Home Sweet Home

My family and I made it home safe and sound late Friday night (without our luggage).  We had the family vacation of a lifetime and could not have asked for a better experience together.  My parents and sister enjoyed time in Istanbul, Turkey and Zanzibar without me and then we went on a week long safari as a family.  Such a perfect and memorable week!!

I am still in shock that my time in Tanzania has come to an end!  I am thrilled to be home but extremely sad to have left Tanzania.  Definitely a mix of emotions.  My experience working and traveling around Tanzania has been an adventure that I will never forget, and I enjoyed sharing it with family and friends through my blog.  Thanks to everyone who followed my journey and encouraged me along the way!  I could not have done it without the endless love and support.  Until next time :)

~Krista

More Kiddos!

Tomorrow is the last day of our clinical here in Tanzania :(  Time has with out a doubt flown by and we have had such an amazing experience!  I won't bore you with all the details of these kiddo's stories, but here are photo's of some of the awesome children we have been working with for the past 5 weeks in Dar.  We have already said goodbye to some of them as they have been discharged home, but it will be hard to say good bye to the rest of them tomorrow.  You gotta love these cute smiles and great personalities!

My family arrived in Tanzania safe and sound on Wednesday!!! Kelly and I spent the day with them, showing them around CCBRT and Dar, eating tasty food, and doing a little shopping.  I will be joining them again on Saturday for a family safari.  I am beyond excited to see them again and spend the week with them spotting animals!

~Krista

Sambusa Heaven

Friday, was our fellow PT students, Mari and Silje, from Norway's last day at CCBRT.  There was a mini party following work and then the 4 of us headed to our clinical instructor, Zuleka's, house to have dinner and learn how to make sambusa's from scratch.  Sambusa's (samosa in english) have been one of our favorite snacks here in Tanzania, and we thought it would be fun to learn to make them.  They are very time consuming and it felt like an art project.  Zuleka has an absolutely adorable and charismatic 11 month old daughter named Rakma who we enjoyed playing with as well.  It was a great evening, with great company, and tasty food!

Everyone helping to chop the veggies for the inside of the sambusa's

The first step in folding the manda

Adding the filling

Completed product before frying them

Frying in oil. 

Zuleka cooking dinner and frying the sambusa

Voila!!

Dinner - wali (white rice), liver, and ndizi (banana)

Silje with Rakma :)

~Krista

Amazing Kids!

Kelly and I both have a number of kids we have been working with for a few weeks now.  It melts my heart to be greeted each day by the loving smile of a child who is excited to see you for therapy!  It is accurate to say that I am becoming very attached to a number of my patients.  Even with the language barrier we find ways to make a connection and have fun together.  Here are a few of the kids we are working with to give you an idea of what kinds of patients we are seeing.

We have been working with a boy with severe spastic cerebral palsy for almost 2 weeks now.  He started therapy because his spasticity and muscle tightness in his lower extremities has become so severe he is no longer able to walk.  He moves around by shuffling on his wrists and legs.  The severity of his tightness has made stretching nearly impossibly but we have made small gains and his standing is improving slowly as well.  We discussed this patient with the surgeon this week and he had achilles tendon release surgery today, which Kelly and I had the opportunity to watch!  Hopefully we will have him standing/walking soon!

Pretending to shoot me with his lego gun :)

Another patient is an 11 month old boy who is not standing, crawling or walking.  The mother is concerned that his legs are weak and he is not moving around like a typical 11 month old.  He is the most pleasant little boy that laughs and babbles the whole treatment session.  We are working to strengthen his legs, increasing joint stability, and weight bear in different positions (tall kneeling, 4 point/quadruped, standing).  He is a joy to work with but unfortunately, I haven't taken a picture of him yet.

I have been seeing a 5 year old with spastic diplegia ever day for the past week and a half.  He was initially in casts up to his thighs but had them removed earlier this week.  We are working on stretching his tight/spastic hamstrings and adductors and strengthening his legs and gluts so that he will be able to walk independently.  He has the greatest smile and laugh, and willingly does everything I ask of him.  He is a token patient!

Kelly has been working with a little guy with Arthrogryposis for the past few weeks.  When we first met him he had casts from his feet up to his thighs post surgery to correct contractures of his feet.  He eventually transitioned to casts below his knees and now he is without casts at all!  They were working on strengthening his legs, walking, stairs, and hand function.  however, he was discharged home today after months of living at the hospital.  He is no doubt a cutie!

~Krista

The Town of Bagamoyo and Bongoyo Island

On Saturday, Kelly and I headed to the oldest town in Tanzania, Bagamoyo, with some new friends.  We were invited to make the day trip to Bagamoyo by a group of Italian's who are here in Tanzania to provide clown therapy for children.  Yes, they dress up as clowns and make things out of balloons!  They were an extremely nice and welcoming group of people, however, only 2 out of the 6 spoke any English.

On our way to Bagamoyo we made a stop at a local orphanage founded by Mother Teresa called Missionaries of Charity.  This orphanage is home to abandoned elderly men and women, disabled children, and babies.  The Sisters and people at the orphanage were full of smiles to see us!!  It is amazing that there is a place like this for those without support or family, however, it made me sad to see so many people without homes.

Bagamoyo is the original capital of German East Africa and was once one of the most important trading ports along the coast.  It is also thought that Bagamoyo was a major slave port, where slaves were shipped off to Zanzibar, and then eventually Saudi Arabia and Asia.  We visited the ruins of the slave port which is now home to a large fish market.  We then had a fabulous sea food lunch at a French restaurant at The Bagomoyo Beach Resort.  We also visited the first Catholic Church in East Africa that is located in this town.  It is now a museum explaining and showing artifacts about the slave trade and the missionaries that came to help the East African people.  Such a fun day with new friends!

Eating little shrimpies at the fish market

Soo much fried fish

The Bagamoyo slave port ruins

View of the Indian Ocean through the ruins

Fabulous lunch at the French Restaurant

Baobab Tree

First Catholic church in East Africa, I believe

We stopped for some coconut on the way home

On Sunday, we took a 40 min boat ride to the island of Bongoyo for some R&R (rest and relaxation).  The morning started out cloudy and rainy so we were a little nervous that we would spend our time on the island hiding from the rain.  However, by 10 am or so it cleared up and was hot and sunny in typical Dar fashion.

~Krista

Dar Clinic Week 2

Kelly and I have officially been at the clinic in Dar for 2 weeks now.  We were pretty much thrown in day 1, so we independently see lots of kids daily.  There is some lack of supervision and the communication with the patient and parents is minimal because of the language barrier, but we are still finding strategies to help out the kiddos.

Most days we see approximately 25-30 patients total in the free outpatient pediatric clinic.  This is where we have spent most of our time, but we have seen a few glimpses of the private clinic, the inpatient wards, the club foot clinic, and eventually maybe some surgeries.  Monday, Tuesday and Friday are normal days in the pediatric clinic.  Patients show up as they please and we see them in the order they arrive.  Some patients wait hours to be seen!  Wednesdays and Thursdays we see any patient that shows up as well, however, Wednesday is designated for post injection paralysis patients (PIP) and Thursdays for brachial plexus injury (Erb's Palsy) patients.  Since there are a huge number of these patients we have had a lot of experience treating these kids.

Post supracondylar fracture (elbow fracture).

Post injection paralysis patient

Clinic is always busy and we are constantly challenged by the variety of diagnoses and post surgical patients, as well as the language barrier.  But no doubt the kids are adorable!

The pediatric treatment room where we spend the majority of our time

Quite possibly the most popular toy - home made rattles
(photo-bombed by the rhino)

Another favorite, the mini beanie babies donated by Kelly

Out side the treatment room/waiting area

~Krista