First night in Africa

Alright, so finally a post for all you non-medical folks! (Ok ok except to say that I did deliver two babies on my own today back to back, both with cords wrapped around their necks, and scrubbed in at the end of a C-section to close skin also on my own- guess the doctor must trust my suturing skills to leave the OR... it's almost like I'm an intern already!) Let's start at the beginning and talk about my first nigth in Africa. Our flights here were uneventful. It was snowing in Amsterdam when we landed so I was worried about delays, but everything went very smoothly. We hardly slept at all so when we landed in Dar Es Salaam at about 11 pm Africa time after about 30 hours of traveling, we were definitely ready to pass out at our hotel. I had booked a room ahead of time and they were also supposed to pick us up at the airport. Of course, no one was there to meet us. We got a cab to the hotel for what the hotel said they were going to charge us (probably more than the going rate really but we didn't really care at that point), and the cab driver was actually very friendly and taught us our first Swahili words (Asante sana - thank you very much). Arriving at the hotel was a little nerve wracking, I wasn't expecting anything near a five star hotel, but the reviews online at least said it was clean and a good value for the money ($30 a night for a double with air conditioning)... I'm not sure clean really would have been a word I would use to describe it, but then again I was new to Africa... maybe this WAS clean by their standards. It was a tiny entrance with big metal bars and a gate securing the "lobby"... really just a tiny square space with an awning and a tiny bench, and on one side a dark narrow staircase leading up to the rooms.

We attempted to check in, where they promptly informed us that they had no rooms, and absolutely no record of our reservation (even though I had a copy of the e-mail correspondence, they didn't really seem phased). But then even though they told us no rooms, the man who seemed to be in charge said, "give me five minutes" (or at least we're pretty sure that's what he said), made a brief call on his cell phone, and less than five minutes later we were being ushered up to our double room with air conditioning. (Don't think about it too much... I shudder to think why he could clear a room out so quickly... ) The room was tiny, not really the cleanest, but at least it had a bed for each of us with a mosquito net, and a bathroom with a western style toilet and shower. And air conditioning! If I haven't mentioned it already, it is REALLY hot in Dar. We cranked the air conditioning as much as we could (which really means turning it on since all the nobs were broken off so couldn't be moved), and nestled in under our mosquito nets. After about an hour of drifting in and out of fitful sleep I finally awoke denched in sweat and decided that the mosquito net would just have to go. What little cold air the air conditioning was pumping out was not making it under the net at all, and at that moment I decided risking malaria and cancer from all the Deet I then sprayed on myself was a small price to pay for being able to get some sleep. I even hauled the mattress onto the floor next to the bed so as to be more directly in line of the coolish air that the windown unit was blowing. After that I actually slept pretty soundly until 5 am when the loud-speaker from the mosque woke me by blasting prayers in Arabic. I also realized that the air conditioned was off for some reason. When I tried to turn it back on I realized the power had gone off at some point during the night. We sweltered in the heat a bit longer trying to sleep, until we started to hear rain outside. We opened the windows to an absolute downpoor. We were supposed to take the ferry to Zanzibar that morning, and when I pictured the boat trip to our island paradise in my head before we left it definitely did NOT include a thunder storm. We couldn't sleep anymore from the heat, so we managed to shower in the dark, and make our way down to our included breakfast. We were extremely relieved to find that the rain had completely stopped by this point and the sky was starting to look considerable lighter.

In my zeal to not forget my Doxycyclin (malaria medicine... especially after not having slept in my mosquito net, although honestly I had net to see a mosquito), I took it first thing in the morning, forgetting that the label explicitely says to take with food. While we were still attempting to get the waiter downstairs to acknowledge us (at least a ten minute endevor), I began to feel extremely sick to my stomach. "Oooh... noooooo... not already! " was the only thing I was thinking, forgetting completely about the doxy, and thinking that the water had gotten to me already, even though I had been meticulous about not getting any in my mouth in the shower and had yet to even have a meal in the country. I managed to stuff down too bites of granola bar before urgently asking for the bathroom, which apparently are only in the rooms. I tried to make it back up to our third floor room but didn't quite make it and settled for the bathroom of an unlocked room on the second floor right off the stairwell that had already been checked out of (I hope, anyway... ). As I vomited up the entire contents of my stomach (not much) in some poor unsuspecting tourists toilet, I couldn't help but wonder what I had gotten myself into. I sheepishly made it back down to breakfast, which I couldn't force myself to eat any of (I wasn't missing much since I declined the egg and what I assume was supposed to be two pieces of toast had the power not still been out was just two pieces of plain white bread). The only thing I could stomach was two dramamine (for motion sickness) at the thought of getting on a two hour boat ride to Zanzibar. After another trip to my favorite bathroom on the second floor, we set out for the docks.

I'm happy to report that the entire trip has been uphill since that first night! I'm taking my doxy at night after a full dinner now, Zanzibar really was the island paradise I had pictured, and Arusha is ten times better than Dar es Salaam (and LOLS cooler!). If that is the worse experience I have while here I must say I've done pretty well. Stay tuned for our adventures on Zanzibar, whenever I get the chance to write again (Saturday we are taking a day trip to a Massai village, then Caroline's mom comes Saturday night, and then Sunday is Caroline's b-day, so it might be a little while). Miss you all and hope all is well back home!

And good morning, Mom!