Sunday, August 18th, 2013 Community Lunch at Neema Orphanage, Mural touchups and meeting sponsor children First thing today, the group headed of to mass Tanzanian style, at St. Norbert’s Church. The choir and people were singing and dancing (like a gospel choir) and the church was packed, not like the churches in Canada. Unlike masses in Canada, men were seated on the left side of the church and women were seated on the right; one of the customs in Tanzania. There was a lot of spirit, faith and love that filled the church. Even though, I did not understand the mass because I did not speak Swahili, I felt the love and devotion of the people to God. The people seemed generally happy to be there, and their happiness and praise to God was contagious. After ... read more

Friday, August 16th, 2013 The Last Day of Clinic in Songea and it is Party Time !!!! Songea Clinic Day 3: So today marked the last day of clinic in Bobambili, Songea. We assessed the elderly in the morning and pre and post natal mothers in the afternoon. The day was slow in the HIV briefing and testing room. Not many elderly and mothers wanted to have HIV testing. Apparently, pregnant mothers already receive HIV testing at the hospital before their children are born to reduce chances of the virus passing to the child. I spent the majority of the time checking out the other different stations (Social Learning and Counselling, Hygiene Briefing, Nutritional Assessment and Triage, Nutritional Briefing, Vitamin A and Deworming, and Eye Care and Dental Brie... read more

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013 We are open for business…. Songea Clinic Day 1: Today was the official first day of the Tancan 2013 clinic, at St. Norbert’s clinic in Bombambili, Songea. We will be screening and promoting preventive health education to the children of the community for the next two days of the clinic. The third day of the clinic caters to the elderly for the first ½ and expecting mothers and their children for the second ½. We had a late start (TIA: This is Africa) but when things got rolling, they really got rolling. The HIV team worked non-stop, explaining what HIV was, why get tested and the importance of prevention. With the HIV team, fingers were pricked, blood was taken on the HIV test strips, and buffe... read more

Monday August 12th, 2013 The Wheels on the bus go round and round ….. Today we will be on the road, for a 16 hour bus ride from Dar Saleem to our first site in Neema and St. Norbert’s clinic, in the region of Bobambili, Songea. Wow!!! That’s long. However, with the lack of sleep in Dar Saleem and the fact that Tanzania is 7 hours ahead of Toronto, I slept most of the way. On the way the group stopped in Morogoro, where the Vincentian seminarians treated us to breakfast. I got my first taste of ginger beer, which was delicious. We met a few local priests, and learned that the seminary in Morogoro is where many of the seminarians in Africa receive their education into priesthood. We were then on the road again. We ... read more

Friday August 9th, 2013 Our Tanzanian Adventure Begins !!! The day has finally arrived! After weeks of collecting monetary and material donations, my sister Renata and I are going on our first much anticipated medical mission to Tanzania with Chalice, a Catholic and Nova Scotia based sponsorship organization, dedicated to spreading and sharing God’s message of love and charity to those in need. Chalice, ranked by Money Sense Magazine as a Charity with an A rating in the field of international aid and development provides education and support to more than 47, 000 needy children and elderly across 55 programs sites in 15 countries. We will be joining Tanzanian staff in providing medical clinics to the communities of Songea and Mbangamao. I am assigned to the HIV briefing and testing team whereas my sist... read more