THE FOUNDATION WEBSITE

For your information Tanzanian hospital foundation of which I am a member is raising money to support the hospital where I am going and have been going you can see the pictures and read about it  at    http://www.tanzaniancardiachospital.org/
be sure to view the newsletters on the left and if you are grateful for your life here you can donate at the  donate clicker on the right.

The  time has come to return again to My African Family. My flight is schedule to arrive on January 16 at Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania.
The real name of this blog should be Ngarenoirobi because that is the name of the village where I am located. The post office where the mail comes is Sanya Ju many miles from Ngarenoirobi. I am hoping to help Sr Ernesta with Echocardiography both pediatric and adult and vascular and small parts with the Sonosite ultrasound machine given from the company's charitable arm at a very reasonable price paid for by my three adult children.  Jan 6 2014

MUSLIM SURPRISE

Last week I came out of the ultrasound room and encountered a muslim woman with a head piece that had the tinest slit for the eyes. I did a double take and the people started laughing. I laughed and they all laughed the more. We had a great laughing session. i usually sit next to sister Ernesta when she sees patients. when the muslim woman came in she closed the door and took the veil off and gave me the most beautiful smile and started laughing. my sides hurt. comic relief for the day.

THE VODACOM INCIDENT

The Vodacom Incident

Today I went to the vodacom Store in Moshi, Tanzania about 1 ½  hrs from our African home.

We spent the day shopping for a few things and visited with  a sister to help her apply for an Ultrasound machine for the medical center. I stopped by the Vodacom center to get a moden for Fr Thedeus and to check on mine to see when it would expire its monthly subscription. I complained to the man who had helped us many times and was always very acomidating and helpful. I told him I appreciated his customer interaction. I proceeded to tell him how unhappy I was with the performance of the internet service of Vodacom as I described in my previous entry. He explained that this was a third world country and could not compete with America. I told him if I was the CEO I would try my best to compete. I had to show my passport to get the new modem and I presented the copy I had gotten . We shook hands and we left. Later in the afternoon I realized that  I had forgotten to get my passport copy back. We raced back to the office and got there a few minutes after 5 pm. I knocked on the locked door and a man inside waved me off signaling that the place was closed. I motioned with my finger for him to come to the door. He walked away.. I banged on the door. Another person came and motioned that they were closed. I motioned for them to come to listen. They walked away. I kept banging on the door. The security guard who had first come went to the door on the opposite side. I ran around and yelled passport many times. He walked away again. I could not believe someone could be so ignorant to not come and see what this person was banging on the door  Finally I saw a man with a Vodacom shirt on outside and asked him to tell them I wanted my passport. He mouthed the words to some woman inside and finally someone came  to the door with my passport. I asked him why someone could not come to the door and see why I  was banging on the door.  He told me I had made enough of a disturbance and had gotten what I wanted and why did’nt I just go. I was not believing someone could be so ignorant. He was overheard saying that I used bad language which was not true at all. We left laughing that Vodacome had yet again inflicted pain and aggravation true to their policy of “just give us the money and chalk it up to third country whimpering.”
 America My home Sweet Home.   

VODAPHONE MODEMS

VODAPHONE  MODEMS

I bro^ght my laptop comp^ter so that I co^ld talk to my very sweet wife who was self sacrificing eno^gh to grant me three months leave to do what the Lord  p^t on my heart to do here in Ngarenoirobi Please exc^se my keyboard I can not type a period or a letter pronounced yo^ or ewe bec^ase I was s^tpid eno^gh to try to clean Ngarenoiroibi ever present d^st off my keyboard with toothpaste I fiig^red if it can whitten teeth it can whiten my keyboard Common sense was sacrificed to logic Any way I wanted to be smart and talk to My Q^erida on Skype All I needed was the internet Little did I know what was in store for me To get the internet in Tanzania yo^ have to drive 1/12 ho^rs to Moshi Town and b^y a thing like a Flash drive that is called a modem I p^rchsed one sold by Vodacom Yo^ p^t the modem in the ^sb port of yo^r laptop and it is s^ppose to find the signal and connect yo^ to the internet The tower for the thing is abo^t two football fields from the ho^se It only works some days and every time yo^ try to get on line it tell yo^ yo^ are not connected I try to talk to Norma and even tho^gh connected it says yo are off line or yo^ modem is not responding We talk sometimes a few seconds and it c^ts o^t It is the poorest exc^se for technology I have ever ^sed I think the owners of this company are outright robbers taking the peoples money and delivering s^ch a scandol^s  ab^se of h^mane respect If I were to live here longer I wo^ld organize a law s^it against these robbers of the p^blic I have spent ho^rs wresling with the thing trying to downlod a simple application for someone I wish I cold talk to an exective of s^ch an o^trage of a larceny b^t I do^bt they have a conscience It told me it wo^ld take two and one half hors to download one application PEOPLE OF TANZANIA RISE ^P 

A LITTLE BOY

      The other day a mother came to the hospital with some other people and was carrying a four year old boy who looked asleep I was concerned and followed her into the area where the sisters discuss with the patient
After some discussion Sr Daria was asking the mother to sit the child up so that she could give some crushed pills and water The mother
shook the boy squeezed his face and shook him to try to wake him up It became obvious he was unconscious I became alarmed and noticed that his breathing was very rapid and shallow in a very short time the sisters carried him off to the ward I learned later that they had taken him to
a government hospital reporting that he had had some seizures and was given some very minimal meds and sent home where he got worse The
sisters accurately diagnosed malaria which was confirmed by lab tests
the next day they gave him anti seizure meds. and other anti malarial
weapons later in the day I went by the ward to check on him and found that he was still unconcious I feared for his life and gave the mother a pat on the shoulder to show my support for her We all agreed the case needed prayers and later that night after supper I mentioned to Fr Priscus about the case and how sad it was to see that young mother holding that 4 year old son, to big for her lap, and trying to wake him ^p He asked if they were Catholic so that he co^ld anoint him He told me very often anointing would turn people around quickly Sr Daria called back and said the family was Muslim We all prayed and the next day he woke up I stopped in to see him on the way to the ultrasound room and Sr Daria went with me and told the mother that we had all prayed
for him He was still sleeping after being up for a while but I smiled
at the Mom and went to work Two days later she came with Sister to my room and said to tell me she did not want to leave before thanking me for my prayers for her son I felt privledged to be with those who had helped a young Muslim mother who witnessed some caring Christians and the power of Jesus

ANTHRAX

Two days ago sister asked me to check antibiotic recommendations for anthrax She had seen the patient two weeks ago and had sent him to the government hospital so that he could be quarantined and reported to the authorities in his geographic area so that his family would be checked and his livestock checked. Because of the very famous case in the U.S. about the laboratory technologist who decided he wanted to wipe out the staff of a newspaper rag” in Boca Raton by sending a letter with anthrax spores in it which affected 63 people at the paper I was very concerned and interested. I had visiting me an animal research person who was very concerned about the mention of anthrax. Sister assured him later that she had handled the case properly. He told me they diagnose the animals by their rigid hair and bleeding from any body orifices. He told me that they will bury the animal and the area is restricted for forty years which is the life of the spores. They would go to check all his animals.At the original visit the man had bleeding ulceration area on his face which made an easy diagnosis. I was grateful I did not deal with the person because the incidence of infection is very high for oral and lung because of the spores. However if treated with Cipro and doxicycline the course of improvement is usually successful.