Thursday, October 21, 2010

Planned Planning



Weather: Has been glorious, last week stepped out of my office and whoosh, HOT and humid, just like that. There goes winter.

Swahili Word of the Week: Mukutano- Meeting

Special Shout Out: Vive La France, Enjoy the French Party. Wish I was there with you. I hope no one ends up with cheese in their underwear!
Rita, loved the card and photos, I have them pasted around my house, Thank You!

Planned Planning

When I was about 18 and Heather was 16 we watched a show that stated that a common similarity between successful people is they have a life goals list. It may be in a book, scrap of paper on simply in their head but as they go through life they are moving towards solid and set goals. We proceeded to write our own goals list, and we still check in once in awhile to see how we are doing. A nice ritual I enjoy and it does help define my somewhat nebulous life.

Life goals are one thing, but what about country goals, continent goals and world goals? It is easy to set a goal to climb a mountain, it is something else to say you are going to lower child mortality rate by a certain percent in a certain time frame. Millennium Development Goals have been set and 2015 is quickly approaching. Unfortunately I think will not all be met. There are many theories on why aid and Africa has not worked for the last 30 years. I do not even begin to believe I would know the answer to this burning question, but I do see on small scales projects that are successful and many that are not and like the life goals of successful people, the similarity that I commonly see is planning.

I have been working in the hospital on Fridays. It’s a highlight to my week and makes my office work seem more worthwhile because it reminds me why I am doing this. Right now I am simply orienting in the hospital, in anticipation of students arriving in November, when I will become their clinical instructor. Orienting to the hospital is the BEST. You have no true responsibilities so if I am in the ED and I see a woman come in with her bowels hanging out I follow her into the trauma room, or I can simply sit with a patient and hold his hand. You get to nurse because your job isn’t doing the 50 other things that nurses do, its simply nursing the patient. But back to planning! The ED is a swanky new one, sponsored by a US company. The contractor who put it together, I am sure, thought he was doing a good job. The problem was planning. The IV tubing does not fit the peripheral IV’s so both are useless. Batteries in the machines are not rechargeable so most sit without being used because they are all dead. Staff (especially nurses) weren’t trained to use the new equipment so much of it sits unused. Sustainability is the big buzz word in aid right now, but as cliché as it is. It is essential to plan well so that the time and effort and resources are utilized well not just now but for years to come. Yet sometimes the best laid plans don’t work as well. Plans need to change to the environment, culture, and setting. A plan built in a vacuum that is unchanging I believe is worse than no planning at all.

The lack of planning does not just come with aid agencies, the Tanzanian government is just as much to blame. No infrastructure planning, no city planning, buildings are going up all over the place. Still worse IS the plan to build a gigantic highway through the Serengeti; environmentalists are saying the migration will never be the same. Not planning for the future.

It probably has not made international news here but we are all gearing up for the election on October 31st. As most African Countries can attest to, we know our winners already. CCM is the leading party. I was surprised at their lack of confidence of a win (contrary to what everyone tells me on the street), there lack of confidence has shown itself by the party pasting green and yellow EVERYWHERE. Every billboard, sign, poster is CCM. Not only that, though this is good planning, CCM somehow made it legal to tack on a 10% fee to every, I mean every, phone call or text message. Profits go directly to the CCM party. You have to subscribe out of it. I cried that’s illegal to my work colleague Stella, she laughed and said who do you think made it legal?

It is not all gloom and doom here though. Some of us are planning well! After planning to get chickens for months (on the life goals list, tick), and having an empty coop for months, they have finally arrived. Moja, Mbile, Tatu and Nne (1, 2, 3, 4 in Kiswahili). I am off to do nursing school site visits crossing almost ½ of TZ by road this upcoming week to make it back in time for Halloween party in Dar. Mum is arriving in November with lots of exciting activities planned, and finally Heather making it out in January. Hip, Hip Hooray.

Skills labs are getting placed in nursing schools in January, Mum and Mediae Trust have donated masses of textbooks to 3 nursing schools which they are in dire need of. And an Image of Nursing Media Workgroup in November and our curricula developments are well under way. Its all go, go, go!

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