PT Clinic:
On one of the Mondays, Mylene and I went to work in the PT
clinic downstairs instead of the OT to have the chance to work with an adult
population. Mylene got there at 8, arriving to zero PTs in the clinic and a
line of patients. She was told to start treating despite the fact that she is
NOT a PT and we’ve never interacted with these patients before. I arrive at
8:30 and was told to go help Mylene because she was alone downstairs. When I
got there, she told me she refused to see any patients alone (good for her!)
and eventually the Japanese PT arrived and she shadowed him. We saw a man with
a fracture in his right femur but was complaining about left hip pain. We look
at his x-rays to see that the head of his right femur was once fractured but
has now fused with again in a inaccurate position…no wonder he’s complaining of
pain. It’s crazy that after 2 months, no one had caught onto this…
Then the head of the PT department comes in and tells us he’s going to give us our own patients, even though we said about 5 times that we were just observing. So off we go to see a patient who had a right arm fracture. Who knew that thinking of pure exercises to do, we really do think like OTs and can only focus on meaningful activity. Plus it was hard to find things to do when we didn’t know what type of equipment was available. Either ways, we got through the patient fine and she seemed content without therapy session when she left.
Then the head of the PT department comes in and tells us he’s going to give us our own patients, even though we said about 5 times that we were just observing. So off we go to see a patient who had a right arm fracture. Who knew that thinking of pure exercises to do, we really do think like OTs and can only focus on meaningful activity. Plus it was hard to find things to do when we didn’t know what type of equipment was available. Either ways, we got through the patient fine and she seemed content without therapy session when she left.
Kangas:
Kangas are worn by most women here in Zanzibar. They are colourful pieces of fabric with a certain layout and each contain a proverb in Swahili written on the fabric. Kangas can be used for everything, from clothing to baby carriers to wrapping gifts to table clothes. We started off buying just one each…and it’s kind of spiraled out of control. After that one, we kept seeing new designs we liked and now I have 4 kangas…3 of which I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. We bought our first two at tourist rates ~8000TSH, but then Mary brought us to a wholesale place where we bought them for 3750TSH…half the price! It was so cheap, we had to buy more.
Kangas are worn by most women here in Zanzibar. They are colourful pieces of fabric with a certain layout and each contain a proverb in Swahili written on the fabric. Kangas can be used for everything, from clothing to baby carriers to wrapping gifts to table clothes. We started off buying just one each…and it’s kind of spiraled out of control. After that one, we kept seeing new designs we liked and now I have 4 kangas…3 of which I don’t know what I’m going to do with them. We bought our first two at tourist rates ~8000TSH, but then Mary brought us to a wholesale place where we bought them for 3750TSH…half the price! It was so cheap, we had to buy more.
First kanga I bought
Second kanga
Not my picture, just to show how it's worn here
Mental Hospital:
Instead of going into the community (again) we went to visit
the mental hospital. It’s not on the same grounds as the actual hospital, but
is about a 10 minute drive away. Our supervisor drove us there, introduced us
to some of the staff and then left. Of course she left, it’s what always
happens. We were brought in to sit in the middle of a room where about 12 med students + psychiatrist
and mental health nurse sat in a big U-shape. We were told that each patient
was going to be brought in to be questioned to see if they know where they are
and to redetermine the state they were in. The patients were standing outside
looking into the room through barred windows and a locked door; they were
treated as if they were prisoners. Most of the patients were brought in by
family members due to drug addictions. It was difficult to know what was
happening because people were speaking in Swahili. There were 52 men and 14
women; the women are kept in a separate area and when we asked what most of the
reasons for the women being in the mental hospital were…he responded “frustration”.
I’m not a mental health expert..but I wouldn’t think that frustration would be
the reason they were there. There is no OT onsite and most of the patients sit around
with little to do during the day. The conditions were not ideal, bare minimums,
not too different from the actual wards itself. It’s sad because we aren’t as
phased as we used to be by the conditions, and have even come to expect it.
Room we were in, the windows in the center are where all the patients stood outside.
Inside the nicer ward of the mental hospital, the female ward was much dirtier.
Buildings of the wards
Mangoes:
I have eaten more mangoes here in the last two months than in my life. Fresh
mangoes, mango juice, mango smoothies, mango everything. But I refuse to eat
another mango while I am here.. The last time I ate a mango, I had ate the two
sides already and was enjoying the middle part (it was a very sweet mango) and I
bit into the seed slightly, when I looked at the mango I saw there were little
bits of brown so I thought it was just what the inside of the mango seed looked
like. I finished eating the mango and because I was curious to know what the
inside of the seed would look like I stuck my knife in and pried open the seed.
I scooped up some brown soil looking pieces with my knife and was in the middle
of telling Mylene how it was cool and I didn’t think that’s what it looked like
inside the seed when BUGS CRAWLED OUT OF THE SEED. MULTIPLE BUGS. I may have
had a slight heart attack and gagged a couple times. There were bugs living in
my mango. Needless to say, I have swore off eating mangoes for the rest of my
trip. But I will continue to drink mango juice.
One of the many bugs crawling out of my mango.
Valentine’s Day:
We had a nice dinner out at a restaurant called House of Spices. It somewhat overlooked Stone Town and the service was good. We had pasta dishes that were all really good and at the end we were given heart shaped spice soaps. It was cute.
We had a nice dinner out at a restaurant called House of Spices. It somewhat overlooked Stone Town and the service was good. We had pasta dishes that were all really good and at the end we were given heart shaped spice soaps. It was cute.
Display of spices at the restaurant
Complimentary appetizers.
Pasta.
Free soap, so cute.
Palace Museum/Princess Salme:
The Palace Museum is the house where the Sultan of Zanzibar and his family used to live. It had a lot of rooms where business was taken care of, but also personal rooms where the family resided. The most interesting room for me was Princess Salme’s room. She was an Arabian princess who taught herself how to read and write in English and eventually left to Germany to marry a German man. Her story seems interesting and maybe I was more intrigued only because she was a princess, haha. At the end of the tour the man at the museum tried to sell us books and I got conned into buying the princess’ memoirs. I was looking at it before at the bookstore, hope it turns out to be an interesting read.
The Palace Museum is the house where the Sultan of Zanzibar and his family used to live. It had a lot of rooms where business was taken care of, but also personal rooms where the family resided. The most interesting room for me was Princess Salme’s room. She was an Arabian princess who taught herself how to read and write in English and eventually left to Germany to marry a German man. Her story seems interesting and maybe I was more intrigued only because she was a princess, haha. At the end of the tour the man at the museum tried to sell us books and I got conned into buying the princess’ memoirs. I was looking at it before at the bookstore, hope it turns out to be an interesting read.
Outside the museum.
Princess' bed.
Shoes part of an outfit.
Head dressing.
Water cabinet on wheels to bring to the Sultan when he was sick.
Giant bed in the "new bedroom" that's under repair.
Sauti za Busara Music Festival + Swahili Fashion Week:
Busara is a huge music festival that happens every year in
Zanzibar. It features artists from all around Africa and took places this year
from Feb 14-Feb 17. At first we weren’t sure if we would go cause as a
non-resident it was 150,000TSH for a weekend pass, almost $100USD. But we were
able to get a letter from the hospital (which cost us 5000TSH each) that showed
proof that we were volunteers and would represent our resident card. We ended
up getting a weekend pass at resident price (40,000 TSH) and we went for about
an hour each day since we had other stuff we were doing that weekend. It was
cool to see live music and to hear the different styles of African music. It
definitely was a big change from the music festivals from this summer haha,
much more chill and sitting to enjoy the music than raging, but jealous of
everyone going to see Swedish House Mafia this weekend (Jo, I’m excited to hear
about your first experience)!!
On Friday, Adam and Ann-Marie’s mom got us free tickets to the Swahili Fashion Week – Zanzibar. It took place at Mbweni Ruins at night. We were told to be there for 7 sharp because the gates were going to be closed, but of course everything here runs on African time…meaning the fashions how actually started just before 9. I’ve never been to a real fashion show, so it was cool to see the clothes especially because most of the clothes had some part that was made from different materials common in Africa like kangas, kitengas, etc. Some of the clothes were very wearable too; one of the designers has a store in Stone Town that we’ve gone into, it’s a bit pricey though. It was nice to have gotten to go for free!
On Friday, Adam and Ann-Marie’s mom got us free tickets to the Swahili Fashion Week – Zanzibar. It took place at Mbweni Ruins at night. We were told to be there for 7 sharp because the gates were going to be closed, but of course everything here runs on African time…meaning the fashions how actually started just before 9. I’ve never been to a real fashion show, so it was cool to see the clothes especially because most of the clothes had some part that was made from different materials common in Africa like kangas, kitengas, etc. Some of the clothes were very wearable too; one of the designers has a store in Stone Town that we’ve gone into, it’s a bit pricey though. It was nice to have gotten to go for free!
Pre-festival "parade", which was just one float.
Dance group performing on the road.
Resident pass and fashion show ticket.
S.O.S Village orphan's performance
Music + acrobatics
Chels and I at the festival.
Fashion Show.
This restaurant is a big tourist attraction. It’s located a
little further than Paje and is a restaurant built on a rock (hence the name)
in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I thought it would be wayyy into the ocean
cause it said when tide is low you can walk there but when tide if high you can
swim or take a boat, but it was maybe 40 feet away from shore. We stayed at the
Salem’s house the night before since Ann-Marie was coming with us and it was
more convenient to leave from their house. The tide was really low when we got
to the restaurant so we were able to walk right up to the rock. The restaurant
is very small, maybe 10 tables with a nice little patio. The view is gorgeous
as it’s right in the ocean; the food was mediocre and pretty pricey for
Zanzibar, although it was about the same as restaurants at home. Most of the
options were seafood, Chels, Ann Marie and I all got a crab sauce pasta and Mylene
got fried calamari and shrimp. The sauce for the pasta was good, but I totally
got the crappy end of the stick when it came to the actual portion of crab I got.
I only got half of a crab claw while Ann Marie and Chels both got 6 whole claws
in their pasta…it definitely wasn’t worth it’s price. But it was something we
had to go see in order to say we did it.
When we first got there; low tide, grey skies.
The restaurant.
Pretty patio and view.
When we were leaving; tide rising and blue skies.
Public vs Private Orphanages:
We wanted to visit an orphanage here to see what it was like
and potentially volunteer for an afternoon. Abdi called the orphanage for us
and brought us there. The condition of the public orphanage took us for a shock…for
good. The building was very well kept, with large open concept sitting rooms
and gardens for the children to play in. Each room slept 4 children in 2 bunk
beds with a large cubbie for each child to put their belongings in. Nothing
looked broken or unsafe, there were even large flat screen tv’s in the sitting
rooms and a nursing room for when the children got sick. All the children went
to government schools nearby; we were so impressed with everything. Currently,
the children range from 1.5-18 years old. Many of the children are brought in
because they come from single-parent homes where it is financially unable to
raise the children. Family members are still allowed to visit the children
whenever they want. At one point they asked what orphanages were like at home…it
shamed us to say that we had no idea because we had never been to one or given
it any thought. Mylene and I have a week left in Zanzibar as vacation since we’ve
finished our placement, so we wanted to volunteer a couple mornings next week
at the orphanage. We got an email from the orphanage and emailed the person the
next day but we still haven’t gotten a response back. The orphanage has only
been in existence for ~10 years, before this building the children lived in a
building in Stone Town by Forodhani Park. Adbi took us there after and the
conditions were awful, the area was locked but we looked through the gates. The
rooms looked like prisons and the area wasn’t very big, Abdi said the living conditions
were not good, there were cockroaches everywhere. The new building was built by
the last president’s wife. Apparently they wanted to move the children away
from the Town because it allowed them easy access to alcohol, drugs and
partying.
After, Abdi said we could try to see the private orphanage but he wasn’t sure if they would let us in. The orphanage was more than happy to give us a tour of the area. It was very obvious that it was privately owned. The lot was huge, with 11 houses that house 10 children in each. On top of that, on the grounds are schools for children until the end of secondary school. The private orphanage was founded by a German man; it continues to receive funding from many sponsors from around the world as well as from locals who send their children to the private school on the grounds of the orphanage; Abdi said the school is one of the best on the island. The orphanage is called S.O.S village and has many orphanage in the world. They have two programs; a home care one where the children stay in the houses at the orphanage where there is a “mom” that runs that house, along with the other children who are considered to be siblings, like a real family. The children must be under the age of 6 when they are brought in so they grow up with the other children and cook and clean and go to school and do homework. At 16, the children are send to a youth center where they are continued to be supported. It was really cool to visit the houses, the one we went into the family was in the middle of cooking some delicious peanuts in the kitchen. They have a dining area where the children also do homework every night with the mother, a sitting area and an upstairs where the children sleep. It’s such a unique idea to re-create a family setting for the children. The birth family also get to visit the children whenever they want so they don’t lose contact. The second program ran by S.O.S. is within the homes of children at risk; they don’t remove the children from their families but provide support and education to help the families stay together and offer a healthier environment for the children to grow up in.
Zanzibar, your orphanages have definitely left a positive
impression on us.
The public orphanage.
Sitting room.
Small classroom in the orphanage for children too young for school.
Cubbies for clothes.
Bedroom.
Nursing room.
Private orphanage; we weren't allowed pictures inside.
The old orphanage in Stone Town.
Looks like a jail, right? Thank God they moved the children.
Community Outreach:
FINALLY…Finally we went out into the community for work. Our
very last week of placement and we actually went. We went to the South of
Zanzibar, I’m not really sure where, to a small clinic and held therapy in open
area. Amina said there are usually more kids, but we only saw three clients
today. It wasn’t much different from being at the hospital, except we all
worked together on the children and Amina took the lead which meant we actually
got to observe her doing therapy. The children were adorable and all very
cooperative. It would have been nice if we had been given more chances to do
community visits. I would have also liked to do an in-home visit here, but the
one we were supposed to do…well, I’m not sure what happened to it. It was never
mentioned again after the last failed attempt to go.
Where we held therapy.
She liked taking pictures of herself.
Using the corner as a support when sitting.
Giving Amina a kiss.
SO CUTE.
He also liked pictures.
Peace Museum:
The coolest part was that we saw the infamous Zanzibar
Leopard, which is rumoured to be extinct now as it hasn’t been seen for years.
But the museum had a stuffed one on display along will a lot of other stuffed
animals. It was kind of weird seeing a whole display of stuffed birds laying on
their backs.
Zanzibar leopard.
Some weird 6 legged animal...I don't really know.
Display of stuffed birds, kind of morbid.
Giant vertebrae of some animal, it was like the size of my torso.
Skeleton of a dodo bird.
Second building of museum.
Pretty ceiling windows.
Princess Salme's clothes.
Zanzibar Bucketlist:
Mylene and I have been trying to plan our last week here,
only to come to realize that we’ve basically done everything possible to do on
the island that’s unique. We’ve done all the tours offered on the island and
seen almost all the historical sites; we’ve also eaten at most of the
restaurants in Stone town mentioned in her lonely planet book. Since it was
Chels’ last week before she leaves for her safari (she left today), we tried to
go to all the restaurants we still had to eat at. Mylene and I have planned out
the rest of our week to the most that we can, things to look forward to reading
about: Pongwe beach, scuba diving, biking (yes, I am going to bike) to see all
the ruins and maybe a local soccer game. We wanted to go to Chumbe Island,
which is a nature reserve for corals and forests, for a day of snorkelling and
beach. Chels and Ann Marie went last Saturday, but we wanted to go this
Saturday since we needed things to do during our last week. Too bad though
cause the island only allows 14 guests at a time (including guests staying at
the resort on the island) for ecological purposes and it’s now fully booked
until Mar2, the day after we leave. They said the snorkeling was really good
and we were really disappointed that we couldn’t go…but scuba diving for the first
time will definitely be a good replacement!
Zanzibar ginger ale, better than Canada Dry.
"Bull's milk milkshake"
Lazuli: Spicy fishcakes, spicy was a bad idea.
Silk Route special of the day.
Third time at Amore Mio: hazelnut and coffee gelato
Buni Cafe: banana filled crepes with chocolate syrup
The worst white wine I've ever tasted.
Third OT placement…CHECK:
We’ve officially completed our third placement for school,
one step closer to that Master’s degree! Today was our last day of placement,
we went in just to pick up our evaluations and say by to our supervisor. We
brought over chocolate from home and wrapped it up in a scarf we bought here
and wrote her a card. She’s said a couple of times that she would miss us after
we left and she would be all alone again; hell, I wouldn’t want to be the only
therapist seeing 25 kids a day either. We took some time to go around the hospital taking pictures where we were allowed. We took a picture with Amina and the
administrative assistant and said our goodbyes. It’s crazy to think that we’ve
been here for 8 weeks already, oh how fast the time flies. I don’t know if it’ll
ever fully hit me that I lived in Africa for 9 weeks.
Here's a glimpse into our working life in Zanzibar...
Here's a glimpse into our working life in Zanzibar...
Pool at the OT/PT department that broke 3 years ago and never got fixed, what a waste.
Our view from the OT department...can't really complain.
OT treatment room.
Mnazi Mmoja hospital.
PT clinic.
For stretching the head and neck contraption in PT.
People waiting to bring food for their family in the hospital.
Half the people waiting to see a doctor.
Stroke ward.
Stroke ward take 2; orthopedics ward was in a worse condition but they wouldn't let us take a picture.
Specifically labelled "Patient's toilet", a hole in the ground.
Us in white coats.
With our supervisor (in the middle) and admin assistant, all smiles.
One last week in Zanzibar and then it’s back home, hopefully
to no snow. It’s been extremely hot and humid here this week, we will more than
likely get sick when we get home, it’ll be like a 40-50 degree change. I keep
getting waves of excitement to go home but also waves of sadness that I have to
leave this paradise island and return to real life and school. No more fresh
fruit juices and white, sandy beaches? That’s going to take some adjusting to…better
soak it all up before it’s too late, see you in a week Canada!
