here is Camilla and Wingod, a student engineer, after we put together a new bed.

 On a final note, I have noticed that hospitals in Tanzania, Machame especially, are full of contradictions. On one hand you have instances like below which are what people normally think of hospitals in the developing world.

 Then you have parts of the hospital that are fairly nice-- like this awesome lamp and an organized room full of orthopedic supplies. I have a bunch of other pictures of things we have fixed and will be uploading them soon! Only one more week in Tanzania- wow how time flies!