My trip to Mwanza Tanzania
Robyn Jones (Nursing)

We found out about Work the World through third year student nurses in our university. From the minute we contacted Work the World inquiry about our trip to the day before we went, they kept in contact offering help, in accommodation before we went to the work the world house and placement details. The hand book provided us with everything we needed from visas, to basic aspects of the language which was very useful.

Originally we were meant to go to Arusha but because of  over subscription of students in the summer, we were relocated to Mwanza. At first we were apprehensive, but soon saw the positive in the new destination, being the first to go there, looking from a new perspective on the hospital and the local areas surrounding the house.

Waiting for our flight to leave Heathrow for our journey to begin, we all sat that wondering what was to come, no fear just anxiousness of the unknown.  Our journey was long passing through Cairo, Dar Es Salaam and then to Mwanza, but as soon as we collected our luggage, we were met by James who had a big smile on his face and put us all at ease.

The four of us came a few days earlier, so stayed in a local hotel  called Talapia near to the house which was nicely arranged by work the world and had a good environment. The positive about this was a lot of the other students in the house came down to sunbathe and use the pool, so we met and went out with them. When we arrived to the Mwanza house we met the lovely house keeper, and cook. Bosco was great at his job and very approachable, to talk to while Diana's food was amazing and varied each day. James took us into town where he gave us a detailed orientation about the town and the hospital. I settled into Mwanza life very easily and enjoyed meeting the locals while around town as they were very welcoming.

On our first day of placement James took us to our hospital, where we had a meeting with matron and were assigned to our departments. In my first week I worked on a medical ward, the second week on a surgical ward, the staff were very welcoming on both wards. The last two weeks I worked in casualty  which was very intense, but I had many opportunities to witness and help in many accident cases. I toured around the rest of the hospital in paediatrics, ICU, labour ward, HIV clinic and theatre.

The staff were very accommodating with shifts if you wanted to go on safari on the weekends or travel to Uganda for  three days. The weekends were a great time to go out on group trips to villages and to the beach.  Living in the house through this experience gave the opportunity to meet some amazing people and even work alongside them in hospital as a professional.  It was nice to look forward to the end of the day where everyone was back from work and we all discussed how our day went and what we had all seen.

This placement with Work the World helped me experience and open my awareness to another health care service. Having opportunities to cannulate patients, observe amputations, emergency caesarean sections, assist in theatre and treat conditions of illness such as malaria which is rare in the UK.