It’s Sunday in Lushoto and the praying is extra loud today- it’s kind of comforting to hear the loud singing now (praying is 5 times a day- I remember reading about this is my religion class, I think it’s a Muslim practice) We just got back from our hike and we are exhausted. Lesson 1 from the weekend- when your Mom asks you if you need sneakers, you say yes and you bring them. Mom is always right. I just hiked like 30 something miles in what are now the saddest pair of knock-off keds I’ve ever seen. The second day I put a second pair of socks at the bottom to help cushion, but sneakers would have been pretty nice. I didn’t have a need for real shoes til now- so I guess it’s okay, but Mom gets a point there. The view was absolutely stunning though, we had 3 days and 2 nights. We hiked up to Mtae and then the Mkuzi waterfalls with some adventures thrown in there. Mtae is at the top of the world. Once we got up, you could look out over everything- I’ve never seen so much land. It was like I was looking at a dinosaur exhibit, before the humans came in and took over. We were going through the forest (regular and rainforest) all weekend, our guide Elvis found 21 Chameleons for us! he was hilarious, every time he found another (I think he was cheating… they look just like leaves you can’t see them from afar) he would tell us he found a gift for us in the bush. We stayed in a pretty nice convent the first weekend, in Rangu, which had delicious food. We ate so much because they made us veggies finally. And for lunhes we got homemade guacamole and chapatti (BEST meal I’ve had in Tanzania- I know how to make it now so everyone better get ready- I want to make it when I get back). The convent was about the same size as the town of Rangu, so in comparison it was really nice, but the mountains were so cold that we didn’t want to shower- the water coming off of me was brownish yellow today. I am a new person, I feel like I shed a layer of dirt. Mtae had a little hotel that was pretty sketchy- we woke up at 4 this morning to catch a bus to another town for more hiking.. so we all just took like a 2-hour nap (everyone is clean now! Our room has it’s own shower 😀 ). amazing weekend, we got to see everything. My joints and toes can prove it

Last week went well! I’m liking Lushoto a lot more now. We got to shadow a surgery Thursday- it was disgusting. But oh man did we learn a lot. It was meant to be just someone getting their appendix out- however once they got inside they realized that it wasn’t swollen and couldn’t have been the source of the pain (something I feel like you could figure out without surgery…) but then they saw the uterus (patient was a 15 year old female) it was up higher in the abdomen and pretty large (full of blood). They stitched her up and decided to go in from the vagina- but couldn’t because when they explored with their fingers they found a hard mass. Turns out her cervix didn’t have an opening for the menstrual blood, so it had all been stuck in the uterus. They had to cut the vaginal walls to dilate her and get it all out via aspiration- we will never be able to eat BBQ sauce again. There was about 2000 ml of fluid in there. So naturally it was pretty much the grossest thing I’ve ever seen, but much more interesting than a big appendix. She woke up a few times in the middle (of surgery and the vaginal exploring) and screamed like nothing I’d ever heard in my life- I wouldn’t want to ever hear that noise again. The anesthesiologist really took her time getting over to the patient and putting her down again, needless to say, there’s no malpractice insurance here. Maybe someone should consider it.

Shayo left- he’s one of the med students. They finished their assignment and I guess he didn’t care about shadowing in the hospital. We’re pretty happy to not have him here though- him and Daniel were frustrating, so this week will be better. It’s mostly just shadowing with Jacky since Daniel doesn’t get very involved. We leave Thursday to go back to Dar! The plan is a safari this next weekend, visiting NGOs next week for a few days, and then Zanzibar for a few days! I’m pumped.

Happy Father’s Day Dad! I love you and am so grateful that you were the Father I got- you did an amazing job raising Dan and I and I hope you did something fun today

going to Zanzibar for the weekend! we had a change of plans, but it looks like Marc, Sharmila, and I will leave for Zanzibar tomorrow morning and the nursing group will meet us on Friday- we’re pumped. It sounds like a ridiculous place, very touristy (and expensive) but there’s a film festival this weekend with live music and dancing and it’ll be great! after the 7 hour bus ride we need it.

Location: Lushoto, Tanzania