Day + 3

Greetings from Arusha!!

I would love to tell you about Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam but since that has come and gone so quickly...and all I can say is its a wonderful place. Had a wonderful time, thanks for being patient as I get this blog started. It took a few days to get situated but now that I am....here we go!


I made it safely to my place of stay. I'm doing incredibly well. Wednesday was my orientation and greeting to the hospital staff. They did a traditional welcome where they rubbed their hands together for 3 seconds and clapped 3 times. I toured the hospital from maternity to morgue. Beautiful new hospital!! Thursday I went to the clinic in the rural part of town. I just fixed their internet and now am applying security measures on a few computers. The place where I am staying just got internet and I will be getting a temporary phone to make a few calls. Texting is free here so everyone texts. I saw my first children with AIDS and TB this morning. Very surreal to be in the ICU with them. I followed the docs around for a few hours. Then I moved to the administrations offices to look for documents to prepare for my work at the new hospital in town. Since the clinic is fully functioning...Itried copying a few admin plans for the medical center.

The house where I'm staying is fantastic. I have a lady to cook for us, (2 docs and me) while I'm there a few nights a week. The food so far has been incredible. The pineapples here are huge and they cost about $1. Mangos, limes, bananas, rice, peanuts, etc... the same. Yogurt is a little more expensive but for the most part the food wasn't bad as I heard :) The colors amazing, the people are welcoming, and the children running on the roads as you drive yelling "Muzugu, Muzungu" ..meaning white european.

There are safety concerns at night and we are guarded almost all day. At night we have a Masai guard. Today I had him cut off a slice of sugar cane we purchased yesterday using his machete. Its a treat as they chew on it while extracting the sugar.

The colors, flowers, people, are a sight like no other.