Thursday -- FAME Hospital visit

 

Heyyyyy!

We’re back! It’s Miller (Milla) and Big EL (Elsa) here writing the blog for today! As always, today was amazing. We kicked off the day with our typical walk to school, where we all hope a magical bus will appear along the way to pick us up. Lucky for Big EL and Alexa, we got a sweet ride. After eating breakfast consisting of many delicious “half cakes” (sweet bread-like treats), we quickly left to go to our first NGO, the FAME (Foundation for American Medicine and Education) hospital. We were greeted by Saidi, one of the hospital’s management workers. We then got an INCREDIBLE story from Frank, a doctor and the person who started the hospital. Frank originally was from the United States, but when visiting Mount Kilimanjaro with his wife, had a near-death experience that inspired him to start a hospital in Tanzania. He dropped all of his things from home and moved all the way to Tanzania to start a hospital in Karatu. We were able to ask many questions, which led him to tell us that he would never come back to the USA and that he found his work helping people who need help far more fulfilling that the materialistic life he had in the US. He gave us tips about leading and getting the best out of other people, and putting together a team – all lessons he learned by trial and error.  Following his Q&A, we got an extensive tour of the hospital from some of the staff, viewing all the ways they can help people from all over Tanzania. The hospital is very impressive and clearly serves a major need here. (check it out: fameafrica.org)

Of course we had to have a massive delicious lunch, just before heading back to school to finish off our day. On the bus ride home starting with our typical blast of the song Summer by Calvin Harris, Buffie snuck a song into the playlist without any of us knowing! (An incredible accomplishment in our opinion) Anyways, we are now about to head home to our homestays to eat and go to sleep. 

We love you all sooooooooo much and miss you lots and lots! We hope you are all doing well  

Sincerely,

Big EL and Miller


 
getting a tour of FAME


meeting with the ER staff -- they deal with everything from car accidents to animal attacks


big group picture outside the hospital's restaurant


 

back at campus, we did some activities before our ANCHOR and heading home



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