Electrical Challenges

Tanzania is in the midst of presidential elections. The majority party has chosen their candidate and the incumbent president was eliminated for consideration. The minority party will soon choose their candidate and the general election in several months will decide the leader of the country for the next five years.

Because the sitting president is now a lame duck, some government services are not at the normal level. It has been explained to us that no one is responsible, no one is taking charge, no one is accountable.

In Tanzania, the power company is government owned and operated.

Therefore, we are experiencing blackouts every day. Some are short lived. Some are hours long. Mazimbu does have a generator. The day we arrived the hospital was dark and we asked why the generator was not providing power. Because it had not been used in some time, the batteries needed to be charged. That was accomplished overnight and today at about 10 am, when the next power outage occurred, the generator kicked right in. And powered the hospital until 1:00 pm when it ran out of fuel. Discussions between the hospital and the general secretary, who controls the funds, continued throughout the afternoon. We are hoping that the fuel will be on hand by the time we arrive tomorrow morning.

Our day was full with new patients and with our first two surgeries. The second surgery, a minor procedure, was done without power with the aid of headlamps.

Doug was called in to assist Dr. Swai when a hysterectomy also developed into an appendectomy. The two doctors have been enjoying a rewarding exchange of knowledge and ideas thus far.

Tomorrow we have a full day scheduled—4 major surgeries. Dr. Swai will be working with Doug on several of them. The uncertainty of the power may affect our ability to work as planned. If the generator is fueled, and if running out of fuel has not damaged the generator, we will be able to continue even if power is lost. We are asking for prayers for electricity throughout the rest of our time here.

Update on Ben—an egg-crate mattress is crucial to his healing and to his future health because it disburses the pressure away from his pressure ulcers. All attempts to buy one locally or to order from Amazon have been unsuccessful. But we have worked out a solution—Cindy’s husband Dana will go in to a hospital supply store and buy one and ship it through UPS. We are told it will arrive Thursday! God is good! Tomorrow our plan is to begin physical therapy to gain upper body strength with the intent that he will be able to reposition himself without relying on anyone’s help.