Back in NC?

Here we are at the Cancer Symposium at KCMC
The Ying and the Yang…..Moshi to Abu Dhabi

I guess it is easy to forget that there is another world beyond Moshi. Or another world beyond North Carolina and especially Durham or Boone. But, I have to say that at least, North Carolina isn’t unlike Kilimanjaro in many ways. Of course NC has big fancy cities with stop lights that work, power that is usually on, stop signs and a fairly effective police force that doesn’t operate on bribes; however, NC also has very rural poor areas where people are so desperate that they believe in faith doctors, local healers and also drive without licenses, car seats, seat belts and helmets. Suddenly, an uncomfortable flight away from Tanzania, we found ourselves in Abu Dhabi soon to be gone to Dubai.

We had some wonderful last days in Moshi. Our visitor stream continued in Moshi
and we had a wonderful time with the first annual Sub-Saharan African Cancer Symposium.

A toast at the end of a hard day one
Perhaps the most poignant moments were from Domminista Kombe, one of the directors of the Dar Es Saalam Ocean Road Cancer Treatment Center. This is currently the only treatment center for cancer in Tanzania. Other sites are doing chemotherapy, but nothing like the amount that is done at Ocean Road. This lady, works day and night….Why? Because her mother had gastric cancer while Domminista was in school, and did well with her surgery, chemo, and radiation treatment. Now because of her mother, she has specialized in cancer treatment, a surprise, and works constantly. There were other special situations. What a great scene as specialists from East Africa talked together without the turf of any American institution. The conversation about multiple issues of cancer….types , help and whatever. It was an inspiring conference.


Day One Cancer Symposium
In addition, we had the “nerds” from Duke who were trying to get the internet cable hooked into the KCMC campus. After an amazing amount of troubles, they felt that they had at least got everything ready. Let’s see. The celebration at the end of the day was Cuban cigars and a cookout with John’s new Weber grill and electric light (suggested by Greg).

Charles, Dan, Bob and the cuban cigars.

Bob and Dan with their fought for limes for gin and tonics

The new Weber grill hauled from Boston, and the fancy lighter
And then there were my “dada’s” at KIWAKKUKI. Each time I leave, a few tears spring up, but we all agreed that the return to Moshi will be practically in the blink of an eye and I will be communicating with them throughout the time that I am in North Carolina. Work is never done there and good work it is as well, so that means that mine will be extensive as well.

Egla Mtechi, the acting coordinator of KIWAKKUKI

The Dadas through thick and thin
Suddenly we are here in Abu Dhabi. My story is that I was seated next to a terrified Kenyan or Tanzanian young woman. She had never flown before, and was clearly going to Abu Dhabi for work. She had plastic bags rather than suitcases, which she didn’t know to stow under the seat. Though we had that treasured seat on the window and she could have moved from the middle, she was terrified and held my arm the entire 6 hours. I showed her how to put on the earphones for “Tangled”…..hummmmm, . And, when we left the plane though we were going to a different city, she clung to me and said, “help me please”. We got her to her gate and said, “ please, good luck”. Hopefully, she will find some Kiswahili speaking folks to speak to on the way but this was going to be a smaller city, and I would feel that she was going into a very bad situation. SAD… Also, just another interesting sidelight, there were lots of coughing people on the plane from Nairobi….. and John actually changed seats because of the coughing person next to him. Apparently, TB is one of those diseases that is very common in laborers. Gulp!!!

Now we are in Abu Dhabi and everything is fancy. We have toured briefly and visited some wonderful sites. One has to switch one’s view from East Africa and the difficulties there, to shiny fabulous places that also needs. Fortunately I am not the person to be dealing with it. What an interesting experience….

Skyline of Abu Dhabi

The Grand Mosque

There was a heritage village and an old familiar camel who posed for pictures. All I could think of was Chrissy and Katrina on the camel to the tomb of the Aga Khan. Ha.!

John still wants his Zanzibar Door
Stevie Wonder was just in Abu Dhabi and not only that, but he apparently was near our hotel so much that people who live here came to this very hotel to stay so that they could go to the concert and not have to drive back. Apparently Eric Clapton came too. There was also a place where you could go to rent a Ferrari and drive it and where they have Formula 1 races. I know Greg and Nicoli would love it. It was right next to our hotel, and you could hear the Ferrari's racing around the track.


We learned a lot in visiting the various sites here. One thing is that we learned that though there are many hospitals, only a small percent of the medical staff are actually citizens of the UAE. Most are expatriates. The leaders would very much like to find a program that would encourage the UAE citizens to become involved in medicine and empower them to be the leaders. In addition, we learned that all persons including expatriates (including the working force—Pakistanis, Philippines persons, Africans etc) have health insurance under the country laws. The oil certainly helps, but if they can do it and find that it is cost effective, why can we in the US not figure this out.

So, it has been a very interesting time. Yet another adventure.