As always, our week was quite eventful! Since we had finished all the troubleshooting modules, I was honestly feeling a bit frustrated going into the week. I’m the type of person who likes to plan things out and get things done, especially when responsible for a group of people, so not having any specific next steps was a bit stressful. However, Dr. Leautaud joined us at DIT from Monday through Wednesday, and helped us establish some more goals for the coming weeks. I also learned that I should be more patient, take things slower, and try not to stress about things that I can’t control. For example, we finally got a permission letter sent to go to Muhimbili, and ~yay!~ got internet working in our room.
Dr. Leautaud also brought the great news that Rice 360 has received a grant from the Lemelson Foundation, similar to the one received for Malawi (1,2), to further the Rice-DIT relationship and help establish a biomedical engineering design studio and practical workshop. Our DIT cohort was really interested to learn about the resources we have at the OEDK, and together we created a set of student and instructor surveys to help gather ideas for the new spaces.
We also came up with a few more projects to tackle: creating practical electronics modules and installable centrifuge safety switches. For these two projects, we walked the DIT students through the design process: defining design criteria, brainstorming solutions, and selecting the best one. The DIT curriculum only has 1 design project that is assigned during the final year of study, and it consists of pitching a solution to a problem, building it, and giving a functional demonstration. It seemed that they are not taught the processes of needs-finding, definition of design criteria, brainstorming, and validation of design criteria, so these exercises were a bit challenging. However, with lots of patience, we pooled together some good ideas and a shopping list for electronic components to buy in Kariakoo.
Kariakoo is a HUGE market that sells everything. Literally everything. The DIT students accompanying us on the trip took us straight to the electronic components shop, but we easily could have spent hours looking for the right place if they hadn’t guided us there. Seriously, Kariakoo was like a physical Amazon.com, without the search bar. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of the streets because Gilden was paranoid I’d get my phone stolen, and kept it in his pocket for safekeeping.
On Saturday, Grant and I had a chance to visit Aga Khan, meet the head of the BME department, and tour some of their facilities! We will get a chance to take the group there in the next few weeks as well. Their current ICU is tiny, only 4 or 5 beds, but they are constructing a new building with an entire floor for the new ICU, complete with brand new equipment.
And finally, on Sunday we ended the week with a visit to Coco Beach! Though I only have Galveston Beach to compare it to, I thought it was absolutely beautiful. We even found a spot to do a little cliff diving! All in all, a very relaxing trip that provided some time for me to destress and think about what we’ve accomplished so far. “Pole-pole” (slowly, take it easy): adjusting to a slower pace of life has been different but definitely enjoyable.
