Kazi ni Kucheza

The statement kazi ni kucheza (work is play) is often true when providing physiotherapy to children. While being at CCBRT in Dar, we've had the opportunity to treat A LOT more children with much more independence. There have been many instances where we don't even have someone to translate for us, and our Swahili is getting better every day. One of the new phrases that I've been using a lot is unaumwa (are you in pain?). Although this makes communicating with the parents extremely difficult, the kids usually don't seem to mind as long as they have a fun toy to play with. Speaking of fun toys, the miniature beanie babies that I brought to donate were a hit!

Not a quality photo, but Krista playing with one of the kids in our physiotherapy room.

This little kiddo LOVES wazungu, and insisted his picture be taken with me.

The other day we visited one of the support units that CCBRT offers. There are 11 support units in total, and they usually meet at a church or local establishment. Since Dar es Salaam is such a big city, this allows mothers to bring their children to get help with exercises from rehab workers if they are unable to travel to the disability hospital. They offer these clinics one time per week, and this also is a good opportunity for mothers to stay connected with other mothers of children with disabilities. There are several community rehab workers and one therapist that goes to these support clinics to offer assistance with therapy. The support unit we visited is called Mbezi, and it was interesting to see all of the women gathered together to treat their children. They were often singing and it seemed as though they were having a good time with it.

Mbezi support unit.

- K

Zanzibar

This weekend we took a very short trip to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is an island off of the coast of Tanzania and is known for their beautiful beaches. The sands are white and the ocean is a beautiful turquoise blue. We took a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride and when we were approaching the island you could actually see the changes in the color of the water. We stayed at a place called White Sands Beach Hotel. It was a little north of Stone Town on Kendwa beach, and was more secluded with less tourists. It was so relaxing and beautiful.

Paradise!

Later at night we walked down the beach to another hotel called Kendwa Rocks. They were having a "full moon" party and there was live music and dancers and a lot of tourists partying into the night. They even had a Michael Jackson impersonator.

Sunday we went to Changuu island, also known as Prison Island. The island was initially supposed to be used to house rebellious slaves in 1893. No prisoners were ever housed on the island and instead it became a quarantine station for yellow fever and the bubonic plague. More recently the island has become a popular tourist spot and houses a collection of endangered Aldabra giant tortoises, which were originally a gift from the British governor of the Seychelles.

This is the tiny boat we road over to Changuu island in.

I was a little nervous about this boat at first, but we made it back safe and sound.

Aldabra Giant Tortoises! Very noisy creatures.

Just petting the giant tortoise. This one was over 150 years old.

We then had a chance to wonder around Stone Town for a bit.  The heart of Stone Town mostly consists of a maze of narrow alleys lined by houses, shops, bazaars and mosques. Since the streets are too narrow for cars, the town is crowded with bicycles and motorbikes.The most well-known feature of Zanzibari houses are the finely decorated wooden doors, with rich carvings, sometimes with big brass studs of Indian tradition.

We visited the Darajani Market which is the main market in Stone Town. It is chaotic, especially because of the maze of buildings and different shops selling just about anything you can imagine (including kangas with Obama on them).  

There are two main types of doors: the picture above is an Indian style which have rounded tops, while those in the Omani Arab style are rectangular.

Even though the weekend was quite short it was awesome to experience the different area of Tanzania and the beautiful scenery and a different culture. It's nice to be able to escape to an island with beautiful beaches on the weekends. Hopefully we'll make it back before our time in Tanzania comes to an end! 

- K

CCBRT - Dar es Salaam

Today was our second day at the CCBRT disability hospital in Dar es Salaam. It has been a crazy two days, as the hospital is MUCH larger than the clinic in Moshi. On our first day we met two physiotherapy students from Norway, Silje and Mari. They have been at CCBRT since the beginning of January, so it's nice that we have been able to ask them questions and follow them around a bit. Along with being a bigger clinic, means that there are more children to see. Already we have evaluated and treated children with different disabilities, including post injection paralysis, brachial plexus injury, arthrogryposis, dislocations and fractures of the extremities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and probably more. We will be much more independent in the coming weeks, but we found that we wont have a translator with us at all times like we had in Moshi, so we have been picking up a few more Swahili terms to use with the kiddos. Tembea (walk), simama (stand), lala kifudifudi (lie on your stomach), kazi njema (good work), and plenty  more.  Like Moshi, there is a club foot clinic that specializes in Ponseti casting. There were so many children at the clinic that Krista and I got to get our hands dirty too.

The front of CCBRT

This hallway is generally filled with hundreds of people waiting for services. Many people wait hours to be treated.

Outside the Ponseti casting room.

There is a very large area where they hold a private clinic for adults. They pay 50$, and this helps fund the services that are provided to children for free.

The hostel we are staying at is called CEFA. The proprietors are an Italian couple that have an adorable 3 year old boy. This place is used for many travelers who are working or volunteering for non governmental organizations (NGOs).  Many people who are working with CCBRT also stay here. The rooms have air conditioning, which is awesome because it is much hotter in Dar than it was in Moshi. Also, they offer delicious Italian food for lunch and dinner that can be arranged if you give them a few hours notice. So far we have had roasted chicken, gnocci, and pasta.

We're still getting used to the big city of Dar es Salaam, and all that comes with it. More on that a little later.


- K

Climbing Kilimanjaro

I officially made it to the roof of Africa! The summit of Kilimanjaro is called Uhuru peak, at a whopping 5,895 meters. It was definitely a test of character and the most physically and mentally challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life. So let me give you a run down of the events of my week on Kilimanjaro.

Day 1:
Machame Gate to Machame Hut
Elevation Gain: 1,800 - 3,000 meters
Length of Hike: 5 hours

We left Moshi around 9 am to drive to Machame Gate. After registering and paying our park fees we started our hike somewhere around 10:45 am. Machame Gate has an elevation of 1,800 meters. We had a nice long hike through the beautiful rainforest that lasted approximately 5 hours. Somewhere around halfway, after we stopped for lunch, it started pouring. I think it was even hailing at one point. This definitely made the day a little more interesting, and my tennis shoes were definitely ruined at that point. We reached Machame Hut (elevation 3,000 meters) around 4 pm. I was definitely ready to be dry and to relax a little bit. It was much colder than I anticipated on the first night. The stars on Kilimanjaro were unbelievable, more incredible than I can even explain.

Helena, Krista, and I excited to start our trek!

Our tents and the mess tent on the right.

Day 2:
Machame Hut to Shira Hut
Elevation Gain: 3,000 - 3,800 meters
Length of Hike: 5 hours


We set out on day 2 at around 8 am to Shira Hut. This was supposed to be a shorter hike today, but very steep.  It took us around 5 hours to get there, and was definitely more challenging than the first day. I kept repeating to myself "don't look up" and tried to focus on my own feet and the person in front of me. It was so steep that if you looked up you would just get discouraged at how far you had to go! I definitely could feel the affects of there being less oxygen in the air, as I got winded quite easily. We reached Shira Hut around lunchtime and then we took a short walk to see Shira Cave.

Taking a break to take in some awesome views.

Shira Cave. Juma in front and Joseph on the right.

Shira Hut camp.

Man made rock pile. Leaving my mark on Kilimanjaro.

Day 3:
Shira Hut to Lava Tower to Barranco Hut
Elevation Gain: 3,800 meters - 4,600 meters - 3,940 meters
Length of Hike: 6 hours

We started out on another steep part of the mountain heading to Lava Tower. This part of the hike is considered acclimatization because we hike high and then head back down to Barranco camp to sleep. This day was probably the toughest mentally, I started out with a mini mental breakdown asking myself "why the heck did you decide to do this!?" It was the first part of our steep hike and I had gotten a little behind our group. I was doing ok physically, but kept on thinking about how much longer we had to hike until we reached the summit.  We stopped at Lava Tower for lunch, which was the highest elevation we had reached this day, 4,600 meters. At this point everyone as feeling pretty good, although it was VERY cold. Once we crossed over Lava Tower we had to hike straight down and pretty much ran to Barranco camp. The whole day lasted about 6 hours, and we ended up not much higher than where we started. But that's why Machame route is good for acclimatization, hike high - sleep low. Prosper and Juma checked our oxygen levels for the first time at this camp. Mine was 92%, and I could definitely tell a difference, but no sickness!

A picture of our whole crew. 1 guide, 1 assistant guide, 10 porters, 1 cook.

Trucking along! Notice that it was very cold at this point, and I was sporting the mittens I got for Christmas from my Grandma! Always thinking about you!

Day 4:
Barranco Hut to Karanga Hut to Barafu Hut
Elevation gain: 3,940 - 4,800 meters
Length of Hike: 7.5 Hours

Started our day off climbing up Barranco Wall. This was particularly difficult for me, as it was early in the morning and my body is not fond of exercising that early. This was definitely more rock climbing than hiking, but the hard work paid off because the views at the top were phenomenal, and it gave us another closer look at the summit. After reaching the top of the wall we made our way back down (again) to Karanga Hut for lunch. Overall this took about 4 hours.  After our lunch break at Karanga Hut we made our way to Barafu Hut (base camp). This was another 3 hour long hike through a whole lot of scree (loose rock). It's amazing how much the climates change over only a couple of short days.  Once at Barafu Hut our oxygen levels were checked again. Mine had dropped down to 82%, and I was easily getting winded just walking to the bathroom. This made me very nervous thinking about going up another 1,000 meters!

Karanga Hut is that tiny camp on the upper right side. We had to go straight down from where we were standing, then climb back up that far wall to get there.

Our guide, Prosper.

Windy, Cold, and Cloudy

Part of Barafu Hut, you can also see Moshi in the background. So small.

Base Camp, where we "sleep" for a few hours before hiking the summit. Barafu means ice in Swahili, and it was COLD.

Day 5:
Barafu Hut to Uhuru Peak

Elevation Gain: 4,800 - 5,895 meters
Length of Hike: 8 hours

Technically this still started on day four, as we "woke up" around 10:30 pm. I hardly slept at all, a combination of nerves and inability to sleep in sleeping bags. It was also very windy and I think it was hailing at one point. We had a small "breakfast" that consisted of tea and biscuits before we started our trek at 11:30 pm. It was dark and cold, I was wearing 4 layers underneath my snowpants, and 5 layers underneath my down jacket. I think my favorite part about hiking this late at night was the stars. You could also see Moshi lit up in the distance, and the view was incredible. The reason why most people start to summit around midnight is for a couple of different reasons. It takes an average of 6 hours to reach the summit from Barafu Hut, and leaving around this time is prime for catching the sunrise at the summit. Also, the trek is so steep that I think if people could actually see what they were climbing they would be discouraged and turn back around. The pace was so slow, mostly focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. This part of the hike was also so steep that we had to zig zag up, its incredible that we were hiking for that long. I was feeling pretty energized and good for most of the 8 hours. I focused on trying to eat when we took short breaks and continuing to drink water when we were walking up. When you reach the top of the steep portion of the hike, you reach Stella's Point. Which is awesome and really disappointing at the same time. We realized we had to hike farther to reach Uhuru Peak. This was especially difficult, as I started feeling nauseous and a had acquired a bit of a headache. Each step felt like it took 5 minutes, and we were constantly stopping to catch our breath. By the time we reached the summit, I literally collapsed to my knees and just stared at the sign. Such a little reminder of how large of an accomplishment we just achieved.

The whole group!

We only stayed at the summit for a few minutes, because of the lack of oxygen. It was daylight now, and getting down was supposed to be easier than going up. The way down took about 3 hours, and it was basically like skiing down a bunch of loose dirt and rocks. By this time, I was exhausted and feeling very frustrated because I couldn't keep my footing and felt like I was falling every few minutes. Our guide, Prosper, asked "haven't you ever been skiing before?" I said, yes, but I fell so many times that I never went again. He held my arm the whole way down.

We got back to Barafu camp and got to rest for an hour before lunch. Then we proceeded to hike another 4 hours to Mweka Hut, our last campsite, which was at 3,000 meters. This part of the hike was the most physically exhausting for me, my knees were in a lot of pain and my body was screaming at me the whole way. We hiked for a total of about 15 hours this day.


Day 6:
Mweka Hut to Mweka Gate

We woke up early for breakfast, a nice song and dance performance from our crew, and our last 3 hour hike down to the gate. We had officially survived Kilimanjaro. This is definitely an experience to check off my bucket list. I have learned a lot about myself on this trek, and am proud to have accomplished something that not very many people do.


- K