Gathering with the Ilula Nursing Students

As we entered the dining room the students were singing a familiar song for Dan and I and probably for anybody else who visits the Iringa area for the partnerships: "Unity." For us it was very representative of our group and it was for the 1st and 2nd year classes of the nursing school as well. The students come from various regions of Tanzania including Dar es Salaam, the Iringa area, Tanga, Mwanza, Morogoro, Arusha and others. They danced ethnic dances from these areas if there was a group of students from the respective regions. They introduced themselves and asked us to do the same. They would be excellent role models for our country right now. I find that people in the US have less inhibitions on their behavior and what they say to others speaking in different languages or of different color and witnessed this when we had visitors from Tanzania soon after our election. We also witnessed this on our very first trip to Tanzania: one of our group asked, "how do you cope with the call to prayer at 5 in the morning?" to which our guide shrugged his shoulders and said, "They put up with us (Christians) and what we do, why shouldn't we tolerate them." This group of nurses clearly stated to us that they are in this together to get each other through the nursing school. I feel exceptionally blessed on this trip: our group consists of 2 pharmacy students from the U of M's program, one of whom is Nigerian, two family medicine residents, one of whom is of East Indian decent and of Islamic faith, one retired family physician, an ER physician of East Indian decent, a chemist/software engineer, a brick mason married to a pharmacist, both of whom are Jewish, and myself, a nurse practitioner. We are having such a wonderful trip with all of these people; I wish I could spend another month with this group, just to learn more about each other and spend more time with them. Everybody has been very inclusive with one another and has had something unique to offer to one another. After the dance performance by the students, we gathered outside and the students were literally going nuts with their cell phones taking pictures with us. Once again, we experienced an all inclusive gathering. They wanted pictures with the lovely young women in our group as well as us old people. The love of these people is so palpable.

First year students African dance

Photos with rafiki (friends)