Saturday part of our team joined the Ilula outreach group to service a village beyond the last dispensary. Nursing staff,dental providers ,lab staff,pharmacists,and physicians all went together in 3 vehicles on muddy slippery minimally improved roads. Upon arrival we were provided a wonderful breakfast at the pastor’s house before starting clinic.
The clinic is a school converted for the day to a clinic with a building for lab and a provider and a second bank of classrooms for extracting teeth,weighing babies and seeing medical patients. In about 4-5 hours we saw over 130 patients accompanied by multiple family members and weighed over 80 babies.Multiple teeth were extracted,many medical patients were seen with multiple outpatient lab tests completed and tens of drugs prescribed and filled. It could have been chaotic but the clinic was well organized,efficient and appeared appreciated by the community. Outreach is usually monthly to this village.
We received a second generous meal again at the pastor’s house before departure. Our feast consisted of rice ,chicken,greens and beans; more than ample for our adventure home.
An adventure it was! Little did we know the impact of the steady drizzle during the midday. Our roads turned to greasy,rutted paths that proceeded up and down what now appeared to be mountains! Our amazing driver used every gear on his 4 wheel drive vehicle. We made it up every mountain and drove ,not slid on the downhill side. We even drove halfway into the ditch to pass a stalled large truck. Just as everyone was breathing again and releasing their death grips on the vehicle (or fellow occupants) we came to a road jam of stopped vehicles. 2 trucks were stuck uphill including 1 with large,long timber logs straddling the road. Our calm driver got out of our Toyota and walked in the mud to survey the scene. He returned confident of our passage. While maintaining complete control he went into a puddled huge mud hole then into the ditch while barely clearing a tree on one side and simultaneously missing the large logging timbers on the other side by no more than 2 inches. It was the most incredible driving l have ever experienced! Needless to say he received much gratitude and multiple rounds of applause from the Americans. Such is clinical care in rural Tanzania.
Now for church and a slower day tomorrow.
Alan
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