Nimefurahi kukujua (I am happy to know you)

Hello, I am Amy Walsh. I am a fourth year medical student at the University of Minnesota. After going home for the holidays, I leave tomorrow to return to Karatu, Tanzania. I was in Karatu for four months this fall, and will spend four more months in Karatu before returning to my studies. So far my work has focused on designing a training for local drug shopkeepers to help them recognize emergencies and improve drug dispensing procedures and designing a training for local taxi drivers and long haul truckers to help them provide emergency transport and community health education (MIHV's MAISHA program).

A little about me, I grew up in Bettendorf, IA and studied Biology and Chemistry at the University of Missouri before medical school. I delayed my graduation from medical school to participate in MIHV's project in Tanzania, and after I complete school I plan to pursue a career in Emergency Medicine. I am hoping to integrate international medicine into my career, though as of yet I am unsure how I will do that. Outside of academics, some of my interests are ultimate frisbee and mountain biking, and I've been spending my off time in Karatu braving the dust in Karatu to go running and reading a lot of incredible books, next on the list is The Epic of Latin America.

I look forward to sharing my journey in Tanzania with you.

Zanzibar

Unfortunately (due to malaria), I spent most of our trip to Njombe in the fetal position, but after a few days in southern Tanzania, Amy and I headed to Morogoro and then on to Dar and Zanzibar, where we would spend our last week before flying home for Christmas.

Onions for Sale

Malaria is hell...

But after 4 days and 48 pills (16 ibuprofen, 5 flagyl, 24 ALu, 3 Cipro) I'm happy and healthy again!

Heading South

Tomorrow Amy and I are heading to Njombe, which is about 13 hours south of Karatu, where we'll visit a hospital that MIHV is considering partnering with to send medical volunteers to in the future. I'm really looking forward to seeing another part of Tanzania, and after a few days in Njombe, we'll head to Dar es Salaam, and then spend a few days in Zanzibar!

Where is the rain?

The rainy season started in Uganda just before I left for Tanzania and a few weeks ago Karatu seemed to be following suit, but after a couple days of rain, the skies cleared.

The slightest breeze sends dust everywhere. Today, walking into town, the wind picked up and all the people in the street had to stop, shielding their eyes with their hands, hiding their faces under congas, as the road jumped up and around, into hair and noses and mouths.

It's the end of November and supposedly the middle of the short rainy season, but we seem to be missing a key ingredient...

Ngorongoro Crater

This weekend, we visited Ngorongoro Crater, one of the most spectacular safari spots in all of Africa, that's just 15 minutes from MIHV's Karatu office. Ngorongoro is reputed to have the densest population of mammalian predators in all of Africa. Inside the crater, we drove past hyenas, herds of zebra and wildebesets, buffalo and elephants, a pride of lions and even a black rhinoceros! (In 1965, there were estimated to be about 108 black rhinos left in the world; in 1995, this had fallen to between 11 and 14).