We headed out to Maasai land Monday to do three things, a medical mission for pregnant women, a “Days For Girls” program for young women and a mini VBS for kids. Our three docs visiting from Temple, Texas were ready.
I can’t even begin to explain to you how absolutely horrendous, incredibly wonderful the day was. We had packed everything except the kitchen sink in Bob the truck; medicines, food for more than 500 people, puppets, crayons, 350 feminine bags, exam tables, washing stations, a thousand bottles of water, even a mini sonogram so the pregnant moms could see their babies. The volunteers made 700 peanut butter sandwiches.
The Altrusa group from Temple Texas, friends from Arkansas and our water well drillers from Nacogdoches were ready. Who knew by the time we arrived every thing we had so carefully packed would be a jumbled mess covered in dust.
The pretty little clinic in Shambarai where we were headed had had no water, no bathrooms, no exam rooms, no tables or chairs, just whitewashed walls and a shiny, tin roof. To make a medical mission happen we had to take literally everything, from clipboards and gloves to exam sheets and wash stands. They had nothing.
They had dust. We sunk in dust, we breathed in dust, every time we slowed for a bump the dust billowed up slapping the windows of the cars so we were entombed in dust.
Poor Bob, our truck, had a hard time ploughing through the dust.
At times the tires sunk so deep they could not go on. The men cut brush to put under the tires to try to get traction. Twice they had to be dug out and pulled by a safari car.
I will forever feel guilty when I complain about how much rain we get in Arusha. It has been three years since they have had rain out here. It is easy to see why no one comes out here!
The government had promised a doctor if the people would build the clinic and a home for him. Although extremely poor, the people were desperate for a doctor and with the help of Pastor Israel they had managed to beg and scrape together enough money to put up the walls and roof. Neema Village had provided the birthing clinic, drilled a well for water, laid the pipe to deliver the water to the clinic and built a separate bathroom with the water tank on top. Below, water from one of the three wells Neema Village dug for them.
Many of our babies at Neema Village are from Maasai villages where they have no medical care, very little car service and must walk 30 or 40 km to the nearest village clinic. Moms are estimated to die from childbirth at a shocking rate of one in nine out there.
On this trip we planned to see 50 pregnant moms, hand out prenatal vitamins and encourage them to come in to the hospital for delivery.
New little Maasai twins this month at Neema, Lepaso and Lemodia lost their mom in childbirth.
Thirteen people from the Altrusa club in Temple, Texas had been planning to come to volunteer at Neema since before Covid. It finally happened and three Scott and White Hospital doctors and two medical assistants from Arkansas came with the group. It was a medical mission wanting to happen!
The rest of the group organized patients, kept records, took blood pressure, gave out meds, and led people to exam rooms. We took translators since few of the people spoke English.
Our translators like Grace were fabulous, right Susan and Beverly? Besides the pregnant women there were a few hundred other people all wanting to see a doctor. With so many people pulling us in every direction Kelle remarked, ” I don’t know how Jesus did this.”
A fourteen-year-old boy who had been playing with an electric wire and barely survived electrocution sat patiently waiting to be seen. His arm was maimed and he only had one toe on what was left of his foot. There was a large hole of dirt and pus on his ankle. He sat patiently waiting to see a doctor and after Kelle washed and bandaged it he went over to color giraffe with the other children. It was sad to think this little boy had not been immediately rushed to a hospital. We were the first medical people he had seen.
Friends had hooked up a couple of donkeys to bring a woman in who had had a stroke. There wasn’t much we could do; she had just waited too late. One old lady had come with the beginnings of a goiter on her neck; we didn’t have any iodized salt so we gave her a bottle of prenatal vitamins which had iodine.
Don’t know if that will help at all but she will certainly feel better.
The twins from Arkansas, Melissa and Margaret, were everywhere helping.
And the doctors saw 55 happy little pregnant women, one with twins that we need to find and encourage her to get to the hospital when the time comes to deliver.
One sweet young mom had heard about the sonogram and asked, “Will we really get to see our baby?” Can you just imagine.
The “Days for Girls” program was a smashing success. Our staff, Anna, Angel, Priscilla and Heavenlight along with volunteer Marquesette did the program and then gave out 350 bags with feminine washable pads for girls.
This program is designed to keep girls in school, delay early marriage and put off having babies until at least age 18. The music was loud and over 300 girls had a great time dancing, trilling and eating peanut butter sandwiches.
Ashley, Caroline, Debra and I had the children’s program but I soon left it with Ashley since she is so good at presenting the gospel message to kids. They were scared at first and like most kids, they just wanted their mommies but puppets, lollypops and colors got them calmed down pretty fast.
That evening on the way back, we stopped to see an orphanage with 35 children that Pastor Israel supports. Seeing the girls’ sweet little faces and having grown up in an orphanage myself that was a little rough for me.
Thank You Temple Group and Dr. Pam Greene, Dr. David Dawson and Dr. Scott Ruiz from Scott and White Hospital and all the group for doing this medical mission. You were Trojans!
Travis and Pam Russell, Julie and Steve Ruiz, Melissa Ricks, Margaret Cooper, Debra Hicks, Susan and David Dawson, Dana Sanger, Pam Greene, Beverly and Larry Luedke, Donna Darner and Sierra Goffigan. You were all amazing!
There were a lot of tired, happy smiles at a job well done at the end of the day.
Before he left one of the Doctors made a comment that touched me,
“The footprint of Neema Village is huge here in this country.”
We pray that people see God and not us in that footprint!