Father Ralph offered to drive us to the bus station the next morning for our 10 hour bus ride to Moshi, Tanzania the next day! Moshi is a decent sized city situated right at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. The hospital we are staying at this month is in a tiny village called Machame which is about 30km from Moshi. The route involves a 10 hour bus ride from Dar to Moshi, then we take a minibus (called a dala dala in Tanzania) to Machame village where the hospital is. We ended up in Moshi just before 6pm and caught the last dala dala to Machame on Sunday. It was dark by the time we reached Machame but they dropped us off right at the base of the hospital. The entire journey was adventurous to say the least. The big bus from Dar to Moshi was a regular coach bus except a bit more crowded and no bathroom or AC. I rode with my window open the whole way which caused quite a bit of dirt to accumulate on my face and neck by the end of the trip! Needless to say, it looked like I was tanned by the end of the bus ride but it was NOT a tan! :P The big bus ride was long, interesting, and rather uneventful, with a few pit stops along the way—all involving interesting bathroom experiences—no toilets, just a “squatting” like apparatus—I will soon learn why those are preferred over toilets in Tanzania. The minibus/dala dala 30km experience was a bit more hectic. Some random guy led us to the minibus stop once we got off the big bus. He was really nice and helpful and I’m still not sure if he wanted any compensation for helping us find it? A friend of mine told me giving money is actually disrespectful in Tanzanian culture and the guy didn’t ask for it…..anyways, he got us on the last dala dala of the day before it got dark. They threw our bags in the trunk and sat us up front with the driver because those were the only spots left. They crowd these buses with people to the point that people are actually hanging off the door—adventurous I suppose?? Apparently, we shouldn’t have done this because sometimes they do this so that you are far from your bags and people can steal them at different stops without you knowing. Luckily, this did not happen to us. We sat up front with the driver who seemed to only speak Swahili, and he played Indian Bollywood videos throughout the ride. At the next stop after we got on, they were (as usual) crowding up the bus with as many people as possible, and a young guy brought over his baby to the front of the bus and asked if we would hold her because there was no room for her in the back of the minibus. So there we were, me in the middle of Tom and the Swahili speaking bus driver, with a ~2-3 year old cute African girl in my lap. She had a lollipop in her mouth and watched Bollywood videos the whole ride, glancing at me intermittently with curiosity. She was absolutely adorable. Calm and curious.
We got to our destination safely and Bob picked us up at the base of the hospital. It was just a short drive up the road to our guest house. We had our own room with a bunk bed and a regular single bed, mosquito nets, bathroom with (sometimes) working shower and toilet, kitchen with some basic amenities. The floor is cement so you have to walk around with shoes on, even in the bathroom. Hardly luxury accommodations but it was to be expected. And this is near Kilimanjaro so it should technically be a richer part of the country… Bob is the main coordinator that we have been communicating with for this volunteering experience. When we met him for the first time it turns out he is actually from Salt Lake City, Utah originally but has actually lived in Omaha, NE for most of his life! Small world! He works for Alegent Health and manages the Machame Lutheran Hospital where we are staying at and volunteering for about a month. He was very surprised to hear that I had lived in Omaha….so I have found a Nebraskan in Tanzania! :P It was dark by the time we got to the guest house so Bob just told us the day starts at 7:45am in the chapel the next day and that our neighbours (medical students from Holland and 2 nurses from Sweden) would fill us in with the rest tomorrow. The hospital was established by Lutheran missionaries some time ago. Bob explained to us that there are many religious groups in the area around Kilimanjaro including Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant and Muslim. Our hospital happened to have Lutheran roots and has been influenced by German and American missionaries over the years. That is why the day starts with a short mass service every morning.
We ended up going to this hospital because it gave us the most positive response, or a response at all! Out of all the places we contacted about volunteering opportunities, most of the responses were limited or the wrong timing. Some places wanted us but for different dates; some wanted us for longer than 1 month; some had no room for us; and some simply did not respond! At first it didn’t make sense to us why it would be so hard to volunteer. But , realistically, as we have slowly learned, unless you fulfill certain criteria as a volunteer here, you can be more of a burden than a help. These criteria include speaking Swahili, being a proceduralist (anesthesia, general surgery, etc.), or being willing to spend a more significant amount of time in Africa to learn these things and adapt. We did not fit those criteria, and as residents, we could be of limited help. Although they consider us intern doctors so I’m sure that involves delivering some babies and assisting in surgeries….
