Thursday, January 5th
Wow what a whirl wind of experiences we have had since our arrival in Africa. The team that God send me are awesome and have been working very hard since arrival in this beautiful country that is my second home.
We started out having a clinic at a special needs orphanage, in which the staff there are doing a great job of caring and loving for these children. I worked with the PT on suggestions on what they could do to prevent or or enhance the mobility of the children. I just love this place. I am working on having a Pediatrician make monthly visits to review the meds the children are on and assess any children that are having problems. This would be so helpful for these children, so please pray for this to happen.
We then traveled the next two days far out into Maasai land where the patients have limited assess to health care and are very poor and cannot afford to receive healthcare. We held a clinics and saw many many patients each day with many sad stories and cases. These clinics are free and I provide free medication. The nursing students were able to work on their physical assessment skills and saw medical conditions they will never see in the states. I made many referrals to clinics or hospitals that I know the patients could receive help. These patients are so poor that they do not even have enough money to be able to get transportation to these health facilities. Thus Hope Ministries provided them with those funds and I transferred many patients to the hospital that the team would be going to on the following Monday to see an OB/GYN doctor, General Surgeon, Pediatrician and to Dr. Daniel Sutton, that is an orthopedic doctor who with the team. I have worked for years with these Tanzanian doctors and they are excellent doctors and provide me with diagnosis, recommended treatments and follow-up assessment and the progress of the patients. These patients had additional tests done and many had life-changing surgeries that are all funded by Hope Ministries. God bless the donors who provide Hope with financial assistance that we are able to help these patients. I will be heading to the hospital tomorrow to pay for my bill.
We had a clinic on Monday and I could not believe all the patients and they kept coming and coming. We had so many patients that we were not going to be able to see all that day so made the decision to not do surgery the next day but have another clinic day so we could see all the patients. I have never seen so many patients at a clinic. Dr. Daniel, my ortho surgeon, is a fantastic doctor who spent time with the students and residents teaching them assessment skills and how to read x-rays. Our mission here to education so we can leave a lasting impact in their healthcare. He was patient, kind and a very great teacher. Everyone learned so much and many, many patients lives were touched. We worked hard and very long days and the team dragged home very late each day hungry and tired.
On Wednesday we went to OR and I had two ortho rooms we could use and Dr. Robert was in one room and Dr. Daniel in the other. I taught the nursing students how to scrub, gown and maintain sterility in the OR. Daniel worked very hard on some very difficult cases and the students and resident doctors learned a lot. I have no words to describe the difficult cases we have seen but praise God we have been able to help many. I prayed that God would be with us to provide us with strength and guide us all in making the right decisions to help these people. I praise God for the teams strength and hearts to serve because we have worked really hard and had very difficult and long days.
The team has been taking turns going with me to the hospital and then the others have been going with the hospice team to do home visits. Hope Ministries provides food to all the patients they see each day because many are very poor, very sick and have limited income and have a great need to food.
Each night the team has devotions, prayers and talk about their day. You can tell that their eyes and hearts have been opened to the poverty in this country and what an impact our medical teams have in this country. Their have been tears as they share their experiences and smiles as they have seen the patients get help. God always sends me the best and they are all doing a great job.
The team left this morning with alot of smiles and excitement as they headed out with my Tanzania Assistant Julius on a safari. For many this is once in a lifetime trip and they need to see God’s beauty of Africa. They also need a break from the busy schedule we have been having and get some rest. I just talked to the team and they had a wonderful day on safari and got to see a lot of animals. They sounded very excited and were enjoying their supper. They are going to send me some pictures that I can share.
Please continue to pray for the team as we continue our journey. I have a lot of meetings and business to attend to while the team is on safari. May God bless all of Hope Ministries supporters, I wish you were here with me to see how many lives have been changed and blessed. Asante sana (Thanks very much) and Mungu Akubariki (May God Bless You).
Mama Gayle ( Please click on the links below to see some videos of the team on safari. You can watch the team dancing with the Masai
