News – October 2011

t’s just before 5pm here in Jambiani, Pat is in the kitchen with the year two students doing some pre briefing and food preparation for our increasingly popular formerly Sunday night now Friday night dinners. Sine is at her computer taking care of some last minute work, Ishwar is in Dar es Salaam for one week of country training sessions with VSO and I just finished teaching my first aid class to the year one class. The busy busy theme continues. Also our last volunteer practitioner, Dr Else Christensen has safely returned to Denmark after spending the last month with us and we were just delighted to have her with us. Else did some fabulous work in the clinic and we all really enjoyed her company and proactive contributions to the project outside of clinic hours. Thank you so much Else and welcome again when the spirit moves you. Here are a few words from the Doctor herself. 🙂

After spending the last month as a volunteer chiropractor at the Wellness Centre in Jambiani, Zanzibar, it is hard for me to find words to express what a thrilling experience this has been – so many impressions and so many good memories.

Working as a chiropractor for 33 years in my native country Denmark, I did not know what kind of challenges would be waiting for me in a far away location in East Africa by the Indian Ocean. However I found the people of Zanzibar to be very kind and welcoming and it has been a pleasure working with them in the clinic. They come from all over the island and sometimes even from the mainland of Tanzania – some spending hours on the local bus to come for free treatment at the Centre. Some of the cases presented in the clinic were atypical to see in a chiropractic office in my country, for example spastic paralysis and deformities due to malnutrition, but the majority presented with neck, shoulder, low back and leg pain due to strenuous physical work such as planting and harvesting sea-weed and working as fishermen. They are all very grateful for what you can do for them, and although many of the locals have little knowledge of body function they do their best to follow the advice that you give them concerning for example exercises and nutrition.

This last month has been a great experience to me professionally as well as personally and I hope I have been able to give back a little of all that I have received during my stay. I want to thank Pat and Alastair for giving me this opportunity to be part of their volunteer team in Jambiani. You are both doing an amazing job to help the local people – in the clinic as well as at the JTTI.

Lots of love to everybody I have met during my stay.
Else Christensen

Thanks again Else!!!! Karibu tena!!

It is possible that some of you may have missed our last update as our man Kent was not able to send out notifications as he usually does. There are a couple of links in there to blogs that both Ishwar and Sine maintain so I’ll refer you there to see what those two wonder-full people have been up to.

Also, here’s a link to a video that was uploaded by CIDA (The Canadian International Development Agency) that highlights some of the work being done at the JTTI. I think Mama pat shines in this and her dedication to the project is pretty apparent. Please check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALrsLDRuWm8

Here is another link to a video of two of our first year students playing guitar with Greg who you may remember was here during July/August when Pat and I were on leave. As you will see we also try to have fun here as well. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/TogetherMovement

Life continues to keep us busy and we are inching closer to beginning the new construction project just as soon as we receive the final tender for the work and all approvals are in place. Life as we know it is soon about to change!!

We are just moving through our short rains now so everything is once again green and full of vitality. Our neighbourhood goats and chickens are particularly happy as they sneak into our compound and consume everything in sight including the tops off a bunch of new shrubs that I recently planted. We take turns chasing them out and at times it can be pretty hilarious. Just the other day, Pat was in pursuit of a pregnant Mama who despite her efforts to escape, managed to take some time to urinate in front of Pat before exiting through our back gate, a subtle expression of her disgust at being forced from her happy munching grounds. 🙂

For those of you who are not aware, the JTTI also has a presence on Facebook so if you are interested in the daily happenings in the school please feel free to visit our site for regular updates, pictures and maybe even videos soon.

As I mentioned before, we are still planning to upgrade our website and as yet we are not sure exactly when that will be but we will let you know when that has been completed.
So not too much new to report this time, but we do hope all of you who are taking the time to read this are well, happy and that life is just keeping you on the edge of your seat as the miracles continue to unfold.

All good, much love,

A and P and the HABS Team in the “Jam” 🙂