We arrived to Kilema Hospital in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania late Tuesday evening. After a good night’s sleep to ward off our jet lag, we woke Wednesday morning and met Sister Charles, the Matron of the hospital. She, with graceful and quiet authority, introduced us to the campus of Kilema Hospital. Despite the isolated location among the hilly base of Mount Kilimanjaro, reachable only by a rocky dirt road, the facilities house a number of departments: outpatient, inpatient, maternity, an operation theater and a counseling and treatment center for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. This compilation of health care is spread out within a beautifully kept land, and the buildings are filled with natural light and air, every window open to facilitate adequate ventilation – concepts that take us back to Florence Nightingale’s foundational text Notes on Nursing. (Read more)