Saturday, January 17th
This is Mama Gayle. Today Alex and I ran many errands and then I did some shopping for Hope Fundraiser. You are not going to want to miss it! Alex also bought a bolt cutter that can be used to cut wires that are used in orthopedic surgeries because their cutter was very dull. They were very excited about getting it.
All the staff in the OR are nurses, which includes the circulating and scrub nurses. They use trained scrub techs in the US. I was talking to one of the scrub nurses and was interested in their salaries and a starting nurse is 70,000 tshs which is about $30 usds per month. Then one nurse who has been there for a long time gets 160,000 tshs, which is about $65 usds per month. Then if they have to seen a child to school, it is approximately $1000.00 usd per year but less for a government school. Wow we have no room to complain about our salaries. It must be a struggle to pay all their bills.
Kellen, Grace and Melissa returned back from safari today. Grace had an amazing time especially at Ngorongoro crater where they had an amazing experience with 3 male lions walking right next to the safari vehicle. The team was able to see 4 of the big five in one location which was very rare. Kellen’s favorite moment was hunting with the bushmen. He said it was fascinating to see their way of life and how it differs to the states. We were able to witness the tribe hunt a small bird and a mongoose. The bushmen also had killed a baboon early that morning which was cool to see. Melissa was excited to see a hippo outside of the water and a rhino because she was not able to see those last trip. It was an incredible feeling to have 3 lions interrupt our lunch but we were lucky to get an amazing view of them. She also enjoyed her time with the bushmen and was amazed to see the different ways they utilize the local plants.
