We have now finished the first two weeks of our internship at DIT! At this point, we have finished going through all the modules of the troubleshooting course that Grant and I brought from Rice. While we did not have access to a syringe pump or oxygen concentrator, we watched the associated videos and also were able to look at several centrifuges. Additionally, we got to check out some of the other devices that have been stored in our work space: an incubator, water bath, shaker table, and EKG machine. I think that all of these practical sessions have been really beneficial to the students, and our next step will be to figure out how best to implement this in the DIT curriculum and ensure its sustainability once the course passes on to other lecturers.

Centrifuge Day

Apart from the troubleshooting course, we also held a soldering workshop, showed the Rice GLHT projects, and discussed the engineering design process. As for soldering, it seemed that most of the DIT students had little to no soldering experience. Grant and I brought the basic tools- soldering irons, soldering wire, and wire cutters- but were challenged to find materials to practice soldering with. I’ve definitely been spoiled by how plentiful the resources at the OEDK were. Initially, I thought that maybe we could solder together a simple LED circuit on a through-hole PCB. However, not only could we not find a PCB, we couldn’t even find an LED in the electrical engineering workshop. But after some digging, we made do with some lightbulbs and a switch and were able to construct a simple circuit together. I really wish that we had the capability to work on some more sophisticated circuits, but at least we were able to have all of the DIT interns get some hands-on experience with soldering.

Soldering Practice

We combined our discussions on the GLHT projects and the engineering design process. We explained the needs for and designs of both the Mathermal and Colostomate, which the DIT interns were pretty interested in. By showing our fellow students these projects, we were able to introduce the design process that we are taught at Rice: needs-finding, brainstorming ideas, establishing design criteria, prototyping, and testing. Hopefully, we will get to show the GLHT projects to medical professionals for more feedback and conduct some needs-finding sessions with our fellow interns soon!

Our work week ended slightly early because Friday was a holiday. It was the end of Ramadan, or Eid, and Madam Kianja invited us and all the interns to her house in Pugu to celebrate! The food was delicious and the hospitality was, as always, amazing. I have never experienced an Eid party, and this one did not disappoint. Grant and I made some beef dumplings to bring to the gathering. Though it seemed like most were wary of the unfamiliar food, Dr. Kianja’s son and daughter were happy to try them!

Very full and very happy at Dr. Kianja’s!

This first week in Dar has really flown by! We arrived in Tanzania on June 1st, last Friday. At the airport, we were greeted by two DIT students, Gilden and Hamida, and the DIT driver, Stuart. They spent the entire drive to our residence at the Raha Tower telling us about Tanzania and asking about Rice. Once we arrived, they helped us settle in and promised to come back in the morning, before finally returning to DIT. But this was just one example of how welcomed we’ve been. From teaching us greetings in Swahili, to helping us figure out ATMs and SIM cards, to checking up on us every day, despite being in the midst of a two-week exam period, our colleagues have gone above and beyond in ensuring that our stay is off to a good start.

We started off our week by meeting the DIT intern group that Grant and I will be working with. Gilden, Hamida, and Godwin are all second-year students, while Nyangige, Twalib, and Kasim have already graduated. They are all very friendly and were eager to get started on our troubleshooting workshop. Though their 3-year diploma allows them to begin working as biomedical technicians, most of them have had little experience with devices beyond classroom lectures. Kasim, in particular, currently works as a technician at Muhimbili National Hospital. Though he still has to get permission to work with us for the duration of the internship, hopefully he’ll be able to show us around the hospital and help us access more equipment next week.

So far, we’ve worked on different modules of the troubleshooting course we brought from Rice: microscopes, suction pumps, and refrigerators. We’ve focused a lot on the troubleshooting process: observing the failure, defining the problem area, identifying possible causes, ranking them in order of probability, and testing and repairing the equipment. We want them to understand how important it is to think about the problem, using the aforementioned process, rather than jumping in and trying to see what the problem is. While the process seems unnecessary for the simple devices we’ve looked at so far, it is definitely an important skill to learn for situations with unfamiliar or complex equipment. Thankfully, we’ve had positive and enthusiastic feedback from our fellow interns so far.

Microscope troubleshooting

Some more notes:

• We’re often greeted by “m’china”: Both Grant and I are Chinese, and there are quite a few Chinese people in Dar. Lots of Tanzanians know bits of Chinese. Gilden, for example, knows greetings and the numbers from 1-10. The fishermen at the fish market knew all the names of the seafood they were selling in Chinese too. And right across the street from our apartment, there’s a pretty authentic Chinese restaurant that we checked out on Saturday night.
• DIT is trying to start a bachelor’s program in biomedical engineering. However, teachers of first-year diploma students must have at least finished second-year diploma courses; teachers of freshman level classes must have at least finished the sophomore level. Similarly, senior classes must be taught by someone with a Master’s or PhD, but there aren’t enough current faculty with these degrees. Hopefully they are able to recruit enough faculty to offer the bachelor’s!
• I turned 22 on Wednesday! Grant made me a delicious cake, and the interns sang happy birthday to me at work. They sang the same song that we’re used to, with the addition of another stanza: “How old are you now, how old are you now, happy birthday dear Angela, happy birthday to you!” Finally, they told me that a birthday custom is to pour water on the head of the birthday person! Fortunately, I escaped this “shower” because we still had work to do on our suction pump.

A very yummy mango cake

Overall, this first week has been a great experience. We hear “karibu” (welcome) and “mambo” (how are you) all the time. I have definitely felt extremely welcome here and am looking forward to the rest of the internship!