1/17/2015 - Astrid

Everywhere I turn, I see beauty.  I wake up every morning thinking about what the day will bring. The minute I step out of my dorm, this is what I see:

*can't seem to upload a picture here. Imagine a beautiful scene... a beautiful valley with great seemingly blue mountains in the background. Simply breathtaking*  Oh! Here it is!

I have been learning so much these past few days. On January 13th, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Emmanuel, Ilula Hospital's laboratory technician. He graciously offered to show us the hospital lab and took the time to teach us about the Malaria parasite, P. Falciparum, its life cycle, and the diagnostic tools available to him. It was fascinating! I looked into the microscope and there it was right before my eyes: A seemingly harmless and microscopic organism. This parasite kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. As fascinating as it was to learn about this parasite and its interesting history and evolution, I often stopped to think about the suffering that it causes to millions of people each year. The book, The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years, has answered many of my questions but raised many more. I often wonder if we will ever come up with a vaccine.  In the meantime, we will continue to look at blood smears under the microscope to determine if someone is infected so that they may receive proper treatment.  Emmanuel also discussed the use of a malaria rapid test in the initial diagnostic process. 

In the following two days, we spent some time in the lab with Phil.  We learned about some hematologic disorders and had the opportunity to use the microscope again to observe different cytology samples that included cancers such as CML, CLL, and AML. We also observed samples showing schistocytes, sickle cells, and "cookie bite" red blood cells resulting from G6PD deficiency.  Randy showed us sample smears of Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis.  This experience could only be described as AMAZING.  I did not expect to learn from hematologists/oncologists.

In the past week, I have been lucky to get to know the local people and my colleagues better. I do need to take a Swahili class. I would love to hold conversations and learn more about the culture, the stories… everything. The pharmacy students and I have been discussing residency opportunities, interviews, HIV medications, infectious diseases, antibiotic therapy, among other topics. It changes all the time. I am learning so much from them. Seems like I was in school just yesterday (I did just graduate), and yet there is already so much more to learn about - new guidelines, new drugs, new everything. Keeps me on my toes. It has been very interesting to compare the different guidelines from Tanzania , WHO, and the US.

I have also spent time exploring the town of Ilula and Iringa with others. Today is actually our second time visiting Iringa. Such a wonderful place!  I have much more to tell you all about. But, it is time to go. Until next time. 

Siku Njema! (Have a nice day!)