Saturday Night and All is Well

Since our last post about work at Mazimbu, the team had two very busy days to complete our week. Thursday and Friday saw four procedures each day for Doug and Chris, while the rest of the team worked with the queue of patients waiting for us each morning. We were at the hospital very late each day but the kitchen staff at Lutheran Junior Seminary, our home base in Morogoro, keeps our meal warm until we arrive and are able to enjoy our dinner.

When we have a day at Mazimbu with four scheduled procedures, the team works to manage the new patients so that they can still be seen by Doug. His day will begin with rounds to visit the patients admitted after the prior day’s surgeries. Then it is hit and miss if he will be able to see a new patient before he is called into surgery. We can usually plan that one or perhaps two new patients can be seen during the break between each case. However, one of those breaks must be used to allow Doug and Chris a chance to eat lunch. So the decision was made by late morning to send most of the patients home that were waiting to see Doug. The nurses chose the five patients with the most urgent need for surgery and the rest were given set times next week to return.

Of those five patients, Doug scheduled four for surgery. At that time there were only three remaining slots, so we had to squeeze in the last case. That means that we are completely full for surgeries that will be done by Doug this year.

Dr. Swai, our friend who is the Mazimbu gynecologist, has been gone this first week but will be back on Monday and will be working with the team. We have about 30 women scheduled to see Dr. Swai over Tuesday and Wednesday. This will undoubtedly result in some needed surgeries. In past years, we have made arrangements for these types of patients to continue to be handled as our patients, but their surgeries will be done by Dr. Swai for us after we have departed.

Therefore, we will not be doing any additional screening of patients next week—our schedule is full. So without the need for the front desk or the nurse’s triage, our need for team and translators is reduced also. This has created an opportunity for Bethany and Megan—keep reading.

Friday night dinner was at a local restaurant, Dragonaire, where our group enjoyed laughter, conversation and stories over some great cracker-crust style pizza. It was a good thing that our Saturday morning started a bit later than normal because we didn’t return home from Dragonaire until close to midnight.

Saturday found the team on an air-conditioned bus travelling in comfort about an hour away from Morogoro to visit the Maasai cattle market. We were joined by Epsilon and by four of our Maasai friends—Kishumu, Obale, Samwel and Magreth. Of the four, only Samwel was wearing western clothes. The other three wore their Maasai robes, which are draped and tied artfully to fully cover all the important parts. At the cattle market, we met back up with Tisho, Kristen, Ethan and Terry. Tisho is also Maasai so we had quite an escort for our visit.

Kishumu gave us a brief overview of Maasai culture and answered our many questions. We then strolled around the area, watching all of the Maasai herding their cattle—each small group being kept together by several warriors with their long sticks until a buyer offers an agreeable price and possession of the animals changes hands, It is common for one of the cattle to bolt from their group, which triggers one of the warriors to run after it yelling and waving their stick. Our Maasai hosts were very careful with all of us, being sure to watch for bolting cattle and stepping in to turn any charging beasts away from our group.

At the market, “farm to table” takes on a whole new meaning. We see every step of the process of cattle or goats being butchered and roasted for consumption. In fact, this is a highlight for us—eating the freshly roasted beef and goat. One of our Maasai friends chose a tasty section of meat and walked over to our area carrying the large portion of beef or goat on a sharp stick. Two Maasai would then work together—one would hold the stick, still with the meat attached, while the other used his VERY sharp machete to slice the meat into bite sized chunks. Both the holder and the cutter would pop a juicy bit of meat into their mouth every so often. But most of it is put on a plate that was passed around for us to eat with our fingers, first dipping it into a bit of salt.

After our lunch, Kishumu and Tisho were able to recruit some friends and we were treated to ceremonial Maasai dancing and chanting. This involves much jumping and a beautiful low=thrumming chant to create the beat. Our smiles echoed the joyful look on the dancers and we all showed our appreciation for the dozen or so warriors once their dancing was done.

We said goodbye to Terry again, as he is returning to Berega with Tisho, Kristen and Ethan to continue his work. The team is going to Berega on Monday to visit and see the work that is being done there and here is where the opportunity has happened for Bethany and Megan. When our bus leaves on Monday to return to Morogoro, they will not be on it because they have been invited to stay several days. They will get to play with all of the babies and see what goes into their care. They will also get to learn how to cook over an open fire and to work with the young girls, called Bintis, who come from the families of each baby and stay with the baby until they reach two years old and return home. The Bintis are learning English, and Megan and Bethan will be encouraged to have conversations with them to further their skills.

On our way back to Morogoro, we stopped briefly in Kimbala, Bishop Mameo’s home village, to greet his wife, Rose, and their children. After a delicious cup of Maasai chai, we were on our way again, arriving back at LJS around 8.

So it is time to say good night. And we will update again after our trip to Berega.