Africa Experience - Tanzania - Day 2

Arusha, Tanzania

After a well rested night, we enjoyed breakfast of Africa coffee (my favorite - http://africafecoffee.com/), eggs, toast, jelly, fruit, and wonderful fruit juices at the Café Bamboo Restaurant.  We needed to fill up and be ready for our busy day.

                                   ALMC                               Presentation from Director, Dr. Mark Jacobson

Our first stop of the day was at the ALMC, Arusha Lutheran Medical Center (http://www.almc.habari.co.tz/).  It is an amazing hospital in the center of downtown, run by director Dr. Mark Jacobson.  Dr. Mark Jacobson presented a slide show on the history of the hospital and medical care in Arusha.  We also toured the hospital, maternity ward, and urgent care area. 




A beautiful glass window made from recycled bottles

 

Our group with Dr. Mark Jacobson



We all enjoyed getting to know the young children at the Plaster House!

 

 

This little boy was so cute and entertaining.  You can hear him

giggle!  We have learned that  he recently had

his casts removed and is doing awesome!

 

 

Our next stop was the Plaster House  (http://www.theplasterhouse.org/ - click on the link to learn more and donate). The Plaster House is a rehabilitation home for children recovering from corrective orthopedic and plastic surgery at ALMC and Selian, in Arusha, Tanzania. The service was greatly needed as outreach patients often returned home after surgery and casts were uncared for and follow-up appointments were unlikely. Plaster House provides a clean, safe and loving environment where the children receive medical checkups, are well-nourished, and for the first time are surrounded by children in similar situations.   It is an amazing place started by Sarah Rejman! We spent time talking to the children, reading and playing games with them.  They were so cute and social.  The Plaster House is for children birth to 18 years, and only accompanied by their mom if nursing.  Many of the kids suffer from club foot, burns, scars, and cleft palate. 



picnic lunch

For our lunch.....we had our own picnic, making sandwiches in the gravel outside the Plaster House.  It was a quick break before moving on to the nursing college. 

Also in conjunction with the ALMC, the nursing school was officially opened in March of 2014.  The goal of the school is to help overcome the great deficit of nurses and to recruit local students into nursing and into serving in the hospitals.  We didn't get to meet any of the nursing students on our tour, as they were working at the ALMC hospital.  Again, another great opportunity for young students in Arusha. 

We had a wonderful day learning about the great people and places that are bringing opportunity and good things to the people of Arusha and Tanzania. 

Arusha Market

We had time in the late afternoon to check out the local handcraft market in Arusha.  Some of us bought some treasures to take home and others made a list of things to buy later on. 

Dinner was enjoyed at the Njoro Mall.  It reminded me of a mall food court.  There were several menus and choices for dinner.  Brett and I shared an amazing curry dinner in clay pots.  It was a great way to end the day!

chicken curry for dinner - the food was amazing!