Driving in Tanzania

November 1st

Dr. Kitta made arrangements to pick Lindsay and I up at our home at 1 PM last Sunday. At 12:30 he called me as I was in church. Around 2 I thought the service was close to ending (as we were on the last prayer) and texted Dr. Kitta to come at 2:30. After each church service we walk outside for another song, prayer, and a short auction of various grains before departing for home. For some reason there were many songs played and the service wasn’t officially over until 2:25. Because church can typically last this long I went in with the plan to leave early. That was quickly erased when they saw me and made me sit in the front with the guests. I was trapped. At the end of the service they told me I must go eat at the pastor’s house. I explained that the doctor was coming and I could not, but there was no way to get around it. I was seen as a guest because I was sitting in the front, it would be beyond disrespectful to not go to the pastor’s home. They ended up running me to his house to scarf down food while the doctor drove up and waiting a half an hour for me. I felt like such an idiot and beyond rude. The doctor seemed a little annoyed but got over it. In his car we drove to Isoko to his home where his wife cooked us a huge feast. After the feast he thought it would be a good idea for us to go to ngoma (local drumming) in a village fifteen kilometers away. We reached Dr. Kitta’s car and he asked if I could drive. I thought it was a big joke but he gave me the keys and I drove to ngoma and back. It was a lot of fun driving on the unpaved roads of Isoko. This week the doctor offered to give me his car to go to Mbeya. I like to drive, but Mbeya actually has police officers and that scares me.

There wasn’t much news at school last week. I worked many hours and returned home late every day. My garden is finally sprouting though so all my watering is finally paying off!!!! On Saturday Lindsay and I woke up at 3 AM to catch the Toronto bus to Mpemba. From Mpemba we caught a bus to Mbeya. We needed to check out the immigration office and get our passports signed off. I am not too worried because I don’t plan to leave the country any time soon. Since Lindsay is leaving next week for America she needs to get everything checked out. The immigration office was closed. Lindsay returned to Isongole with Nicole while I stayed in Mbeya with Lisa for the night. Lisa was quite tired and I spent the day shopping and met up with a friend from Isoko. My friend (who I call the Pastor but just found out his name is Umbege) was attending some religious conference and dragged me along with him. I thought after an hour I could depart but he thought it would be better for me to hear the sermon. Luckily I showed him a text from Lisa that said she wasn’t feeling well and we left early. Lisa threw up twice on Saturday and started getting chills. We needed to check for Malaria. I walked from pharmacy to pharmacy and could not find a Self Malaria Test. I finally found a clinic and dragged Lisa out of bed to get a Malaria test.

The Malaria test came back negative so I convinced her to get her urine tested. It came back heavily infected with bacteria and with a yeast infection. Ciproflaxin would kill everything and she decided to wait until she returned to Isongole to start taking it. The next morning she woke up with blood in her stools. We decided to go to the hospital in Mbalizi that I know so well. I called my doctor friend to tell him we were on our way. He was really excited. When we arrived there weren’t many people around. We sat around and waited. Lisa was very weak and needed to go on an IV but they just weren’t admitting us for some reason. I told the doctor and she told me not to worry and then just sat down socializing with her buddies. After an hour my friend came and he got us the same room I stayed in and quickly got Lisa hooked up to an IV. After two IVs her energy was restored and she was ready to get out of the hospital. Since my diarrhea has returned off and on and I have had it every day for the last ten days I also got my stools tested. Both of our stools came back negative. It was impossible that I didn’t have anything wrong with me. They don’t have a test for bacterial dysentery but said they could clinically diagnose it for me. Since amoebic dysentery is known to reoccur and can hide in samples I have ordered a retest today. After eight bowel movements yesterday they put me on medicine which is good for both amoebic and bacterial dysentery. It is strong though and I am hoping not to be on for long.

Today we are waiting for my test results and Lisa’s discharge paperwork. I hope to return to Kafule today but it will be challenging.

Love,

Gretchen