Audra's Birthday Extravaganza Continued

Sorry, for some reason it did not publish the text to go with the picture, here we go again

Sorry for the long delay between blogs, we have had quite the adventurous time. Last time we spoke we were preparing to leave for Zanzibar for Audra’s birthday extravaganza. Zanzibar was absolutely amazing and exceeded all are expectations. Our first day we spent in Zanibar City (most call it Stone Town). It was very interesting and we have quite a few stories from just one day there. A few of the fun ones:
-We were eating a gelato (yes, they have it here, but only in Zanzibar) when a local squats over the water about 30 yards in front of us. To get the proper mental image it is really only us three in the picture. All the sudden he drops his drawers over the water and lets out a load right in front of us, looks at us and then walks away. I assure you we did not swim in any water along that whole side of the island.
- That night we spent eating amazing local food in their famous market at night where all the street vendors gather. We ate so much amazing food including tons of fresh seafood, a Zanzibar pizza and many other delicious items. My personal favorite was the sugar cane juice. They actually let me help them make it- I got behind the stand and put sticks of sugar cane into this machine that I then twisted while adding a little lime and ginger to it. All the juice came out of the stick and dripped into a bucket where I got my drink from. It was so good!!!
Day 2 we arose from out hostel quite sore (my bed made a Duke call bed feel like a King size pillow top). This is primarily b/c I am usually quite cheap but also because I wanted to set Audra up for her big surprise. We rented a car and drove up to the north of Zanzibar. If any of you ever come here, I highly recommended driving a car because it is essentially non-stop, hard core off-roading. We made our first stop at one of the spice farms and did the typical spice tour. It really was fascinating and very entertaining. After one of the natives climbed a coconut tree at least a 100 feet high with ease, I decided I would give it a try and as you can all imagine, I made it about 5 feet before falling on my face. I think Audra laughed at me for about an hour. We finished driving up north and began our search for a HOSTEL- or so I told Audra. As you can imagine, she wasn’t thrilled w/ the prospect of staying at a hostel and after looking at a few she refused to stay at (and rightlyfully so), I surprised her w/ the plushest place in the area, right on the water with a deck built over the water w/ giant swings you could swing out over the water on when the tide was high and giant hammocks lining the beach. It was so amazing and she loved it.
This lead us up to out third day, where we woke up to an American breakfast. We then enjoyed a long walk on the beach (and jog) where we negotiated our favorite part of the trip. For 16 dollars each, we had a private sailboat that took us snorkeling in a beautiful coral reef for an hour then took us to an island. After that we set sail and for 2 hours we sailed back. I brought a bottle of wine and we sat on an upper deck of the boat, by ourselves, marveling at one of the most amazing sunsets I will ever see. When we returned that night, to surprise Audra for her b-day, we were moved to the honeymoon suite where we were able to sit on a private deck w/ personal hammock and relax the rest of the night. It was an amazing day.
The next morning was Audra’s birthday, though we refered to the weekend as Audra’s birthday weekend extravaganza. We had a magnificent breakfast and then rode down to a beautiful strip of beach that was essentially our own for the afternoon. After a few more great little stops we made our way back to our sweet home in Moshi. It was an absolutely amazing trip.
On a more day-to-day level, I am really enjoying working in the hospital. I have never seen so many of the diseases I treat each day. When I say every day is a surprise, it is quite the understatement. In my 4 weeks on the wards I have done over 20 lumbar punctures, 8 bone marrow biopsies, 7 paracentesis, 5 thoracentesis, and 2 pericardiocentesis. They asked me to try to biopsy a giant mass today sitting over a patients right kidney but I was even scared to take it out and sent him to the OR. I used to think that people at VA hospitals showed up at the hospital very late in the course of a disease, but they have nothing on Tanzanians. Because of this there is a huge need for hospice like care but there is absolutely nothing like that at all. When a patient is in pain here the only thing we can offer very little pain killers. There are not true narcotics to my understanding. The nice thing is no one ask me for narcotics.
Through this, I have gained a new appreciation for how America runs. Nothing ever, and I mean ever happens here when you want it. Often I have a routine test I will wait for over a week to get the results. The surgeons are still surgeons here and never want to see a consult. As many of you know, I did not have an intern for 3 weeks, I just got one 2 days ago.
Everyday starts with morning report, which I think I have mentioned before. It is quite odd because I get so nervous every morning because they announce each death to us each morning and review their chart. It hurts so bad to lose so many young people and even older people to things you know you could easily fix state side. There is only one hospital in the whole country the has any real cancer treatment and if you want it, you have to get yourself a ride to the capital and show up with a sheet of paper from the hospital you were sent from requesting treatment. There are 2 ventilators in the hospital, almost never are they used on medical patients- trying treating ARDS or tetanus without a ventilator.
I hope by no means is this making you think I have any ill feelings toward the system here. It is what it is. I absolutely love the people I am working with and even more, I love the patient population- they are so incredibly grateful. I have a couple of Masai warriors (one that is in prison for 10 years for stealing cows)that have been on my service since my first day here and we have become pretty close. They laugh at me almost every day as I come into their room and attempt to speak Swahili with them- after using the 10 words I know we both start laughing.
Anyway- enough of my life. Audra is having a really good time as well. She is setting up working with the occupational therapist here at the hospital when she is not at the orphangage. I have never met anybody that reads as much as she does, she is plowing through some pretty big books here- she is about to finish Out of Eden in under a week. We are having a blast together and believe it or not- we have been married 1year and 1month and she is still not sick of me (at least not that she has told me).
We are having so much fun hanging out with friends here, we have made some really good ones. There is a couple from Austria here that we spend a lot of time with and we have made many other good friends as well. We continue to enjoy going to all the hashes and riding around on the Dala-Dala, which is always an adventure.
I would like to give a shout to my buddy Andrew Rassi who is currently in Beijing with Duke (and has tickets to the 100m finals). We were talking the other day on the internet and saying how we could not believe we are getting paid for this or that it is part of our residency. We don’t say that because we aren’t working hard- believe me, I am. We say it because we are having so much fun. This is a life changing, eye-opening experience I will never forget. I have been touched by the people here so much. Every corner I turn, someone wants to say hi or have a conversation, not because they want something from me, though some do, but because they are just wonderful people.
Lastly, we have tried to keep up with the Olympics, but it is quite difficult when you or none of your friends has a TV. Still, we managed to go to a hotel the other night to watch some events- it was all on an Indian sports channel. It was quite funny because they kept talking about the Indian competitors in each sport and mentioning their competition for medals. Some of you know I have been to India twice and love the place, but Olympic athletes are not their best export and cricket is not an Olympic sport. They have won one gold medal each of the last few olympics and all of them were in some shooting event. Found it quite comical. Anyway, we have not gotten to experience the images I used to see on TV of everyone in a small village gathered around a TV trying to see a local win a gold.
I apologize for the lack of pictures, I am having an extremely hard time uploading them because we have had a very slow internet connection lately. I am probably going to try to upload some more soon but the picture above is from our time on the spice farms in Zanzibar.
Very lastly, if you learn anything from this blog, it is probably that I was not an English major, apologize to all of you that are grammatically inclined.
We love your comments, keeping writing them and I promise we will update the blog soon.
Cheers,
Chris and Audra