1. Food. I could write a whole post about the food I will miss. I will definitely miss buying $2 worth of vegetables from the market and cooking 3 days worth of food. I will greatly miss all of the fresh fruit, vegetables, fruit juice, milk tea made with fresh cows milk, and seafood here in Zanzibar. Basically, other than the whole conservative Muslim thing, I think I was born a Zanzibari....I have never lived anywhere where people love fruit and vegetables and to exercise as much as me!
2. Feeling like I can make a difference. I know on a large-scale I'm not making a dent in either the HIV epidemic in Malawi or helping women access and use family planning in Zanzibar. But it would be too overwhelming and depressing to miss the trees for the forest....I believe in our work and think many of the interactions we have on a daily basis DO make a difference in people's lives. I feel good that many more people got HIV tests and started treatment in Malawi. Family planning is a relatively taboo topic here in Zanzibar and people just don't have the information they want or need to make decisions -- even just talking about it with the nurses we work with and my friends here can make a difference because they can share the information with their friends, and so on. A few nights ago a neighbor approached me with some questions about HIV. There was an urgency in his voice and he said, "You have to teach me all about this, you are an expert, and you need to teach me so that I can teach my friends because we don't know and you are leaving soon!"
3. Speaking another language. I've never considered myself especially good at languages, but I worked really hard to learn Chichewa and now Swahili. I've learned so much more about the respective cultures and feel like it's opened so many doors. I love the breakthroughs, like the first time I was able to explain to a patient at Kamuzu Central Hospital what we do in 7C (the clinic I worked in) and the first time I was able to follow a team meeting here in Zanzibar.
4. Constant adventure and learning. Everything, even the simple process of taking public transportation or buying a loaf of bread, becomes some kind of an adventure. This can be exhausting, but also very fun! Not only do I get to spend my days learning about research and public health, I also spend them learning about another culture and the way humans interact with each other.
6. The music. Everything from American music from the 1990s in random hole-in-the-wall local restaurants, to the reggae, the traditional African music, Taarab music, Zambian platinum hits, and Bongo Flava.
7. Fabric. I have a fabric problem and I have had wonderful tailors in both Malawi and Zanzibar who enabled me. Kangas are colorful pieces of cloth with a swahili saying printed on them. Now that I can understand a little more I’ve started buying them for either the color/pattern or the saying! As soon as I turn down “kanga alley” in stone town the vendors smile and say “Rafiki!” (friend) and I have a hard time making it to the end of the alley without buying at least one!
8. Tea Break. Slowing down for a few minutes to drink some tea, have a snack, and chat with your colleagues is really nice! Somehow I don’t think this will be happening on the wards as a medical student....
9. The sunrises/sunsets
2. Feeling like I can make a difference. I know on a large-scale I'm not making a dent in either the HIV epidemic in Malawi or helping women access and use family planning in Zanzibar. But it would be too overwhelming and depressing to miss the trees for the forest....I believe in our work and think many of the interactions we have on a daily basis DO make a difference in people's lives. I feel good that many more people got HIV tests and started treatment in Malawi. Family planning is a relatively taboo topic here in Zanzibar and people just don't have the information they want or need to make decisions -- even just talking about it with the nurses we work with and my friends here can make a difference because they can share the information with their friends, and so on. A few nights ago a neighbor approached me with some questions about HIV. There was an urgency in his voice and he said, "You have to teach me all about this, you are an expert, and you need to teach me so that I can teach my friends because we don't know and you are leaving soon!"
3. Speaking another language. I've never considered myself especially good at languages, but I worked really hard to learn Chichewa and now Swahili. I've learned so much more about the respective cultures and feel like it's opened so many doors. I love the breakthroughs, like the first time I was able to explain to a patient at Kamuzu Central Hospital what we do in 7C (the clinic I worked in) and the first time I was able to follow a team meeting here in Zanzibar.
4. Constant adventure and learning. Everything, even the simple process of taking public transportation or buying a loaf of bread, becomes some kind of an adventure. This can be exhausting, but also very fun! Not only do I get to spend my days learning about research and public health, I also spend them learning about another culture and the way humans interact with each other.
6. The music. Everything from American music from the 1990s in random hole-in-the-wall local restaurants, to the reggae, the traditional African music, Taarab music, Zambian platinum hits, and Bongo Flava.
7. Fabric. I have a fabric problem and I have had wonderful tailors in both Malawi and Zanzibar who enabled me. Kangas are colorful pieces of cloth with a swahili saying printed on them. Now that I can understand a little more I’ve started buying them for either the color/pattern or the saying! As soon as I turn down “kanga alley” in stone town the vendors smile and say “Rafiki!” (friend) and I have a hard time making it to the end of the alley without buying at least one!
8. Tea Break. Slowing down for a few minutes to drink some tea, have a snack, and chat with your colleagues is really nice! Somehow I don’t think this will be happening on the wards as a medical student....
9. The sunrises/sunsets
10. My friends. Living abroad forges intense friendships and while I have wonderful friends in America and I think about them all the time, it’s so great having friends who understand what it’s like to work here and all of the different types of challenges; who know how hard it can be to get seemingly simple tasks accomplished - like scanning a single page of a document (a half-day affair sometimes). Who also understand the idiosyncrasies of a country, both the hilarious and the heartbreaking. What it’s like to ride crammed inside a daladala with 25 other people listening to mid-90s pop or blaring reggae. Who also live with the electricity cuts, water outages, and variable phone service, and appreciate the rare treasure of a good piece of cheese. Other people who understand the sights, sounds, smells. People who know, without the words, what it’s like to simultaneously be such an outsider yet feel so at home. They become your family away from home as it’s understood that you are all living far away from the rest of your family in a strange place. I will also miss all of my local friends who have so generously shared their lives with me.
1 comment:
I got goosebumps reading about your neighbor wanting to learn as much as possible from you. Just talking to him alone probably makes a big difference to many people and I'm sure you've taught many people.
I hope you are bringing some music home with you. A few times I have really enjoyed the music of a foreign place and was unable to find it back in the states.
The kangas sound awesome. And how wonderful to be called a rafiki when you really haven't been there very long. You make me want to visit Zanzibar!
Have a safe trip back. I hope you are ready for culture shock. It never hit me on my visits back to the states, but once we moved back, yikes. I can tell you and Africa will miss each other.
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