My trip to Arusha Tanzania
Felicity Avann (Medicine)

I was very glad to be met at the airport and driven to the WTW house. The house is great, large and comfortable and there is a beautiful view of Mount Meru from the balcony. Freddie, Emmanuel and Witness are very friendly and welcoming, and I easily joined the 'family'.

The food is wonderful, there is so much choice and Witness caters to your specific requirements, for example she cooked me my own cheese-free pizza! Her pancakes were also to die for!

The bedrooms were great. There is a safety box in each room and lots of storage. The beds are comfy and I quickly got used to sleeping under a mosquito net. There were a few powercuts, so I would recommend students travelling out bring a torch!

I felt very safe in Arusha. Emmanuel walks you from the house to the main road and back. People on the street do stare at you and call you Mzungu, but they are just being friendly.

I spent 5 weeks working in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Mount Meru District Hospital, Arusha. The labour ward is busy and very poorly staffed and equipped. The umbilical cord is tied with a glove! I personally delivered 21 babies and assisted in many more. Most of the time it was a wonderful experience however there were moments of sadness e.g. delivering stillborn babies. You quickly discover that Tanzanians have a very laid back attitude to time, which can be very frustrating in an emergency. I successfully resuscitated 6 babies with little more than an ambu-bag, suction and oxygen. One of my favourite memories was getting a baby to cry after almost 10-15 minutes of it not breathing. No-one receives analgesia during labour. I also dealt with pernieal tears, post partum haemorrhages, meconium aspirations, and a cord prolapsed. If you can bring lots of sterile gloves and some suture packs and absorbable sutures with you, it will be greatly appreciated. They also like getting text books and NICE guidelines.

We arranged a 4 day camping safari with 3 other friends to Lake Manyara, the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro Crater. We saw the big 5 - rhinos, leopards, buffalo, elephant and lion, plus a cheetah and 3 cubs, hippos, zebras, jackals, hyenas, flamingos, antelope, crocodiles, monkeys and giraffes. Other people in the house went to Moshi, climbed Mount Meru or Mount Kilimanjaro.

Arusha has lots of other things to do. I painted a traditional African Battik painting, went to the snake park and held a snake, rode a camel and had a tour of a Masaai museum. We also visited the Cultural Heritage Museum and wandered around the art gallery where they have the most beautifully carved wooden sculptures. We often went swimming at the Impala Hotel close by or stopped for a milkshake at Africafe (they are fab!). The Masai Market was always a fun, if not bewildering experience. You learn to excel at haggling! I got lots of lovely souvenirs - carved wooden animals, bowls and candlesticks, and watched while the women make you bracelets by hand. In an evening we went to the cinema, the pubs, Via Via the nightclub, and at the weekend we ate out at the Chinese (Embassy Inn) or Italian (Pepe's) restaurants.

Groups of us also visited the local orphanages and taught them English and played with the children. It is a real eye opener seeing where they live. They are taught in English and really need paper, pencils and English children's books.

I flew to Dar from Kilimanjaro airport and was again driven and picked up from the airport. I then spent 3 weeks in the Emergency Department at Muhimbili Hospital, Dar Es Salaam. Less than a year ago the old ED was demolished and rebuilt with funding from Americans. It looked fantastic just like an ED in the UK or US. It was fully equipped and had lots of doctors and nurses. Until a year ago, no-one had heard of emergency medicine, so there are American doctors and nurses constantly working and teaching the Tanzanian doctors and medical students.

Most patients presented with severe malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition (esp in children), sepsis, anaemia (due to Sickle Cell Disease) and following road traffic accidents. I saw a man who was a drugs mule and had been carrying heroin and GHB which had leaked and caused him to become unconscious. I also saw cases of tetanus and typhoid, something that would never be seen in the UK. I saw terrible full thickness burns in toddlers because they have pulled pots of boiling water over them. Sadly I also saw many cardiac arrests both adult and paediatric all of which died. I spent most of my time in the resus rooms, helping the doctors by taking blood, putting in IVs, inserting NG tubes, dressing burns, doing CPR and ventilating patients.

The house in Dar is new and has a lovely large pool with sun loungers around it. Similar to Arusha the house has a 24 hour security guide, a cook and a Swahili teacher. Dar is a lot hotter and more humid than Arusha and make sure you pack lots of mosquito repellent! There is a bar/night club called Sweet & Easy a short walk away, where we went after the Thursday night BBQ. Slipway the shopping area is a 5 minute taxi ride away and is very western. The ice cream there is very good! I also bought a Tanzanite stone to have made into a pendant. It's pricey but very beautiful and it's 15 times rarer than diamond!

A 30min taxi ride away is Whitesands Hotel where you can lie on their beach and dive. I dived there, due to the weather the visibility was not very good and I would advise that if you want to dive you should dive off Zanzibar.

A group of us took the ferry to Zanzibar for 4 days. It was magical; we swam with dolphins, and stayed at Kendwa Rocks, a backpacker's paradise. Don't miss the beach party on a Saturday night. From there I dived off Mnemba Island and saw turtles, stingrays and so many colourful fish in all shapes and sizes. The best dive I have done to date! We also stayed at Jambo Inn in Stone Town and went to the night food market.

I am so glad I chose Tanzania and I shall never forget my experiences in Tanzania. I know how fortunate I am to have the National Health Service. I feel I have achieved so much and learnt a great deal especially in improvisation eg using a glove as a catheter bag! I love the people and its culture and would definitely return. I made some great friends while away and had superb time thanks to them and the WTW staff. I will never forget my birthday celebrations - the Tanzanian staff really know how to make it special.