Safely Arrived in Dar es Salaam

Just a quick introduction to your team this year--

      Doug Treptow is our surgeon and is joined by his wife, Glennis, who works as our pharmacy tech. The Treptows live in Rogers, AR and this will be their 6th trip to Tanzania.

      Lance and Eileen Miller are retired and live in Hot Springs Village, AR. Lance is an engineer and a car enthusiast and works as a "fundi" or fixer. Eileen is the church organist and directs the choir and will be helping Glennis in our pharmacy

      Cindy Pennie is our team leader and is a retired RN from Stillwater, OK. Cindy has led the team each of our 10 years and, before that, was a member of a different medical team twice. 

      Pati Murdock handles team logistics. She manages a law firm in Rogers, AR so those skills carry over to our work here. This is Pati's 10th year to serve.

     Will Murdock is Pati's oldest son and she is so happy to share her love of Tanzania with Will, who is a Junior at Metropolitan State University in Denver, studying Industrial Design. This qualifies him to be our 2nd "fundi" so he and Lance will be putting their tools and mechanical knowledge to the test.

     Nancy Bean is a retired veterinarian from Texas, who has served on the team three times before this year. She will be working with our patients and doing initial interviews and triage.

     Chris Buzzelli and Ashley Jones are surgical techs who work with Doug in Rogers, AR. This is their first trip and they are looking forward to working with their Tanzanian counterparts as they scrub in and work with Doug in the surgical theater.

     Zach Lewis is a sophomore at OSU studying management information systems. Zach will be assisting the team wherever help is needed.

36 hours of travel

Our travels yesterday took much longer than we originally planned. Team members left from Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma City and met in Washington DC for the 2 international flights--DC to Zurich and then Zurich to Dar. The rest of the team left from (XNA) Chicago to Newark for the flight to Zurich, which is where the team met all together for the first time. 

Connections were very tight for the Arkansas group. We landed in Chicago with just enough time to make it to the plane. Newark was a different story. We arrived much later than planned so we had to make a run for it! As we arrived at the gate--4 of the 5 of us--they were ready to close the doors. They told us we could not wait for Glennis (who had made a pit stop) so we boarded the plane. Our lagger panted up to the gate moments later and they did let her board--thank you United Airlines!

We enjoyed visiting in Zurich during the short 1 hour wait to board for Dar es Salaam. Once boarded and settled in for the long (11 hour) flight, the plane taxied to the runway...and stopped...and stopped...and stopped. After half an hour the intercom crackled and there was a long speech in Swiss-German. Followed by the English version that told us mechanical problems would require a repair, we would be asked to deplane, it should only be 3-4 hours, and please accept Swiss Air's gift of CHF 20 for food and beverage, and please stay in the terminal (with the other 280 passengers) and you can use your choice of 2 restaurants or Starbucks.

Four hours later than planned, we were wheels up and finally landed in Dar es Salaam at 1 am. Quick--we arrived on the 23rd instead of the 22nd--change the date on all our entry forms! All 21 of our check bags arrived safely, with some minor scuffs or rips and tears.

We found our beds at 4 am and are now writing this blog from the Southern Sun, after enjoying a sumptuous brunch. It will take us most of the day to get to Morogoro and get unpacked. Monday will begin our first day where we renew our acquaintances with our friends and coworkers in Tanzania. We cannot wait to begin!