Script and Service: Field notes from a travelling pharmacist on global aid, work, and adventures

Merry Christmas! The Sunday before Christmas, Sandra and I went to the church in Nyangao. Many people from the village attend church (Nyangao has a 60:40 Muslim:Christian ratio) including lots of staff from the hospital, so it's a good place to meet folk never mind the more divine reasons for which one goes to church. Personally, I was also using it as Step 1 of a long game I have planned that ultimately sees me "best friends" with the nuns. Nyangao Hospital is 60% funded by the government of Tanzania and 40% by the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, Germany. Consequently, there is a convent in the village - many of the nuns have worked as doctors and nurses at the hospital over the years. But these are nuns who know how to live in comfort. Whilst people in Southern Tanzania are some of the poorest in the country, the convent gets fresh milk, grows its own lettuce, makes sour dough bread daily (what I wouldn't do for sourdough bread) and gets wat...

As I exited Dar Es Salaam airport I realised how wrong my priorities were.  I may have a years' supply of toothpaste and Haribo Sour Cherries, but I don't have money, water or any idea who is picking me up. I try to look nonchalant whilst waving away taxi drivers and circling with my 69kg of luggage. The first three days are in Dar, staying at the ominously named "Econo Lodge". I can vouch for its "econo" status at breakfast the next morning. Day 1: witnessed my first pick-pocketing - the victim, poor Dan a volunteer who came to take me for lunch and show me around. There was a bit of 2 on 1 action, a brief game of footsie and before you knew it, Dan was minus his wallet, bank cards, and $50 cash. He later explained that if you shout "thief" at a pick-pocket or mugger, people will chase the suspect and try and get your stuff back. Sometimes they will beat them up too and it has been known for the mob to set fire to the criminal. Tough justic...

It's official...  The time has come to hang up the Winter coat, cap the green pen and start taking doxycycline.  After 5 months in the planning the bags are packed - my stash of Christmas puddings and I are almost, almost ready for the adventure that awaits. For 2 years I'll be working at Nyangao Hospital near Mtwara in the south of Tz, not far from the Mozambique border.  With 220 beds, the hospital has medical, surgical, obstetric and gynaecological, paediatric and tuberculosis departments, plus busy outpatient clinics that serve a catchment area of over 250,000 patients.  http://www.nyangaohospital.com/ It will no doubt be a small change from my old job at the PRUH (I promise I will try and walk slower from now on) and I will miss everyone terribly, but you are all welcome to come over for electives/DAPS/holidays anytime... See you on the other side. Kwa Heri xx