Rafiki!

Well we've survived our first couple days at KCMC.  It has been quite an adjustment, as the diseases, medicines and hospital set-up are very different from what we are used to in Dallas.  Rounds and charting are all in English, although we've noticed that the Tanzanians switch easily back and forth between Swahili and English and it can be a bit tricky to follow.  I wish I spoke more Swahili so I could talk to the patients and their families more.

The pediatrics department is a referral center for this area of northern Tanzania, so they see some of the more complicated cases from the smaller area hospitals as well as taking care of the local people.  We've seen more pneumonia than I would have expected, along with some very severe malnutrition, new diagnoses of HIV, and malaria.  And I've now seen more cases of rheumatic heart disease in the last 2 days than in all my previous years of medical training in the United States.

We're hoping to get more involved on the wards teams in the next couple of days.  There are a lot of international students and a few other residents here so I think the KCMC residents are used to seeing people come and go, and wait for people to really show they are interested before they let you get too involved.  But today was better than yesterday so I have high hopes that trend will continue.

In other news, we've been adopted into the group of rotating students that was already here and have dinner plans again tonight, at a place called El Rancho that serves Indian food.  This weekend we're taking a 2 day trek to the first huts of Kilimanjaro (Marangu route) so we're hoping for good weather and good views. We've been warned it will be cold, which at this point sounds amazing.

Also, on a clear day we can see Kili from our living room window, so that's pretty cool.

We've learned a few new words in Swahili, although some of my favorite discoveries were Lion King related.

Simba = lion

Pumba = warthog

Rafiki = friend.

I also know how to say "what is your name?", "my name is Rachel," and "I am hot/cold/hungry/thirsty."  Can't wait to be able to say "I am cold" this weekend.

Now I just need to learn more useful things for the actual clinical work, turns out "lion" and "pumba" don't come up a lot at the hospital!

I need to take a picture of the hospital for my next post, but for now that's all.  Thanks for reading!