Monday morning’s call of the morning dove greeted us as we
walked to our 7 am breakfast. Cindy and
Pati exchanged a smile, remembering Dr. Andrea from prior years and her
imitation of the dove. Our day began
slowly, with free time until midmorning.
Barbara picked us up and we went to the Diocese office for a formal call
on Bishop Mameo, who is the head of the Morogoro Diocese. Our team is part of the ministry of the Ar-Ok
synod (a division of the ELCA) which is in partnership with the Morogoro
Diocese of the ELCT (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.) During this formal call, greetings are
exchanged by both sides and we are formally welcomed into Morogoro. Tanzanians value relationship above all else
so before any work can begin, we are welcomed and invited to regard Tanzania as
our home during our stay.
Bishop Mike was already at the Diocese office when the team
arrived. His relationship as head of the
Ar-Ok synod mirrors Bishop Mameo’s position and the leadership of the Diocese
will be working with Bishop Mike to show him the different parishes and
churches throughout the area.
After tea, our afternoon was spent organizing and planning
for our first day of work. We greeted
Bishop Mike when he rejoined us in the late afternoon and he had reports of his
tour with Bishop Mameo, which concluded at Maguha, where another AR-Ok team is
working on a building project. He
scarce had time to shower and rest before we met for our transport into
town. We were invited to dinner, along
with the building team, and were hosted by Bishop Mameo’s home congregation at
his church, (which is called a cathedral in Tanzania.)
Our “dinner” ended up being a gala with a performance by two
choirs singing wonderful African music in Swahili. One of the choirs was a youth choir (which
means under the age of 35) and they sang acapella. The other choir was accompanied by two
electric guitars. Both performances were
full of rhythm, syncopation, melody and counter melody and left us applauding
with appreciation.
Our final surprise was a formal gift from Bishop Mameo, who
is a member of the Masai tribe, to Bishop Mike.
The gift of traditional Masai robes was accompanied by recognition of
him as an honorary elder of the Masai tribe, and followed by a ritual planting
of three trees that are symbolic of our synod’s relationship with the Diocese. We were all very moved by the gift and the
honor bestowed to our Bishop.
The team again split today, with Bishop Mike joining Bishop
Mameo to visit 5 congregations in the Diocese, and the medical team traveling
to an outlying village to do a community health screening. Ngere Ngere is an hour away, half of which is
on the Morogoro-Dar highway. The last
half is a well-traveled dirt road that is maintained year round because it is
used by a military base for access.
There was a building available for our use with tables and chairs. The
majority of the health care in Tanzania is reactive, in response to illness or
injury. During a health screening, we invite the
village to come and be checked for any health issues that might need to be
addressed by a doctor, in hopes that preventative steps can be taken. Our services are offered to all who come,
Christian or Muslim.
We used the tables to set up different stations, working
with our translators: Pati worked
registration, greeting and recording basic information on our forms; Connor
recorded height and weight; Mary and Linda each worked a station checking
vitals and doing heart and lung assessment; our students, Carrie Beth and
Shelby, recorded blood sugar, checked eyes, ears and throat and tested for
anemia; Cindy floated between the different stations, helping as needed; Tom
worked as team photographer; Aaron and Mike helped the team as a runners where
needed; and Bernie was the final checkout, wrapping up the results and advising
those who needed to seek further care from a doctor. After a slow start, we
ended our day after working with 58 patients, from babies to youth to
adolescents to adults.
P. S.—the internet has been too slow to upload any
pictures. If we get a better connection,
we will upload pictures.
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