United State of Happy New Year!

Happy New Year townies! I'm off to Mac's New Year's Eve Carrburrito party before heading downtown to party like it's... well... 2010. I hope everyone has a safe and celebration and helps ring in 2011 with sequins and glitter!

You obviously know my love of music videos and my secret love of the top 40 (shout out to my fellow love Toewsy!). This is the culmination of 2010's best music in a mashup by DJ Earworm called "Don't Stop the Pop".



New Year's cheers to all those friends in different time zones who aren't celebrating on Eastern Standard Time: Costa Rica, Tanzania, Hawaii, and somewhere in middle America road trip.

Bring it on 2011!

Em & Aud's Excellent Adventure

Two of my classmates from Duke have just arrived in my old stomping grounds of Moshi, Tanzania. They took my place in the pediatric clinics, living on the compound, and exploring the greater Kilimanjaro area. Since I was the first student to go from our primary care program, I had a lot of kinks to work out and spent much time "trail blazing" to figure out how to survive in TZ and make the academic portion of our program a success. Their blog is www.emandaudintz.blogspot.com and you can follow their journey there. This was their post to say asante to all of my help in preparing them for this adventure... Hope ya'll have a great time! Safari njema!

Two brave PNP students, Becky and Kelly, embarked on this same experience previously on their own. These girls established relationships and set precedents for future nurse practitioner students to gain global health experiences at KCMC. A wise professor once said, “trailblazers experience the most bumps in the road!” Well, Becky and Kelly sure had their share of potholes to deal with, but handled them with poise thus paving the way for our time here in TZ. To you we are extremely grateful! Your advice, resources, packing lists, cell phones, and long Q & A sessions have helped us immensely. You are amazing… we will be saluting you from the top of Kili!

Becky the Superstar!

Merry Christmas from Local Townie!

In lieu of a traditional Christmas card (because my life has been anything but traditional this year) and in order to save the planet, I blogged my Christmas card.

This was my Christmas tree in Tanzania. The closest I got to a white Christmas in Africa was seeing the glistening snow on Kilimanjaro. It's good to be home for Christmas.

This is our family picture from Christmas morning. We were obviously in the spirit.

I was lucky enough to get down to Birmingham to celebrate Christmas with Richard and his family. In addition to celebrating the Christmas season, we celebrated finishing my Master's degree at Duke. It was a whirlwind to get everything finished in time, but I'm done and graduated! Definitely deserved a celebration!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I wish you a happy holiday and a wonderful 2011...

it's going to be a big year with babies, new jobs, fun destinations, and lots of friends and family. I can't wait see what it brings. Love.

By popular request: Tanzanian superlatives

Top 10 reasons why I am (or am not) returning to Tanzania:

Am-
1. Karibu is the first word you hear. Welcome.
2. Summer year round? Ndio, asante sana.

3. Why drink water with parasites when you can drink Cokes all day?!
4. I could get used to Africa time: 4 hours of work, a nap every day, in bed by 10 pm.
5. I want to carry my baby in a kanga.
6. Bartering is really fun, even if you still get mzungu prices.
7. A fruit salad to feed a small army costs about $2 and you can buy everything from the mamas right outside your house.
8. There's a lot of work that needs to be done.
9. Swahili is a beautiful language.
10. I am a millionaire in Tanzania! ($1=1500 Tsh)

Am not-
(above: some of my favorite nurses at my "going away" party at The Station in Carrboro)
1. It's really hard to get hugs across the Atlantic Ocean.
2. Being a nurse is a difficult battle in Africa, and being a nurse practitioner is unheard of.

3. I love all 4 seasons.
4. I prefer to sit... not squat.
5. I'm spoiled and appreciate electricity... especially when it's dark.
6. Dala dalas make Carolina's U bus on a rainy Monday in August seem like a limosine.
7. The amount of cereal I eat in a month would cost $24 (36,000 Tsh) and I like it better when it crunches because it's fresh... not because it has ants in it..

8. I like wearing dresses, skirts, and shorts that are quite scandalous... the stop above my knees.

9. It's annoying to have your skin color be associated with wealth and therefore be harassed because of it.
10. White girl of Irish descent in Tanzania = sunburn

Before & after: What I had in my suitcase upon arrival and departure:
Before- (See the previous post on how ridiculously unprepared I was.) In short, a few medical supplies, 7 shirts, 4 pants/skirts, 3 tubes of sunscreen, 1 towel, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 packs of Skittles, my laptop and ipod
After- 5 pounds of coffee, countless bags of tea, 6 kangas (the wrap skirts that the women wear), 4 pairs of shoes (please note I came home with more shoes than I left with despite having left my hiking boots in TZ), antibiotics/antiparasitics/antifungals from the duka la dawa, very few clothes

5 foods I dreamed about while I was gone:
1. All things Mexican
2. Cinnamon buns
3. Tar Heel pie
4. Thanksgiving stuffing
5. cereal

Ways I grew that I never expected:
- I cannot have much sympathy for people in Tanzania because I don't actually have any idea what they go through on a daily basis. My capacity for empathy grew exponentially as I saw their situations, listened to their stories, and helped them deal with the circumstances of their lives.
- My passion drove my career to work with children because they are so dependent and vulnerable to insults against their health. Imagine how I felt when you add economic disparity, a resource-limited health care setting, and a country that has twice the health risks.
- I know that I am enormously blessed to be an American. I had no idea how blessed I was to be an American woman, have value in my family, to befrom a middle class family, to have an education at the graduate level, and never worry where my next meal will come from. I do not take so much for granted anymore.

Embarrassing moments a la East Africa:
-Messing up the greetings (which are very important) on my first day and having a room full of Tanzanians literally laugh at me.
-Hosting a dinner party at my house in the doctor's compound and having our ever-leaking toilet water run into the living room. Classy.

-Getting caught with my thighs exposed.

Bert asked me to use 3 adjectives to describe my experience in Africa:
welcoming, slow, delicious

One A Day: 50 days of daily humor by Cousin Katherine

Katherine is my favorite girl cousin and she is one of the most special people in this world. I told you that she made me a One-a-day note for me while I was in Tanzania and it made my day to read her quips every day. She dated the front of the card and wrote a saying, a verse, a past time, or a joke on the back. The days were numbered in the corner so I could know exactly how long I'd been gone. It certainly got me through some of the more difficult times and seemed to be right on track with exactly what I was thinking! I wanted to share some of the best ones with you:

October 25: YAY! The grand-Becky-"I'm spending seven weeks in Tanzania with five pairs of panties"-adventure begins! I love you! (Oh yea... save some babies too!)
October 27: Two silkworms were in a race. The result: a tie. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love, and got married. The wedding wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
October 28: Think of all of us here-- family & friends-- who love you so much and wish you the best of times. Now, enjoy your day! You are loved! SIDE NOTE: This was taped to my mirror in my room for the next six weeks. I looked at it every day and smiled.
November 2: Psalm 24:1
November 6: Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Fly high Becky!
November 7: You've been gone two weeks. Biggest adventure so far? (The answer is YES!)
November 13: Happy, happy, happy, happy birthday, dear sweet cousin Becky! I love you so much! Enjoy celebrating--this will most definitely be a birthday to remember, and a year to remember! For your birthday, you'll have to wait a few weeks but I decided to get you a nephew or neice. I thought you might like it--only it won't be ready until the end of December...
November 22: Some cosmic questions for you to ponder: If the elderly are called "old people" how come children aren't called "new people"? If it's true that we're here to help others, then what are the others here for? How come when asked what things they'd bring to a desert island, no one ever says "a boat"?
November 27: Ten things you can do with a coconut...
November 28: According to statistics, approximately 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets every year. My imagination runs wild...
December 7: Q: What's brown and on the ground and sticky? A: A stick. Eww. Where did your mind go? Clean yourself up. I mean really. SIDE NOTE: I laughed out loud and wrote what I had been thinking on the bottom of the card. You can tell where my mind was: "I was totally thinking it was a cinnamon bun that fell off the table. Guess I was wrong, but now I really want a cinnamon bun."
December 9: Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance? SIDE NOTE: You have no idea how true that statement is in Africa.
December 10: Psalm 23:1-3, I pray that your time in Africa has been a time of fullness, of rest, and of quiet restoration (on top of being an adventure).
December 13: Welcome home! Yay! Feel LOVED! SIDE NOTE: I do!

Homecoming!

I changed my facebook status yesterday to: "31 hours after leaving my Tanzanian house, I have arrived back at my North Carolina home."

As I left Tanzania, I was left with a mixture of emotions. I was remembering how scared I was when I arrived just 7 short weeks ago and realizing how comfortable I had become. The unknowns had become familiars and I was comfortable taking care of the things that used to scare me.

Saying goodbye to people was difficult. The Tanzanians all wanted to know when I was going to come back. The truth was I didn't know, but I just told them that I had to go home, back to Duke, and finish some work. Then I'd see where I ended up. To the same degree that Tanzanians are so welcoming, they hate to see you go. Stay and have another Tangawizi ginger ale, stay and work with the watoto in the hospital, stay and make Tanzania your home.

The cab ride back to the airport with Bwana Carol traced my steps back over the things that had been so foreign on the day I arrived. He had given me an ndizi that was tiny and yellow and delicious and I recalled that I knew one word in Swahili. Now I could carry on a broken Swahili conversation with him and my belly was full of mango and passionfruit. I looked out the window from the plane as we were taking off and I had a visceral feeling that I cannot explain... maybe it was knowing that I was going to miss Tanzania.

I flew into D.C. and could see the bare trees and snow-topped roofs over the Capital City. My bare toes were met with sideways glances from other bundled travelers as to why I was so inappropriately dressed for the frigid weather. Duh, I just left Africa. I checked my bags and immediately went to my connecting gate... after I ordered a grande Starbuck's coffee. Gosh I am such an American!

I landed at RDU and collected my bags. As I rounded the corner to exit the concourse I could see my Dad. I broke into a run and had one of those great airport moments where you say hello to a loved one in front of complete strangers. It felt good to be home. My Dad was no less than thrilled.

What was the first thing I did when I got back? The answer is obvious. I needed Mexican food. One Armadillo Grill chicken taco and cheese queso later, I went home and tackled my next big craving... a steaming hot shower where I did not have to hold the shower head. Then I turned on my cell phone and started making calls across the country to the people I missed most and was excited to talk to again... I started with Denver.

My room is now a complete mess covered in the regurgitation of my bags. Dad made enchiladas for dinner (by my request. I really missed Mexican food!) and I made it until about 7:45 pm before I crashed into my bed (no mosquito net required!). Today I am off to Duke to tie up some loose ends and I'm very excited to see my professors.

It feels good to be home.

Tutaonana baadaye Tanzania!

See you later Tanzania! I am spending my last day in Tanzania hanging with my TZ BFF, Dana. We have lived it up in town, chilled on the compound, and are headed out again after a splendid African afternoon nap. I am trying to pack my bag and feel like a bit of a stereotype of a female traveler as I sit on top of an overstuffed suitcase, trying helplesses (and hopelessly) to close the bulging zipper. Some rearranging will need to happen.

I leave tomorrow on the 5:15 pm flight out of Kilimanjaro headed for Ethiopia, followed by Rome and DC before arriving at RDU 28 hours later. Hamna shida.

I was told by a professor that after the initial culture shock, the next time I would feel sad would be when I left Tanzania. While I am very excited to go home, there is some truth to that statement and I will surely miss TZ. I have missed so much of the fall that I am unsure of what it will be like to get back to North Carolina-- perhaps another culture shock. I look forward to seeing all of you and I hope that my secret fans (read: school friends, family, friends' parents, etc.) will speak up and leave comments. I have loved all of your encouragement and support!

This will not be the last of local townie's TZ blogposts, but it will be the last from the ground in Africa. Kwaheri Tanzania, hello America!

Cravings

Traveling to Africa comes with a complimentary dose of culture shock that I experienced in my first couple of weeks here. I missed so much about America and had a difficult adjustment to the way things worked here in Tanzania. As I finish up my work and look back on my time here, the shock has subsided and I am realizing that there are aspects of life here that I will miss a lot.

Things I missed about America:
-a hot shower, where I could stand without holding the faucet head
-washing machines, and not having crunchy clothes when they come out of the dryer
-good cheese
-fresh brewed coffee
-reliable internet
-perfume

Things I did not miss about America:
-driving 45 minutes to clinic everyday
-12 hour nightshifts
-18 degree mornings and scraping off my windshield
-high priced everything

Things I will miss about Tanzania:
-the produce!
-the constantly blooming flowers
-greeting everyone in the street
-deep fried everything
-the babies wrapped up in kangas

Things I will not miss about Tanzania:
-dumping out the bucket of leaking toilet water three times a day
-dala dalas
-mosquito nets
-body odor
-power outages every day
-being called 'mzungu'

My new Swahili vernacular

When I got off the plane two months ago, the only Swahili I knew was "Jambo!" My TZ friends are quite impressed with how far it has come in such a short time and I have found that certain words and phrases and snuck their way into my speech. I figured I would give ya'll a quick dictionary lesson so that when I get home and I still have TZ on the brain, you can understand what I'm trying to say.

GREETINGS:
Jambo (Response: Jambo)- Hello!
Mambo (Response: Poa)- a casual hello!
Habari- How are you?
... za asubuhi- How is your morning? (Response: nzuri- good)
... za mchana- How is your afternoon? (Response: safi- literally means clean... you would understand the importance of being clean if you rode the dala dala or washed your feet after a day of tromping through mud/dust)
... za jioni- How is your evening? (Response: salama- peaceful)
Usiku mwema- Good night!
Lala salama- Sleep well! (literally "peaceful sleep")
Kwaheri- bye!
Shikamuu (Response: Marahaba) - literally "I lie at your feet" is said as a greeting to elders as a sign of respect.
Hamna shida- No problem (the equivalent of Kenya's "hakunah matata" which I'm sure you all know from The Lion King)

Other words:
dala dala- bus
asante- thank you
sana- very
pole- sorry
karibu- welcome
who- nani
what- nini
when- lini
where- wapi
why- kwahili
really- kweli
ndizi- bananas... mmmmm
embe- mango... mmmmm

That should enable you to understand my Southern Swahili when I get home.

Kwaheri!!!

Karibu

I love the way Swahili uses "karibu" as a welcoming word. It means both "welcome" and "you're welcome". Tanzanians do not wait for someone to say "thank you" before they pronounce "Karibu!", which makes it more of an offering to the guest rather than an obligation.
I walk around town or KCMC and hear, "Karibu mzungu!" to welcome me to Tanzania. I walk into a shop or someone's home and I hear another karibu to welcome me to buy something or to feel at home. As food is placed on the table, a karibu is offered to tell me to enjoy the delicious meal.
In the Carson house we say "Proud to serve." I think the word "karibu" sums up that mentality perfectly.

Gift Giving

In the spirit of Christmas (it doesn't much feel like Christmas here since it is 85 degrees... but my house does have a plastic Charlie Brown Christmas tree that we decorated with tinsel and tiny lights) and in Tanzanian culture, I am spending this week giving gifts to the important people in my life here in Tanzania. Adellaide is the international nursing student coordinator and is getting all things that a nurse should have in her pockets-- a UNC notepad, pens, highlighter, and calculator. Vera is the Duke liason at KCMC and is getting earrings. The clinic nurses are getting American pens (a highly coveted possession). And the doctors are getting bubbles and stickers to entertain the children in clinic. There have been some Tanzanian mamas who welcomed me into their homes and fed me (wayyyy too much), so I am giving them durable grocery bags to take to the market.
Hospitality and gratitude are very important parts of Tanzanian culture so it feels good to show my thanks and appreciation to everyone that has helped me thrive here.
I am getting excited to be back for Christmas. Dad told me that all he wanted for Christmas was me back on American soil, so I'm giving him his gift a little early and coming home next Monday.

The Circle of Life

I just got back from my safari and it was AMAZING! I'm pretty sure we sang the entire soundtrack to The Lion King from start to finish. I was surprised at how easy it is to find the animals and that they are totally used to the big "animals" that drive around and make a lot of noise.

We saw just about every animal and got into a few interesting situations...Don't worry nothing dangerous... There was a fresh wildebeast kill by the side of the road with a lion in a post-lunch coma and we watched two lionesses stalk a herd of wildebeast, hoping for a snack. Sadly, they spooked the herd and there was no kill.

The three parks are all incredibly beautiful in their own ways. Tarangire is full of foothills with winding roads and animals around every corner, while the Serengeti is vast and beautiful with unique architecture of trees and watering holes, and Ngorongoro is a giant crater that is beautiful from above and below and has the best of both worlds with its lush jungle and wide open plains. Camping was quite interesting since our last night had a few uninvited guests... hyenas and wild boards invaded our campground. I stayed put until they were long gone and got up to see the African sky at night. Sunrise was pretty impressive as well. I saw the sun rise over the Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. I will post more pictures later, but I wanted you to get a taste of wild Africa.