I am
almost in my last week of the first month. The end of this week I will be
moving to our respective hospitals with my partners. But instead of talking
about the future let me know tell you about how my past week has been. The
Swahili classes were no different from the previous ones except for new rules
and vocabulary. And we had a simple test last week and it went fairly well.
In
the labs, we built an infant incubator alarm, which sounds when the temperature
exceeds the required level and thus keeps the babies from cooking. An infant
incubator is used to keep babies warm when they are born prematurely. This was
a two-day lab and it was fun making something so useful and practical that can
be put to use.
One of my classmate working on the infant incubator
The
other two labs we had reflection sessions like the previous ones. One of this
reflection sessions we spoke about issues like some obstacles we might face,
what we should accomplish and how to make relations with the staff. It was a
nice discussion session where everyone sat in the grass in a circle and discussed
about these issues. We also worked on a troubleshooting lab where every group opened some or the other device and troubleshooted the problem.
The reflection session
The troubleshooting lab
It was our last Friday at Mt. Meru hospital. However, this day was slightly different as
it was raining and so we could no longer work in the open, we had to arrange
our workspace below two shades. There were no instruments to repair and I so worked on the air compressor I told you in my last blog. I just made another
tiny fix with the stethoscope by replacing the missing diaphragm. The final
hour of the day all the groups discussed about devices they had fixed for the
day. Some students also spoke about the fixes they had made while they were in
the operating room. It was a good idea to discuss all this as everyone got some
idea on how to repair a device if they found similar problems.
On the weekend we had planned a trip to the Ol Doniyo Lengai
which is an active volcanic mountain. We reached the base of the mountain at
around 3 in the afternoon after a 6-hour journey. The road was so dusty that we
were covered in sand by the time we reached the place. After arriving we
decided to visit the waterfall. The trek to waterfall was around 45 minutes and
we had to cross the river and the rocky paths to reach the waterfall. The
waterfall was amazing and the flow was so forceful that we couldn’t swim
against the flow.
The trek to the waterfall
The waterfall
We got back to our camps when we were surrounded by the local
msichana ( girls) selling local jewelry. I bought some from a girl and it was
difficult to say no to others. After returning we had a quick dinner and we had
to leave for climbing the mountain at 11 in the nigh (yes you heard it right!).
After resting for some time we set off to trek.
The mountain looked serene below the full moon and we
started the trek at around 12. I wouldn’t go through all the details. I would
just say that it was extremely difficult and there were some moments during the
hike where I doubted myself and wasn’t sure if I could summit the mountain.
Thanks to my short height and lack of stamina it took me around 17 hours
instead of 11 hours to complete the trek. But I was happy that I climbed all
the way to the summit and conquered it. On the summit, we could hear the lava
in the crater. Scary and exciting at the same time!!
This is how steep the mountain got
The crater with active volcano
We got back home at around 3 and were completely tired. I
was completely covered with dust from the mountain, as I had to slide all the
way down. My pants were torn and my legs were hurting beyond description. I was
glad that the day was over and I was home safely. Stay safe (Salama!).
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