Day 12: Sekou Toure Hospital.

Mwanza, Tanzania - Visiting the Sekou Toure regional hospital in Mwanza this morning, we were reminded of how lucky we are to have the health care service we do in Canada. While the hospital was better equipped than the one we visited in Kenya earlier in the trip, its inadequacies were punctuated by its complete lack of electricity and water since last night. They have no back-up generators.

A large number of the hospital’s patient base of 4-5,000 lines the hallways on long benches, or sits on the lawn. One woman brought with her a basket of live chickens as geckos scurried along the floor. Each of the “In case of emergency, break glass” cases was cracked.

Each day, the hospital helps bring 40 babies into the world and cares for 80 HIV/AIDS patients. One advantage of its being a government-run hospital is that patients only need to pay 5,000 TSH (approximately $4.75) for a registration card that will cover all of their examinations, necessary diagnostics like ultrasounds or x-rays, and any medications. Wait times are only two hours.

HIV/AIDS patients undergo mandatory counselling sessions before they are able to see a doctor, and the room where one such session was being conducted was full of women and young children. And the surgeries scheduled for today? They will have to be postponed until such time as electrical power returns. Such is life in Africa.

This afternoon, we went back to the kitchen so that Meaghan and Alison could deliver follow-up exams related to the mamas’ English lesson earlier in the week. The mamas were busy cooking lunch for one of the local schools, for whom they prepare breakfast and lunch as a side business. We also returned to the Forever Angels orphanage for a couple of hours and it was nice to see I was remembered from last week.

Forever Angels.

Mwanza, Tanzania - Really making me miss my own back home, Meaghan, Alison and I spent the afternoon volunteering our time with the children at the Forever Angels orphanage in Mwanza.

The orphanage is currently home to 20 children under the age of three, and is being expanded to house double that number. Many of the children came from families where the parents died from disease, or were simply left on the orphanage’s doorstep. One boy we met had been beaten so badly, and left at the gate, that he needed to be resuscitated in hospital. Others had had their growth stunted by severe malnutrition. Most of them just wanted some love and some attention – just like any other child.

It was funny to see just how little difference there can be in children, regardless of where they are from – much like my previous experience, it seem inevitable that if you build a sandcastle, a child will get the biggest kick out of squashing it. And then asking, amid peels of laughter, to have it rebuilt. We played in the sandbox, gave piggyback rides, sat with the children during snack time, played catch and participated in other children’s games. One of the boys, Joseph, was really interested in my camera and wanted me to put Alison’s sunglasses on so that he could take a photo. Then, he wanted to take a picture of his friend. He was quite pleased with the results of his pressing the button releasing the shutter and capturing the moment for himself.

It was also a little funny to hear them sing the Bob the Builder theme song – or some variation thereof. Like kids everywhere, they’re good mimics.