The threats that I would be eating ugali a mix of corn meal and boiling water that stiffens into porridge were true, she said with a smile. Ugali is the staple of their diet. Medicine, too, was basic. At an aid station in the bush there was no doctor, only a nurse-midwife and one assistant. I watched as she treated a man with a badly infected foot by using a black salve, a salve just like my father had used when I was a little girl.
Supplies are sparse.
Syringes must be cleaned and reused. Sister Beverly imagines Tanzania as a future site of a student internship program. I would like to go back, added Sister Beverly, who chanted the Divine Office in Swahili during her visit. The Tanzanian people were incredibly affectionate and gracious. I represented the monastery of St. Scholastica, and they lovingly welcomed me wherever I went with singing and flowers.