Mze - Wise old person Bibi Tiarubi

 This is Bibi Tiaburi she is over 80 yrs old she is the wise old lady of the village

This is the Altar inside the church in Mindu I think there was about 15 poeple. It is one of the oldest villages in the area

Mganga wakienyeji - Witch Doctor

 This is the child that was saved. They gave him the blood that he needed.

 

This is the inside of Bibi's house. Just one room. This is it.

 

Yesterday a cobra bit a hen in the farm. They killed the cobra with a stick. They said the cobra was ready to strike the person with the stick.  It was black and about 3 feet long. Also yesterday in the soccer match Br Africanus I think sprained his ankle badly. They wanted to take him to the hospital in Tunduru but the hospital ran out of x-ray film so it was pointless to go. He will be going to Masasi tomorrow which is about 200 Km away. Just to get an x-ray. Today I got to meet a witch doctor here in the local village. I am going to meet with her tomorrow morning. I am very interested in what she has to say about my dreams. It sounds like there is a few witch doctors in the surrounding area. The Fathers and Brothers here think it is funny that I want to meet a witch doctor and ask questions. Actually most of them have been laughing about it. I got a good laugh yesterday. Sunday night there is always the weekend movie. It is a Tanzanian movie. This movie must have been filmed in Dar Es Salaam because the house looked like a house in America . What gave me the laugh is they kept playing the song of chariots of fire for many different scenes. The one scene I got the biggest kick out of was three women in the kitchen and the song is playing. These three women are working hard cooking a nice meal. Then in the end they take a big bit out of the food they made and started celebrating. That scene with chariots of fire playing. I don’t know why but I couldn’t stop laughing.

Well it is time for dinner.

Kula Chakula Jioni.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

On Friday I got a whole tour of the hospital. There x-ray machine is ancient. They just got an ultrasound machine but it is an older one. On the day they were still out of gloves and they were out of gauze. How can a hospital function with out gauze or gloves? There sterile room for prepping for surgery doesn’t really look sterile at all. The line for children to get there immunization shots was way out of the door. I couldn’t believe how many moms were sitting there wait with there baby. As you can imagine basically they need everything. All there equipment is old an out dated. There biggest need from what I see is another ambulance. And a deliberator. They do not own one. I think I saw one heart monitor in the entire hospital. The hospital here needs so much work. They had to move out of one of the buildings because they condemmed it. It looks like it is going to fall and crumble. Life is tough here whether you are in the hospital or if you are working in the hospital. There are very few workers there. I’m guessing they have about 150 beds there. There laundry is done mainly by hand. They have one washing machine which is just an old house hold one. Definitely not an industrial one.

I did see the child that had malaria. He survived and is doing well. You can imagine the parents were very happy. I was quit happy as well.

In the village here in Namiungo I visited the oldest woman, She is over 80 yrs old. But she has lost track. She is a sweet old lady. Lives in a tiny house maybe 8ft by 6ft. Basically there is just a bed an that is it. I couldn’t understand everything she was saying but she was very happy to see me. Matthew the guy who works for the UN told me a I had to see her and gave me money to give here. I think I gave her about 16,000 shilling which is about $10.00 usd. She shed a tear because she said she has been hungry for the past few days. She doesn’t here to well or can see to well but she was able to walk a little.

Today Fr Ponder and I went to Mindu. It is one of the oldest villages in the area. Fr Ponder said mass there. It was a small mud and brick building with a tin roof. I think about 15 people came. It was quaint and special in its very rural way. I enjoy watching the people dance as they sing. They have Rhythm I tell you. They woman like to make a loud shrill sound with there voice. I have never heard anything like it.

We also had a soccer match. We played the Namiungo team. The field had some grass a foot high, some dirt, some sand, and it was not level by any means. The soccer goals were basically made of three trees. The two on each side and one laying across which is sagging down. It was the most challenging field I have ever played on because there was no consistency of the ground. We lost 3-2.  

The weather has cooled down here. It is very nice weather here. We have oranges about every meal. The oranges here are green and there is a lot of them. Infact most people eat I would say about 4 oranges at each meal. The inside color of the orange is more of a yellowish orange color. And I haven’t figured out which ones are really good and which ones are just ok.

Kuokoa Miasha - To save a life

 

The last few days have been emotionally draining. I got to experience the slaughtering of a pig. The pig ate one of her babies so they decided to kill it. They do it the old fashion way. For those of you with weak stomachs skip to the next paragraph. They offered me to be the one to slice the pig’s throat but I was too scared. It was one mad pig and it weighed about 250lbs. Moses took a knife a cut the pigs throat. The good news is the pig died quickly. I will always remember the pig screaming for its life. Moses offered me to drink the blood but I refused. He did drink the blood and it was bright red. We then shaved the pig with a knife. I helped out in that. They then cut the pig down its belly to open it up. They then pulled out all the guts, lungs, and heart. The next part was to chop the pig into pieces with an ax. We then threw the pieces into a wheel barrel to carry to the kitchen. While we were chopping up the pig someone was already cooking some of the pig over a fire. We rinsed our hands with water and ate some pieces of meat. It was weird for me to think that the pig was alive less than an hour ago and now I’m already eating her. It is a different feeling. That night I ate pig heart and liver. It wasn’t too bad. I was just glad that I didn’t get sick.

Yesterday a 2 yr old boy came into the hospital. The child did not look good. We drew his blood and tested for Malaria. He was positive for malaria and had a lot of parasites in his blood. His blood sugar is very low. He is anemic. His eyes were very pale. No blood vessels at all. We gave him quinine injection into each leg. The child hardly even cries because he is so week. We give the child IV fluids. After four hours he is not getting better. Br Fulance said he must go to the hospital which is 48 km away. The mother, father and child leave. We go to have lunch and I ask Br Fulance, “They are going to take him to the hospital? Right ?” He said, “Probably not. They probably don’t have any money”. I said, “Don’t you think the child will die then?” He said, “Yes the Child will die”. My heart stopped. He said, “I’m sorry”. I thought how could you send a patient away to let him die. I said “WE must take him to the hospital then”. He said, “With what car.” I said, “What do you mean there is the Landcruiser and the Landrover infront  of the church.” He said, “Yes but there the priests car. Those two cars are not for us”. I instantly became furious. I am not going to let a two year old die on my watch because a priest won’t let us take his car, besides I don’t believe the priest would let us if we told him the situation. But that is the way Br Fulance sees it. He sees it as impossible question to ask.

So I marched  over and ask Fr Tesha saying “can we take your car to drive a child to the hospital. If we don’t get him to the hospital he will die. Fr Paulis said, “It costs 50,000Tsh to drive to and from the hospital and we don’t have that kind of money. If we drove every single person that needed to go to the hospital we would have ran out of money in February. It wasn’t even a question in my mind. I said, “I will pay 50,000 tsh for the diesel.” He said, “Ok let’s go then”.

Br Fulance had to make a phone call and try to find out what village the child lives in. We drive about 10 km. Br gets out of the car and starts asking people in the village. My heart is racing, I’m in a panic to get this child to the hospital ASAP and everyone else is calm just chatting with people. Someone knew where the family lives and lets them know. They come rushing out. Mom, dad, the child, Br Fulance, Fr Paulis and myself take off for Tundura. It is only 48 km but it takes an hour because the roads are so bad. I’m trying to calm myself down. I look back and to me the child basically looks dead. We get to the hospital and I rush out of the car and everyone else is taking there sweet time as if it is no big deal.

I find where we check in and I stand infront of the desk staring at the nurse working at it. She is staring at me and then goes about here business. I stare at her until she finally looks and talks to me. She then sees the patient. I run and grab Br Fulance who is chatting with an old friend at the hospital. I said, “You must come now and tell the nurse what is going on”. Well he takes another few minutes to finish his story to his friend and then comes. The thinking is just different here. It can be frustrating at times. We get the paper work and take the child to the ped’s unit. The nurse there starts and IV. Br Fulance tells this nurse the history. I give the dad 10,000 tsh and walk out. I finally can relax now. I ask Br Fulance if he could find out for me in the next week what happened to the child. I have peace of mind knowing that we got the child to the hospital. I think his chance of getting blood and surviving are quit good. But it is never guaranteed.

I can’t believe they were going to let the child die. I can’t even imagine. But that is the reality here. I guess people die everyday because they can’t get to the hospital. Maisha magumu- life is tough, and they accept it.

So I paid 50,000 tsh which is $32.00 usd and then I gave 10,000tsh for medicine which is about $8.00 usd.

So for about $40.00 USD you can save a child’s life in the future.

I met with the chief of the hospital. I asked to see all of there facilities. I told him who I was and what I do. We seemed more than happy to show me around in the future. So we made a plan for tomorrow. Just so you know where ever I go people see me as walking dollar bills. That is just the way it is. If you are white you are rich. So I know he is glad to show me around. I can see that there is a great need for things in the hospital. I notice when the nurse started the IV she didn’t have gloves so I asked about that. The hospital ran out of gloves. So until they get some more they have to deal with out it. A simply thing as gloves. I asked if they had an ambulance. They have two ambulances. They probably need about 42 ambulances for the entire county. One ambulance is for pregnant woman only and there is rules. Only if it is your 2^nd,3^rd, or 4^th child will the ambulance come. They have a whole list of questions that you have to answer before the ambulance will even think about coming and getting you. The other ambulance is only for very serious cases. They screen that too. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to get to the patient  him/her to the hospital. The good news is that children 5 and under are free. Sort of, they are still suppose to pay for the medicine that is given to them but most don’t have the money. Sometimes the hospital runs out of medicine then you must run to the pharmacy to buy the medicine there and return to the hospital. It is a bad situation here.

This has to be the poorest are I have ever been in my life. I went with Elizabeth who is a nurse here at the clinic in Namiungo to a local village. It was about a 5 km bike ride. The children immediately come to see me the muzungo. All the children stand around me and stare like I’m an animal in a zoo. It is quit funny how they just stare at me and watch my every move. Elizabeth goes to the village once a month to weigh the babies to see there growth progress and to give them there vaccinations for DTP and polio. I took pictures of the kids and they were fascinated with my camera and then I would show them and they all would huddle around me to look at the screen. They love getting there picture taken. I went walking around the village and they all follow me. Where ever I went I had a trail of at least 10 kids following me. It is poor here but they have been surviving for a long time. They make about $200.00 a year. They make this by selling there crops to other villages and of course buying the crops that they need. They know how to grow food and raise chickens. Starving is not the problem in Africa. Of course if there is not a drought or a big monsoon that wipes out there crops which is there lively hood. They are use to walking long distances to get there water. It is there way of life and what they know. The biggest problem here is disease, Typhoid, Malaria, HIV, Diabetes, pneumonia, and more.

As a result I think the biggest need here is money for transportation to the hospital. The clinic needs a lot of supplies and it is probably better and cheaper to get the patient to the county hospital instead of helping them at the clinic. That is my perspective.

I would like to start a TRANSPORTATION fundraiser here. I firmly believe for $40.00 YOU CAN SAVE A CHILD’S LIFE in the FUTURE. That is $32.00 for diesel fuel to and from the hospital and $8.00 for medicine. Well I should say get the child to the hospital where he has a much greater chance of living. Then to just send the child home and see what happens. I need to talk to them about how to set up and account with them to transfer money into.

If you are interested in donating any money for this cause PLEASE send me an email to michaeldonaldjohnson@gmail.com and the amount you would like to donate. I am going to go through the work of setting this up. I will check my email in a week to see who is interested and let Br Fulance and the Clinic here know. I appreciate everyone for there time reading from my blog.

Kuokoa Maisha

 Weighing the baby to check its growth rate from month to month

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Ijumaa - Friday

This man suffers from diabetes

Friday

In the morning I worked at the clinic. I would ask patients there name age where do they live and there occupation. Female patients I ask how many times they have been pregnant, how many times have they given birth and how many children are still alive. At the clinic we test for HIV and for syphilis because it is a problem in this region. There is about 8 different villages in the area. The closet hospital to us is 14 Km away. The older patients when I ask there age they don’t know how old they are. Fulance is the doctor here in Namiungo. He said sometimes a pregnant lady will come in a give birth. They do not have the equipment here for labor but they what they can. They also don’t have proper equipment for dressing wounds here. This is definitely the poor area. Housing is grass roofs with sticks for walls then mud and some use brick. Some have concrete foundations but I would say most just have dirt.

The money for the medicine comes from the American Salvatorians. So Americans who have  donated money. The clinic here would not be alive with out American donations. They buy the medicine in Dar es Salaam and then drive it down to Namiungo. For eye drops in Dar es Salaam costs 60 cents then the clinic sells it for 70 cents just because of the cost of gas to drive it down to Namiungo. They just try and break even but that is usual not the case fro example.

A lady comes gets here blood work tested and then given medicine. The total cost is 14,000 TSH which is about $8.00 US. However they might pay 2,000 TSH today and then 2,000 tsh tomorrow. The patient tries and pays what she can and when she can. The clinic might not get the money or not. It is just the way it is. As far as wages here for example. There are two 16 yr old boys working out on the farm digging, herding animals doing what ever needs to be done on the farm. They are paid 1,000 tsh for one day. So your are talking 66 cents a day. Just to put it into perspective. It is very poor here.

I went with Brother Fulance to treat a patient in a village. We had to walk because we don’t have anything to transport in. We get there and the patient is in bed. He can’t walk. He has had diabetes for two years now. He is about 60 yrs old. His feet has edema and numbness. This man is a stick figure, no meat on his bones. We test his blood sugar and it is high. These people are poor besides there is not diabetes medicine here. They eat what ever they grow. So he eats corn, beans, rices, Chinese spinach. Sometimes he has chicken and other vegetables. Unfortunately there is not much we can do. The people here thinks he has AIDS but he doesn’t. The only person who will touch him is his wife. People here are scared of sickness and don’t want to catch anything. They don’t understand that he has diabetes and they can’t get infected by him. Another problem here is the trust. Some do not trust western medicine and they refuse to take it or they refuse to get blood work. Slowly I think they are realizing the benefit and being educated.

In they afternoon they taught me how to make bread. It is tough work. It was a good learning experience. After wards I walked to the farm where they are growing corn and peanuts. The peanuts here are smaller and they are kind of mushy. Everything he is organic. They don’t have money for fertilizer or for watering. It is all natural. The cows they let roam around to eat then they bring them back to the farm.  Yesterday a baby cow was born. I have a picture of the 0ne hour old cow. I will try and post it. It takes about 30 minutes to post one picture here.

I have taught two classes here so far. It is suppose to be English but instead it is them just asking questions about America. Everyone wants to go to America. I said doesn’t anyone of you want to go anywhere else. They said no just America. It is fun to see there ideas and views of America. One of them said, “priests get paid by the American government” I just started laughing. They all have a lot of questions which is very good. How else are they going to learn. My allergies are bad here. My eyes swelling up from pollen or hay or something here.

I still can’t get over the stars here. It is incredible how many there are. The sky is covered. There is no light. Absolutely beautiful. Well I just got informed that we are going to go slaughter a pig. So I have to change.

Maisha poli poli – Life is slowly slowly 

Namiungo

There is about 8,000 people in the County of Namiungo. It is like being in the middle of no where. There is grass fields and trees and few small rivers. It's a lot like being in the country of Minneosta. Here they raise all there own food. There is a about 30 candidates here. These men are around 18-20 yrs old and they are testing the water to see if they want to be a priest or brother. They live here. They work here and are feed and have  a room here. They have prayer 4 times a day. I can tell i'm going to really learn a lot of kiswahili here. They want me to help out in the clinic here. ITs very rural. The internet is dial up speed and there is only one computer so I probably won't post to often and no picutres because it will take about 20-30minutes to pull up just one. I'm here for 3 weeks. Just wanted eveyone to no I made the bus ride here which was 170km and it took 5 hrs. 20 km of paved road thanks tot he japanese prisoners. It was the nicest road i have been on since I have been here, smooth and very wide. I guess the Japanese government and the Tanzanian government made some sort of deal. Japan sent its prisoners as punishment to build a road in Tanzania. They did a great job.

I hope everyone is doing well.

A Bus trip of a Lifetime

Saturday wake up 4 am. I wake up Br Adelard he is ready to go by 4;30am. We walk to the bus stop. No bus. No Taxis. We walk to the next bus stop. We wait. We eventually get a taxi. 5:15am the bus is suppose to come at 5:45 amd and leave at 6am. for Masasi. They said it is about 12 hours. So i'm menatlly prepared. Sitting on steps waiting with a crowd of people. Bus shows up at 6:30am.We are start rushing towards this coach bus. It looks nice. I'm thinking hey this won't be that bad. We all find out it is not are bus and we run to another bus. Everyone is pushing to get on the bus. I'm thinking why. We have assigned seats. I finally force my way on. People are still pushing past me going down the aisle of the bus. I find out why. Over head baggage space. There is nothing. I find one small spot where I try to cram my back pack in. I get only half of it in and leave it. I sit down in my seat which is an aisle and next to Br Adelard which is a wider than average man. Infact he is taking up a third of my seat. In each row there is 5 seats. InAmerica we have 4 seats across. SO the seats are a littl smaller than normal. I have my one back pack between my legs and my other one falls on me asoon as we take off. So I put it on my lap. 12 hours this is going to be a long ride.
30 min into I'm think oh my God please help me this is going to be the most uncomfortable day of my life. Luckily br Adelard moves to the front of the bus to and open seat which we find out is available. Thank you God. Now I can spread out and breath a little. This is going to be a good ride now.
After a while the asphault ends. Rough road. That is being generous. We have only gone 1 hour an we are now going less than 10 mph we have about 700km to go. dirt road with pot holes. I mean craters. So deep that the bottom back of the bus is scraping the ground.  Probably at least 18 inches deep. It was quit a ride for an hour. Then it becomes asphault again. Smooth sailing . The bus stops everyone runs out to go pee. The men are peeing ont he right side of the rode the women are on the left side of the road sqwautting . I want ed to take a picture but didn't think it would be a good idea. We then rush on the bus and take off. We take maybe 5 minutes. Asphualt to mud this time deep mud. SO deep I'm affraid we are going to get stuck. Infact the bus infront of us does get stuck. The have to take a backo or a big Catepilalar plow truck to pull the bus out of the mud. The mud had to be two feet deep. The bus driver go the momentum going and we miraculously make it through. Then it goes to rough road again then asphault. There is no rhyme or reason where there is ashpault and where there isn;t . Some towns have it some doesn't , some roads in the minddle of no where has it some doesn't it doesnt make sense. We then are flying once again passing trucks and buses at incredible speed. We get in thick mud again. there is a line of buses. We are allfollowing in a line. sure enough they all  stop. We get stuck. We have to wait for a catepillar plow truck to pull us out. The bus driver tries rocking the bus back an forth but now luck. Well we eventually get pulled out.
We make another quick stop. I run out with everyone else. When I get back on the bus there is a child now in the middle seat sitting nect to his dad. I thought ok. I start showing him pictures to him. Next thing I know he looks away and then pukes. He looks down and pukes some more. SOme got on my pants. This was a rough dirt road. It was like being on a boat in the middle of an ocean swaying back and forth. We then get mud again and another line of buses. we are following in a row. We the bus infront of us starts fish tailing. Then we are fish tailing and traffic is going the other way we almost hit two different buses on this narrow road. Miss them by inches. We amazingly get on asphault and we cruise. We stop for lunch 15 minutes. we run to the bathrrom pee. rush order rice beef and beans. shovel it down our throats and get back on bus. I 'm thinking it must be smooth from here on out. 2 hours in the bus stops. The bus breaks down. They have to change a bearing in the middle of no where. One hour later. We are going again. 

Need less to say it was a long journey and it took 12 hours. It was a good experience but once I hope i don't ahve to experience again. I am traveling to Namiungo tomorrow. I'm in Masasi which is about 30,000 people. yesterday we didn't have electricity. Today I am fortunate. I probably won't have internet in Namiungo it is asmall town.

Well. see

Mungu Bariki