Monday 15th August – Sunday 21st

This was a particularly busy week. Knowing that we’d be off on a well-earned safari for an ‘extended’ weekend, the pace of our projects picked up: Vita wrapped up her survey on sexual health; we visited a few more sexual health NGO’s to generate the online network, one of particular note being our discovery of MRENGO – ‘Mtwara Region NGO’s’, a pre-existing network of NGO’s in Mtwara; we visited Lilungu Primary School and sat in on a PASHA-led sexual health class; my tutorials with John on managing the COTC website continued; having no internet at the COTC sent us to the internet cafe for Rute to lead a popular MedicineAfrica tutorial from a doctor in the UK...

And then - come 4am on Thursday morning - we were off.

Setting off at dawn, a dusty and arduous day-drive to Dar-es-Salaam was in order. Booking yet more bus tickets onwards to Arusha was troublesome, what with all of the slick ticket touts of Dar. The trip to Arusha, however, was a delight: comfy seats, a paved road and a longing for sleep meant the 11 hour journey sped by. We arrived, finalised our safari plans with our tour operator and went out to the famed old German boma, Via Via, for a delicious dinner. Saturday morning saw us stock up on treats from a supermarket – a rare scene from our travels in Tanzania thus far! We headed off on a safari to Lake Manyara National Park, a game reserve set amidst the beautiful escarpments of the Great Rift Valley. After camping out for a night, we headed off to the stunning Ngorongoro Crater: a spectacular volcanic caldera, filled with the world’s greatest concentration of predators for another game drive. Our drive back to Arusha saw a quick stop off at the UN International Criminal Tribunal Courts for Rwanda, a great meal and us preparing for a quick stop over at Moshi to catch a glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro and our trip onwards: back to Mtwara.

Shirwa

Monday 1st August - Sunday 7th

This was an overall pretty standard week. We had returned from a very productive week at the COTC Masasi to continue with our respective projects. I had arranged to have our first academic Medicine Africa tutorial on stroke, attended by many COTC and UK medical students. This trial session was a great success and was led by a representative from the UK. Vita got the go ahead to attend sexual clinics to collect data, and Shirwa and I visited local NGO’s. To wrap up the week we headed to the Old Boma hotel in Mikindani and had a meal at Msemo.

Faaria

Monday 25trh July - Sunday 31st

The next morning we were woken up at 7am. It wasn’t bad at all. It came with a bucket of hot water! All I can say is the joy we all felt after 5 weeks of cold showers and here we were with a bucket of hot water. It was incredible. We were driven to the COTC by our host Mr F. The principle and the staff were very hospitable. We started the day with a meeting in his office to clarify our aims and objectives. We were then taken to the 2nd year classroom and formally introduced to the students. We spent the afternoon before lunch just checking and taking note of the ICT resources. After a nicely prepared lunch, we had a session in the evening teaching the basics of computers. We held one big class for two hours. Our conclusion from that day was to have two, 2 hour sessions, so that the students would get more practice with the different software we were teaching. We finished around 7pm and got home around 8pm. The next day we planned to start just before lunch because we knew our teaching wouldn’t start till the late afternoon. The rest of the week went on with the schedule. I have to admit it was a very tiring week, nevertheless it was absolutely rewarding. I can say on behalf of everyone we had an amazing time teaching the students. I mean, knowing you are teaching something that’s adding value to someone’s life is something I cannot explain. The students we were teaching were very enthusiastic and eager to learn which made us want to keep teaching no matter how tired we were. At the end of the week we made some friends and exchanged contacts :) .

Just to add to the already amazing week, we were invited to Mr F’s daughter’s wedding. After a hard weeks work we deserved a treat. The wedding was exquisite, lots of dancing and amazing food. The next morning, our last day, we woke up to yet another hot breakfast. Little did we know as we were just about to tuck in; Mr F had booked us seats on a good bus and announced that it would be “leaving in 20minutes”! We hadn’t finished packing and it was a 10 minute drive. After our last experience on a not so good bus from Dar we knew we had to get this one even if it meant saying bye to the beautiful breakfast. Well that didn’t happen: I ate and packed at the same time. He drove us to the bus station and the bus had just left. Luckily, the bus driver stopped for us and off we went.
Mr F is a great man, all the things he did for us just made the trip much more enjoyable and definitely easier. The journey was 5 hours. We arrived at the COTC to smiles and warm welcomes, I can say on behalf of everyone it was good to be home :) .

Rute.

Week 4: Mon 18th July – Sun 24th July '11

And so another week began, this time fraught with trouble from the onset! Our departure from Stone Town, Zanzibar was a difficult one: mistakes with our ferry tickets, losing out on a prepaid spice tour, rowdy queues, a nauseating ferry ride and a troublesome journey back to Mtwara from Dar didn’t quite leave us smiling – though we were all more than glad to be finally back at the COTC.

Work resumed as soon as we got back, with Faaria and Rute hosting the first in a series of Medicine Africa ‘Fresher’s Week’ sessions: a week of online discussions between UK medical and COTC students.

It soon became apparent that I had become quite ill and was bed-bound for the next five days or so, leaving my room only to continue with a popular introductory session to blogging. Here, I introduced blogging and had students sign up to blogger.com and start to create their own blogs. After being back in bed for a couple more days, a trip to Ligula Regional Hospital was in order to rule out a case of malaria; the results were negative – refreshing news!

Preparation for our trip to Masasi went underway, with all of us planning out our respective IT lessons that we were to conduct. We met Dr Wilson Kitinya – the very positive and young principal of the CATC Masasi – who accompanied us on the short drive northwest to the mountainous Masasi region. We met Mr Fred, the owner of the guesthouse we’d be staying at for the next week, and had an early night, excited about what the week ahead would bring.

Shirwa

Week 3: Mon 11th July - Sun 17th July

On Monday Iain left us for London. A quick trip to the airport and some more cashews later, we were only 4 and we were left to get on with our projects sans Iain. Tearful goodbyes were said but the next day a successful medicine Africa session reminded us that we could continue without the IT expert and that students were still as keen as ever to get involved. Website creation continued at a fast pace and we finally got permission to embark upon a survey of sexual health provision in Mtwara.

Satisfied that we’d had a productive week, we sat down to look at our timetable over the next 2 months and realised that we had only one opportunity to go to Zanzibar before Ramadan without going in the last weeks the first years were at COTC... It was that weekend. So to the bus stop we went to arrange tickets! Alas, tickets were sold out but our local lead, Dr Shengena thankfully managed to arrange for us to make the 10 hour journey by car (less comfortable than it sounds with three of us across the back and no leg room!)

None the less, after waking up at 3am, we arrived in Dar safe and sound and booked our ferry tickets. Before bed there was just time to sample our first Zanzibar pizza (kind of like a Cornish pasty but flat and with a thin dough coating) and get some ICECREAM. After a month without dairy, this was an emotional time for all of us and a recurring theme of Zanzibar.

Saturday morning was another early start in order to catch the ferry over to Zanzibar and Stonetown where we stayed throughout our trip. The waters were calm and we made it there without any seasickness, something we would later come to appreciate. We checked in at our hostel and made our way out to take in the sights and sounds of Zanzibar, trading hub of the Indian ocean, melting pot of cultures, peoples and history, best shopping in Tanzania . Shirwa was especially excited to try his first Zanzibar spiced tea and with one sip, all hope of him relenting his constant talk of Zanzibar once we finally visited evaporated. We spent the rest of the day visiting the market and the old fort as well as the former slave market and the house of wonders, a museum in the old Omani palace.

Satisfied that we had seen the requisite amount of proper culture on Saturday, Sunday was spent swimming with dolphins and spotting monkeys in the Jozani forest. Our foray into dolphin scouting proved unexpectedly adrenaline-fuelled and has been described by all as a mixture of nausea and thrill in equal measure. Cries of ‘mask and fins! Mask and fins! They are here! Jump Jump!’ rang out against the choppy sea as the team were encouraged to drag their eyes from the horizon (‘it’ll stop the seasickness, I promise!’) and fling ourselves overboard. An experience not to be missed but for some, never to be repeated.

Sunday evening we visited the famous Mercury restaurant and bar, named after Queen’s Freddie Mercury, probably zanzibar’s most infamous export of the C20th and followed it up with some street food from the picturesque food gardens along the coastline.Then more chai (obviously). More ice cream. Even chapattis with nutella which we could almost convince ourselves were pancakes. And as we enjoyed some of Zanzibar’s finest street food, we heard the sounds of the Omani cultural festival emanating from the old fort and stopped by to witness the year’s most dazzling display of music, dancing and fashion, the perfect send off before our ferry the next morning.

Vita

Week 2: Mon 4th July - Sun 10th

This week may have been one of our busiest and most productive. We began the week by organising a formal introduction to all the students. It was apparent that some students weren’t entirely sure what we were doing at the COTC and what our projects entailed so we briefly introduced ourselves at the start of their classes. We also held 2 evening sessions for interested students for an ‘introduction to Medicine Africa’ and a general Q and A of how the students could be involved with the work we’re out here to do. The turnout was more than we could have possibly anticipated; it was great to see so many eager students. On the back of this one of the students at the COTC organised for us a meeting with the student government. This was another great opportunity for us to explain our goals and the students offered to help us achieve them wherever they could.

After a long hard week we organised a nice last weekend for Iain who was to leave us on the Monday. Saturday was spent at Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park. Here we lounged on the soft white beach, went for a swim and did some snorkelling (not much to see). Sunday was Iain’s final full day. We went to the beach with some of students and had a nice final evening meal at Msemo for a yummy BBQ.

Faaria

Week 1: Mon 27th June - Sun 3rd July

Wow we have been in Mtwara for two weeks! Yah it does seem like two weeks. It has have been amazing though. Yesterday was a really chilled day, went out for breakfast at the nearest cafe. Which is alright I suppose, though am not that much of a fan. On the way, I wanted to buy some peanuts from the little boy walking past. With my very limited Swahili, I ended up with a bag of them when I only wanted a handful (I really need to learn Swahili). Saturday was a beautiful day: took a day trip to Makindani which is a small town/village. It was beautiful. Walking past the huts, feet dipping in the soft sand, Wow what a soothing feeling. When you stopped to take a look back, the view was spectacular. The radiating sun glistening on the green palm trees and the clear blue sky reflecting on the ocean really made me appreciate nature. I mean we were in one of the poorest towns in Tanzania so, alongside nature was reality. As we walked on people stopped and stared and went about their business. Some children would run past shouting “how are you” which was lovely and made me smile. As usual, we got lost and so we stopped to ask for directions and the women was shocked that I couldn’t speak Swahili (I get that a lot) .So now I really need to get my Swahili on point. Am even scared to walk somewhere alone because people just talk to me and all I can do is sense the atmosphere and say ndiyo or hapana (yes or no). Am truly blessed to be here. I am really enjoying Mtwara, the food, the people. This will definitely be a summer to remember!

Rute