Friendly faces.

I get lazy so I put off writing my blog posts, but the more I push it back the more I end up having to write in one post and it takes more time and becomes a way too long post. But of course, I will continue to do so. Also, I apologize for all the spelling errors and missing words in my sentences, I have reread some of my posts and realized how awfully written it is haha but by the time I write them and upload it with the pictures, rereading these long posts is the last thing I want to do. So kudos to you for still reading them and hopefully comprehending what I write. Thanks friends :)

Anyways...here are the past 5 days…

TUESDAY

We went to work today and it wasn’t too busy, we were finished fairly early. But the first couple cases I had were really different to see because the kids were extremely spastic. One of the boys was contracted in several areas of his body which kept him in an awkward position majority of the time. His body was not aligned, his hips turned one way while his shoulders twisted another way and asymmetrically leveled. It was hard to do any sort of passive range of motion around his shoulder area because of his contractures. It seems like the family was not given much education on positioning and active use of muscles for the child and he has be left lying in unhealthy postures for long periods of time. It will be really difficult for him to be able to do any sort of daily activities like eating, bathing, etc. but if he had the adequate amount and therapy starting from when he was younger, it would have been a different case. I tried to educate the mom as to proper positioning, but the language barrier was too difficult and I don’t think she understood anything that I said. The last patient we saw was a boy about 4 months old and was an inpatient at the hospital. He has spina bifida and was supposed to get an operation to close his spine soon after he was born, but his mother didn’t bring him in to the hospital on the day of his surgery. Now he has a severely large bump, probably the size of a large orange over the area where it is affected. The surgery now would only cost 200,000TSH ($125USD), but for the parents it is too much for them to be able to afford. All three of us had said that we would help pay for the surgery, but the only issue is that the only way we would be 100% sure the money was actually going towards the surgery would be to personally bring the child to Dar es Salaam ourselves since you never really what happens after unless we did, but that wouldn’t be possible.

For lunch, we went to Lukmaan to buy try their samosas. We haven’t had any since we’ve been here and have been wanting to try them for a while. We all had leftovers for lunch at home so only ordered a couple of small items. The samosas were soo good! They were just a tiny bit spicy but very flavourful and crunchy. We’ve gone back a couple times since to try to get more but they’re always sold out by the time we get there. I also bought more mangoes today, 8 for 2000TSH, they looked really yellow and not too ripe. After lunch, Mylene and I went souvenir shopping and exploring around the city. We found a new street with new shops that we haven’t been to before, that was exciting. Some people at the stores are starting to recognize us when we walk down the streets…probably a sign that we’re out shopping too much. BUT I am officially done all my souvenirs except for one thing, it took over a month but it’s finally done. We also treated ourselves to some delicious mango juice after our shopping trip.

WEDNESDAY

This morning we went into work to go to the school that we were supposed to go to 2 weeks ago, but finally were able to. It started off with a meeting between the principal, mom of the child, teach and the therapists. Although, nothing important was really said by our supervisor even though she was the main therapist for the child…she basically said that it was important for every party to work together for the better of the child, which the principal had already stated. The principal was from Europe somewhere, but was fluent in Swahili, it was pretty cool. And because she used to be a speech language pathologist, she was very open to opportunities between therapists and the school to help improve and enhance independence for as many students as possible. She suggested that we observe the child in the classroom setting so we would know how to intervene. Our supervisor asks if we would be okay doing that today and we said yes, so she sits with us for about 10 minutes observing the child and then says for us to stay at the school but she’s going to leave because she has something else to do…what?? What kind of supervisor just leaves us at a school when she’s the main therapist. She had also driven us to the school, but told us to just cross the street after we were done to catch the dala dala. Thanks, that’s helpful. The kids were really cute and it was an international school so everything was taught in English. They sang a lot of songs to help them learn the days of the week and months of the year, adorable.

We went to book our prison island trip for tomorrow after work. Vickie and Sandy will be back so we all 6 of us will be going, it should be fun! We’re doing Safari Blue (which was highly recommended by everyone) next weekend, really excited for that, it’s a full day trip. When we were booking prison island, we asked Mary where we should eat and she brought us to a restaurant called Lazuli; she said they had really good smoothies and chapatti wraps. The place was really cute and it even had 10% off for students and volunteers. I ordered a chapatti wrap with sesame chicken, mangoes, carrots, cucumbers, and some other vegetables. It was SO GOOD, by far the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. It was really filling too and not too expensive. I also ordered a mango juice, but it was more of a smoothie, which was also really good. There were so many things we wanted to try, we said we would definitely go back there.

 Mango "juice", but more of a smoothie.

Chapatti wrap, mouth currently watering.

Vickie and Sandy came back around 4. They wanted to go to Sunset Bar in Africa House to see the sunset, so we left around 6:30 to go. But it was really cloudy today, so we didn’t actually see the sun set. We ordered some beers and a calamari…the calamari was the smallest portion and most tasteless calamari I’ve ever had. Our waitress was also really rude. We went to get schwarmas at Forodhani and dessert pizza. Haven’t had the dessert pizza since we first came here and we had forgotten how good it was.

 Our tiny plate of calamari.

With Chels and Vickie. Our waitress apparently can't take photos either, she said this was "nice",but it's super blurry. 

THURSDAY

Went souvenir shopping this morning, with Vickie and Sandy so they could get things to bring home, it’s their last day in Zanzibar! We left, but I forgot to tell Rod and accidentally locked him in the apartment… I felt so bad! We hurried home after our mango juice to give him the keys. This is the third day in a row I’ve drank mango juice, just can’t get enough. We got so many “Japan? Korea? China?” when we were walking through the streets; I usually get a couple but I guess because there were three of us, the comments also tripled. They wanted to try the samosas at Lukmaan but they were sold out by the time we got there, but at the same time none of the other food we normally order was ready. Vickie and Sandy ordered a minced meat (which is really ground beef) curry and I got an octopus one, which tastes like the calamari. They wanted to go to the slave chambers, so we went there after lunch. There was an entrance fee and since I was going to go again with Chels and Mylene and I didn’t have my camera on me, I waited outside for them to finish.

We went home to meet up with the Chels, Mylene and Rod to go to prison island. The driver picked up us from the big tree and drove us to the Madeira Tours office. Then we walked to Tembo Hotel to meet our guide and boat captain. When we were about to get in the boat, the captain told us to take off our flip flops, but none of us did thinking we would be fine. As I’m stepping on the ladder to get onto the boat with my right foot, my left flip flop washes away and Rod has to fish in the water for it…next time I’ll listen to them. We took a wooden boat for ~30 minutes to get to the island. Once we got there, our guide took us to the turtle sanctuary where the giant turtles lived. We saw a couple at the zoo a few weeks back, but it was cool to see them in a more natural setting. There were so many of them! The oldest one was around 180 years old, and so began my hunt to find the oldest turtle in the sanctuary. He was tricky to find, most of the other turtles were gathered around the more central area, but this one was in the further corner of the sanctuary alone. He was massive, not surprising given his age, but he was a damaged shell. He was almost surrounded by large amounts of poop, it seems that he doesn’t move around much. We think that he’s kind of in a turtle form of a seniors home, living the rest of his time on his own in this designated area where none of the other turtles were. Our guide was not good, he just left us in the sanctuary and went outside to talk to other people. When we were about to leave, another guide came in with two other tourists and he walked around with them showing and explaining things about the turtles. Afterwards, the guide led us to buy water in a restaurant area. It wasn’t until Mylene asked when we were going to the building that used to be a prison that he said that we were already in it…thanks for the heads up. We walked out to a cliff area and it overlooked the water, it was gorgeous. Then we went to lie on the beachy area of the island for 40 minutes cause we had to leave by 4 or the tides would get too rough. Our guide told us a little bit of history about the island, that it used to be a prison until a British guy took over and made it a quarantine site for people who were sick. But after our tour, Ann Marie told us that the information was only partially right. The island used to be used to hold slaves, after which it was planned to be used as a prison, but it never actually got put through. And then because people coming into the island had a lot of infectious diseases, they sent them to be quarantined instead on the island. The turtles also used to roam freely on the island and now in a built sanctuary, but over a decade ago poachers stole all the turtles off the island for their shells and now they're under protection. The tiny babies are locked up in a caged area so no one can take them. It was the first time we had a guide that didn’t give us information until we asked, all the rest was providing an abundance of history. Overall, it wasn’t too exciting of a trip, but at least we said we did it cause it’s such a big tourist attraction. When we got back we wanted to bring Vickie and Sandy to Lazuli, but it was closed when we got there and not opened again til 6pm. They had to leave just past 7 to catch their flight, so it wouldn’t have been possible.

Approaching prison island.

white sand, blue water.

Looking at Stonetown from Prison Island.

On the windows on building.

Whoops...the zoo clearly had different rules.

  Turtles and me.

 So many turtles!

 Baby turtles.

 Peacock roadblock. 

 Turtle roadblock.

 Teenage (mutant ninja) turtles.

 Rawr.

 They like to snuggle.

 Love triangle?

 Century and a half.

127 year old canoodling with a 40 year old...a bit scandalous.

189 year old turtle! Look at it's shell.

S/He's a big one.

 haha I don't know what it's doing, but it made me laugh. It's head is in a hole.

This building was where the slaves and then the sick were kept. It's now been redone as a hotel, kind of a creepy thought...sleeping where slaves used to be kept.

 Gorgeous view.

With my lovely visitors :)

FRIDAY

We went into work this morning and actually did our presentation that we prepared weeks ago. We were supposed to go see the mental health ward today, but our supervisor forgot to ask if we could go. Instead we went into the wards again with the PTs. We went back into the orthopedics ward, a little more prepared than we were last time and a little less shocked. The Norwegian PTs  had people send over lower thoracic braces for patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) to help keep their spinal cord inline but would allow them to sit up and not be constrained to lying in bed all day. The first patient we saw had been in the hospital for 6-7 weeks and had been lying in bed the entire time. The good part was the he was an incomplete SCI, and he could still move his lower limbs on his own. The plan was to set him up on a tilting table so he would be able to start weight bearing, but because it would require more time, the PTs decided to start with the other patients first. Chels and I went with one of the PT students to do passive range of motion on two patients with complete SCIs. They were both young, in their twenties and would not be able to use their lower limbs again. The PT student stood there while we did the exercises for him. One of the patients looked like he was in a lot of pain whenever we bend his leg, his torso would involuntarily twitch. I felt uncomfortable continuing because he was in so much pain, but the PT student barely even noticed. Afterwards, we noticed that the catheters were had to be emptied by the patient’s family…it blew our minds! One of the patients caregiver emptied his catheter bag into a cut open water bottle and the other one had a bowl under his bed that held the emptied contents…it’s so unsanitary and should not be the job of a family member when the patient is in the hospital. While we were watching the PTs set up the tilting board for the first patient, we noticed that a boy around 12 years old a couple beds away but being re-bandaged. His right foot was so swollen it was probably 3 times the size of his left foot and on top of his foot, an area about 6 by 4 inches big, was completely gone. It was so deep that all you could see was red tissue, his skin was gone. He didn’t seem to feel any pain when they were dumping some sort of cleaning liquid (probably saline) onto his wound and rewrapped it. It was something so out of the ordinary and gruesome, Chels started feeling queasy and one of the Norwegian PTs started crying cause she felt so bad for the boy. But back to the patient with SCI. They had to transfer him from bed on to the board, but because the bed was higher and not adjustable, they put pillows in between the bed and tilting table and slid him on by using the bedsheet. Afterwards it took a long time to figure out how to strap him onto the board because the straps were not very adjustable and they needed to cushion between the belts and the patient. Eventually they figured it out and told the patient to let them know if he starts feeling dizzy when they increase the degree from lying to standing. He did so well; they were able to practically stand him vertically and he was up for about 10 minutes! He was so cute, when they had him up the first thing he asked was if someone could bring him a large plate of biriani. They also called in one of his family members so they could see his progress. The patient was supposed to be discharged but was waiting on PT recommendations. They decided to keep him for another week so they could work with him on increasing his upright and sitting endurance. The sad part was that they didn’t have a wheelchair for him when he was ready to go home…which means he wouldn’t be able to get around on his own and will probably end up lying in bed all the time again. We were told that 19 brand new wheelchairs were sent from Denmark two weeks ago, but disappeared because someone in the hospital had sold them for money. It seems that everything is about money here. We were also told that the Norwegian PTs tried to provide education to the PT department and also presented at the university, but then were told that they would only implement the things they taught if they were given the money to do those things. It’s sad and upsetting to see and hear about these things; these foreign health care workers are coming to try to advance the care but people here aren’t acknowledging  how much of a gift that is. It seems that each time we visit the wards, we leave feeling crappy.

We didn’t do much the rest of the day, but Chels and I went to eat dinner with Ann Marie later at Amore Mio. The most exciting part of the meal was being able to eat yummy ice cream! I ordered a scoop of pistachio and a scoop of mango. The pistachio was really good, my favourite out of the four that I’ve tried. The mango was standard, the taste wasn’t too strong, but it was still good.

Left = pistachio, right = mango.

SATURDAY

The plan was to go to Nungwi today, we told Ann Marie we would meet her there around 2pm, which meant we would leave Stonetown around noon. But Chels wasn’t feeling too well so she wasn’t able to go. Mylene and Rod were going to go earlier cause they’re morning people, but since Chels wasn’t going to go, they were so sweet and waited for me to get up and went with me so I wouldn’t have to take the dala dala by myself! We had to wait a bit for a dala dala because we didn’t want to take the truck ones and wanted a van. It definitely paid off to wait, we got to sit comfortable on our way there and they didn’t try to trick us for more money. The only issue was that there were tons and tons of mosquitoes on the bus! There were swarms of them and God knows I attract them like crazy. It was the same thing on the way back…I’m not looking forward to seeing how many new bites I got. I currently have this massive one on my hand and it’s really swollen and itchy.

It was the first time we had gone to Nungwi during the day, it was definitely more touristy than Matemwe, but the beaches looked similar except Nungwi didn’t have women collecting seaweed. Mylene was hungry by the time we reached Nungwi so we looked for a place to eat. We thought it would make the most sense to eat at a place where we would also be able to use their loungers after. We went into the Hilton Double Tree, which was really nice, but most of the loungers were occupied. We walked on and ended up at a smaller, but still kind of busy restaurant with not as nice loungers. I ordered a breaded red snapper which came with vegetables and fries. It tasted way better than I expected. Then we laid around on the beach for the rest of the day and read. Ann Marie also joined us. At one point one of the fishermen brought a blowfish onto shore, I was pretty far away but it had blown up to be the size of a soccer ball, it was the first time I’ve seen one so it was cool. The dala dala ride on the way home was more squishy, we had to fit 5 people into 4 seats. I think I may have gotten slight burns on my arms and legs from the beach, hopefully they don’t peel.

Chels and I just ordered in pizza for dinner. The guy that delivered it didn’t have change so he said he’d come back tomorrow so we can pay him and he was going to pick up the glass bottles our drinks came in. Here they only give glass bottles of pop when you eat at the restaurant because they recycle the bottles and get money for it.

 The Hilton Double Tree, thought of you Natasha!

 Really low tide, people walking out towards the water.

 Man burning his boat.

Blowfish!

Our internet has been down for the past day, but now it’s finally up again and seems to be running faster than now. Going to take advantage of that and try to upload this blog! I guess my week wasn’t too exciting, it feels like we’ve adjusted fairly well into the lifestyle here. It’s pretty crazy to think that we’ve already been here for over a month…having Vickie and Sandy here definitely made me miss home more though. Counting down the days left to do all the things we want to do here, but also to reunite with my own bed and a bathtub!