Lydia Hartsell

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. I will write another post soon about the traveling bus salesmen because they are quite entertaining.