June 19th -

Pictures: Shots of the bay from the slipway market at sunset

In this post: Willies (intrigued?), Slipway

Today was a slowish day in Dar. Interesting to see how
"quiet" the streets were today compared to the rest of the week,
although these streets quiet are about as busy as Spring Garden Rd on
a Saturday. Woke up to see a group of about 50 children of all ages
jogging in time and singing down the street, with a couple kids out in
front with flags, stopping traffic. I have no idea what the
significance was, but it gave me the willies… Lord of the Flies or
City of God willies. Those are bad willies… I've reached my quota of
the word "willies" for the year, sorry.

Spent some time trying to sort out the blog as well and had to use a
full hour to work it out. Seems like I've figured out something that
will work to post pictures, although I can't format them as I'd like
to. Thanks for all the encouraging comments about the blog. I've
enjoyed updating it.

Most of our day was spent at Slipway, which is a permanent market for
Mzungus, with extra stalls of all sorts of goodies for the traveller
looking for trinkets. We had a great time sitting in the café,
drinking some cold Kilimanjaro brand beer and soaking in the sun. We
had dinner as the sun set across the bay in a beautiful restaurant
with an amazing view. It feels great to have had these few days to
start settling into the city before our program starts tomorrow.

We will be meeting representatives from the two groups we'll be
working with in Dar Es Salaam: Pasada and Muhimbili Hospital. Pasada
is a non-governmental org. that works with patients with HIV/AIDS in
the region and helps them deal with the disease. Prevention of
mother-to-child transmission is a big focus, but also trying to figure
out ways to treat all the sequelae of AIDS with limited resources. It
should be an eye-opening experience and we're all looking forward to
seeing what is in store for us. Stay tuned. Muhimbili is the major
national hospital and is associated with the university and med
school. We'll be split into nursing and medicine and I will be with
the departments of Surgery and Internal Medicine while I'm here, but I
don't start there until next week.