We leave for Tanzania tomorrow! I’m both excited and nervous for the next two months. Grant and I will be the first cohort of Rice interns to go to Dar Es Salaam, so a big part of what we’re doing is establishing relationships to help future Rice 360 interns. We will also be receiving feedback on two technologies developed at Rice: the MaThermal, a maternal temperature monitor; and reusable ostomy bags for low-resource settings. Finally, we will implement a device troubleshooting workshop similar to one taught at Rice.

I’m so excited to be immersed in a new culture, and I’ve learned a little bit of Swahili in preparation. However, I’m also really nervous. Even though we’ve been getting ready for the internship for so long, I still feel a bit unprepared for the next two months. There’s so much to do, yet so much uncertainty in how we do it! But no matter what happens, I’m sure that it will be a valuable learning experience for me and really help Rice 360 in the future.

The title for this post is a play on words, a combination of “owl”, Rice’s mascot, and “allons-y, “let’s go” in French. Though I won’t be speaking any French this summer, I am definitely ready for all the new experiences I’ll have! Please feel free to follow this blog to see what I’ll be up to. So, let’s go – owl-lons-y!