Rewards and blessings

As our 3 weeks of volunteering in Arusha, Tanzania come to an end we are reminded of how many rewards and blessings we have received. We were able to visit orphanages and daycares and saw children who had a variety of respiratory, intestinal, skin, and eye problems mainly caused by their living conditions. We learned about common African diseases - HIV, malaria- and treated some acute problems with medications that we purchased. You can buy whatever you want from pharmacies here if Africa without a Rx and they do have a good variety of meds to choose from ( meds are much cheaper here than in US). None of our work would have been possible without the help of Jessica Paul from Tanzania Volunteer Experience. She is a bright, beautiful, caring, confident, and wonderful person and arranged our visits and did our translation with kids and parents. We both felt that she will be find herself in a significant leadership position in Africa in the future with her law background and work ethic.

Both Deb and I came away with many wonderful impressions of Africa, especially it's children. They are a most vulnerable population with no guarantee for education, health and decent living conditions as they grow up. But we experienced every day the smiles and greetings of beautiful kids as we walked the streets to our placements. We even had one boy see us from way down the path as he was walking with his Mom to school. He flashed us a big grin and literally sprinted to hug us each day when we saw each other on our walk.

We also wanted to follow up on the little guy with HIV, Said. Deb was able to accompany him to his follow up visit to the hospital and he is now being cared for by a Pediatrician who specializes in HIV and community health. He was anemic but his other blood counts were stable. He is on meds for his anemia, recent infections, and preventive meds for his HIV. The reward and blessing is that he is happy and healthier now.