Good day, bad mood.

I had a great day meeting with the students at Selian hospital. I promised some more pictures of Tanzania so I took some on my way to Selian:

Some dala dalas under repair, these mini buses keep transportation costs low to the public and can get you almost anywhere. You just need to be careful to get on the right one. On more than one occasion I've had to push back when the dala dala conductors try to get me into a dala dala I don't need.

"Welcome to the city of Arusha"

When I got to Ngaratoni, the dala dala stop near Selian hospital, I had to take a cab to the actual hospital itself. This town is a very good example of a typical Tanzanian village. Very poor and very dusty.

For the program, the students are required to complete a secondary project to contribute something to the hospital that is not necessarily related to hospital equipment. For their secondary project, the students at Selian are building a new neonatal unit! They took an old storage closet, emptied it out, painted it, added curtains, and made it comfortable. The infant warmers the students had fixed in the first couple weeks will go into the unit. I was very impressed at the work they've done so far.

This is the "office" of the Selian girls. Yes, they work in a container but that's actually not too uncommon around here.

Now the reason WHY I'm in a bad mood:

Even though I had a great day, I'm very disappointed in some of my students because I learned they have been sleeping in until 10 AM and leaving work early. The students are responsible to be at work during their hospital's working hours (8AM-4PM). And yesterday I ran into one of the students in town just "hanging out"at 2:30PM when he should have been at the hospital.

I plan on paying a "surprise" visit to their house at 9AM tomorrow morning. If I find the students sleeping in, I will have to take action. This behavior is unacceptable and hurts our relationship with the hospital.

I hope for their sake, I will not find them sleeping in tomorrow.