Everyday Life and Work

I have now settled in well after 3 weeks and found my daily routine.

My day starts just after 6 and the first thing I do is attend the morning Mass. I am in no way obliged to go to church here, but I really enjoy attending the Masses as the monks' chants and prayers are incredibly beautiful and give me a good start to the day.

After breakfast, I start my work in the health center. In the first week, I accompanied and assisted the resident doctors who taught me a lot about local diseases and the problems that occur here. It's very interesting to learn about malaria, parasites, or tuberculosis! In the second week, I worked in the clinic's laboratory. Here, blood, stool, and urine samples are examined, and various tests are performed. I receive the patients, document everything, and conduct the malaria, HIV, and pregnancy tests on my own. My colleagues handle the rest. Two young, very nice, and funny lab technicians. We get along very well, and fortunately, they teach me a lot and entrust me with responsibilities. The only problem is the language, as most patients only speak Swahili... but I'm working on it!

For lunch, I come back to the monastery, and then I teach a brother in German, and he teaches me in Swahili. We both make daily progress!

After that, I give boxing lessons. I have opened a boxing club here, and every day more and more students, monks, and trainees from the nearby electrical school join. It's going very well, and we all have a great time during training. This has been made possible by my kickboxing trainer, Mr. Grimm (Kickbox Grimm, Bammental 'Der Treff'), who gave me a generous donation of boxing gloves and other training materials to bring here - Thank you very much!

After the boxing lessons, it's time for the evening Mass. After dinner, we have a nice conversation, and then we slowly retire to our rooms and end the day. There is only electricity in the morning and evening, and there is no washing machine, so you have to wash your laundry in between or clean your room.

Last weekend, together with two Italians, I got the ultrasound machine up and running - a great success!

This weekend, I visited the border with Zambia and made a trip to the Calambo Falls, a great, large waterfall and a breathtaking landscape. I also visited Lake Tanganyika, a huge lake with waves that resemble a sea. It's great for swimming there.

So, during the week, I work a lot here, and on the weekends, I go out to explore the country!