Coffee plant near picking time

Week Two in Moshi

Brandon Kathleen Neha & ME

How has the week been?  Very very busy.  Week two passed and in what seemed like a whirlwind.  I met with the DGHI students Kathleen and Brandon...Great work completed, and with Neha from Duke Engage.  Being involved with them at some level reminded me of how lucky we are to be at Duke where these young people are so smart, and were able to accomplish amazing work this summer.










Our Dean of the School of Medicine arrived with her family.  We had a fabulous dinner at A-5, thank you Melinda, and the Duke/KCMC collaborative presented their work.  That day was followed by presentations by the MEPI team and a trip to Kibosho Hospital.  Full days all around

Ahaz and the MEPI team

The MEPI Team each showed their talents by discussing how our MEPI--Medical Education Partnership Initiative is geared to maximizing the small faculty with excellent learning.
 

Lucy shared her information from the Duke Program Blue Docs which stresses Team Based Learning.  She does a little of everything.

We discovered  an engineering Duke Engage Student at Kibosho Hospital.  In fact there are two, but one was in Moshi.  These young engineers are repairing equipment that is vital to the ongoing work at the hospital, such as x-ray equipment, surge protectors, and masses of other electric things.  They have apparently been invaluable to the hospital.

Dinner at our dear friends the Emmanuels was enhanced even more by the presence of Greg and the Kimaros.  I always feel that I have been transported in time when we go the house in Machame.  It is relaxing and delightful.

At the table with the Emmanuels.  Delicious food wonderful company with some of the stalwarts of our community.

John walking the walk

We volunteered to set the hash at Kibo Farms.  This is a place that has an incredible coffee farm that covers 100's of acres.  The road has been worked on for over 4 years, and it is still treacherous at times.  We watched buses and motorbikes dodging one another as they did a slalom through the big rocks in the road.  At one point, a near miss made John lean on the horn of our pathetic car.  Only a squawk came out and I could only imagine the driver of the bus laughing all the way to Moshi!

John is scouting where to put the check as we walk between beautiful coffee bushes.  The whole walk was lovely, though were to put the crosses and how to stay out of the begger weeds was another matter again.


There was quite a bit of coffee being picked and we were able to watch the trucks going up and down the paths.  The pickers were happy as they would be paid at the end of the day.

The view at Kibo Farm is terrific.  The day was not particularly clear, and was cold, but I could still see many kilometers and loved the red in the house below the corn fields.  Part of what makes "hashing" fun, is the ability to get out and see areas of the countryside we have not seen before.  Thank you Africa!  (and of course Greg for starting hashing here.

Without giving too much away, suffice it to say that road crossing and water crossing are part of the usual fare with a hash and this one will be no exception.  I love the truck filled with corn stalks and the ladies carrying sticks and branches on their heads. And one of the highlights of this hash in particular is the huge turtle named Tom.  When he saw me with camera held, he woke up and started after his food.  Apparently I stood between him and the food and he was not happy.  All the workers at the farm know Tom and care for him.  He may be one of the oldest turtles in Tanzania.

This is what happens when you set a hash.  We could have been considered one of the road hazards as we were picking these things out of our socks all the way home.  Disgusting.
Dinner at the pastors led to a conversation about Palliative Care, one of my favorite topics.  Turns out that they have been trying to help Mama Pulchra.  I hope it works out!

In Moshi Town

It seems as if we never left Moshi in many ways. Our house is the same, power outages are the same, water shortages are the same, and many of the people are the same. It has been great to step back into the world where everyone greets you with warmth and happiness, and no one tells you their problems until after the third “How is, how are…..” At that point, a laundry list of problems are told and for each the best solution is to say, “pole” (sorry). The mangos are falling.
(mango tree)
Because we have at least 9 mango trees in the yard, we have “watoto wenge” (many children) racing after school to our house to pick up the mangos.
(faux Banana Tree)
The birds are singing all morning. John says that we don’t need an alarm clock and he is right. The birds begin at 6:15 on the dot and continue until they settle down about around 8.

The time has gone quickly this past two weeks. John has already traveled to Uganda and back, thank heavens making each connection with no canceled flights. I have participated in staff meetings, been to KIWAKKUKI, and visited with my sweet Cipe whose beautiful daughter has turned 3 months old and is darling. The changes are some subtle and some quite large. No longer is Moshi without the crime that seems to plague other cities. It is now “hold on to your handbag when you are walking on the roads”. The traffic is much worse with the proliferation of piki-piki’s (motorcycles) frightening. We have been told that there is a whole ward of KCMC that has been nicknamed after one of the popular brands of motorbikes because there are so many accidents. Indeed, I have experienced the weaving of piki-piki drivers with more than one person on the back, no helmets, passing on the left and right and no way to see them in time to slow or move. As we witnessed over the years, more and more cars are on the roads, yet still there remain not even one stoplight in town.

Kilimanjaro shines each morning and each night. There has been no substantial rain in Moshi since June, so it is dusty and nice and warm, and no cloud cover on the mountain during the usual times. When you look at the mountain, you see that the glaciers are indeed melting quickly. Tanzania is the only side to have snow as Kenya lost the glaciers several years ago. It is with sadness that we have watched the change. This being the hottest time of year and the driest, no new snow covers the glaciers. They are painfully visible. But, even at that, it is a glorious mountain with the smaller sister peak Mwenzi jutting up a little like a Rasta.
(Anjela loves to put her hands on her hips)
Our housekeeper Rose’s daughter Anjela was only 3 when I first met her. She is now nearly 9. It is again hard to imagine. She is tall and quite proud of her looks!










Our gardener Pauli has a girlfriend Lucy who is sweet and seems to be a very good influence, and his brother Tomasifu is living with them and will become my Kiswahili teacher this week. Change in the air. Project people begin arriving this week; thus, we are getting ready. Power adapters, lamps, flashlights, boiling water and John in particular mapping out agenda for the many meetings that will be happening.

There are so many people that are new in town and many have babies and young children. It is really fun to see. This afternoon is the first hash at Erlich and Kirsten’s house. It was quite a good hash. For anyone who has done a hash at their house, you remember getting to the gorge and trying to find your way along it. I am quite sure that 2 of us, who were actually walking quite fast, took many hashes at the same time, but it was fun and we ended our day with Kilimanjaro beers, and lots of company. This is what makes you feel refreshed!






























(an amazing gorge, deep with fast flowing water and lots of rocks!)













































I have not lost my love of strange signs related to bars and "hotels". Here is yet one more.