The Floating Mountain

2-9-2012

Here as I begin writing it is 7:08 AM, 10:08 PM yesterday, your time.  I wonder what your day was like?  Here we had a downpour last night.  We have had many days in a row of sunshine and no rain.  It was sorely needed.  The gardens were pretty dry and wilting.  The rain brought a halt to the progress of the nurse residence construction.  Although they resumed for a while before dark after the rain stopped, they have not returned this morning.  This is a change.  They have been starting before sunrise each morning until now, starting the cement mixer at 5 AM.  Today there was silence.  Oh, except for the arrogant rooster who struts around crowing for about an hour at that time too, just beneath our windows.  And of course the Muslim call to worship at 5 AM.  And the Christian church bells at 5 too.  Hmmm.  What time do you think Tanzanians start their day?  Do you think it is a hint or perhaps a suggestion?  Naaaah!

There are groups of children, generally segregated by gender, walking off to school, past our “rest house” as the staff calls it.  We refer to it as the more American term, “guesthouse.”  There is a fence 15 yards from the guesthouse porch.  As the children pass, they do not fail to look up to the porch.  Some respond to the Hehe greeting, “Kwameni.”  They all wear blue and white uniforms, blue sweaters and skirts or pants and white shirts.

The porch looks out across the savannah to the to the hills and mountains.  I consider this view one of the most beautiful places on earth.  We are high enough to see the savannah and trees from above, with crops and tilled ground, lush and green this time of year.  There is a mountain in the distance that magically appears and disappears in the mist.  Today it floats above the horizon.  How does it do that?  Straight above us, there are no clouds.  It is a beautiful African morning.

The workers are now straggling in to the construction site.  It is 7:55 and our meeting for prayer and chart rounds starts in five, so I will sign off.

We are done with chart rounds and another great student talk.  Will did a marvelous job on diabetes, with many good questions from the medical staff.  Now the students are off to ward rounds or simply “rounds,” and outpatient department (OPD).

I have a few more slides to finish for my presentation tomorrow.  I may ask Chaplain (I can’t spell Mchungaji, let alone pronounce it) Kikoti if I may “preach” tomorrow.  I am thinking about it.  Well, maybe not.

A couple updates.  I think I noted that some broken windows are being replaced.  Some of the windows are as well, but I don’t know at what pace.  The new ones are nice metal sliding panes with a screen.

Emmanuel, the lab director just gave me a nice long tour of the lab.  We really can do many tests here, thanks to him.  The hospital has plans for, first, a lab remodel and later a new building to accommodate the increased business and keep things up to date.

Randy, I have not yet checked on the Cryptococcal Antigen tests yet, but will tomorrow.  Gary, I have sequestered your modem.

It is 5:30 PM here, Kili time.  Off to the Peace Garden.