So my first official business in Tanzania was to meet Esron, a lecturer at the veterinary faculty at the Sokoine University of Agriculture who is kindly coordinating my trip to the university. We drove the few minutes to Sokoine, which is in the most beautiful setting, surrounded by green mountains on three sides. There is only one campus, and it is much smaller than the veterinary faculty in Nairobi, with only about 30 students in each year- imagine that! We went straight away to meet the dean. I was incredibly tired, and since I had not had chance to familiarize myself with the faculty, and the dean was short on time, we decided to postpone his interview until later in the week. In the short time we had to chat, he seemed surprisingly wary of me, and was noticeably cautious about what he said. I (hopefully) reassured him that we certainly wouldn't do anything to damage the faculty's reputation, and that we in fact want to strengthen links between their faculty and the RVC.
After meeting the dean, we set about a tour of the various heads of departments, none of whom were available, so we had a quick look round some of the facilities. I was surprised how small everything was, although with such a few number of students, I shouldn't have been! We briefly visited the veterinary teaching hospital, and I was astonished at being taken in to interrupt a consult with a client and his (very sick looking) chicken to be introduced to the clinician. Not sure how that would go down in the QMH!
We then went back to Esron's office, where Esron and I had an almost farcical conversation where I tried to ascertain the nature of the final year clinical rotations. I could see Paul trying not to laugh out of the corner of my eye as we all talked seemingly at cross purposes for a very long time! I still don't quite understand what they do in their final year!
Later that day Esron had arranged for me to meet with three second year students, who have recently returned from an exchange visit to Edinburgh University. It was fascinating to hear their opinions and observations of the differences between the two faculties. They admitted that most of the students who are studying veterinary in Africa actually wanted to be human doctors, but were not admitted to medical school and were surprised by the difference and the competition for places at the UK vet schools. They all agreed that it was a very positive, career changing experience for them, and gave many words of recommendation for future student exchanges.
We spent the afternoon at the SACIDS (Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance) office, learning about their work, and having access, finally, to a fast internet connection! I met all the staff, including Angie, an American research fellow. She has been living here for 4 months now, and was very excited to see a fellow white face! We arranged to go for dinner, and then, after an unsuccessful attempt to try and find some students, went back to our hotel for a very welcome rest!
Angie took us to a pizza and pasta place called BlackWhite on the outskirts of the town for dinner. They had a good menu, but unfortunately most of the pasta was off, and after being offered pasta and pesto without the pesto, and cannelloni made with spaghetti (?!) I settled for a spaghetti carbonara. This may sound like a very mundane story to you, but eating pasta was pretty much the highlight of my day after 3 weeks of only rice, chappatis and beans! We had a fun night, all finding much amusement in Paul's pronunciation of fuel - 'foil'. We ended the evening asking for some fuel to wrap the leftover pizza in, and then going to get some foil for the truck. I think it may become a running joke!
Yesterday we had a pretty packed day of interviews planned, and arrived at Sokoine at 8 am to try and arrange a meeting with the dean. He was rather elusive all day, and eventually we were advised to speak to the deputy dean instead, which we did. My first interview of the morning however was with the very friendly head of the surgery and theriogenology department. We had a really nice chat and he was extremely accommodating of us. We then went to meet a professor of public health, where we were again warmly welcomed, and I once again raised the issue of biosecurity (or lack of it) and we discussed various issues of public health, particularly with regards to the pastoral communities, where there is no real awareness of such issues at all. The most fascinating interview of the day though, had to be with a professor of animal welfare and ethics. The stories he had to tell were just horrifying; including non qualified 'quacks' tying dogs to trees in order to castrate them with no anaesthesia; people stoning cats to death for their association with witchcraft, and the difficult line to walk as a vet to the tribal communities when cultural practices can so dramatically conflict with animal welfare. They have only recently started teaching animal welfare here, so apparently, even amongst practicing vets, there is a limited appreciation of welfare issues.
Later, we again tried to visit some of the students' clinics, but it is proving to be rather difficult to find out when and where the students may be at any particular time! We have hopes to join some practical classes towards the end of the week though. In the meantime, we took it upon ourselves to have a wander round the student facilities - the library, the computer labs and the student common rooms. Having not been able to visit the library in Nairobi, I didn't really know what to expect, and was surprised to discover just how few books they had, and of those, how old they were; I couldn't find a book less than ten years old. It only highlights further the real need for better online accessibility and resources that the students talked about yesterday.
I managed to catch a few minutes with the senior library officer while I was there, and had a very informative chat with him about the resources available to the students. On paper, the students have access to a huge number of online journals and CD ROMS, with over 60 computers with internet connections - however the reality is somewhat different. Only a small proportion of the computers actually work, and the internet connection is so slow and unreliable that most students don't even bother trying. It made me think about how we all used to moan about the facilities in London - with hundreds of brand new computers, all with internet at lightening speed - we really don't realize how good we've got it.
Esron had arranged for us to go for dinner and drinks, for a 'social evening' with a female professor of surgery from Sokoine. We had not met her at all during out time at the faculty, so we were all a little apprehensive. We met at a place just out of town called the Makuti hotel - though I don't think it's a hotel, and luckily my mzungu face made it easy for her to spot us. There was a storm brewing, and it was really windy, but still warm, so we sat outside near the bar and the band. It was a great, very African place - there was a live rumba band playing and a relaxed atmosphere. Esron came to join us later on, and we settled in for numerous 'Kilimanjaro' beers and 'choma'. Choma is barbecued meat, and is very popular here. We had a choice of beef or goat - which was an easy decision, and at first we were just brought out a plate of meat and barbecued bananas...the driest bananas I have ever eaten! I tried to enjoy the strange combination for about ten minutes, but then the waiter reappeared; I have never been so relieved to see ugali! And who knew food could be so much fun...everyone watched eagerly as Paul showed me how to take the exact right sized lump, squeeze it into a sticky ball, and then make an imprint in it to scoop up the peas in sauce that were served with it. When I finally got it right (it seems there is a bit of skill involved!) everyone applauded! I explained that if I were to pick up my food and play with it for a few minutes before eating it back home, I would be given some very dirty looks! For the rest of the meal, every handful of ugali was examined carefully to check I'd got the hang of it.
The rumba band played throughout the night, singing lyrics like 'angel I love you, I want you to marry me but I have no dowry' and 'jambo ha bari mzuri sana karibu serengeti hakuna matata'... basically all the Swahili words I know jammed tenuously into a song! The mention of hakuna matata...'it means no worries...!' initiated a conversation about the Disney song - they had never heard of the Lion King, and all were delighted to listen to it on my ipod!
Esron had earlier asked me about British pub culture, which is actually quite difficult to describe! But I mentioned the pub quiz, and later, while I had my ipod out, showing them some of the veterinary applications on it, we played our own geeky 'vet pub quiz' with one of the apps. We all had a lot of fun, and stayed out a lot later than we had intended - but have a later start in the morning, so can have a bit of a lie in (Paul finds this phrase hilarious, and calls it 'having a lion'!)
This morning we have had another unsuccessful round of 'hunt the dean' who is in perpetual meetings, but have finally succeeded in arranging a meeting with some of the final year students for later on. I was interested to find out that there is a development studies department here, and we were lucky enough to find the head of department was available for a chat, which proved to be fascinating.
Tomorrow is the last day of the nice fast internet connection, and I hope to spend the weekend in Zanzibar before going out to the field next week, so who knows when I will blog again. But when I do, I'm sure I'll have lots more to tell you - not a dull day goes by!
No comments:
Post a Comment