followers, you will, no doubt, have noticed that I didn't write
anything about my adventures on July 2rd. To be honest, there wasn't a
whole lot to relay from my final day in Muhimbili, although I got to
observe a few more surgeries in theatre. The rest of the day was spent
packing and getting things ready for our trip to Ifakara on Saturday.
It has been a whirlwind two and a half weeks in Dar and it feels like
we've seen and done an incredible amount in such a short time. Dar es
Salaam was a great introduction to Tanzanian life, but I think we are
all looking forward to a new experience in the rural setting, away
from exhaust, smoky coal fires, traffic jams and aggressive touts.
The bus ride to Ifakara started with a flourish as we arrived at the
Ubungu bus terminal in Dar at 06:00 amid hundreds of other travellers
all jostling to find the right bus. The buses were decent and were
equivalent to the greyhound or Acadian lines buses back home, except
the seats are much closer together… it was a tight squeeze. All in all
though, the trip was great and took us through diverse cities and
communities and showed us everything from open savannah and dense
tropical forests. It seemed like we were stopping every 15 minutes
though, either for police checks or to pick up more people for the
trip. There were a couple toilet stops, which were just on the side of
the road. It was interesting to see everyone pile off the bus and just
do their business on the side of the road, side by side.
The bus ride also exposed us to much of the rich colour of Tanzanian
culture along the sides of the road in stores and peoples homes.
Beautiful kangas and colourful shirts seem to be the favourite of many
Tanzanians. It is also interesting to see people walking down the
street in tshirts that read "Save lake Tahoe", "Middlebrook Valley
Lions" or, my favourite "Please don't feed the models". These must be
coming as donations from the States and Canada in big shipments,
because we would often see big piles of shirts laid out for sale on
the streets of Dar. Anyway, back to the culture. We saw all sorts of
houses, from crudely constructed mud and palm-leaf shacks to big
mansions on the hillsides. Some communities are barely above
slum-level and some are fully constructed with brick houses, with
simple, but tidy plots. None but the richest have lawns or gardens,
and those are usually walled off in compounds with guards at the gate.
I'm finally getting used to people running up to vehicles when they
are stopped in traffic to sell food or goods. This was especially
apparent on the bus, when at every stop or weigh station, guys would
run up to the bus with oranges, roast corn cobs, bananas, loaves of
bread or rack of fedoras… they seem to have everything. Some people
even get on the bus and walk up and down the aisles selling their
goods for a couple minutes before we push off, making for a very
congested bus. Additionally, the buses here don't function like
Greyhound once they get out into the rural areas. They will often pick
people up, even with a full bus, who may be travelling 5-10 km, and
they'll stand in the aisle, much like a local transit bus. This is
probably because everything is so remote here and public
transportation so scarce, but there ended up being a large mass of
humanity on the bus by the end of the trip. That's enough about
humanity though.
I saw my first wild Giraffe! This was followed closely by a couple
elephants, then some gazelle and finally a whole herd of giraffe right
on the side of the road. We're pretty sure we some lumps in a little
patch of water that looked suspiciously like hippos. No great pictures
unfortunately, because the driver was zooming down the road, but it
was pretty special nonetheless. All the animals were in Mikumi
national park, which is contiguous with Selous NP, the biggest park in
Tanzania (even bigger than Sereghetti).
I can't wait for the safari. It's gonna be amazing.
We arrived at the Tanzanian Training Centre for International Health
in Ifakara and were blown away. It is a beautiful property. Absolutely
gorgeous manicured lawns and clean walkways and buildings. And the
quiet; the loudest thing out here are the crickets, and this is a
welcome relief after Dar and the bus ride. We're staying in beautiful
guest rooms in the compound, although it seems as if we are the only
guests currently. We haven't really got a run down on what this place
is all about, but based on the feel of the place, it seems like an
elite training facility for grad students or professors on sabbatical
who want to study tropical medicine. It makes me think of the fancy
hunting lodges that English gentlemen would come to when they wanted
to hunt big game back in the colonial heyday, but retrofitted for
malaria and HIV research and health care. I am thus pretty conflicted
about staying in such swanky lodging. It feels great, but I worry
about the image that we are portraying to the residents of the city or
even the people who are working here. I think I've decided that the
best thing to do is to show a willingness to learn from the institute
and to try to stay as humble as possible and appreciative as only
Canadians can be. I hope that the people here can understand and
accept the role that we play in this place.
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