“It tastes like something, but I can’t put my finger on it..”
“What do you mean? What do you put your finger on?”
Today I tried ugali for the first time, and in the process remembered how important it is to foster good communication.

Here in Tanzania, the national language is Swahili with English also being used in many governmental and educational settings. On becoming independent in 1957, the first president, known often as Mwalimu (“teacher”) Julius Nyerere, established Swahili as the national language, with students being taught in Swahili through primary school and then in English for secondary school. This was an effort to unite speakers of the over 100 regional or tribal languages present in Tanzania. Today, most natives speak both a tribal language and Swahili.

The adoption of an official language, among other factors, has led Tanzania to develop a strong national unity. However, this can make it harder for outsiders to communicate. In countries like Malawi, where no one language is ubiquitous, many people are familiar with English. In Tanzania, however, it is unusual for us to meet someone outside of the university or hotel with conversational English skills. Even at the university, most non-technical conversations default to Swahili. For those in the outside environment that do speak English, they likely do not speak enough to engage in more technical conversations; this becomes significant when identifying needs and interviewing technology stakeholders.

Throughout my life, I have had the luxury of never having difficulty communicating. In my daily life in the United States, it has been a continuous assumption that anyone I communicate with will be able to speak English; additionally, they will often understand the idiomatic language that is used. At Rice, I have been working on projects with those of a similar or complementary technical background – this has led me to communicate with certain assumptions about the knowledge and perceptions of the other person. With this mindset, it is easy to become frustrated if a team member does not understand a discussion.

The language environment here means that it can be difficult to communicate about medical or engineering concepts. While the engineering students are well beyond what I would consider fluent, many phrases or technical words do not translate well or are not used frequently enough to be recognized. Other things are just described differently here – some (like lift) are familiar, but others (like using soldering gun for what I would call a soldering iron and soldering iron for what I would call solder) result in miscommunications that require us to stop and clarify terms. Additionally, the design team comes from multiple disciplines within engineering and Aarohi and I are the only bioengineers. Thus, technical terms are often not shared and must be clarified.

Over the week of work that we have done so far, I have been forced to reevaluate the way in which I communicate. Sometimes I am not clear in my definitions, and other times I do not understand concepts with enough depth to describe them without using specific key words. Over my time here, I must work on my ability to clearly communicate technical concepts to a variety of different audiences. I will work to better identify whether everyone in the conversation is speaking in the same terms and understanding each other fully. Because of this, I believe that I will return to Rice a better engineer and communicator of technical concepts.

 

 

 

It has been a week since we landed in Dar es Salaam, and Matthew and I are rested, settled and ready to begin our internship! After long and hectic journeys, we arrived in Dar last Monday afternoon. We checked in at our home for the next two months, the Sophia House Hotel and Apartment. Our spacious fifth-floor room, located on the terrace of the hotel, has two bedrooms, a shared bathroom, common space, and a kitchen. The staff at the hotel have been incredibly kind and helpful and made us feel welcome. From helping us get our stove fixed so that we could cook homemade meals, to helping us carry our (very heavy) luggage up five flights of stairs, they have made every effort to make us very comfortable.

On the day after we arrived, we met Dr. John Msumba, our boss for the next two months. We also met Joel and Anicia, two of the four interns from Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, who will be working with us during this internship! Joel, Anicia and Dr. Msumba helped us carry all the design space supplies (5 suitcases, approximately 250 lb!) all the way from our room to DIT. After a short meeting with Dr. Msumba in his office, we got a tour of the room designated to become the design space. Airy and naturally lit, the seventh-floor room has large windows along one wall and is furnished with tall wooden tables and stools. It is a lovely place to work, and if we let the windows open, a cool breeze fills the room. As I mentioned before, one of our tasks for this internship is to convert this room into a design studio for DIT, one analogous to the OEDK at Rice. Not only will this studio be used by us during the internship, it will also serve as an interdisciplinary, creative, engineering design space for the students of DIT. As soon as we saw the room, I could envision the fully functional design studio. Matthew and I planned to spend the first week of our internship setting up the studio: rearranging the furniture, unpacking the supplies we carried from Rice, and conceptualizing what the space should look like.

The beautiful view from the window of the DIT design studio

We soon learnt that Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were holidays because of Eid-al-Fitr, and our internship would only officially begin on 10^th June. We would have five free days to get acclimatized and get over jetlag. Although this prospect seemed exciting at the time, by Friday I was bored and missing work. Luckily, Dr. Msumba invited us to meet him on Saturday, and we began work on the studio. We rearranged all the desks, came up with a schematic for the use of the space, and began setting up one 3D printer. On Sunday, we met with Julia, the new manager of the DIT design space, and spoke to her about our tasks and plans for the internship.

The redesigned design space with the building of a 3D printer in progress

With enough time to rest and get systems in order, I now feel primed to make the most out of this internship. We have a routine set- we walk to DIT in the morning, eat traditional Tanzanian fare for lunch in the DIT canteen with the interns, and buy groceries for dinner on the way home. I already feel so inspired by the people we have met so far. Anicia is one of five girls in her seventy-person mechanical engineering major, Joel has been untiringly teaching us Swahili, and Dr. Msumba’s incredible vision and passion for the design studio and the future of engineering education at DIT is infectious. I am so excited for what the next two months will bring. We’re learning some Swahili, eating our vegetables, meeting new people and learning new things every day!

Over the past week, my fellow interns and I have been preparing devices and researching supplies to take along for our respective projects. In three weeks, I am headed to Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) in Tanzania. Over this time, we have been assigned four tasks: setting up a design kitchen similar to the OEDK at Rice, conducting interviews about three Rice 360˚ devices, identifying medical needs that might be addressed by engineers at Rice and DIT, and finding and completing an intern-identified project. All of these tasks come with unique challenges.

One of the three Rice 360˚ technologies we are taking is OxyMon, a continuous oxygen monitor intended to identify the state of oxygen concentrators and relay this information clearly to clinicians. I was on the team responsible for developing this device during the semester, so I have mostly been working to prepare this device to be taken abroad over the past week. At the advice of several mentors, we have been designing a version that is intended more as a diagnostic tool for technicians than as a continuous monitor; this includes making changes like displaying flow and temperature alongside concentration and adjusting the device so it is more comfortable as a handheld. I am extremely excited to gain feedback on this device from clinicians in a setting where it could be very useful.

The goal of setting up a design kitchen has also been a major focus for myself and the other Tanzania intern, Aarohi. One of the important goals of the global health program at Rice is to give local engineers the prototyping tools they need to take on design projects. One challenge that we anticipate in setting up a space like this is getting the word out that it is available. In order to encourage people to utilize it fully, Aarohi and I have discussed organizing a design challenge or hackathon to increase knowledge of the tools available. More specifics on the tools available in the design space will be provided in future blogs.

Another challenge that we have in Tanzania is identifying clinical environments for observation and interviews regarding the Rice medical technologies. Because we are only the second class of interns being sent to DIT, the connections are not as available as they are in Malawi. I look forward to this challenge as an opportunity to get out into the area and potentially explore different clinical environments.

While I find myself focusing on the challenges we will face, it is important to remember that where there is a challenge, there is also an opportunity. This summer will be full of opportunities not just for the achievement of our goals, but for my personal growth as an engineer. With that in mind, I look forward with excitement and anticipation.

 

The countdown has begun! We will leave for Dar-es-Salaam in 3 weeks. Until then, the other Rice 360 interns and I are working at the OEDK to prepare. We spend all day prototyping technologies we will be carrying with us, gaining a thorough understanding of these technologies, and planning out our projects for our time in Tanzania. Matthew and I have divided the technologies we have been assigned between ourselves. As Matthew is the inventor of the OxyMon, he is focussing on it, while I am responsible for the Clean Machine and the IV Drip Lock. The Clean Machine is a simple device, made out of two buckets and pool floats. It makes the sterilization of surgical equipment an automatic process and prevents inadvertent rusting. The IV Drip Lock is a mechanical lock for the roller clamps of IV Drips. It prevents non-clinicians from gaining access to the roller clamp and changing the dose of the patients. I spent the last week prototyping these technologies and learning enough about them to be able to troubleshoot on the field and get useful feedback.

Matthew and I have also been tasked with setting up the design studio in DIT, analogous to the OEDK we have here at Rice. This is the project I am most excited about! After spending the last 10 days in the OEDK learning new skills and using its wide variety of resources, I have been able to experience just how essential hands-on engineering design is to my understanding of the theoretical knowledge I gain in class. I am so excited to share this with my Tanzanian peers! We have been thinking about creating a website, some training videos, and posters for their design space.

I am sure these next weeks will go by really soon, and preparation is in full swing. We got vaccinated for yellow fever and typhoid yesterday, and we also got our malaria medicine. Our flights have been booked, and we know where we will be staying. Now, I must begin packing my bags. Along with the equipment and prototypes in my suitcase, I will try to fit in as many books as possible and my mother’s spice jars. As I am a vegetarian, my dining options are quite limited, but I am excited to cook for myself.

I am nervous and eager as I anticipate my time in Tanzania. I cannot wait to meet my Tanzanian colleagues and begin work in DIT. But I am also full of uncertainty. As we are the second intern cohort heading to Dar-es-Salaam, we are responsible for cementing the connections made by the first intern cohort and establishing new ones. Although our predecessors have left us a useful guide with loads of advice, there is still so much that I do not know about the environment we will be working in. However, I plan to be armed with a ton of research such that I can adapt to a variety of circumstances. This is a huge responsibility, and I am raring to go. Tanzania, here we come!