close, but no gombe

i am so close to gombe national park!!! it drives me crazy that i'm only in the region of kigoma for 3 days only, 1 whole day of which is devoted to the 4 hour drive from kigoma city to kasulu (where the hospital is). people keep telling me how amazing gombe is (jane goodall's chimpanzee research mecca) and how easy and great it would be for me to visit if i only had an extra day or two. i guess that means it's just a great reason for me to come back and stay a little longer next time.

i was able to meet up with two other grad student researchers here. molly is with me at UM (the redhead in the picture) and anna (so much confusion in explaining the two an(n)a's to people) is from BU. i get to speak english at my normal speed, AND anna is quite fluent in swahili. jackpot!


kigoma region is gorgeous. lush green foliage, deep red soil, mountains....it's breathtaking, and my photos don't do the area justice. there are a couple of refugee camps nearby because of the turmoil in burundi (which is very close to where i am right now) and UNHCR has a strong presence here. my brother keeps fretting about it (don't worry!). it actually feels quite peaceful here, and the officials at the hospital told me the rebels have been inactive for some time now, and some of the refugees are starting to go back. let's hope they are able to return to their lands peacefully.

i won't have internet access for the next two to three days. i head to mozambique on saturday, so hopefully i will update then. thanks for all the wonderful comments and positive feedback, all, i'll keep the posts coming!

PS--sarah and kyle (and all you other foodies), i am working on my techniques for snapping 007 photos of my food plates, or at the very least, of markets and food vendor stalls. i got yelled at once already for the camera so i am trying to be careful, but rest assured, i'm taking mental notes!

"wild" life

here are the crocs, the birds, and a poor little fish stuck in low tide (i would have moved him but the bright orange color and spikes on his body were warning enough!).

ruins

these are the kaole ruins, and the surrounding gorgeousness.

sunburned

at the risk of receiving hate mail (or hate comments) i have to complain a bit about my sunburn. i was only away from the shade of trees for a little while! this equitorial sun is brutal, i can't even remember how long it's been since i've gotten toasty red. so tomorrow i will slather on the sunblock.

today was wonderful. we finished up rather early with all of our number crunching. luckily we were able to do the data entry at the hotel outdoor dining area right by the seashore. much better setting than the hospital. we then headed up to the kaole ruins, where archeology students from the capital are doing an excavation of a 16th century (i think?) old arabic settlement. it was neat; there were the remains of a mosque, the well where men drew water to wash their feet before entering, and a mausoleum in the adjacent plot.

after touring the ruins, we passed by a crocodile farm. they keep them in separate pools according to their age and raise them for meat and skin. not quite the big game reserve experience, but it was really interesting to see how that particular farm used their land area for croc raising, vegetable farming and fruit orchards as well. i'll post pictures of a guava tree they had that was also colonized by a host of yellow birds for all of you wildlife enthusiasts, as well as some of the crocs and the ruins in the following post.

enjoy!

one down

and three more to go. done with the first hospital, and i'm breathing a huge sigh of relief. today i get to relax a bit and see more of bagamoyo! it's a very coastal fishing town, away from the big game reserves, so for those of you clamoring for wildlife photos, i'm afraid all i can muster is some pics of some very non-wild animal life. :) you'll have to settle for some interesting pics of a farm i visited by just strolling around. the cows seemed really puzzled about what i was doing.

as for the food pics, i'd love to but i'm too embarassed! the surgeon i'm working with explained to me that tanzanians are very particular and sensitive to photo-taking so i've been very careful about what i snap. i try for mostly landscape, but if there are people in the shot (or animals belonging to someone nearby, or buildings belonging to someone nearby...you get the idea), then it is expected that you ask permission first and offer a small compensation for the inconvenience. it kind of puts a damper on the whole photojournalist gig.

i'm posting a pic of a very well preserved traditional zanzibari door from a house here in town. the man in the photo is the chief surgeon at the hospital here (the residents were more than happy to have their doctor take a photo by their door). i also posted a pic of my cow friends.

today i am visiting the ruins of a 16 century arabic town here. more later!

bagamoyo

i'm in bagamoyo now for a few more days. it's so relaxing here! it's a good thing, too, because the data collection is h-e-c-t-i-c. the hospital itself is amazing; people really are doing a great job with few resources and the patients seem very well cared for and content with their care (my swahili is not good at all--lonely planet might be good for catch phrases but not for conversation!). it's really heartening to see. the flip side, of course, is that the medical staff are not such great record keepers, which is where the hectic part comes into play. the surgeon i traveled here with and i have been swamped trying to make heads or tails of it all. we're trying hard to document all we can and get us the information we need to do our research, but it certainly is not easy.

the great news is that my internet connection here is amazing! i feel kind of like a cop-out because i'm staying in a very resorty place (my colleague called it posh, which i found really cute--when he said it i had images of a skinny mrs beckham running through the lobby). i have a tv in my room that broadcasts...drum roll please.....the UEFA champion's league soccer tournament! i about fell out of my chair when i turned the tube on and saw arsenal playing against inter milan.

i've also had a chance to do more traditional things outside of the resort. we visited the historical museum that documents the slave trade route through the sea port here in bagamoyo. this was an old german colonial town before WWI, and a british one after WWI, so it has some interesting cultural sites. and of course, because it is still an important sea port i'm completely in love with the food here. so good!

back to data cleaning! miss you all!

arrived!

i got in safely and soundly last night at a ripe old 11pm, local time. there is nothing more frustrating than sitting by an airplane window with a stop in kilimanjaro in the pitch black darkness. the mountain was out there, but my very un-catlike eyes can't see a thing. the flight itself was fairly uneventful except for this pair of really annoying spaniards (i know!!!) on my last leg. they sat next to me and i didn't say a word to them the whole flight, which was some feat. mostly they were just being jerky and rude to the flight attendants. i was embarassed for my kind and tried to be overly polite to compensate. the other highlight of the flight (or low-light) was the crappy soup whose lid read, i kid you not, "soup has been in the diet of humans since 6000 BC. early ingredients consisted mainly of hippopotamus." no wonder hippos don't like humans so much.

dar es salaam is nothing like i expected. granted, i haven't seen too much of the city yet (late night careening through the streets in the cab doesn't really count), but i wasn't expecting to see a home depot and a mercedes benz plant right out of the airport. welcome to globalization.

i'm glad i'm a florida girl, because it is hot and humid like nobody's business. my hair is still struggling to dry after my shower 10 hours ago. now i remember why i moved up north so many years ago: sticky weather and ana don't mix all that well. i'll have to figure out some strategies on keeping myself cool that don't expose too much for the mosquitos to munch on (they've already found the one swath on my feet that my mary jane slip-ons don't cover). that might be tricky.

my hotel is cute! i kind of have to beat down some very tropical foliage to get to my door, but it kind of reminds me of my parent's back yard. except, instead of squirrels running around outside my window, there are these mongoose-type creatures that keep chasing each other into the ground cover. if they weren't so speedy, i'd try to snap their picture.

i have a meeting at muhimbili university in 1 hour, so i'd best prepare for it. hugs to all!

slight changes

so i haven't even left yet, and my schedule is still getting tweaked. i'll be visiting one additional hospital in mozambique....so far. i have a feeling this is going to be one of those data trips where things are only semi-structured. i'm cool with that though; i think this will be a great experience for me to learn to take things as them come and do some creative problem-solving. from what i've been told, there will be problem-solving to be had!

i'll try to keep you guys updated as much as i can. i expect to have internet connection in dar and maputo, but otherwise....i'll enjoy that unplugged from the world feeling.

more soon!

pre-trip training

i've gotten so many request to keep everyone updated, that i'll just try a central location of events for all to access. we'll see how this works out...i'm not sure what my connectivity will be like in some of the locations.

here's the timeline of where i'll be, and when, with changes as they come!

Tanzania Leg
17 Feb: Fly to Dar es Salaam
20 Feb - 24 Feb: Travel to Bagamoyo
24 Feb: Return to Dar es Salaam
25 Feb: Fly to Kigoma
28 Feb: Return to Dar es Salaam

Mozambique Leg
1 Mar: Fly to Maputo
3 Mar: Travel to Chokwe
5 Mar: Travel to Majacaze
8 Mar: Fly to Beira
9 Mar: Drive to Catandica
10 Mar: Birthday data collection day!
12 Mar: Return to Maputo
14 Mar: Fly back home
15 Mar: Arrive in Detroit