We have been in Dar es Salaam for a week now. We visited the United States Embassy in Tanzania as well as the National museum and Karioko Market! We have had pizza hut and subway that reminded us of home. We also have been having class last week and all this week. As well as visited some German ruins from the colonial period. This Saturday 11/18 we will be traveling to Zanzibar! 

WOW! Sorry for the delay in posting. We have been very busy bees these past couple of weeks! We have started classes and are staying at the School of St.Jude. We have been working with our St.Jude partners on our independent study projects. We have had many adventures like visiting Moshi, going to a movie theatre in Arusha to see IT, and just exploring Arusha. We just came back from our mid semester break which was spent in the coastal city of Tanga. We visited some German ruins and learned more about the legacy of colonialism in Tanzania. We also spent some relaxing time on the beach and interacting with the locals. Now, we are back at it with classes full swing! This weekend we will be visiting a Maasai village and spending the night there. And we will be going to Dar es Salaam in the beginning of November!! Stay tuned !

Yesterday we visited the school of St.Jude again and met the students who will be assisting us with our research projects! 

In the last couple of days we have been exploring Arusha! We went to a bookstore, the African Cultural Heritage Museum, a snake park, visited a Maasai cultural museum, and a coffee plantation! More adventures to come!

We have arrived in Arusha, Tanzania. It is 9:53 am here. We will be staying at the Danish Center for a week. Today will consist of resting and going into town!

Here we go! Waiting at our gate in  the airport in Columbus, OH!

We have arrived safely in Arusha and are studying hard for our finals tomorrow. We will be home in a few short days and we are excited to see our families but sad to leave beautiful Tanzania.

After being on  a bus for 8 hours we are now in Iringa. Although the bus ride was long we were able to see the beautiful landscape of the area between Dar Es Salaam and Iringa. There were rolling hill and beautiful baobab trees. For a short time we went through a national park and could see giraffes, elephants, impala, and buffalo from the bus. We live in a beautiful world and although it was a long bus ride we appreciate the wondrous things we saw. We are excited to see what Iringa brings us!

We attended the Tanzanian Public Health Association’s 31st Scientific Conference and Annual Meeting this past week and it was very educational. The theme was “Social Determinants of Health and the Millennium Development Goals” a topic that we have covered in class. Thus, the information was a further elaboration to the many things we have learned while taking our rigorous course load. At the conference we were accompanied by doctors, nurses and other health professionals. We as students tried our absolute best to have stellar presentations and represent our school well. We all submitted abstracts and was accepted for presentation. Our topics ranged from the perception of Malaria, relationship between conflict and HIV and the role of various organizations in health promotion.  We created a 15 minute power point presentation  which we presented in front of 50-60 extremely intelligent and honorable people. Some of the people in the audience worked for hospitals, World Health Organization (WHO) and other important organizations. We enjoyed ourselves although we were stressed and nervous. Everyone was welcoming and encouraging.

As our trip comes to a close we are working hard to end strong. We have been presenting at the 31st Annual Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting for the Tanzanian Public Health Association. Today 4 of us presented papers and accomplished something great by doing it. After the conferences we all went out for dinner. We are close like a family so we said jokes about each other, bonded and said what we were thankful for. We all are thankful that Professor Quaye is with us and showed us so much love and enlightened us with so much knowledge.