Mazimbu team

Work at the hospital has not been as busy as in past years.  Because Doug is our only doctor this year, the word was spread before we arrived that the team would see only patients who had previously seen a doctor and been told they needed surgery.  We do not know why we have had so few requests for surgical help, but by Friday morning the pace has picked up.

Doug has still been busy in the OR, though, because Mazimbu has asked for his assistance on several surgeries that were timed specifically for our first two days so that he could lend a hand.

And we are excited to report that Bill’s talents as a handyman are being put to good use at Mazimbu.  Midway during a procedure on Wednesday the cautery machine stopped working.  Doug had to finish the surgery tying off all of the small vessels with suture, a very tedious process.  And if we had to work without cautery, we would have to rethink our plan to have a gynecologist from Dar es Salaam work with the team next week.  Gynecological surgeries are bloody procedures and cannot be done without cautery.

So Bill came with the hospital team yesterday, Thursday, to see if he could repair the cautery machine.  And he found and fixed the problem very quickly.  Matron promptly adopted him and began giving “Babu” (grandfather) many different odd jobs around the hospital.  Bill turned our pharmacy into his workshop and at one point his arms were full of small appliances including an iron and a small lamp.  At the end of the day, Matron asked Bill to return and look at the generator to see if he could help.  If you will remember, this is the big generator that will power the entire hospital during a power outage and it is a very expensive piece of equipment.  That invitation is quite a compliment to his talents!

It might be a couple of days before another post is added to this blog.  We are all eating dinner at a local favorite restaurant, Dragonea, because Friday night is pizza night.  Our translators and Barbara, Kilatu and Kristen are joining us and we are looking forward to lots of conversation, laughter and pizza.  Tomorrow, Saturday, half of the team are hiking the mountain and the other half are going to a Masai cattle market.  Sunday we will be enjoying two worship services—the first with Barbara at her home church and the second in a Masai village.  So we will have lots of stories to tell of our weekend adventures!