Mangwanani! Mangwanani! Marara sei? Ndara mararawo. Ndara zvangu. "Good morning! Good morning! How did you sleep? I slept well if you slept well. I slept well."
I love the back & forth greetings and how they roll off of everyone else's tongue. The different responses for morning, afternoon and evening are beginning to imprint in my mind, but usually result in a slurred response as I race to match the time of day with the appropriate response. The Shona people and language are beautiful! I am excited to be at Karanda Mission Hospital for the next few months & hopefully improve my language skills. :)
Karanda hospital is located in northeastern Zimbabwe and cares for approximately 75,000-90,000 patients every year by providing pediatric, obstetric, surgical, outpatient and home-based care. There is a large number of HIV/AIDS patients-it is estimated that 25-45% of the population is HIV positive, so there are a lot of AIDS related complications and opportunistic infections. The hospital cares for those living with HIV/AIDS with a great model of education, counseling and through an opportunistic infection clinic. Here is a picture of the hospital and ‘town’ of Karanda--I will share a few stories from the past month soon! --Kristin
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| Karanda courtyard (Building to left = female ward, peds ahead, clinic to right) |
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| Main street |
Hearing you talk about how much you love listening to the language brought back a lot of memories watching those sign language (and Spanish?) videos that we would get from the library. Those were fun times.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful experience! I'm glad you've started a blog so I can follow what you are doing.
Adrienne! I am so glad to hear from you! I remember watching those spanish, sign language (& probably other kinds too) videos and the times we danced around our apartment. :) Those were great times. I would love to hear more about you & your family!
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