Mambo friends!
If you don't already know, I'm in Tanzania for a month! I will mostly be in Dar-es-Salaam (the largest city in Tanzania) and will spend a week in Tanga.
Many of you have asked why I am in Tanzania. I've been lucky enough to be sponsored through my dental school ( the University of Illinoist at Chicago College of Dentistry) and Miracle Corners of the World to study global dental health. I will be working at Muhimbili University Hospital of Applied Health Sciences Dental School with dental interns and dental students in Dar-es-Salaam. The pathology cases we see are crazy! In Tanga, I will be working with dental therapists at the Dental Therapists Training Centre inTanga and participating in community outreach programs.
My time in Dar-es-Salaam has been great so far! The service with our Turkish Airlines flight was amazing -- our flight was 21 hours and had one layover in Istanbul. We arrived 4 days ago and have been lucky enough to have done something amazing every day so far.
Here's a little recap of things:
WEDNESDAY @ 02:00 - Flight lands, we pay $100 for a Visa and are greeted by our driver Muftaha. We go to our AMAZING apartment. Unfortunately, I got no sleep but eh my sleep cycle is always disturbed.
@ 13:00 - We met Regina, our liaison with Tanzania and Miracle Corners of the World! Regina was kind enough to show us around Dar-es-Salaam. We went to Slipway by the Yacht Club Beach . It was breathe taking, but not somewhere where the locals would go. We also did the routine traveling thing of exchanging currency, buying new SIM cards and getting our groceries.
THURSDAY @ 09:00 - First day of the Hospital! We got registered, met the Dean and the Associate Dean of the MUHAS College of Dentistry. We also got a tour. Interestingly, their dental school is only divided in to three departments - Restorative, Oral Surgery and Pediatrics. Interestingly, Endodontics and Periodontics fall under the Restorative department.
@15:00 We later went to Palm Beach which was a stark contrast to the Yacht Club Beach. It was a very local area, but not a very swimming friendly spot.
FRIDAY
@ 08:00 - Second day at the hospital. We got to shadow in the Pediatrics Clinic and meet the interns and dental students. I was given a white coat because my scrubs made me look like a "villager".
******SIDE NOTE: The diversity in Dar is astounding. It is such a global city. There are native Tanzanians, but also large Oriental Asian and IndoPak communities that moved to Tanzania for trade.*******
@ 10:00 - Enter the Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology screenings. OMG. The Oral Pathology is crazy at MUHAS. CRAZY. We saw ~70 patients that day. About a quarter of the cases were ameloblastomas, a quarter of the cases were squamous cell carcinomas, a quarter were sialoliths and a quarter were miscellaneous pathology. The attending Oral Surgeon had so much compassion and wisdom. Interestingly, the government of Tanzania covered all of the treatment for these patients, minus about 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings (~$5 USD). If the surgery could not be covered in Tanzania, they would pay for the patient to go to India to get the surgery done.
@ 14:30 - We went to the Minor Surgery Ward and watched the BA attending Oral Surgeon re-position a zygoma on an automobile trauma patient with essentially the dental equivalent of a mallet. All under local anesthesia only. Wow.
@ 20:00 - There was a Poetry Slam in town that we attended. It was at the appropriately named Hideout Cafe, because it was tucked in a corner and took 2 wrong turns to find. The theme was women, and many pieces centered around single parenthood and AIDs. They had an open mic portion and I decided to perform two of my favorite Rupi Kaur pieces.
I'm so excited to be back to blogging! Stories from Zanzibar and Kariakoo coming at you tomorrow!
Mambo and XOXO,
Naheed
If you don't already know, I'm in Tanzania for a month! I will mostly be in Dar-es-Salaam (the largest city in Tanzania) and will spend a week in Tanga.
Many of you have asked why I am in Tanzania. I've been lucky enough to be sponsored through my dental school ( the University of Illinoist at Chicago College of Dentistry) and Miracle Corners of the World to study global dental health. I will be working at Muhimbili University Hospital of Applied Health Sciences Dental School with dental interns and dental students in Dar-es-Salaam. The pathology cases we see are crazy! In Tanga, I will be working with dental therapists at the Dental Therapists Training Centre inTanga and participating in community outreach programs.
My time in Dar-es-Salaam has been great so far! The service with our Turkish Airlines flight was amazing -- our flight was 21 hours and had one layover in Istanbul. We arrived 4 days ago and have been lucky enough to have done something amazing every day so far.
Here's a little recap of things:
WEDNESDAY @ 02:00 - Flight lands, we pay $100 for a Visa and are greeted by our driver Muftaha. We go to our AMAZING apartment. Unfortunately, I got no sleep but eh my sleep cycle is always disturbed.@ 13:00 - We met Regina, our liaison with Tanzania and Miracle Corners of the World! Regina was kind enough to show us around Dar-es-Salaam. We went to Slipway by the Yacht Club Beach . It was breathe taking, but not somewhere where the locals would go. We also did the routine traveling thing of exchanging currency, buying new SIM cards and getting our groceries.
Yacht Club Beach views
THURSDAY @ 09:00 - First day of the Hospital! We got registered, met the Dean and the Associate Dean of the MUHAS College of Dentistry. We also got a tour. Interestingly, their dental school is only divided in to three departments - Restorative, Oral Surgery and Pediatrics. Interestingly, Endodontics and Periodontics fall under the Restorative department.
@15:00 We later went to Palm Beach which was a stark contrast to the Yacht Club Beach. It was a very local area, but not a very swimming friendly spot.
FRIDAY
@ 08:00 - Second day at the hospital. We got to shadow in the Pediatrics Clinic and meet the interns and dental students. I was given a white coat because my scrubs made me look like a "villager".
******SIDE NOTE: The diversity in Dar is astounding. It is such a global city. There are native Tanzanians, but also large Oriental Asian and IndoPak communities that moved to Tanzania for trade.*******
@ 10:00 - Enter the Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology screenings. OMG. The Oral Pathology is crazy at MUHAS. CRAZY. We saw ~70 patients that day. About a quarter of the cases were ameloblastomas, a quarter of the cases were squamous cell carcinomas, a quarter were sialoliths and a quarter were miscellaneous pathology. The attending Oral Surgeon had so much compassion and wisdom. Interestingly, the government of Tanzania covered all of the treatment for these patients, minus about 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings (~$5 USD). If the surgery could not be covered in Tanzania, they would pay for the patient to go to India to get the surgery done.
@ 14:30 - We went to the Minor Surgery Ward and watched the BA attending Oral Surgeon re-position a zygoma on an automobile trauma patient with essentially the dental equivalent of a mallet. All under local anesthesia only. Wow.
@ 20:00 - There was a Poetry Slam in town that we attended. It was at the appropriately named Hideout Cafe, because it was tucked in a corner and took 2 wrong turns to find. The theme was women, and many pieces centered around single parenthood and AIDs. They had an open mic portion and I decided to perform two of my favorite Rupi Kaur pieces.
Performer at the For Better or for Verse Event
I'm so excited to be back to blogging! Stories from Zanzibar and Kariakoo coming at you tomorrow!
Mambo and XOXO,
Naheed
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