Jambo from Karatu!

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