Minnesota International Health Volunteers

Jambo from Karatu!

2008-07-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

Jambo! We are Lizz Hutchinson and Sarah Sevcik, the newest volunteers at MIHV’s Tanzania site. We are Masters of Public Health candidates in Community Health Education at the University of Minnesota and will be spending the next eight weeks or so helping with MIHV’s child survival project in Karatu, Tanzania.

Our first week here at the project has been great. By far, our favorite thing about Karatu (and Tanzania more generally) is the people; everyone had been so welcoming and friendly. Kiswahili is the primary language spoken by everyone, although many speak some English. As you walk around, shouts of Jambo or hello, come from adults and children.

A funny side note about MIHV—as you know, the name Minnesota International Health Volunteers is long, and not everyone speaks English, so everyone in Karatu calls the organization just ‘Minnesota’. This often leads to confusion when people ask us where in America we are from.

After putting up curtains for the new Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies center and completing a pregnancy monitoring tool book used by traditional birth attendants, we starting to really get our feet wet in our projects. We are excited for what’s to come!
Please check back regularly for updates on our journey and experiences in Karatu and with the project.

Asante sana (Thank you very much),

Lizz Hutchinson and Sarah Sevcik

2008-05-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

2008-05-20T00:20:00.000-07:00

2008-05-20T00:18:00.000-07:00

2008-05-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

I leave Tanzania tomorrow afternoon. It's been a wonderful, life changing experience. Everyone I've worked with and everyone in town has welcomed me with open arms. Of course there have been a few difficulties and frustrations along the way, but I'm certain I would have had at least as many had I spent these nine months in the States.

Last week, I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro it was unbelievable. It was so beautiful and such a great way to challenge your mind and body. I was very lucky and didn't suffer from altitude sickness at all, so I was able to summit and appreciate the beauty of Tanzania from an entirely new angle.

Some of my friends told me that they got the impression that I didn't enjoy my trip to Kilimanjaro from what I had written here previously, and I'd like to apologize for that. To say that my experience of Kilimanjaro and Tanzania in general was anything less than amazing would be a lie. My intent was to show both the good and the bad parts of the trip, but I don't think I did a good enough job writing about the good. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

The Marathon

2008-04-25T05:37:00.001-07:00

On Monday, I ran my first half-marathon. It was generally a positive experience, and I finished in 2:10, not too bad for my first one. However, it was also one of the most ridiculous experiences of my life. We enlisted the help of a local runner in recruiting participants. He recruited about 200 international elite runners. There were no other runners besides these runners, David (another volunteer) and myself. So my time, that I was pretty happy with, was about 30 minutes after the next closest woman, and I think about 25 minutes after David. Everyone was waiting on me to start the awards ceremony, so I had mixed emotions of embarrassment and pride as I crossed the finish line. These feelings were soon enhanced. It turned out that several of the women who ran the race didn't finish. This meant that I finished 20th (and last) amongst women. However, prizes were given to the top 20 men and women finishers, so I won 5,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $4) and had to go up on stage to claim the prize. The runners were generally very kind and congratulated me on finishing the race, and my prize. Some of my office colleagues made fun of me for finishing last. Katherine and Natalia took pictures of the race, so when I receive them I will post them here as well. I'm sure everyone can appreciate the humor of me lined up next to several Tanzanian Olympians. There have been a lot of other activities around Karatu that deserve comment as well. I'll write about them tonight and post soon.

2008-03-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

2008-03-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

2008-03-31T05:52:00.000-07:00

My family came to visit for a week and a half. The beginning of the trip was not too great as their flight was delayed, and the next day our trip to Lake Manyara turned into a bit of a debacle. However, after that our trip was great. We went to the Serengeti for two days. Unfortunately we weren’t near the migration, but the scale of Serengeti is still beautiful and awe inspiring. Then we went to Ngorongoro Crater. The highlight of the trip to the Crater was the cheetah sighting. I had been hoping to see it each time I went and it finally happened. They were up running around as well, so it was interesting to see how the wildebeests and zebras reacted even though the cheetahs obviously weren’t on the hunt.

The next day I introduced my family to Karatu. We met some of the people I work with, though many people were out in the field for trainings. My mom was very excited to meet my friends at the market, so that was our next trip. They had also been very excited to meet my family. In fact, they had been asking about my mom for at least a month. She made new friends by taking some great photos, and Karla made friends by passing out candy. Next we visited a local orphanage because some people I work with were going there donate an Easter meal and others were going to film a commercial. Everyone had a great time playing with the kids, and I think my family was struck by the kindness of the children. That evening, we enjoyed dinner and watched a drama troupe performance at Highview Hotel. It was similar to other drama troupe shows I’ve seen, but I was glad to share the experience with my family because I knew my mom would like it, though I’m not sure my uncle Mark appreciated the high pressure sales tactics of the performers after the show.

That Thursday we took it easy. We did some souvenir shopping, then I introduced everyone to ugali. Ugali is made from corn flour and its texture resembles very thick mashed potatoes. It’s not my favorite food, but it’s not bad, and I felt it was an important part of the Tanzanian experience.

The next day we woke up early to travel to Lake Eyasi. While there we were able to meet the Hadzabe people, a hunting and gathering tribe in that area. They were especially skilled at finding honey, and the honey they generously shared with us was delicious. Interestingly, one of the types of honey tasted like mango juice. Then we drove to Lake Eyasi to see it. I had been near the lake, but never on the shore. I was surprised at how low the lake was, even though rainy season has started. We then met the Tatoga people. They are pastoralists, similar to the Maasai, who graze cattle. This was probably my favorite part of the day because the women were preparing for a wedding and we joined in the singing and dancing.

The next day we relaxed around the house and Gibb’s Farm (a fancy hotel nearby) and played cards and scrabble, and on Sunday it was time to leave. We traveled to Moshi so we could see Mt. Kilimanjaro, then back to the airport for my family’s departure.

Since then we conducted a drug shopkeeper training. It went well, but it didn’t seem like it would initially. In retrospect planning the training for the day after a five day weekend was a mistake, but after everyone arrived and we adapted the training for the participants we weren’t expecting it went well. We reviewed information about history taking and danger signs, discussed childhood illness, STIs, family planning, and their role in educating the community.

Now I am preparing for MAISHA training next week. It will be a tight squeeze to get everything ready in time, but it seems that in Tanzania everything falls into place at the last minute. I continue to train for the half-marathon and I’m preparing to spend four weeks in Israel on my way home from Tanzania. I’ll return to Minneapolis on June 20 and start classes two days later.

2008-03-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

2008-03-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

2008-03-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

2008-03-09T23:08:00.003-07:00

2008-03-09T23:08:00.002-07:00

I haven’t written for a while, in no small part because other that work and training for the half-marathon not too much has happened. I finally got the results to our Secret Shopper Survey, and they were really good. In the fall 45% of drug shopkeepers would not sell partial doses to patients, now 90% of drug shopkeepers will not sell partial doses. (This is important for preventing antibiotic and anti-malarial resistance). More drug shopkeepers are referring people to the hospital or advising customers to go to the hospital if symptoms worsen and the percentage of secret shoppers who felt confident in the treatment they received increased as well.

Since then, I’ve been continuing to work on a new Drug Shopkeeper curriculum to continue to work on the weaker areas of “history-taking” and recognizing danger signs. I’ve also been working on a study protocol for some research about Rh incompatibility and finishing up some details about MAISHA training.

We found out last week that the President of Tanzania will be coming up to Karatu for our marathon and the opening of the Healthy Mother Healthy Baby Center. It will be an exciting and busy time for us and should bring a lot of positive attention to MIHV and malaria awareness in general.

2008-03-09T23:08:00.001-07:00

2008-03-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

2008-02-21T00:22:00.000-08:00

2008-02-21T00:17:00.000-08:00

2008-02-21T00:08:00.000-08:00

Our trip to the Serengeti was incredible. The beauty of the Serengeti was strangely familiar, as much of it was prairie land. Obviously, the zebras and giraffes weren’t part of our summer drives across Iowa, but anyone who has ever driven across Kansas or Nebraska knows that Serengeti, the Maasai word for “endless plain” isn’t too far off. Because of the size of the park it was more difficult to see animals up close than in Ngorongoro Crater, but it seemed more natural and thus more interesting.

We had the opportunity to stay in a tented camp out in the middle of the Serengeti. According to the national park rules, camps like this have to move every three months and ours had just moved two weeks ago, so we couldn’t have breakfast any earlier that 7:30 for fear that the animals would come.

As most of you know, President Bush came to Tanzania last week. It was interesting, because even though I’m in the country I heard most of the news of his trip from friends and family back in the states. He didn’t come to Karatu to see us but his visit did essentially shut down the town of Arusha, two hours away. Ken, another volunteer, was leaving to travel to Zanzibar that day. He had to walk about 2.5 miles with his luggage to get to the Arusha Airport because the one road to the airport was closed. The president did spend a lot of time focused on malaria projects, which is, of course, an important part of our project. I think some people around the office are hoping we can use that picture of him wrapped in the bed net to make a poster.

At work, I’ve been continuing to work on organizing the MAISHA training and I am eagerly awaiting the results of a Secret Shopper Survey we conducted last Saturday. The results of that survey will help us assess if the first Drug Shopkeeper training was successful and give us an idea of what we should focus on for the next round of training.

2008-02-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

Since I last wrote, the volunteer population in the Minnesota office has doubled. Ken, a fourth year medical student from Temple, and Katherine, a soon to be first year medical student, have arrived. Our trip to Serengeti was postponed until next weekend, so we’ve been keeping busy in other ways. I’ve been working on getting a couple research projects started regarding maternal alcohol and water quality, and I’ve been preparing for MAISHA training and a survey for drug shopkeepers that will help me design the next curriculum for shopkeepers who have already had one round of training.

Our trip to Ngorongoro was incredible. I was able to see lions and rhinos, which I hadn’t seen in my travels yet. In fact, the lions came as close as 10 feet from our vehicle. There were also a lot of baby zebra, lions, warthogs, and even baby rhino around. It was hard to shake the song “Circle of Life” out of my head.

The drama troupe that performs at the monthly market day had to conclude their performance early due to rain so the new volunteers missed it. Ken and Karen will leave before the next market day so we went to a local hotel where they perform on Saturday night. They performed a traditional dance from Zanzibar, Southern Tanzania, and did some acrobatics as well. At one point during the act one of the performers bends himself in various directions to fit through a narrow metal cylinder. I think it was pretty stressful for Katherine, who was quite concerned that he would get stuck.

Sunday morning two of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area came over for brunch. Veronica, the Maternal-Newborn Care assistant manager, is staying with us right now because her house isn’t quite ready yet. The chapati she makes is very crepe-like, so needless to say brunch was quite fancy and delicious.

I also found out this weekend that my mother, my sister, and my uncle will be coming to visit me in Tanzania in mid-March, so I’m quite excited about that.

This coming week, we’ll be conducting a secret shopper survey in the drug shops, heading to Rhotia, a nearby village, to do some clinical work and community observation, and President Bush is coming to Tanzania, so we are hoping he will visit us in Karatu on the way to the Crater.

Ngorongoro Crater

2008-02-07T02:16:00.000-08:00

2008-02-07T02:11:00.000-08:00

2008-01-28T00:15:00.000-08:00

2008-01-28T00:11:00.000-08:00

Back to Karatu

2008-01-28T00:06:00.000-08:00

After two days of travel, I arrived in Karatu Tuesday evening, and because all of the sleep I got was on planes, I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life. The next day I took it easy, but did visit my friends in the office. I had almost forgotten how much fun everyone here is while I was gone.
On Thursday, it was back to work, and Friday, Karen, the other volunteer, conducted a planning workshop. It was really great. It can be difficult to track people down to make plans when they are out in the field, so it was wonderful to be able to sit down with everyone and make sure our plans all work together.
After work on Friday, I went out for a jog, and upon returning home my friend Margaret was at my house. She told me there was a man under a tree across the street that was quite sick. He had been throwing up for three days, and had walked from a town that is over six hours away by car without eating or drinking. He had been working in Serengeti, but got sick and was trying to return to his home near Mt. Kilimanjaro. Needless to say he was quite confused.
I made him some oral-rehydration solution. He was able to drink it, but soon vomited again, so we took him to the health center for some additional help. Because his pulse, blood pressure, and temperature were normal they asked him to come back the next day if he was still sick. There were some men in town who tried to help him find some food and a bed. My guess is that he had an electrolyte abnormality, and needed IV fluids, but I did not have access to the necessary lab tests or an IV, so I couldn’t do much more to help. Unfortunately, I don’t know what became of him.
This weekend, Karen, Veronica, and I went for a short hike to the Elephant Caves and a waterfall. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t seen any wild buffalo or elephants because we could tell they were nearby, but next weekend we will be going to Ngorongoro Crater, and the following weekend we will go to Serengeti, and we won’t have any difficulty spotting wildlife there.
MIHV is planning a half-marathon for malaria awareness on April 25. I am excited about this because, initially we had planned to organize a full marathon, which I had no intention of training for. Karatu is about a mile above sea level and the surrounding area is very hilly, not a good place for a first marathon, if I were interested in participating in a marathon in the first place. We changed the plan because many local marathoners are training for a marathon about one month after ours. They were interested in a training race, but running another marathon would have been too much. This works out great for me personally because I think a half marathon is something I can do, so I look forward to participating, even though I probably will be the last one to finish.
This week, a new volunteer, Ken, is arriving. He is a fourth year medical student from Temple University. We are planning to work in the clinics at some of the local health centers and do some community observation regarding water sources, latrine availability, standing water, cooking fires, etc. I will also be putting the finishing touches on our MAISHA training materials, for a training at the beginning of March and working with the District Pharmacist to plan the next round of Drug Shopkeeper trainings.