Cate Andrews – volunteer Chiropractic

Jambo from Zanzibar and the pinch yourself beautiful beaches of Jambiani. In overview of my time here I have befriended a running and riding trainer, become a swimming coach, helped read dinosaur English coloring books to the gardener, made pottery with the local women’s group, been welcomed into every hotel, restaurant, bar and fishing boat over the 7km stretch of Jambiani beach and of course treated many of the local inhabitants with chiropractic care.

Many of our first time patients don’t generally understand what chiropractic is, they just know we are doctors, so I have seen individuals with quite a wide and diverse variety of presenting complaints, including neurological disorders, bone infections, sprained ankles (they love their soccer) surface wounds, sting ray bites… you name it. People also travel from locations other than Zanzibar for treatment. The furthest to date for me is Kilimanjaro which is on the mainland. A lady there was experiencing acute pain in her back and she happened to meet a man who knew about us, so she traveled for two days to get here. She was told once she made it to Zanzibar to get on a dala dala, which is the local bus to Jambiani, and to ask for Ali Baba and “they will know where to take you” he said. She was subsequently escorted to our door step. It is not uncommon for the local dala dala to provide transportation services to the clinic, as patients come from all over Zanzibar for care.

We had another patient who is from Israel and is working in Nungwi which is on the north coast of Zanzibar. He was elated to save himself a plane trip to Israel in exchange for the three hour drive to Jambiani. He was quite desperate as he had had Chiropractic care previously and would have taken the flight home for even just one treatment. He decided to take a holiday in Jambiani just to be able to get some consistent care before heading back to work.

My time here has been fantastic. I have the greatest of facilities available to me, better than home honestly, certainly not what I was expecting in Africa. The beach is right at my door step, the people of Jambiani are fantastic and Mama Pat and Ali Baba are great hosts and make you feel welcome immediately. I would recommend to anyone to consider partaking in this experience.

Dr. Cate Andrews, DC