Rx One Health Course Travel Blog: The Insiders Guide
Maasi Mama Rosie Mgemaa made the arm bracelet held by Taylor Calloway (Class of 2018).
Taylor Calloway (Class of 2018) was one of twenty-one students who participated in the new Rx One Health Course based in Tanzania and Rwanda during June 2017. This is Taylor’s personal narrative aiming to illustrate her daily experiences, a deeper understanding of the One Health approach in a real-world setting, and the big question of “why is this course important.”
Follow Taylor’s journey through pictures, videos and tales as she attempts to understand the foundations of One Health while learning new veterinary skills, developing her place in a cooperative and immersive professional team, making life-long memories and friends, and embracing an inimitable, but personally foreign culture.
PART I
06/4/2017
Having never traveled to any African countries before, and this journey being a dream of mine since the age of seven, I was extremely anxious arriving at the San Francisco International Airport. All I could think was “Dang you, Animal Planet, for giving me dreams!”
Once I arrived in D.C. for a connecting flight, two fellow Rx One Health participants found me before our next flights—a classmate, June, and a new friend from Georgia, Marie. Thirteen hours to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia proved to be uneventful, and the next three hours to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania followed suit.
We were luckier than others. Once we arrived, the discovery of lost luggage by a participant and course leader left the three of us empathetic as we all understand that fear. This is especially worrisome as we leave on another plane for Iringa, Tanzania tomorrow morning. Unpredictability is scary and unfortunately a very real issue with international travel in general. Yet, as unsettled as both these individuals were, they also decided to figure out a plausible solution together, which I felt helped ease the unnerving feeling.
Southern Sun Hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
I was happy to discover that we all had our own rooms for the first night to settle in and readjust ourselves for what is to come the next month. We were able to eat dinner at the Southern Sun Hotel (which is a beautiful hotel with great food), sing Happy Birthday to Eric, a public health veterinary student, and get to know each other a little before heading to bed early.
First four to meet at the Southern Sun Hotel. Left to right: Maria Ertner (Demark), Alessandra Amadeo (California), June Barrera (California), and Marie Bosch (Georgia).