Again thanks to everyone who has been an integral part of helping me to come to Tanzania for this 8 week period of time. So much has happened over the last 2 weeks that is difficult to know where to start. My time here has been wonderful so far as I have been blessed with great friendships both from the local Tanzanian medical students and also the variety of foreign medical students from all over Europe, Australia, and United States.
The hospital I have been working in Tanzania, called Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) is a tertiary referral medical center, meaning that it represents the highest level of medical care available in Tanzania. It has a referral base of over 13 million people and draws patients from all over northern Tanzania and also southern Kenya. It is also an academic medical center which means that it has a medical school and multiple post graduate residency programs on campus. This has been a wonderful addition because the language of the medical environment is English and so all of the students and residents can speak English. The language of the patients, however, is Swahili so my ability to converse with them is minimal at best. This has also limited my ability for direct patient care, of course, I was aware of this before I went. It has also shown me that for any future medical work language proficiency must be central for any meaningful ministry to occur.