Differences

22 February 2010

Haven’t written in a while because we haven’t had much new and exciting happening. We have gone to a few more schools and are still getting ready for Women’s Day in a couple of weeks, but work has pretty much been the same old, same old.

So instead! I am going to write about a few more of the things that I find quirky and interesting about living here. :) One of the things I have found very different from home is some of the commercials on television, particularly ones that are advertising skin lightening systems. That’s right. Lightening, not tanning! Funny how people at home usually want to look dark and tan, while products here offer skin lightening for “up to 5 shades lighter!” Most of the television stations here come from South Africa or India, though, and most of these commercials I think are aimed at the Indian populations that live in East Africa.

Another mystery to me here is the “Duka la Dawas”, which literally means “shop of medicines” or “pharmacy”. Here the Dukas are labeled either “baridi” (which literally means cold, but indicates that they sell Western medicines) or “asili” which means they have more traditional, local remedies for illnesses. These dukas are found on almost every street corner, even out in smallest of towns and remotest of areas. When you enter a “Duka la Dawa: Baridi” you will usually see shelves filled with versions of the medicines that we would find in our own medicine aisles, but sometimes they also have medicines that would require a prescription in the US, such as Cipro. As you know, it takes many years of schooling to be able to be a pharmacist in the US, so I have to wonder when I go into a duka here, if the shop owners have any sort of relevant training to qualify them for handing out these sometimes powerful medicines. Although, in the time that we spent at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital we saw the doctor’s writing out prescriptions, so I also wonder what drugs DO require a doctor’s Rx and why? Is it just really specific meds, such as anti-retro virals? This is definitely on my list of things to find out more about.

(The picture here is of a waterfall that we hiked to last weekend. It is up in the foothills of Mt. Meru, just past a little village where some of the Basecamp employees are from. It was beautiful. If you look closely, just at the top of the rocks, you can see Zach standing up there. He was brave enough to take a dip in the freezing water, but since I tend to be a little hydrophobic, I just took pictures!)

Written by Whitney