In living in a new country for the past year (and especially a country previously colonized by the British), I have learned to phrase my English words a little bit differently than my American-born English.

Here is a list of some of the new words that may now pop up in my everyday language:

Jam – when speaking about city Traffic

Que – when referring to a Line in which you must wait, like a que for the bathroom or at the bank

Take Away – instead of To Go (this one took me a long time to learn)

Mobile – in reference to Cell phone

Voucher – when speaking about Credit for a phone card

SMS – instead of receiving a phone Text

Plait – when talking about Braids in braiding one’s hair

Petrol  – in reference to Gas or Gasoline

Soft Copy – when speaking about a computer file or an Electronic File

Net – in reference to Internet

Paracetemol – instead of Acetaminophen (different name, pretty much the same drug)

Your most welcome – when inviting someone into your home and saying, Come on in or Welcome

Venue – In referring to Location for a meeting place

Tissue – instead of Toilet paper

Full-stop – in referring to . or a punctuation Period

I know you have been waiting for this article for a very long time, but here it is finally rewritten from the Rotary Korea 2010 Magazine.  It relates back to a previous post about the Kibaha Mother and Child Hospital that Rotary sponsors and that RI Past President (PP) DK Lee and other Rotary members visited several months ago.

“In September of 2008 at the Seoul Presidential Conference, fifty thousand Korean Rotarians committed to build a mother and child (maternity) hospital, in support of reducing child mortality.  Donations came from both Korean Rotarians and the Community Chest of Korea, which matched funds, Won per Won, totaling to a collective donation of 1 billion won (about USD 870,000).  After securing one billion won, then RI President DK Lee, in cooperation with the Korea International Health Foundation, launched a project to build a hospital for mother and children in Tumbi, Pwani Region of Tanzania.

This past April, DK Lee and several directors made a trip to Tanzania to inaugurate this project.  But the project was not without obstacles; the major one being the 20% tax levy on all materials and construction of the project.  Needless to say, 20% going to taxes would have made quite a dent in our initial budget.  Fortunately, with the help of Sir Andy Chande, past TRF trustee, and Bill Bali, a club President, and their tireless efforts and petitions to convince the Tanzanian government to waive the tax levy was successful.  Other Rotarians gave their time and knowledge, like PP Mohamed Sumar who provided and donated the architectural design of the project.

However, the process of getting MOU signed and selecting a contractor did not move as swiftly as anticipated.  The MOU had to be cleared by several ministries before the Pwani Regional government and Tumbi Hospital could sign.  The bidding process also took considerable amount of time as the aim was to make the bidding fair and transparent.  After six months of countless emails, numerous telephone calls, and several intercontinental trips later, finally a local contractor, M & M Construction, was awarded with the contract and the work begun in late October 2009. 

A 55 bed facility with a new Operation Theater, X-Ray room, Ultrasonography room, Intensive Care Unit will be provided in the renovation of the existing 3-story building of about 1,200 m squared and a newly constructed 2-story buildings of about 500 m squared.  The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is tapped to provide sustained assistance for 3 years from 2010 to provide exchange program for medical staffs, technicians, administrative staffs for long term training.  This additional funds from KOICA of 450 million won (about USD 391,000) will also enable Rotary to supply an emergency vehicle which can be dispatched to more remote areas of Pwani Region.  The accumulated total amount from various sources comes to 1,883,700,000 won or about USD 1,638,000.  A nice gain of  USD 435,000 with which it all began. The Tumbi-Rotary Mother and Child Health Complex is scheduled to be fully functional by June 2010.  It is hoped that this project, which started off as a small commitment, will be responsible for saving 42 lives daily, making dreams real.”

The miracle dala is a phrase coined by my brothers study abroad group to mean a dala dala which runs late at night when all other dalas have stopped.  It shows up at just the right time when no other cheap public transportation is available.  It is truly a miracle dala. 

My miracle dala, however, takes on a little bit different manifestation.  It is the dala that appears after I have been waiting at the bus stand for over an half an hour for a dala that I can actually fit on.  I know that in dala rules, you can always fit one more person, but during rush hour from 5pm until 8pm on Ali Hassein Mwinyi Road, it is physically impossible to fit one more person on a dala going from Posta to Mwenge.  So I wait.  I already have my first permanent scar from a packed dala back in February when my shin got smashed up against a seat’s metal support.  Since it was so packed, I could not move it for at least a couple minutes.  I didn’t know that I had an inch-size gash until I reached down to wipe a sweat droplet from my leg, only to find out that it was blood.  I am all too familiar with the pain that a packed dala inflicts upon a standing passenger. 

So as I was wait for a small crevice of an opening on a passing dala, my miracle dala is the smaller 20-passenger utility van that pulls up and calls out, “enda Mwenge, mia tano” (to Mwenge, 500 TShillings).  Yes this miracle dala charges double the price as an ordinary dala, but upon boarding I know that I will have a seat and if especially lucky, air conditioning, for only 30 cents more.   And for me, that is truly a miracle dala.

Well not quite, but close…very close.

Here are finally my picts from spending two and a half weeks in the Kilimanjaro region.  The major town where I stayed is called Moshi.  Moshi means “smoke” in Swahili and rightly so.  For the whole two and a half weeks that I spent in Moshi, Kili’s peak only showed its face three times.  Two of those times it lasted long enough in order for me to get some great photos of the second tallest mountain in the world, Mnt. Kilimanjaro.

And my favorite R/L flipflop yet… (continuing from a previous post):

I was riding the dala this morning after being back in Dar for the first time in two and a half weeks and I passed a construction site that had this painted on the sheet metal enclosure surrounding the site:

“When you are inside, make sure to wear a hermet and boots.”

I died laughing.

This is my second day of research in the Kilimanjaro region for completion of my dissertation from Muhimbili.  Yesterday was a great start! The morning I was hassled and talked down to by four women in the data office at the large hospital here.  Things changed when the head of the department, an older man, returned to his office.  He took my letter, accepted it, and offered to give me a ride to the regional hospital where I could meet with the regional medical officer to get introductory letters to the districts.  He was a very kind man.  At the regional office, it got even better.  The regional medical officer, who is a lady, was the most helpful person I have met so far (depsite the fact that she had about ten people in her office and she was frantically working all day).  She greeted me warmly, sat down and talked with me, and then personally wrote letters of introduction for me to the district managers. I then received help from a fellow classmate to find a research assistant for the upcoming week.  To top off the day, I arrived back at my cheap hostel in late afternoon to see the clouds clearing over Mt. Kilimanjaro directly out my bedroom window! It was so amazing! I will post pictures later, you can be sure.

Today, however, the whole scene changed.  Instead of moving forward with my research, I remained static, with frustrations building.  I woke up early to take a 2 hour bus ride to a distant district.  Crammed on a bus with venders standing in the aisles yelling out their products’ prices in Swahili, I tried to sleep.  Arriving at the district hospital, we were informed that we needed to walk a half a kilometer to the district council to meet with the district health manager.  We walked over and as soon as we stepped into the office, the secretary started talking to my research assistant in rapid Swahili about what I was doing there.  We tried to explain that I was a Muhimbili students working on my dissertation and we needed to see the district manager to get some information.  She ranted off for another ten minutes about how she didn’t have time, even one minute to talk to us, and that we could not see the district manager today or go to the health facilities without her permission.  She ended with saying, “niache!” (“leave me alone” in Swahili).  I have never heard anyone use that word yet in Tanzania, much less me.  She refused to talk to us after that and told us to return tomorrow.  So we hopped back onto the bus and returned on an even more crammed bus to Moshi town. 

Frustrated, we had lunch and then decided to make the most of it and head to the other district hospital today.  We headed west of Moshi town down a road that turned into a two track of packed mud and potholes.  I didn’t mind the drive, despite the rough condition, because it was uphill at the base of Kilimanjaro and the lush landscape with low misty clouds was very surreal.  Once at the district hospital, we waited for the district manager to return from surgery, only for him to come out, see the address on my letter, and laugh, “you don’t need to see me, you need to see the district manager.  He’s located at the district council south of town.” Again, another bump in the road, but at least this time the man was very jolly, unlike the fiery lady that I had just encountered at the other district office. We left the hospital and returned to our taxi, only to find an older woman trying to barter our taxi driver to take a lady who had just had delivered by caesarean section. Since we had two extra seats I told them they could ride along back to Moshi town.  They gladly agreed and the woman who just had surgery edged her way into the middle of the taxi next to me.  For the next 3o mins, I winced with every pothole and dip in the road because the lady next to me would hold her breath as she writhed in pain.  When we finally got to Moshi, her and her husband got out and found another public transport to take them to their home.  I paid the taxi driver and then stood in awe.  This woman had just delivered a child and had surgery and now was riding through the bumpy Kilimanjaro mountain side heading back to her home.  Most women have trouble walking for weeks after having a c-section and here she was holding it together on rough roads only a few hours after surgery. That’s impressive.

Anyways, that’s my day.  Frustrating, but interesting to say the least. Also for me interesting how Buy Homework Online.If you need help with university assignments, it is possible to buy homework online. There are many websites that provide writing services and you can usually get a high-quality assignment without breaking the bank. Some sites even provide proofreading services, so you don’t need to worry about whether your homework will be done right. I will write another post soon about the traveling bus salesmen because they are quite entertaining.