1. Visa to visit Tanzania
The form is straightforward:
The caveats are at:
However, actually getting the
visa proves a problem if you are going for a couple of months. You need a
two-month Visitor’s Visa', but it is only valid for three months. However, the
High Commission in London do both same-day overnight processing, (for a fee!),
and so the best plan is to go there with a little less than a month before
travel, and do one of these rapid-turnover options. Don’t forget your
passport!!!
As you will have booked
flights long before this, it leaves to chance that they might refuse. However,
refusal has not been a problem.
2. Registration with the Tanzania
Medical Council
This is only needed for
doctors who plan to do more than ward rounds. Given the fact that the hospital
is run without doctors, then going on a ward round with one of the staff and
giving your opinion, although technically professional, is not something inappropriate,
and nor would it land you in jail.
However, doing on-call, or
assisting at operations, or signing prescriptions, or making the go/stay/how to
treat decisions in outpatients, these are all real doctoring. (And all leave
your indelible imprint behind.) It is only right that the hospital should
expect people undertaking such activities to be registered, as their way of
quality-assuring the doctors.
Again, the form seems simple:
It does, however, need
notarised copies of the usual things. Additionally, the host institution in
Tanzania should send a letter to the medical council, confirming that they have
invited you to come. You need to send all the documentation in advance, but
without the fee.
After you send everything,
there will probably be no response. You can send a reminder which may also be
ignored. If you do manage to get the IBAN & SWIFT codes, then send the
money, (in dollars!). You have then done your part, and I would advise leaving
to the hospital to sort out with the Council the certification.
If it gets to the day of
arrival and you still have not been able to pay, then before leaving Dar you
and the driver, (whom you will need for moral support!), will need to go to the
Council and complete the payment. This is the accepted norm. Once you have
paid, your certificate will one day appear. Don’t worry.
3. Guidelines for Emergency Obs Care in
Tanzania
There are no agreed guidelines
– each initiative has its own. Look up on line, and
down-load full copies of what you need before you go. Check out esp the WHO:
Also, eg:
Life
Saving Skills Manual – Essential Obstetric and Newborn Care
Nynke
van den Broek Publication Date: Sep 2006, revised June
2007. ISBN: 978-1-904752-28-8
4. Before you go
Double check: Visa. Passport
with at least six months. Health insurance including a policy document to take
with you – previously scanned and sent to your host, just in case! Spare
passport photos in case needed; belt or secure system for money; debit cards; laptop
and big memory stick with all your stuff on both; camera; also web cam for
Skype etc; camera charger and download system; mobile phone and charger; small
rucksack for day-travelling; maps; types of tea you might like; kindle or
e-reader/ charger /light; fly swat; music on your devices; traveller's
back-pack water-container for journeys; torch /batteries.
Also, think about small
presents for people you might visit - eg English coasters or mugs, old mobile
phone, balloons for kids.
It is best to take a valid
Yellow Fever certificate, and essential if you stop over in a yellow-fever
country. Don’t give any cause for any official to ask for a bribe!
Tanzania is 3 hours East
(ahead) of GMT.
5. Things to buy on arrival
You may arrive either at Dar,
or, if working in the north, Kilimanjaro. Dar and Arusha are big cities, and
for much of what you need it is cheaper there. For instance, any medications
can be bought from pharmacies - eg buy.
Other things you might want to
think about buying in Dar, (or Arusha, etc), are:
SIM for your phone or ipad
Malaria prophylaxis – Malarone
or Doxycycline, not Mefloquine.
A course of
fluoroquinolone-style antibiotics for dysentery – less than £2. Buy one for each
month you will be there!
Antihistamine or
hydrocortisone cream
Anti-bacillary-dystentery
antibiotic pack
Paracetamol
Anti-mosquito spray
Mosquito net if going anywhere
which is not equipped with them
Spare torch(es) and batteries
- perhaps plus candle and lighter backup
Tissues, soap, toiletries
Universal sink plug
Many pens, and paper
Any luxuries or food
pre-requisites
6. Food
People are poor, as is the
food. Maize porridge is the main staple, (or rice for the relatively well-off),
and meals might be 95% staple with a sprinkling of cheap and stringy meat.
However, of course you can buy meat, eggs, (and amazing fruit and veg!), etc in
towns.
However, if you like your
protein, you might want to buy some peanuts or other storable source in Dar,
and if you have any food fads, then prepare in advance to look after them!
7. Money
Most rural settings will not
use debit cards, and so cash is important. (Or a mobile phone with a Tanzania
SIM that you can use to buy a sort of bit-currency.) The local currency is
Shillings. £4 = 10,000 roughly. (So when seeing a Tz price, knock off four
zeros and multiply by four.)
The best place to get
Shillings is at the airport kiosk - it is much quicker than in banks.
You will also need $USD - no
notes before the year 2000, because of forgeries. When you pay for official
items - and many unofficial ones - it seems that USD is the currency of choice.
You have to balance how much to bring with the security of carrying large
amounts of cash. Tz is a safe country by African standards, but
(self-evidently), don't take out a great roll of cash and peel off $50 bills
when paying for something!
8. Swahili
There are many sources on the
net. It is best to get those with a Tanzanian slant, where any preference is
available. I have also written a guide to the structure of the language, which
if you like I can send you. (email me at: email.lozza@gmail.com)
9. The culture
If you have ever worked in
Africa, you will know that things do not work there as they do here! Other
values operate – for instance, politeness and greetings count for much more;
family and relationships are more important than tasks; communication is so
polite that it does not always say what you think it is saying; groups are more
important than individuals; possessions tend to be shared; hospitality is
spontaneous and very inclusive; etc.
If these things are not familiar
to you, far and away the best way to get a feel for them is in the book,
‘Foreign to Familiar’, by Sarah Lanier. (ISBN 1-58158-022-3) You can read it in
an afternoon, and it is a vital preparation for anyone seeking to be at home in
an African culture.
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