Jasho!

Well, we've almost made it through the first week without anything too bad happening.  We did wake up a little sick this morning but are feeling better already.  (apparently the street market food isn't bad, but the nice Indian restaurant is, so we're going back to the street market tonight).  The rest of the food has been amazing!  Last night I had Zanzibar Pizza which is a thin dough with a filling made from chopped onions, egg, meat (ground beef), and mayo(more like Big Mac sauce), but it was all delicious (also comes in Nutella and banana). 

I have seen a lot of interesting cases in the hospital too.  Some of them are really sad because there isn't anything we can do for them here.  There is a wide variety of patients, doctors, and students.  I am definitely learning a lot, and I'm able to teach a lot.  The week I've been with 2 Australian students in their 5th year (out of 6 undergrad medicine years), 1 Zanzibari student in her 3rd year in China (out of 4, but she hasn't had any hands on experience yet), and 1 from Germany in his 3rd (out of 4 yrs who also hasn't had any hands on either).  It's a lot of fun to be able to teach!  But it made me a little nervous when one of the attendings asked when I graduated, and then told the intern doctor he could ask me questions because I was close to enough to being an MD anyway.  So far we've been working mostly in the mornings, so we've had the afternoons off to explore the city.

We went to the Old Fort (pictures to come), and we started a scuba class!   Today we were diving in the pool and tomorrow and Sunday we'll be in the ocean.  I did have some second thoughts when we were first in the pool, and I remembered that I have a fear of drowning.  But after 4 hours in the pool of going through safety training (including taking off your mask, taking out your regulator/air source, and having your air shut off and transferring to your buddy's air), I'm feeling much better.  I'll have to let you all know how it goes after this weekend!  (And there will be pictures coming I promise! I just keep forgetting to bring my cord)

I also had  to do laundry for the first time without a washing machine (I'm very spoiled).  We do have a spinner, so we washed our clothes in a bucket and then spun them and hung them out on the balcony to dry.  I'm not sure who clean they really are, but at least they smell like soap instead of jasho (sweat).

I miss you all, and I promise, I will get some pictures up soon!