The three of us showed up at the Autism Unit around 8:30 am on Wednesday. This was the time Mama Ella requested we be there to greet the students and share in morning "Jambo Time." Much to our surprise, she told us that the Ministry required our presence. Hence, began the bureaucratic debacle! Amber was not feeling well, so she was taken back to the hotel and Marilyn and I were left to defend our American selves! We don't necessary like being pulled away from working with the students to meet with the government officals, but we realize that its necessay for us to be in attendance in Tanzania. After stubbling our way to the office of education, we came to find out that the right individuals were not present in order for our meeting to be held properly, so we had to postpone the meeting until the next morning at 8am! This only infuriated us more! So, we headed back to the school to discover that Ella wanted Marilyn and I to screen a new student that was being placed in her unit. Now this was something we were excited for! We made a great team and had a lot of fun assessing the young boys abilities and strengths. It was evident that he was in the right center, but there was definately room for academic progress!
Ministry Visit #1
We ended the morning with a relaxing lunch at City Garden. Samosas and buttered Naan hit the spot!Back to the hotel we went to check on Amber and rest for the remainder of the evening!
6:30 am came quick!!! Amber was still miserably sick, so Marilyn and I, once again, made our way to the ministry... joined by our comrad Christopher this time! For those of you who are not familiar, Christopher is a young professional business student, whom we use as our translator. He has been a great asset to our team, in terms of communication! Being the teachers that we are, we were right on time, but were told that the working day did not start until 9 am. Maddness struck, not only had we wasted a visit yesterday, but now we are going to waste another hour and half waiting for the work day to start!!!
We were finally met by Mr. Kulwa, the director of special education. Him and another colleague basically talked in circles about the exact things they shared with us last year. This time, however, they were surprised that we were actually back in Tanzania. This has gained their "trust" and they now have requested that we come back and teach a session at Petandi (special education teachers college in Arusha). We assured them that this, however, would not be possible without some assistance, funding wise. They were again shocked to discover that we had arranged our visit out of our own pockets! We left confused and hurried to the school to assess/screen another new student and do some teacher training on "visual schedules".
After training, we stopped for a quick traditional lunch consisting of chips miyi (fries in eggs), ugali, and beef sauce. Then it was back to check on Amber at the Peacock Hotel. Christopher and I talked Amber into visiting the private hospital near our hotel to rule out any parasites or Malaria. Marilyn was exhausted from the mornings adventures so she decided to stay and rest while we ventured on to our next adventure!
Much to Amber's dismay, we entered the Aga Kahn Hospital. To paint a mental picture, this hospital was filled with women, men, and many many children in its open air facility. Though it was clean, we were still a little un-easy to be in an African hospital. After visiting several different "station windows" we made our way to the "emergency and casuality" department. Don't worry folks, Amber is now an official member of the Aga Kahn Private Hospital. Her initial visit fee was 32,500 shillings ($22). Can't beat that! The doctor took us into the room and after briefing Christopher of Amber's symptoms so he could translate, he began explaining to the doctor what was going on. The doctor quickly replied "may I talk to her." We felt a little silly, since the doctor spoke pretty perfect English. He was very kind and suggested that we get some blood and stool samples taken to see what the problem was. After an hour of waiting at the lab and 66,000 shillings ($50) later, we received the results and headed back down to emergency room to visit with the doctor again. He shared that their was neither a viral or bacterial infection and requested that Amber take a prescription for pain and a prescription to gain back some lost Electrolytes. Relieved, we took our touristy picture by the hospital sign and headed to the Duka la Dawa (Pharmacy) for the meds ($20)!
Waiting for the doctor to see her with Christopher and her new membership card :)
What a day!!!! We couldn't wait to get back to the hotel for our jammies, some TV, and some room service. Amber was instructed not to eat "fatty foods" so has decided to stick to her favoriate mashed potatoes and rice diet :) Poor thing. We sure hope she starts feeling better soon!
We have plans to do a couple more screening tomorrow, a teacher training session, and then a late lunch at Addis in Dar. Addis is an authentic Ethopian restraunte that we very much enjoyed last year. We cannot wait to go back and eat with our hands :)
We will keep you up to date on this weekends events! Be praying for Amber's recovery!
Kwaheri!
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