Tanzania Summer 2008

This is Kiran writing the blog today, and it has been another interesting day in Tanzania. We spent our first night in our new house and it feels wonderful to be settled in our own place for the next two weeks. Our morning started with serenades from howling dogs that sounded like they were possibly being attacked by a lion or some other fierce creature. After finally waking up, we took a scenic walk into town while munching on our Cliff and Luna bars as we headed towards the regional hospital. Jenna, Kayla and I spent the morning in the HIV unit, specifically in the Prevention of Maternal Transmission Center, while Andy, Ice and Anh left to schedule a meeting with the Regional General Secretary of the Kagera Region to confirm our diabetes research project. In the end, we fought drooping eyes due to a lack of coffee and tea this morning to see four negative HIV tests—great news!

In the afternoon, the six of us met up for peanut butter and pineapple jelly sandwiches and then marched from the cyber café to Kiroyera Tours, where we would work on the beads project. During our wait before leaving for BUDAP to see how the beads project was progressing, we bought some garlic, a wooden spoon, and some bowls so that we could make our first home cooked meal, spaghetti and tomato sauce. At BUDAP, we finalized the key chain designs and were excited to see how the diabetes awareness products were being made. We also got to watch Anh chase a duck around the yard.

Dinner was interesting. That is really the best way to say it. Anh and I tried to make spaghetti in water that would not boil and make spaghetti sauce from scratch. Apparently, tomato sauce in Africa is not tomato sauce. It is ketchup. The onions, garlic and green peppers were fresh and smelled amazing, but the tomato sauce did not taste like sauce. We tried adding chili sauce but it still turned the noodles pink. In the end, we ended up eating pink, soggy, ketchup noodles. Everyone but Andy ended their meals early due to loss of appetite. The best part of dinner was the fifty cent fresh pineapple. After dinner, we were serenaded again, this time by the toilet and the cow outside our house. Let us just say that we have all learned how to “hold it� until we absolutely cannot anymore and how to use a toilet in the dark. All in all, it has been a good day.

Kiran