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| Trying to stay warm in the pool New "wet suit" Not very warm! |
This week seemed like it might be boring, especially as my knee is still killing me at every turn. But, it turned was as usual was filled with interesting things! John had to go to the US for two days! So, he had four days on the plane, two days in Boston. I hope the meeting was worth it. The hotel greeted him with big "Thank Heavens you are here, because fourteen boxes of packages had arrived for him to bring back for many many people, and they were so glad to be able to empty out their closet. At least, they were nice about the whole thing. He was very happy to be home.
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| Manuela and Anne Nelson |
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| Trish and Anne Nelson |
It turns out that while John was away, we had a very esteemed visitor to A-5 and the KCMC/Duke project. She is one of the most famous HIV and Infectious Diseases Pathologists in the world, and here she was staying with us. She is also exceptionally nice, interested in everything going on here and very dedicated to the young people who are working with a new research project on autopsy. It is one of the first projects of its kind in East Africa, and thus will be incredible however it turns out. We had some fun, too. We went to Pizza Night at Mukesh's Uptown Grocery which is always fascinating for the unusual people who hang out for a secret beer or whiskey before they go home, children who race up for a treat, and young people mostly who come to buy one cigarette. It even brought a few drops of rain (not enough to call it a rainstorm, however). We drove through the beautiful coffee fields to Kilimakyaro (KiChagga for Kilimanjaro). We had a beer and begged the mountain to come out! Recalcitrant as usual, we sadly had to have a gin and tonic to more strongly encourage the mountain to come out, and she finally did just as the sunset was through and it was nearly dark. As usual, it was horrible driving in the dark down KCMC road as it is quite narrow and people walk all over the street. I challenge anyone who has read this far to try seeing Africans in the street when someone else's bright lights are shining on you. Fortunately we made it home in one piece, and I think Anne felt that her trip was a success. She had been a part of four autopsies, figured out some things that need to be done, and will come back to visit not too far in the future.
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| New TAWREF Building |
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| Mission Vision TAWREF Some Studies |
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| Little TAWREF Store |
My preachy part of this blog regards Volunteers and Non-Governmental Organizations and their value, and also their burdens. A group of Tanzanian women founded an organization entitled KIWAKKUKI in 1990 with the help of a beloved Nurse and Devoted women Juliette Howlett. Juliette was married to the only Neurologist and the first doctor who actually described AIDS in East Africa for the first time. I worked with this organization for over five years, doing everything from writing and editing reports, editing grants, teaching English, and generally was the best "girl Friday" I could be. It was all part of a Twinning NIH grant that paired an NGO that did Home Based Care for AIDS patients with our hospital KCMC. I was the "twin" for KIWAKKUKI. I came to love the women who worked there and they are still my best friends in Tanzania. (Think Dadas). Many of this group separated from KIWAKKUKI in 2010-2011. They formed a smaller organization loosely dedicated to research, and the KCMC/Duke Collaborative followed them.
When you visit Moshi and the Kilimanjaro region, you will be impressed with the number of NGO's in Moshitown in particular. There is practically one on every corner...sometimes more than one. The problem with them is not their intent, the problem with them is that they often duplicate services that others provide and often die out when the donor runs out of money.
TAWREF/KIWAKKUKI was started by the Tanzanian women, for the Tanzanian people, both those with HIV/AIDS (UKIMWI) and those affected by the disease. These women will be here until they are dead or retire, they go sometimes with no pay until a grant comes through, but they do the jobs that are greatly needed. And I have seen them open their own pocketbooks to help out desperately poor people who come in crisis to the office. TAWREF has a collaboration with the Vine Trust Scotland that involves wards choosing the most impoverished and needy families and putting them on a waiting list to receive a nice small safe house. The experience is a little like Habitat for Humanity, where both the recipient family and the village will assist the builders with the completion of the house, either with pots and pans, some sugar or tea, anything including labor. My illustration is just that, some very dedicated new volunteers to our area, could seek out existing NGO's started by Tanzanians, suggest their project to them, and offer to help fund it. Since the entire region of Kilimanjaro knows TAWREF, here you have a perfect way to reach and meet the people who need to be reached, the best investment of money around. I can say that I believe this to be true because I have been in Moshi since the end of 2004, and have spent countless hours with these women who started out just trying to find a way to stop so many people from dying of this strange disease (UKIMWI), and wound up helping orphans, widows, doing counseling and testing, doing longitudinal studies on their resilience and growth and develop in orphanages and out, providing cognitive related group counseling and support for families and caregivers in need, providing voluntary home based care services to HIV-infected persons who could not get to health care or needed visits between health care appointments, and doing outreach and HIV-education all over the Kilimanjaro region. So, if you think you have some money and a project....go to an organization like TAWREF to see they feel it will work, or possibly have them help you and use their influence and name to accomplish huge goals.
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| Mateé at this weekend's hash |
Each two weeks Sunday would be incomplete without a hash. (run or walk through the beautiful countryside that is Kilimanjaro). This Sunday's was at a place that John and I had set two hashes in the past. Kigomboni Guest House. Sadly, I couldn't hike up to the fabulous vistas because of my knee but I did have a wonderful time visiting with some creative four year olds who had many things to tell me about fairies and ogres who eat little children at night, as well as their ability to swim with crocodiles who won't eat them because they think that these little girls are toys.
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| Anna and Mike Mayes farewell |
Frequently, there are goodbyes at hashes. Many people come for two year stretches and then leave. Anna and Mike and their two adorable children will be leaving in January, and have been not only outstanding members of our project, but have gone down in history for allowing their little girls to experience Moshi mud, climb trees, run barefoot slide into any available pond, fall down (no problem). I remember one party in which one of the girls said to me, "guess what we got from school!" I demurred, and she triumphantly said, "Lice in my hair!!!!" She was quite joyful about it even as her mother looked at me and shook her head, saying..."well it is true, but do you have to shout it out?" New Zealanders for ever, they took advantage of every single possible thing that they could do with their sometimes reliable car and their camping equipment. We will really miss them.
Beautiful yellow flower by the Guest house
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| Chicken House (nearly nicer than the guest house!) |
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| All kinds of Brush and trees that the runners headed out to see. |
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| Kilimanjaro shining through the trees |
So nothing would be complete without the greeter at the house when we returned from the hash.
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| This bored tabby cat just glanced up at us and let us go on in the house! |
PRAYING FOR HILLARY WITH EVERY WAKING BREATH--
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