Tanzania....Again

Early in May, I went back to Tanzania for the third time this year. This trip was to pilot and evaluate a 9-day training package we have been working on for nearly a year. I spent the first couple of days of the trip in Dar Es Salaam preparing materials for the trainings (which at one point involved making over 2600 copies at the business centre in the hotel--would have been more but they ran out of toner and paper). This task was made a bit more difficult by the rainstorms and power outages that caused some of my colleagues to pack up 110 training manuals by the light of her cell phone. Good times!

One evaluation team flew north to Mwanza, and I went with the other team south, by car, to Iringa. It was about an 8 hour drive through the countryside. I love getting to see a country on long drives so it was nice to see some different scenery in Tanzania that I haven't had a chance to see before. Iringa is towards the south of the country and is in the "highlands." It is cooler than Dar (which is nice) but not cold enough to snow--so overall a very pleasant place to visit.

This is a view of some of the mountains we drove through on the way:


After we had driven up a very steep section of road, we arrived at the top where there were some very business savvy young men roasting corn on the cob. Since there hadn't been any place to stop and eat for a while, we pulled over to this Tanzanian version of a drive thru and bought some corn for a snack. I passed on the corn myself, but Violet, Stella, and David all enjoyed theirs as you can see...

The training in Iringa included 64 participants from 5 different cadres of health worker. Usually we would recommend a smaller group--this was very crowded.

We stayed at the M.R. Hotel. My favourite thing about the hotel is no matter how tired or disoriented you might become, you could always tell where you were staying by the painted "logo" on most everything in the room.

For example, say you just woke up and couldn't remember where you were...you just needed to open your eyes and look at the pillow and there it is...M.R. Hotel

And if you didn't see it on your pillow, you could pull up the covers and on your blanket, there was also a clue as to where you are sleeping.

Don't worry if you forgot where you were staying while you were in the shower...name and number are also printed on every towel...

Even the garbage can gave you a clue. :)

One morning I woke up to sirens outside and when I opened my eyes, my room was glowing bright orange. After the initial panic thinking the hotel was on fire, I got up and looked out the window and saw that a shop across the street from the hotel caught fire. I watched from my window for a bit until my colleague knocked on my door to tell me to get my important things, the fire was moving up the power lines which meant that it could be very dangerous for us as well. So, I grabbed important things, including my passport, cash, computer, and a pair of clean underpants and headed out the door. Luckily, the hotel had disconnected the power so we were able to stand on the front steps and watch as the flames consumed about a block of small shops down the street.

The people in the building next to the fire were frantically trying to move out all of their furniture and other household goods. You can see the couches and other furniture in the street.

It was really upsetting to watch as things just burnt to the ground. The fire truck didn't have enough water (if any) the first time it came so it had to go and refill. When it got back, another 4 or 5 buildings had burned but at least at that point they were able to get it under control and we all went back to our rooms just in time to get ready for the day. Was upsetting like I said, but I'm just glad to hear that no one was hurt and it luckily stopped before anything else was burnt. This is what it looked like when the sun came up and most of the fire had been put out.

As part of the training, participants did a practicum at the local care and treatment centres and hospital. Here are the lab people examining the results of a CD4 test.

Group work during the training.

Most of our fearless trainers on an outing after day 6 of training.

The way home was no less adventurous...as part of the journey we passed through the Baobab valley--literally hundreds to thousands of baobab trees everywhere you look.

The road home also passes through a national park--notice the giraffe way in background.

We also did a lot of grocery shopping from the car on the way home...we picked up onions, tomatoes, peppers, goat legs (yes, goat legs), oranges, tangerines, and bananas. Stella is an excellent negotiator...I was a little overwhelmed by all of the commotion around the car.

After we got back to Dar, I must admit to being really happy to have TV in English once again and promptly ordered room service full of grilled vegetables (something I missed having eaten mostly fried chicken and fried potatoes, and "nyama" ("meat"--often goat) over the week. Vegetables--not fried--were a welcome treat.

Overall, the trip was a good trip. REALLY intense, but a good culmination of a lot of work we have done in Tanzania. I'm not sure when I'm going back again, but I hope I'll have the chance to return some day as I feel like it has become a second home over the past several months.