What pain they are... I should be getting back my passport any day now.... *fingers crossed*, being the controlling type I called the Tanzanian High Comission yesterday to see if they could give me some indication as to when I would get my passport back, seeing as I'm so nervous about it. (rightly so if I techinically need it to go visit people or just drive into France or Germany...). Anyways the cheery man at the other end of the telephone was happy to put my mind at rest, so after asking for my name I began to hear the flicking of paper/files, then I was asked my name again. I can understand that, I know when I'm looking for thing I suddenly remember I no longer know what thing I was looking for!
Though when additional questions begin to come such as "what colour was the envelope you sent it in", "when was it sent", "was your payment by post or cash", "how much was the payment for" I began to get slightly more concerned as to the location of my passport. I mean how many British Passports can there be kicking around the THC (in Geneva for those of you who are British readers)??? Eventually the lovely chap muttered a very quick "we send today" and hung up. So now I just get to worry as to whether it turns up this morning or not!!!!! Kind of wishing I had the time to take a day off work and just drive the length of the country to get the visa done in one day than messing around with the post! All will be sorted one way or another in the next few days :-)
On other visa notes, been having trouble with one of my volunteers from Canada, it would seem that their high commission disagree with the one in London as to the requirements to issue the necessary visa! Ah well at least by the end of this summer we'll have paperwork in place to get volunteers a visa issued whereever they might find themselves in the world!
On the plus side, none of the rest of the team have been having any problems getting their visas sorted, from here on its the easy stretch (at least in my eyes) of deciding what to take and packing bags. Also includes for me deciding which books I want to buy in London Heathrow for the trip.
After a long silence period (probably due to exams, or just forgetting they were going to africa this summer), my inbox has seen a trickle of emails coming most days of the week from the volunteers of Tanzania Group 2, each with their own questions about the trip, packing, travel arrangements, money, and more!
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
Passport here! Leaving Spain..... 16 days to go.
I sit among my dusty possessions, packing away clothing, sneezing and saying goodbye to one of the best years of my life..... Yes, my passport, complete with visa (hurrah!), has arrived on time and the hour has come say ADIOS to beloved Spain. I would be crying into my Sangria for sure if it wasnt for the fact that Im spending my summer in TANZANIA! I have First Aid Africa to thank, as without the excitement of said placement, leaving the 30 degree heat/new pals/tapas of my year abroad would be 100x worse. NOW it's time to move on from Madrid and start concentrating on refreshing my Kiswahili, revising my first aid and making long and complicated travel lists. ONLY 16 DAYS!!!
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Eeeek!
A months time and I'll be sitting on the roof of Kindoroko in Moshi!! Eeeeeek! Best get on with that project report for work...
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Looks like im coming to Tanzania....
First stage of visa process completed in passport arrival to UK. Extremely boring update etc but just in case any of you are worrying about a lack of Maddie on the trip. Ciao xxxxx
PS Matt, that first aid kit is frighteningly efficient. Congrats!
PS Matt, that first aid kit is frighteningly efficient. Congrats!
Stocking up
Now comes the time before every trip in which I re-inventory all my First Aid equipment. It's also a time to reflect on previous trips and note what is needed more than others and what's that one THING I wish I had had. However whilst order kit, its also a time to splash around a little money and get some cool new toys :-D.
I've also decided for the first time that instead of just taking my first aid kit, a military webtex medical pouch, I'll also use the +15l mini day pack that attaches to my 70l backpack. Over the past 2 years my first aid kit has grown out a bit to include things that aren't normally found in a urban Red Cross first aid kit, and it's now bulging at the seams.
On top of the usually Tough Cuts (scissors for removing clothing), Sharp Scissors (distinguished from tough cuts which are blunt), fine tipped tweezers, various dressings, wound pads, gauze, tapes, gloves, instant ice pack, asprin, plasters, penlight, saline solution. It contains an emergency military dressing with pressure bar, sterile pre-threaded sutures, a kelly clamp, disinfectant, anti-histamines, steristrips. tubigrip (now i know some of you might give me a lot of stick for carrying this, BUT last time when I was treating the daughter of a neighbour who had stepped on a farm implement whilst barefooted, tubigrip was a lifesaver in keeping the dressing on her foot and relatively clean!), a permanent marker (like one of the OHP ones, reason for it being permanent is you can write not only on paper for monitoring info, but also on your gloves, and the casualty!)
By using the 15l bag, I can carry a more comprehensive kit including quikclot sponges, large zetuvit, and loads of different size crepe bandages and dressing. As well as a couple of SAM splints. So now my 'small' webtex pouch is always in my bag, where as the 15l bag will be grabbed if going somewhere where the stuff might be needed. Oh, I'll also have my proper size CPR mask in there and a selection of OP airways.
On order in addition to a general restock of my kit (including a bunch of steristrips, after I cut my thumb open yesterday and a stray piece of metal, I realized just how valuable they are for wounds!), a BVM (because ive wanted one for a while), a couple of differently sized sutures (just because, though they are still all of roughly a similar size and can be used any where I'd dare suture someone), a finger sized SAM splint (not because im expecting broken fingers, but it just sounds like a useful size), some finger gauzetube (because its near impossible to keep dressing on fingers when your fingers are slightly sweaty, so tubigrip for fingers is a good idea...i think).
Now its a well known fact amongst those that I travel with that I carry a pretty comprehensive 'travel pharmacy' with me. School trips saw the teachers coming to me for medication...not quite how the "students should hand over all medicine to teachers at the beginning of the trip" is meant to work but hey...So normally I have the usual collection of painkillers: paracetamol, asprin, ibuprofen. To which this year we'll add some co-codamol for good measure (thats codeine with paracetamol, OTC versions available as well as prescription versions. Travel Sickness tablets (i hardly ever get travel sick these days, but I figure better to have them and not need them than the other way around!), some general Antibiotics! (great addition to have to the kit!), Immodium (well generic there of and lots of it, I usually don't need it, but lots of others appreciate it!), multivitamins (now I'd never thought of this before, but as a suggestion from a friend, I think its a great idea), throat lozenges, flu medication (you know the type you mix with hot water and drink to make you feel human again).
We'll see what else I can come up with over the next few weeks and I'll keep you posted. One things for sure everybody is going to be well looked after :-)
I've also decided for the first time that instead of just taking my first aid kit, a military webtex medical pouch, I'll also use the +15l mini day pack that attaches to my 70l backpack. Over the past 2 years my first aid kit has grown out a bit to include things that aren't normally found in a urban Red Cross first aid kit, and it's now bulging at the seams.
On top of the usually Tough Cuts (scissors for removing clothing), Sharp Scissors (distinguished from tough cuts which are blunt), fine tipped tweezers, various dressings, wound pads, gauze, tapes, gloves, instant ice pack, asprin, plasters, penlight, saline solution. It contains an emergency military dressing with pressure bar, sterile pre-threaded sutures, a kelly clamp, disinfectant, anti-histamines, steristrips. tubigrip (now i know some of you might give me a lot of stick for carrying this, BUT last time when I was treating the daughter of a neighbour who had stepped on a farm implement whilst barefooted, tubigrip was a lifesaver in keeping the dressing on her foot and relatively clean!), a permanent marker (like one of the OHP ones, reason for it being permanent is you can write not only on paper for monitoring info, but also on your gloves, and the casualty!)
By using the 15l bag, I can carry a more comprehensive kit including quikclot sponges, large zetuvit, and loads of different size crepe bandages and dressing. As well as a couple of SAM splints. So now my 'small' webtex pouch is always in my bag, where as the 15l bag will be grabbed if going somewhere where the stuff might be needed. Oh, I'll also have my proper size CPR mask in there and a selection of OP airways.
On order in addition to a general restock of my kit (including a bunch of steristrips, after I cut my thumb open yesterday and a stray piece of metal, I realized just how valuable they are for wounds!), a BVM (because ive wanted one for a while), a couple of differently sized sutures (just because, though they are still all of roughly a similar size and can be used any where I'd dare suture someone), a finger sized SAM splint (not because im expecting broken fingers, but it just sounds like a useful size), some finger gauzetube (because its near impossible to keep dressing on fingers when your fingers are slightly sweaty, so tubigrip for fingers is a good idea...i think).
Now its a well known fact amongst those that I travel with that I carry a pretty comprehensive 'travel pharmacy' with me. School trips saw the teachers coming to me for medication...not quite how the "students should hand over all medicine to teachers at the beginning of the trip" is meant to work but hey...So normally I have the usual collection of painkillers: paracetamol, asprin, ibuprofen. To which this year we'll add some co-codamol for good measure (thats codeine with paracetamol, OTC versions available as well as prescription versions. Travel Sickness tablets (i hardly ever get travel sick these days, but I figure better to have them and not need them than the other way around!), some general Antibiotics! (great addition to have to the kit!), Immodium (well generic there of and lots of it, I usually don't need it, but lots of others appreciate it!), multivitamins (now I'd never thought of this before, but as a suggestion from a friend, I think its a great idea), throat lozenges, flu medication (you know the type you mix with hot water and drink to make you feel human again).
We'll see what else I can come up with over the next few weeks and I'll keep you posted. One things for sure everybody is going to be well looked after :-)
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Maddie is delighted to find blog entry named after her PLUS the joys of popular music in tanz
Back to the blog and see that Matt has done an entry all about me, myself and I. Touched, I am, truly touched. What's new at my end..... Oh yes - Im STRANDED in Spain! Jolly dee, hip hip hurrah. Just posted off my passport for a tanz visa (after sending a torrent of threatening emails to volunteers lagging behind in the application process, I felt like it would be hypocritcal not to get on it myself) and am sitting here on the other side of the channel (plus a few miles) crossing my fingers for a swift return of said document. Though I love Madrid, Im getting the outa-africa blues, plus its about time I started eating less tapas and beer and more plantane. I already gained a stone....... So, let's all hope that the Tanzanian embassy is feeling particularly efficient over the next few days.
And Matt, no more waiting around! You're meant to be the organised one!
I bring you a new and exciting topic: MUSIC! I can promise you now, dear volunteers, that even the most hard core hater of RnB will come back from the trip CONVERTED to usher, nigerian rap, neyo and Boyz2men. Yeh, that is spelt with a Z. Even you heavy metal fans will not escape. After a night or two in the infamous moshi clubs (that's right, there are discos) you're all gona be loving it. The best bit? The lyrics are so profound - it's just like poetry. In the words of Akon:
'I see you in the club. You're gettin' down. I want to get with you.'
I don't know about you, but I'm feeling that.
Got to be off, Chris Brown is calling.
How for now
And Matt, no more waiting around! You're meant to be the organised one!
I bring you a new and exciting topic: MUSIC! I can promise you now, dear volunteers, that even the most hard core hater of RnB will come back from the trip CONVERTED to usher, nigerian rap, neyo and Boyz2men. Yeh, that is spelt with a Z. Even you heavy metal fans will not escape. After a night or two in the infamous moshi clubs (that's right, there are discos) you're all gona be loving it. The best bit? The lyrics are so profound - it's just like poetry. In the words of Akon:
'I see you in the club. You're gettin' down. I want to get with you.'
I don't know about you, but I'm feeling that.
Got to be off, Chris Brown is calling.
How for now
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