Wednesday, January 21st
Kellen went to the Fonelisco children’s home today. He had such an amazing time playing with all the children. It was such a pleasure to see the children’s reactions when gifted with some toys generously donated by Brandi. Kellen was also able to play a few hours worth of soccer with the children and even bought the children a new soccer ball to play with after seeing the children play with a ball made up of shopping bags. Despite the ball being made up of paper bags the children and Kellen had such a great time playing keep away and taught him how to say nutmeg (Tobo) after Kellen kicked it through the children’s legs a few times. Kellen also had the privilege of doing his teaching project on substance abuse. The children were very engaged and seemed to learn a lot about keeping their bodies safe and healthy.
Grace said her day today was so exciting. She was able to watch a knee scope for the first time and helped provide fluid to support Dr. Alex and the other doctors to ensure the procedures went successfully. Grace’s favorite case of the day was watching a 8 year old sweet boy get surgery for Achilles tendon lengthening and release of multiple tendons which will dramatically change the boys life. The child was struggling to walk correctly before the surgery and will now be able to live a fulfilling and normal life thanks to Hope Ministries.
Melissa spent the morning with Dr. Gotswami and went to see his lecture on arthroscopic surgery. Melissa then went to visit some patients post-operatively and saw some patients who needed to be evaluated for upcoming surgery. Melissa and the team then went down to surgery and watched a few ankle arthroscopies. This was the first time this type of procedure was preformed by Bugando hospital and the medical team was very thankful for the support of Hope Ministries to bring this important patient care to such a needed population. Melissa and Mama Gayle comforted an 8 year old boy who was clearly very scared before his upcoming surgery and even made the boy balloons made from gloves to cheer him up.
Dr. Goswami had a long but fulfilling day. He was very happy to be able to teach the Tanzanian medical staff how to preform more arthroscopic procedures and was very impressed to see the clear improvement the staff showed from yesterday today. Today he saw a patient who developed a drop foot paralyzing her left leg] which occurred due to some complications from her previous surgery. She searched for close to 5 years for someone who can help improve her worsening drop foot. Finally, she found Hope Ministries. Dr. Goswami performed a surgical procedure, repairing her nerves that control her ability to move her ankle joint. Today, for the first time in 5 years, she set up on her bed and WALKED.