Ilula-Friends-2023

We started the week at Ruaha National Park on a safari. We were able to see a variety of plants and animals ranging from baobab trees, elephants, giraffes, lions and my personal favorite, the leopards. I was interested to learn that some of the plants have a defense mechanism to prevent the giraffes from overeating and killing the plant. Certain plants can release a chemical that makes the leaves taste bad to the giraffes and prevents them from overeating. This chemical will then be released downwind leading the giraffes to graze upwind!   After our return to Ilula on Tuesday, we got right back to work learning from our Tanzanian colleagues. On Wednesday, I was able to watch my first Cesarean Section with Dr. Elisha. Scheduled Cesarean sections typically occur on Tuesdays and Thursday, but emergency Cesarean sections occur daily. The OR room typically includes a physician, two nurses and the anesthesiologist. Rachel and I were also able to round on the antenatal and postnatal war...

Hello! Yesterday, Maggie and I had the opportunity to accompany the palliative care team on their rounds which occur once weekly. They are given the names of sick people by each village's community leader and do their best to see each patient. Ilula Lutheran Hospital provides these services free to the community as many of these patients will never be able to afford the cost of care or cannot physically travel to the hospital. The palliative care team includes a nurse, doctor, social worker, and pastor. Emma, the nurse, explained that their focus was to relieve all patients of physical, mental, social, and spiritual pain. The team was designed to help meet the patient's needs and provide care and compassion. The list of patients in need grows each day while the resources remain very limited. Currently, there is over 400 patients on their waiting list that need to be seen. They told me there was a recent period of several months where they had to suspend these visits due to a la...

January 18, 2023 We are back from Ruaha, but would rather be there. On my bucket list would be to stay at Mwagusi “until I got tired of it.” I would not go on game drives every day, just languish and relax, read, watch the elephants, etc. But here we are, back at Ilula, and thriving. Students had a productive day, enjoying the teaching of Dr. Elisha and others. He is a standout! I spent some time in the MCH or RCH - I get confused about the correct terminology. I “helped” Asifewe, whom I have known for over ten years now. She was weighing the kids and recording. I did do some MUAC measurements. MUAC is mid-upper arm circumferences a screen and surrogate for acute malnutrition. Some of the children were due for immunizations and received them. The mothers bring their own slings for weights. Then the infants are hung in the sling on a scale. Most didn’t seem to mind. Of c course, Babu was tempted to swing them! I didn’t. Asifewe's daughter is one of the scholarship recipients a...

  It has since been over a week since the first group arrived at Ilula. Over the past week we have attended services, visited patients, and presented at the Ilula International Conference. I spent the first day at the hospital in the outpatient department or OPD working with Dr. Imelda and Dr. Jon. We were able to utilize newer Xray services to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple patients. It is hard to imagine that patients used to have to travel over an hour to Iringa for Xray services. Tuesday morning, I was able to round with Dr. Miriam on the pediatric inpatient unit. On Wednesday we received a Swahili lesson from Joyce. I can now introduce myself, tell others where I am from and utilize common greetings. However, I am still working on counting! On Friday I was able to present on hypertension at the conference. My biggest hope is that I was able to provide useful and practical information that can be utilized to better patient care and patient outcomes. Even more ex...

Greetings from Tanzania!  We just finished the two day Ilula International Conference in Iringa. It was exciting to see the medical community come together to teach each other. There was roughly 135 attendees from hospitals all over Tanzania. Each medical facility sent a group consisting of 1 pharmacist, doctor, nurse, and administrator to represent them and foster interdisciplinary relationships. We heard from a variety of topics including performance management to oncology emergencies. The conference is broken up into a series of presentations and ends with brainstorming quality improvement projects for their respective hospitals. The presentations were very engaging and it was amazing to see the quality improvement projects that came out of the conference. Many groups chose to work on improving cervical cancer screening, reduce home deliveries, and improve prenatal care. Maggie, Leah, and I all had the chance to present and it was a great experience to have such a wonderful audi...

 Hello from Ilula! The whole group has now arrived safely into Ilula. The final travel group arrived on Tuesday. We are fortunate to be staying on the hospital grounds in the guest houses. The guest houses were constructed in 2006 and were updated for the first time in November of 2022. This included renovation to the kitchen (with an addition of a small electric oven), new pavers outside the houses, new beds/mosquito nets, and a total revamp of the bathrooms. We are talking HOT showers, all. Wow. We feel so spoiled! We did run out of water yesterday at 2 of the guest houses so… we keep going with the flow (or lack there of). Shana

 As I am calling it, group 1.5 has arrived in Iringa and on our way to Ilula. John, Solveig and I are the “middle” group and are on our way to church on this warm, sunny Sunday morning. After a fun ride in a small airplane from Dar es Salaam to Iringa, we were greeted by our drivers with Makuta Travel. What service so far-a Karibu welcome sign, breakfast at their office and now access to Wi-Fi on our ride into town allowing me to write this post. I haven’t been here since 2014 so it’s been fun to see how much Iringa has changed and grown. I can’t wait to see Ilula again.  Shana

It is Saturday here in Tanzania and we are currently waiting at the airport for our flight out to Iringa and then onto Ilula! This will be my first experience in such a small plane. We have spent the last few days in Moshi observing oncology doctors, nurses and clinical officers working with a variety of patients fighting cancer. It is interesting to hear our oncology experts, Randy and Arek speak about the differences and similarities that they have noticed between the United States and Tanzania as far as the presentation and treatment of various cancers. I am looking forward to learning more when we arrive in Ilula! Maggie

 Hello all, This is my first time blogging despite being well travelled. Anyways, excited to visit anew country. Eager to see and to learn. Happy to be travelling with so many good people. See you all in 48 hours. Joy Ngobi

Hello from Moshi!  We have been very busy the last two days visiting the cancer center. The facility is impressive with their inpatient ward completely finished and and new construction starting for a radiation center. We were fortunate to connect with Dr. Furaha and observe the practice of medicine at the center. I was able to observe the treatment of patients with breast, esophageal, and ovarian cancer which was extremely interesting. Today we visited a local tribe at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro and got to observe the full process of making coffee from crushing the outer shell to roasting the beans. It was very exciting and definitely the freshest cup of coffee I've had! -Rachel

After two ~8 hour flights and a 4 hour layover, we finally touched down an hour or so ago. We (Randy, Arek, Maggie, Rachel, and I) made it through customs and exchanged money before getting a ride to Moshi from our driver, Dennis. The first thing that I noticed when we stepped outside tonight was how dark it was. And the  fresh smell of the foliage surrounding us as we exited Kilimanjaro International Airport. Standing outside were over 2 dozen Tanzanian drivers waiting to pick up the other arrivals.  On the way to Moshi, I noticed that people were still out and about waiting at street corners or gathered around the entryway of shops and homes. Some were sitting comfortably in the dark while others had a light or two on. There were a variety of vehicles on the road including motorcycles, vans, cars, semis, delivery trucks, and more. I was surprised to see so much traffic at night.  Another observation is that along the highway that we were on, there were many speed bumps ...

i managed to get to MSP and back but for the last 50 yards or so, to see my first five colleagues minus one off to the international departure area. See below. Arek was already checked in (we hope!) Maybe I'll PhotoShop him in. safari njema rafiki!

Typing this out as we wait for the plane to depart. My name is Leah and I’m a PA student coming along for the ride to Tanzania. It seems like just yesterday that Maggie, Rachel, and I decided to commit to this experience. We’ve completed all of our prep work and we’re as ready as we can be for this trip. Last night, we had a little Zoom meeting to calm some nerves and compare what each of us are bringing. We were worried that our flight might be delayed given all of the snow this morning. But we are currently sitting in our assigned seats with our airline pillows and blankets in our laps, compression stockings on, and malarone in our bellies. Will update once we make it there! Leah

My name is Maggie and I am one of the PA students participating in this year’s trip to Ilula. While I have some experience traveling abroad this will be my first time traveling to Africa. As I look forward to the journey ahead, I feel a mix of emotions including excitement and some anxiety. However, I know that this experience will expand both my medical and cultural knowledge. I have enjoyed participating in all our group meetings up until this point and I am looking forward to working with the traveling team as well as the medical team at Ilula. Last night, I just finished reading the novel Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences by Joseph L. Mbele, a Tanzanian who is now a professor at St. Olaf College here in Minnesota. I found that it was quick read and provided good insight into cultural differences regarding topics such as eye contact, money, and safety. I am curious to see what else I will learn during our travels! Hopefully the snow here in Minnesota will not d...

Hi all! I am one of the PA students going with the first group to Tanzania. This is my first time traveling outside of the US, and I am very excited and nervous. I had plans to travel internationally in the spring of 2020, but for obvious reasons, that trip was canceled. I was so excited to hear about this opportunity to learn in Tanzania and am so grateful to be a part of this trip. Packing has been one of the most daunting things, as it is hard to try and prepare for three weeks as lightly as possible. I still have to decide on which bags I am taking and have strewn out luggage around my room, trying to figure out the best ones to take. I am not sure what jet lag feels like, so I am bracing for extreme exhaustion.  I am a bit concerned about flight delays and travel changes due to weather, but this is classic MN, so it is not unexpected. I am also sad to be apart from my dog, Nala, for 3 weeks which will be one of the hardest things for me. Well, that is all for now; hopefully, b...

Yup! A winter storm appears tomorrow just as our group is to set out for Moshi. Jill is leaving a day ahead, so she should be fine. Tomorrow, Randy, Arek, Leah, Maggie, and Rachel will head to Tanzania, first stop, Moshi and a cancer hospital. Assuming they can get off the ground! John, Solveig, and Shana will leave a couple days later, and the remainder of us will depart MSP Sunday, January 8. My hope is that all the details are correct. However, we are flexible enough to fix things on the fly (I hope). On arrival at Nduli, the Iringa airport, Mukuta Travels will meet us and likely make a stop in Iringa. In our case, we will have tea with Shedrack Mukuta and drop off our Iringa passenger there (my wife). Birdie will stay in Iringa, finding ways to help out in the BKB office. Then the rest of us off to Ilula. We will have some opportunity to do a little exploring in Iringa later. I do need to get a new SIM card for the WiFi unit at the Faculty House. The process is daunting. No. Easy...