Language Double Meanings and Last Days in Moshi

 I haven't posted in a while! So I will make this short and sweet and hopefully post more often instead of lengthier posts less often.

I am learning more Swahili and it is very interesting, a tour guide was trying to explain that there's not many equivalent words between English and Swahili, and I think this is why there are so many Swahili words that have "double meanings" (not the real linguistic term), which gives a lot of insight into the conceptualization of related words and meanings and culture of Swahili speakers.

For example:

Karibu = nearby and welcome and you're welcome

Ninasiskia = I hear you, Nisiskia = I feel

Kaa = sit and stay

Mpira = a ball and a (football) match

Habari = news and hello

There must be many more of these! Also, these actually might be wrong as I figure out the language.

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Also, these will be my last days in Moshi and tomorrow will be the last day of fieldwork placement and the last day of my Occupational Therapy degree!

I think back to how many kind people there are, from the colleague who went with me to get roast goat, to the counsellor who said that they'll miss me, to the person who I met and then ran into again who rode in the bajaji with me. People instantly connect and help out. I wonder if this is true in bigger cities as well (in Toronto people are friendly but still hurried).

Usambara Mountains: "Why go into the mountains, what are you looking for?"

We went to the beautiful Usambara Mountains for a hiking trip on the weekend of July 26. It was a beautiful place and if anyone ends up in this corner of the world, I really recommend a visit here!

This post is so titled because if asking Tanzanians to hike, they would say, "Why go into the mountains, what are you looking for?" which if you think about it is true. If you're surrounded by beautiful landscapes day in and day out, or you already have to walk up and down steep hills to go to work or school, why in the world would you do that for leisure?

It is 200 km away southeast of Moshi, but it takes 5 hours to reach by car. We went with a bus full of 10 people, most of whom were international placement students at KCMC hospital. Most of the facts I will be talking about here are given by our two tour guides, Joseph who is based in Moshi, and Hamis who is in Lushoto.

There are three main peoples who live in this region: Sambara (farmers of potatoes, cabbage) Mpare (animal keepers) and Shamba (beekeepers). It is a large region where 400,000 people live, with 180 villages across the region. Lushoto was the capital of Taganyika (a precursor country to the united Taganyika and Zanzibar - Tanznia) when it was colonized by the Germans.

Here is a map of all the places we visited during this weekend:

On our first day, we drove to Lushoto which started at 1,400m. We went through several forests. There are 1,000 types of plants in the forest, 300 of which are imported. For example, there are plentiful eucalyptus trees that were imported by Germans from Australia. Then we hiked up to 1,800, at the top for a view. Then, we stayed at Bushbaby Campgrounds.

A trailhead

Made it up to the top!

At the peak, and scenic survey of all the farms and villages.

The second day, it was supposedly an easier hike but I would disagree! We hiked from our 1,800m elevation to 2,300m for a great viewpoint. The highest peak in this region is at 2,400m for reference. The high elevation, along with the, altitude, dust, smoke, not having exercised in a while and having to clamber up rocks at the top made it difficult. But I was hiking with a group of student medical doctors so I often felt like I was in good hands! I was always the slow one in the group, and I was very grateful for the guide to stay behind and accompany me or else I would've gotten lost! In fact, the guide was so good that there were two of us behind and when we rounded a corner, we saw the group we used to be behind, was in fact behind us since we took a shortcut.

When we came down from the peak, we passed by several villages. A lot of people were working with subsistence farming. The kids were able to roam freely throughout the farms and probably knew every corner of the land, unlike kids who are shuttled from place to place and who stay mostly indoors. I saw sturdy bridges made of wood, and houses and shops made of clay, brick, wood and tin roofs. On Saturday, we passed by a group of women who were washing their laundry in a field together, and it reminded me of the Icelandic word for Saturday - laugardagur - Washing day. 

Houses with new roofs in the village

We stopped at Rangwi Sister's church for lunch, then was driven to Mambo Viewpoint for a splendid sunset viewing. To give a reference for how close we are in the northeast border to Kenya, behind the mountains of the viewpoint was Mombassa in Kenya! This viewpoint was only 1,400m in elevation, nowhere near where we were just in the afternoon. We could see Long Swift birds who had migrated all the way from UK to here.

Rangwi Sister's where we stopped for lunch

The group at Mambo Viewpoint during sunset

The guides took an incredible sillhouette photograph of the group!

We stayed that night at the Magumba View Cottages which were neat cottages with an incredible view.

This is the cottages!

A room with a view!

This is the view outside the room!

You can see the stars and Milky Way from here.

The next day, we did some cliffwalking, which the tour guides were very excited about. I was not so much as I think I have a fear of heights when I could slip and fall easily. So even though the scenery was beautiful, one of the few ways I could get through the walk was by *not* looking at how far up high I was at the edge. At one point, I was breathing deeply, but it was not always because of altitude or asthma either! But it was a really great walk.

Cliff walk view

Then, the bus took us back to Lushoto and there we ate lunch down at the base of Kisasa Waterfalls. Afterwards, we drove 5 hours back home to Moshi. A really great weekend trip!

Kisasa Waterfalls

Gabriella Rehabilitation Centre

Last Thursday, we international occupational therapy students had the privilege to attend Gabriella Children's Rehabilitation Centre just outside of Moshi. It was founded by some people from the first ever cohort of OTs trained in Tanzania. They had an idea of building a centre for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder and it opened in 2009. It sits on about 15 acres of land that is used wisely. The centre started out with a few clients but has now grown to serve 140 clients, proof that if you persevere with an idea it can grow big.


The programs include intensive weeklong caregiver-child therapy, day school programs, boarding school and vocational skills training. All the activities for vocational training is on-site, whether it's baking (we tasted the bread and it was so fresh and good), masonry (the bricks that are built are made by the kids), gardening (and raising goats and hens).

The therapies were integrated into schooltime so that the therapies were for completing occupations (school) and not therapy just for its own sake. The therapy rooms use sensory integration by isolating each sense in its own room so that kids can regulate with the sense they need (then go back to school).


The centre probably has its own mission and vision, but what I saw were principles of access, capacity building and sustainability.


In short, it was so refreshing to see!

First Few Days of Work

Here is what I've noticed from my first few week at work (well, internship / placement) at KCMC.

We go to work on a bajaji like tuktuks.

Bajiji with mountains in the background

Here is what I have appreciated and noticed on the first few days of the week:

• There is great professional development. There is a weekly lecture (clinical conference) from one of the departments at the hospital. There is a short  presentation time and the longer time for discussion (at least half an hour). Discussions in Canada always are left to the last 5 minutes of the presentation. There was also lots of discussion: many people asking many good questions

• The preceptors gave a brief overview of how the hospital system works: KCMC is a consulting / tertiary hospital started in 1971. They is also a history of occupational therapy at KCMC: in 1977 an expat doctor’s wife who was an OT saw a need. They partnered with the Ministry of Health to start up both the department and training. The first class was in 1997. Last year they started up a Baccalaureate program, before it was diploma. In no other placement have I received a "history of occupational therapy in this institution".

• One pediatric intervention is more done in a group, whereas in Canada it would be done with individual families behind closed doors. 5 caregivers and their kids come at a time, and the caregivers can share stories. There are three OTs rotating around. Meanwhile, it’s efficient while the therapists get to see every case. They see 10 clients over 2 hours this way.

• Each morning the OTs and OT students present cases and get feedback from more senior OT. It may be an intimidating environment for the students, but is actually great to hear and orate the cases out loud and brainstorm solutions. In other institutions there are monthly "OT practice meetings" but hardly anyone from the organization ever attend. I feel that in Canada OTs specialize a lot in one area (even though technically through licensing you're not supposed to specialize) and if you were to put them in another practice area, people would have to start fresh. But here they know a bit about everything.

• There are Tanzanian OT students here taking the Bachelor program and doing a placement that overlaps with ours for a couple of weeks. Some of them have already worked in occupational therapy for years before going back to school. As such, they are well-versed in a lot of different care and they get a bit of training in nursing and pharmacology as well. However, they talk a lot about nutrition as an intervention for acute care and try to stay away from pharmacological interventions (perhaps due to lack of resources, but still, maybe in Canada we are overprescribing medications)

Food Pictures

You know this is all that you've been waiting for!

This is found mostly at the eateries at the hospital (Jacob's) as well as some cafes around town.

Ndizi na nyama with pilau rice - sort of like with caraway (with sukuma vegetables)

Mandazi (like a thick pancake or donut or more fried egg waffles) with chai - what I get at tea time (10am) at the hospital

Grilled fishies and okra

Beef Makange

First Few Days in Moshi!

On Friday July 4 evening, after a day and a half flight with a short stopover in Zurich, my two classmates and I arrived at the Airbnb we rented for two months to stay.

We're in Moshi, which is a town at the base of Kilimanjaro. We're here as Master's of Occupational Therapy students on our last of four fieldwork placements in a program. We will be at the KCMC Regional Hospital - Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre - that regularly takes students from all over the world (most likely mostly Global North countries but we'll see).

Speaking of Kilimanjaro, for these first five days, I have not seen it even though in pictures of the city it features prominently. That's because it's been cloudy and cool and will be for the foreseeable future. Our Airbnb host joked that we brought the cold with us from Canada. It is currently going up to only 22 degrees during the daytime and about 16 degrees Celsius at night. It is their winter, but I suspect it's supposed to be hotter. However, I see that Canada, at least Toronto, is in a heatwave in the 30s and feels like 40. So here I am wearing a fleece jacket in Tanzania while people are melting in Toronto!

Which brings to mind a neat thing - the hot water for their showers are solar powered! But since there's no sun, we need backup electricity to run it. And since it's been so cold, it's hard to take a cold shower (one without heating the water). I don't want to waste the electricity but the alternative would be to do something like sponge bathe, as it would be too cold for me to shower. I can see how it would be refreshing on a hot summer (November - March) day though.

We were slated to start the placement today, July 7. Then, over the weekend, we heard from one source then another that there will be closures because of a national holiday (Saba Saba Day, which means 7/7 or July 7). According to the Wikipedia article I am reading at this moment, it was when the Tanganyika African National Union was founded. It is also a holiday in Kenya but for another reason (commemorating protests for free elections). Luckily when we communicated with the hospital coordinators last night confirming whether or not to go in, they replied pretty quickly and said no.

It also happened to be World Kiswahili Language Day the day we landed. Kiswahili is the language of Tanzania (other than English)! I am trying to learn as much Swahili as I can within these months so I can at least say some things.

One thing that is taking some getting used to is the sounds of a relatively less white noise filled place (because, for example, there are no street lights), but full of the zoom of motorcycles and other cars, and if not that then the animals: hens, whinnying guard dogs, cows and if not that, then music from a club that plays nearby at night. You are surrounded by sound, it's not that quiet!

An interesting thing to note is the ban on plastic shopping bags brought into the country. Then we noticed, like in other places, they burn their garbage. It's true that burning things like water bottles releases chemical toxins into the air, but it'd be great to see which one is better, or which one is worse rather: burning water bottles, or "recycling" them into a garbage pile so massive that it has to go into the ocean which then leaks its contents and litters the sea like in North America? I'm going to run this dilemma through ChatGPT to see what it says: it says for the long term dumping is worse, but for the short-term and human health burning is worse. Well, it then says to avoid plastic waste altogether. All good advice without taking into account human behaviour!

Okay, you didn't come here for my ramblings but some pictures so I will show some!

Outside of the Airbnb

Chapati with beans (not shown) and grilled peppers

The cafe where we at the chapatis

Size of the tree for reference! It's even cut off.

On My Way!

I’m packing to go for a placement to Tanzania! Stay tuned for more!