Summer elective in Tanzania and Rwanda.

I'm leaving for Tanzania tomorrow morning: unreal.

It's a thirty hour trip that will take me through Montreal, Zurich and Nairobi, but don't worry, I've been practicing my isometrics and have hired a small man to massage my calves on the plane to keep the DVTs from clogging my lungs.

This trip is a life-long dream for me, inspired by the stories told to me by my father, who traveled from London to Cape Town by land Rover when he was in his twenties; by David Attenborough and the BBC, who have given me impossibly high expectations for wildlife encounters; and by my wife, who spent a summer in Africa 4 years ago and whose stories and support I have treasured since.

The gist of the trip is that we'll be spending 2 weeks in Dar Es Salaam, the coastal cultural capital of Tanzania, two weeks in Ifakara, a smaller, rural city, and a week in Rwanda. We'll be working in and with local hospitals, med schools and NGOs to get a feel for the Tanzanian health care system. I'm expecting that much of the time will be spent in shock or awe of who different their system is from our own in Canada, but I can't wait to get in there and experience it. At the end of all that, I'll be taking some time for safari and R&R on Zanzibar.

If any of this sounds vaguely interesting, follow along and I'll try to keep regular updates on my progress, with photos or videos to give you a sense of life in East Africa.

This picture is of the group that I'll be travelling with (2 med students and 5 nursing students), along with our Swahili language teacher, Said and his wife, child and friend.

Asante sana na nitakusema baadaye!