Hospitali, mashamba na kuogelea

With Lowell & Claudia in South Africa, we thought these past few weeks would be uneventful, but luckily we were wrong. This time with minimal responsibilities with our own organization has allowed us the opportunity to check out and help some of the other NGOs in the area. So far this included helping with a youth outreach day (where they split up and helped at an orphanage, hospital, and very poor area), helping with building projects (Paul), taking multiple trips to a destitute camp to fill them with tea, bread and encouragement, and going to Heri Mission Hospital.
Heri Mission, about a three hour round trip drive, is the closest “functioning” hospital (there is a hospital in Kigoma, but it lacks both adequate doctors and medicine). Although Heri Mission is by no means “western standards,” the doctors have the means to treat some diseases and do basic surgeries. We visited this hospitali with another missionary (Gerald) with two objectives. First, we were bringing an elderly lady with us who needed to be seen by a doctor for severe abdominal pain and second, we were checking up on a teenage boy who Gerald had brought in for surgery the week before. Unfortunately, the women was told that she needed a specialized “women’s” surgery which could not be done at that hospital and that she couldn’t handle at such an old age- so all that was offered was painkillers. The boy, who lived in a small village a few hours boat ride from Kigoma, had severely broken his leg (complete, displaced fractures of both the tibia and fibula) over a year ago and received no medical treatment. The bone started healing in the position that it was in, leaving the boys leg deformed and in pain. On top of this, his parents were recently divorced and remarried and neither of the new spouses wanted the burdened of this boy, so his uncle had taken him in. Rejected and crippled, this boy’s life was seemingly over at an early age. Gerald learned of his situation and knew something must be done so he personally paid to get the boy to Heri Mission, for his treatment, and for other expenses while he was there. Additionally, he convinced the father to go with the boy and stay with him for the month he would need to recover there. Hopefully this time will allow for healing of this boy’s leg as well as this father-son relationship.

The drive to Heri Mission is also worth mentioning. The road meanders through the mountain range that envelops Kigoma. Many banana tree mashamba (farms) and small villages are tucked away in these mountains; life is very different to that of Kigoma. Although secluded from most outside influence, I found it humorous that the villagers seemed to have even more Obama paraphernalia than in Kigoma. Out here, there is Obama everything and everywhere- including shirts, hats, sandals, kongas (meaning Obama’s face resides on the tush), umbrellas, even gum! To people here, family origin is very important, and they are proud that President Obama is from East Africa. Another interesting thing that we saw on this drive were villagers filling sacks of dirt and loading them into a truck- seemingly uninteresting until we learned that it was for consumption! Expecting women in the villages eat the soil for its nutrients and minerals to promote a healthy pregnancy. All I have to say is, thank goodness for vitamins! Finally, I would like to take this time to boast (mostly to my father)- on the way back we stopped and bought five full grocery bags of delicious, organic bananas for a total of $4 USD….I won’t mention that we also get all the mangos we can eat for free :)

In addition to working with the other NGOs, we were also able to celebrate Thanksgiving with them. Americans from all over western Tanzania, around 30 in all, came to celebrate with food (we even had a turkey!), a game of backyard football, and kuogelea (swimming) in Lake Tanganyika- a tropical holiday bonus. Although we missed being with our families, the warm sun and cool water definitely beat the late November weather back home.