This just in...

I GOT INTO HOPKINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out that I am off the wait list at Hopkins and that a letter offering me admission is on it's way!!

As many of you know, I was a bit disappointed getting wait listed there, so being accepted, regardless of where I end up going, feels like a huge amount of validation. No word on funding yet...I'll keep you posted!

New Photos!

I added some more photos to Picasa. Click on the Photo Stream (to the right) to check them out!

Why I believe in healthcare reform - A response

A friend of mine sent me an email in response to my post on healthcare reform, and I wanted to share some of her thoughts here:

Watching HCR pass is one of those moments that I will be able to say I know where I was and what I was doing when the House made that final vote and tears came to my eyes as I watched Stupak stand up and make the argument for HCR that I had been waiting for for months now; that if Republicans want to block this bill on an pro-life platform, then that defies logic, because this whole bill is pro-life in the sense that it is saving lives.

As I watched President Obama sign the bill into law on Tuesday, I again teared as I thought about the people I know that are now going to be able to afford health care. While I can't say I think this law will fix everything, it puts us on the path to remembering that change can happen and that we can stand up and say that Americans believe health care is a right.

I can't say this whole debate hasn't frustrated the hell out of me. It has. The fear mongering that is occurring in our country right now and the anger that it has incited scares me for where this country is headed in an ultra-partisan climate. HCR became not about the basic right of health, but about two sides of the aisle.

--M.S.

Why I believe in healthcare reform

On Monday morning I was standing bleary eyed in the Paris Charles de Gualle airport waiting for a flight to Amsterdam (and then onto Dar es Salaam) when I heard my cell phone beep indicating I had a text message.

I opened the message and read something that, in a country with often strong anti-American sentiment, made me proud to be an American.

From Ameet: “Snap, healthcare bill passed!”

Living in Tanzania, it can be difficult to keep up with the international news, but the healthcare debate has been one thing I have tried to keep tabs on. Last fall Ameet used some of his precious time with a wifi connection to download Obama’s speech on healthcare (and then Andrew, Ameet and I all listened to it together); when I meet other Americans visiting TZ I routinely ask them about the status of the healthcare bill and I try to keep up with the news coverage on it.

So to hear that Congress had (FINALLY) passed a healthcare bill overwhelmed me, then and now, with a flood of emotions…excitement, pride and relief. Maybe it was the lack of sleep (been up since 5:30am) or being out of the country that made me feel nostalgic, but what I think really made this bill passing feel so personal was that my country, our country, had just taken the first critical step towards the realization that in the wealthiest country in the world, people should not die or suffer massive financial repercussions because they get sick.

Obviously access to healthcare is something I feel strongly about. And I admit that it tends to be the one political issue that I simply cannot fathom, much less understand, the opposing sides position on (socialized medicine?! What?! Have you BEEN to a socialist country?).

However, biases notwithstanding, healthcare reform matters to me for numerous reasons, but one of them is that although I’m from the richest country in the world, I live in one of the poorest. In Tanzania if someone gets sick with diarrhea they can die because there isn’t an IV to give them fluids; health centers don’t have rubber gloves, much less ambulances, operating rooms, or a surgeon (or actual doctor) within miles, and we don’t even know for sure how many women die in childbirth here (but we know it’s a lot).

But healthcare here is free.

While the healthcare system in Tanzania might not be the strongest, the fact that it is available to every person, I think says something about the value the country places on of trying to ensure good health: we may not have a lot, but we think it’s important for people to be healthy.

Up until last Tuesday, that wasn’t a promise the US necessarily made to its citizens. Even though we have more resources and access to care than any other place on earth, in the US if you could pay then you got coverage; if you couldn’t then you didn’t.

The commodification of peoples’ health, to the extent that we will allow someone to die or suffer massively to protect a company’s bottom line strikes me as unconscionable. There are enough people in this world that die for lack of healthcare services; people should not be allowed to die for lack of insurance coverage.

Healthcare reform in the US is a fight that’s been waged for literally decades, and while the bill signed into law on Tuesday is far from perfect, it’s a step. This is the first major social legislation passed in the United States since Medicare and it moves us in the direction of ensuring basic healthcare as a human right to all Americans.

Reading the news the last couple of days following when the bill was signed into law it’s incredibly disappointing to see that something like improving healthcare has incited such violence, and to my mind, lunacy. From my current vantage point in Africa, it seems that if a country like Tanzania can at least attempt to provide basic healthcare for its people, then we certainly ought to be able to do it in America. Peacefully and with some dignity.

Je suis en France

This week I've been in Annecy, France to attend the Connecting Health Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CHORDS) Conference. CHORDS is a group of regional disease surveillance networks that works together to improve regional and global infectious disease surveillance, and SACIDS (where I work), is apart of that group.

Upon my first visit back to the Western world in almost 8 months, a couple of things that have struck me:
1. White people driving. For some reason I get a little surprised every time I see a car go by me and there are only white people in there. Random.
2. WINE. There is wine in TZ, but it generally comes out of a box. I had a glass of wine the first night I arrived (the French are unfailingly civilized and serve wine even during lunch...at a BUSINESS MEETING!) and I have to say I was shocked at the taste. SHOCKED. I picked up the bottle b/c it tasted so good I was sure it was something special....instead of French table wine. :)
3. Couples holding hands. I was walking today and noticed several couples holding hands. Is that a French thing? I can't remember if you see that in the US (outside of teenagers). In TZ you NEVER see couples showing affection in public.
4. Wifi. I can't even explain how awesome wifi is. You go to the NY Times homepage and it loads IMMEDIATELY. You can watch videos. You can download stuff. I just uploaded these pictures in like 10 SECONDS! (this generally takes about 10 minutes at home). It loads so fast I'm not even ready for it!

Here are a few pictures from around Annecy. Tomorrow I will take a train to Paris and meet up with my great friend from grad school, Brooke, for a quick visit for the rest of the weekend before heading back to real-life in TZ. Sigh...

The Great Zanzibar Blackout

Zanzibar, the archipelago of islands off the eastern coast of Tanzania, lost power on December 10, 2009 due to a problem with the main power source that it gets from the mainland (and which runs under ground under the ocean). After briefly coming back on shortly before Christmas, they managed to essentially fry the whole system and thus, 3 months of no electricity and no running water (electricity is needed to pump the water) ensued.

Ameet and Jafari are the two GHC Fellows who live in Zanzibar, and in addition to enjoying none of the amenities of electricity or running water for the last three months (just try sleeping with no fan during the HOTTEST months of the year) they hosted about 12 of us at their house over the holidays and Delite and I last week when we visited. Through it all they retained enough good humor and generosity to show us a great time...and even to fill up water buckets for us:)

Shout out Ameet and Jafari and everyone else in Zanzibar!! Check out Ameet's reflections on the power coming back on.

DCT Take 3: Zanzibar

Zanzibar is so beautiful it pretty much speaks for itself...

Only to add that after 3 months with no power or running water on the island (hotels did have generators) the great Zanzi Blackout came to and end on Monday (the day AFTER we left).

DCT Take 2: Waterfalls and Rainforests

On Saturday of the the week Delite was in Mogo, we headed up into the Uluguru Mountains that are the backdrop to Morogoro for a hike up to a waterfall and then a rain forest.

It was a beautiful (but steep) hike up to the first water fall, where we rested a bit and relaxed before heading up to yet another waterfall and the rain forest that is near the top of the mountain.

One of our friends works with a guy who lives up in the mountains near the first waterfall and he showed us the way. Despite feeling like I might lose my breakfast from the heat and incline, this guy makes the entire trip twice a day - every day!

Delite Comes to TZ - take 1

For the last two weeks, my awesome friend Delite was in town visiting! We had an amazing time spending a week in Mogo, hiking around, cooking up a Mexican feast, and in general taking Delite on a tour of the various bars in Mogo.

Delite had offered to bring over anything me, or the rest of the TZ fellows, might want from the US, and so having desperately missed Mexican food for the last 7 months (how is it that the awesome-ness of the burrito has not been exported to the entire world??!), Delite hauled over a huge bag of black beans. And she knows how to make tortillas. Mexican extravaganza: GAME ON!

Here are a few pictures from the night, including a shot of the cookies my dear Aunt Wendy sent me from the US!!