Tuesday, January 20th
Melissa went to Fonelisco orphanage today. She brought books in Swahili, candy, temporary tattoos and toys which were donated to Hope Ministries by Brandi. The older children were at school and only some of the younger children were there initially. Melissa got to see some of the kids that she met last year. The children had fun playing with the toys and playing tic tac toe using rocks for the grid and small toy spiders instead of X’s and O’s. Then it started to rain and they went into the dining area and did the temporary tattoos. Lunch for the kids was greens, ugali and dried sardines. Melissa did a talk on puberty for the boys and girls. The changes to expect were discussed and she also talked about good touch and bad touch. Some of the children were brave enough to ask questions. It was a fun and rewarding day for Melissa.
Grace started the day going to clinic with Dr. G. During clinic she learned so much about how to assess and diagnose different patients. We were able to see patients who would be seen later on for arthroscopy procedures. After clinic she helped Dr. G find all the equipment for the arthroscopy towers and get prepared for the day. She was able to observe the very first arthroscopy procedures done at Bugando which was so much fun! It was so cool to see the ankle through a scope and see all the little details within our body. Grace and Kellen navigated a difficult problem with providing saline to the doctors and persevered despite saline dripping down their arms.
Kellen went to the hospital today and was able to scrub into a total hip surgery with Dr. Alex. Kellen was now more familiar with scrubbing in and was a lot more comfortable with supporting Dr. Alex and the other Tanzanian doctors. This case was especially challenging due to complications with previous surgeries and lasted about 4 hours. Kellen expressed how much of an amazing experience and learning opportunity it was. Kellen was also able to watch Dr. G and the other doctors preform arthroscopic procedures. Kellen was treated with a delicious strawberry milkshake for dinner tonight after all his hard work.
Dr. Goswami had an amazing day that was filled with anticipation, nervousness but ultimately it was filled with such amazing blessing. To be able to part of a team who’s helping to change the daily lives of the people in need of help is rewarding. What a blessing it is.
Dr. Alex said that we had a great day today. He really enjoyed working with Dr. Swatela on the total hip case and was proud of how well and smoothly it went.
This is Mama Gayle and I am beyond excited because we made history in Tanzania, by performing the first ankle surgery with the arthroscopic surgery with the arthroscopic towers that were donated by Hope Ministries. There was so much excitement in the room when they were able to view the inside of an ankle on the screen. To God be the glory!