Getting ready for this trip has been a massive whirlwind, what with having revision, exams and placement to do too! But I think I've finally got there.. I hope I have, because if I've forgotten anything, it's getting a bit late now!
It started back in March when I had to arrange everything with Work the World, which was no problem at all! It was so easy, I basically just had to tell them where I wanted to go and when and then they accomodated me as best as they could. I recently found out that I will be definitely staying in Oyster Bay House, with lots of medics, nurses, physios, a couple of midwifes and a few diagnostics.
Work the World also offer a travel insurance package especially designed for their placments through Endsleigh, so I decided to use this for the entire 6 weeks as it seemed to be the best thing. I also had to ask SCoR for proof of my professional imdemnity insurance so that if anything were to go wrong then I would be ok and covered.
Once my dates had been confirmed, I started thinking and looking into what I could do post placement to make the most of my Summer and time out there.. After searching everywhere and asking many questions to lots of people and companies, I decided to book a 2 week safari with Acacia Africa, through STA! I also booked my flights with them as It was easy. I'm flying with Quatar airlines, with a stop-over in Doha, before landing in Dar es Salaam - the journey time overall is about 15hrs; so I will be bored.
To make sure that It was safe for me to travel out there I had to have quite a few injections, much to my dismay as I am really not a fan.. Hep A, typhoid, meningitus ACWY and yellow fever. A couple of these were quite expensive, but had to be done because you're not allowed entry to Tanzania unless you have a special certificate to say that you've had yellow fever! Anti-Malaria tablets were also a must and buying 6 weeks of Malarone is not a cheap purchase.
Due to the strong Muslim culture in Tanzania and therefore, having to keep my shoulders and chest covered and have shorts that come down my thigh, as mentioned before, I've also had to do some shopping for new summer clothes that fitted these criteria and were also lightweight and preferably cotton (but lets face it, not many girls would be disappointed with having to go clothes shopping - and I wasn't either!) I also needed to buy clothes that weren't too bright (blue, yellow, etc.) for safari, as these colours attract insects which can give you dengue fever - not very nice as it can make you very delusional, sadly there isn't anything you can take to protect you from this. Another item the safari compant recommend, although I thought this very strange it does kind of make sense (if you need it), is a sports bra?! Apparently because the roads are very bumpy, the truck ride can be very uncomfortable!
I didn't really know what to do about my phone because I didn't want a massive bill when I come back, but I did want to be able to send the odd text home. I got recommended to suspend my contract and get a pay as you go sim card instead, so that's what I did. It's not too expensive, 50p to send a text and free to recieve and it's £1 a minute to recieve a call and £1.75 a minute to make.
There's also been all the general holiday stuff to buy too and it's been quite hard to figure out what I'm going to need for 6 weeks, as I've never been out of the UK for more than 2 weeks at a time before! Sunblock was a definite need of course - both factor 30 and 50 (if I burn with this still, my skin must be paler than I thought!), along with new sunglasses and of course insect repellant, which had to have 50% DEET in (not really sure what makes DEET so good, but it was recommended, so thought it best to have!) and then all the shampoo, shower gel, moisturiser etc. etc.!
One thing that I've been trying to do since Work the World confirmed my placement, is learn Swahili. It's very interesting, but when It's a language that you've never really heard before, it is hard to know whether you are pronouncing the words correctly at all. I'm still trying my hardest so I know at least the basics when I get out ther, but am not really a language person, so it is very trying at times!
I think that I've now got everything in place that needs to be sorted, I've just got money to get and then the packing to do.. And at the moment I'm feeling that 20kg is not a lot for 6 weeks, but I'm sure it's probably more than I think.
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