International Rotation at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center

• Address: Your name, elective student, KCMC- Private Bag, Moshi, Tanzania, East Africa
• Contacts: Director Professor John Shao (head of whole hospital), Deputy Director- Dr. Swai (department of pediatrics), Administrative contacts- Richard Komanga and Dr. Noel Sam
• Email: kcmc@eoltz.com
• Fax: 011-255-55-54381
• Phone: 011-255-55-54377 or 54378 or 54379 or 54380
• Tanzanian Embassy in Washington D.C.: Phone: 202-939-6125 2139 R Street, N.W. Washington D.C. 20008
• ** you will need to get a visa for Tanzania and pay $50
• Duke contact: Dr. John Hamilton, Dept of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Secretary Janet Routten, 1558 Duke Hospital South, Box 3867 DUMC, 919-684-2660

• This hospital has many international elective students in almost every department so request to work in whatever field of medicine most interests you.
• Departments that they have include: Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Dermatology, Ophthamology, Orthopaedics, General Surgery, OB/Gyn, Radiology, Urology.
• The hospital prefers that international students to do a 6- 8 week rotation but we were able to do a 4 week rotation. Duke and KCMC have a strong relationship and within KCMC the Duke name is known to administrators. Dr. Hamilton has visited KCMC and Dr. Shao has visited DUMC.
• If you are interested in doing an elective there, first contact Dr. Hamilton (through his secretary Janet) and meet with them approximately 4-6 months prior to when you want to go. He will probably write a letter to the hospital for you. We also recommend that you then fax a letter to the hospital with your request to do a rotation specifying dates and departments that you would be interested in.
• The ideal time for this trip is February. This month is best by most MSIVs because you are done interviewing and its before Match Day. Its also at the end of the dry season in Tanzania (translates to good weather for safari & Kili and no mud!)
• Money: the Tanzanian shilling. About 800 shillings= 1 US dollar. Credit cards are generally worthless there. If you find the rare business that does take credit cards, you will probably get a "commission charge" added. Bring cash and traveler's checks.
• Scholarships: Check this web site that Bill Foster, MD '99 made for a list of international sites, funding opportunities, etc: http://www.duke.edu/~wjf2/international.html . Some of the deadlines for scholarships are very early ..even May the year before so I would check this out soon..even before you necessarily have a place picked out! The scholarships that we got were:
• Wilburt Davison Scholarship- given by med school for any students that do an international rotation. See Catherine Hershey in the Dean's offices.
• Duke Chapel Student Mission Fund- a scholarship for medical students going abroad...contact Duke Chapel.
• Approximate cost of our trip:
  • Airline Tix to Kilimanjaro International Airport (45 min. from KCMC): $1300.00
  • Registration at KCMC: $100.00
  • 4 week housing at KCMC: $150.00
  • Resident's permit at KCMC: (we refused to pay it but they wanted $120.00)
  • Daily living: $8-10 a day (this includes food, transportation)
• Fun stuff we did:
  • 6 day climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro: $550.00 (+/- $50)
  • 4 day Safari (to Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro crater): $80-120.00/day
  • Trip to Zanzibar Island: Airline tix from Moshi to Zanzibar roundtrip cost us: $190.00
  • Day trip to Marangu Falls in Marangu (less than $10)
  • Day trip to Arusha (not so fun actually, but about $3)

Other stuff:

• Airlines-look at some discount travel agencies out of New York, they have better deaals than Council Travel; our first estimate was over $2000!
• Airport-The closest airport is Kilimanjaro Int'l Airport. If you fly in here you are limited by what days Northwest/KLM flies there. Other airports are Nairobi, Kenya (about 8 hour bus ride to KCMC) and Dar es Salaam (about 7 hour bus ride). The advantage is you have more dates to chose on departure/arrival. However, getting on a bus in Tanzania is a dangerous adventure as there are no speed limits and trauma is one of the top reasons for admission to a hospital.
• Guide Book- Lonely Planet Tanzania or East Africa are very useful
• Grading Evaluation Forms- The registrar refused to give us our evaluation form to take with us and give to our preceptor there. In fact, the registrar insisted that they would mail the evaluation form to KCMC after we had returned. As we questioned the likeliness of the forms actually ever being filled out and mailed back to the U.S., we convinced the registrar to allow us to have our preceptor in Africa mail/fax her a letter that stated that we were present and that we passed our rotation there. We recommend that you figure out a way to make sure that you get evaluated so that you can get credit for the rotation.
• For more information, please contact Swati.Agarwal@duke.edu or Laurie.Snyder@duke.edu.