My Tanzania Experience
My title, the lyrics of a popular Tanzanian song I heard many times during my 4 weeks at Arusha, in Mt. Meru Regional Hospital says it all. Tanzania is a completely different world than the United States, Europe, or any other place I've been and working in such an environment stretches you as mentally as a student/future healthcare provider and emotionally as a human being. The interns in surgery took me in, pushed me to learn, and encouraged me to participate in procedures in the ward and the operating theatre. You see things and get to do things that would never happen in the developed world and it changes you. Experiencing that and having the support from my supervising interns made Tanzania something I'll always remember and return to do. It's nice to nice to know ya, let's do it again. For sure.
Patrick Hussey
University of Iowa