Sue and I are with the medical group at Ilula Hospital and we are staying in Ilula. Last Saturday, we went to Iringa by public bus which costs about 75 cents for the hour drive. As we approached Iringa there was a lot of stopped traffic and the bus driver took a side dirt road to avoid it. Traffic was stopped because the Vice President of Tanzania was coming to Iringa and the police stopped our bus and arrested the driver for going the wrong way on a one way road. They took him away in a car and left us sitting in the bus not quite sure what to do. We got out and watched the VP procession of about 10 vehicles including a truck of soldiers and then were lucky to have another bus come by with space to take us the rest of the way to town, but it costs us another quarter. Transportation is an adventure here. Last week we rented a vehicle for 4 days to visit Ukwega instead of getting dropped off and taking the bus back when we just go to Kising'a. On our way back to town we saw the bus we would have been on was in a bad accident which killed several people and filled the Iringa hospital wards with injured. We feel really fortunate to have rented the car all for all 4 days.
The guest house in Ilula is very comfortable and has great staff taking care of us and preparing really good meals. The showers are cold but you get used to that after a while. Groups have been coming to Ilula every January for many years and Sue came on a trip once before but this is my first time staying here. I am doing a little work with computers for the Nursing School and will go to a couple secondary schools this week with some physics materials. There are two classes of Nursing Students here now, 11 in the second year class and 22 in the first year, and they come from all over Tanzania. Last evening they put on a show for us with dancing and music from several areas. Most of the students are male which surprised us. Apparently this is because not as many girls like to study science and math in secondary school. Sue gave a talk on Nursing Professionalism today and had a nice response from the students who sometimes are reluctant to speak in class. Tomorrow she is talking about wound care.
There were two medical groups with the first one coming early in January that left after a conference they put on in Iringa for health care workers from about 28 area hospitals. Our group of 10 came for the conference and leave after this week. The group includes a Jewish couple and two Muslim doctors, from Minneapolis and Iowa, and a Nigerian pharmacy student from the U volunteering here at a Christian hospital. It is a really nice and fun group and we are having a good time. The medical groups has a blog for this trip where you can read more about the work we are doing.
Ilula Friends 2017
The guest house in Ilula is very comfortable and has great staff taking care of us and preparing really good meals. The showers are cold but you get used to that after a while. Groups have been coming to Ilula every January for many years and Sue came on a trip once before but this is my first time staying here. I am doing a little work with computers for the Nursing School and will go to a couple secondary schools this week with some physics materials. There are two classes of Nursing Students here now, 11 in the second year class and 22 in the first year, and they come from all over Tanzania. Last evening they put on a show for us with dancing and music from several areas. Most of the students are male which surprised us. Apparently this is because not as many girls like to study science and math in secondary school. Sue gave a talk on Nursing Professionalism today and had a nice response from the students who sometimes are reluctant to speak in class. Tomorrow she is talking about wound care.
There were two medical groups with the first one coming early in January that left after a conference they put on in Iringa for health care workers from about 28 area hospitals. Our group of 10 came for the conference and leave after this week. The group includes a Jewish couple and two Muslim doctors, from Minneapolis and Iowa, and a Nigerian pharmacy student from the U volunteering here at a Christian hospital. It is a really nice and fun group and we are having a good time. The medical groups has a blog for this trip where you can read more about the work we are doing.
Ilula Friends 2017
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| They took our driver, now what do we do? |
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| Glad we were not on this bus, Vitu Laini. |
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| Nursing students dancing |
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| Lots of pics with the Nursing Students using their cell phones. |
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| Sue talking to the students about professionalism. |
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