Every day at this time as we pause and reflect, it seems that yet again it is the end of a very long, interesting and action-packed day here in Arusha. We started the day with our regular routine of health checks for the children, which are now drawing to a close. It is hard to imagine that we have been here for almost two weeks, met lots of interesting people from the team, and, at the school, from around the world. Today we picked up a stray, a med student from Monash visiting East Africa as part of an elective. We’re able to show him the work of the med check team as well as bring him along on a day that I am sure he will remember.

After a snack lunch the team had an excursion to The Plaster House. The Plaster House is a home in Arusha for children from around Tanzania to recover in after they have had corrective orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery or neurosurgery for a disability.

The Plaster House is in the village of Ngaramtoni to the north of the city on a hill that winds up to Mount Meru, which peaks at 4500 metres, so pretty high. Snow on the peak the other day, and it is just about on the equator. The track up to the house is pretty rugged, in fact as rugged as we have encountered thus far, and we wondered how the children cope getting there after their surgery. However, once there, the setting is superb, with Meru the backdrop and green pastures around as it overlooks the city.

Many of the problems are caused by the extremely high concentrations of fluoride that occurs naturally in many of the water sources around Meru. At the school, the main evidence is a brown discolouration of the teeth, but skeletal fluorosis causes some severe limb deformities (among other health problems).

The centre provides corrective surgery and accommodates the children during recovery, providing a safe environment as well as rehabilitation. The work here is of extremely high calibre, and it was very moving to see so many wee children recovering from their surgery. They had such high spirits and were very happy to have visitors. And of course they just loved having their photo taken, and making silly faces for fun.

The centre itself is quite new having relocated from elsewhere in the city. It seems to be the pattern that critical work such as this is done on a shoestring, and much is needed to keep this work going. If you feel you would like to contribute to this vital work, even a small amount, visit their website for opportunities to make a donation: www.plasterhouse.org

From there, we headed East of the city to the secondary campus to pick up some school volunteers and then to dinner at a very, very nice restaurant in the bush. The setting was serene, with beautiful gardens and trees, and a tinkling river bubbling its way through the property.The service was good and the food – pizzas cooked in an outdoor pizza oven – were very tasty. The only hiccup was when a couple of the fellas ordered a brandy, which when it eventually came, was interpreted as “brownies” which they did not have, so they brought bread, which does not quite have the same after dinner appeal. Their next attempt was to bring port. At last came brandy which was well received.

The trip home was a bit of a nightmare. By the time we left in our school bus, a 20 seater Nissan (though I noticed it had a Toyota motor!) it was after 9.00pm. The road is quite busy with cars, motor bikes and large trucks, but we received a shock when we were plunged into darkness. The lights revived briefly but soon gave up. We were 25 kilometres from town, so still quite a way to go, no headlights  and no street lights to help us.

The likely problem was a fuse and it seemed difficult to find the fuses amid a spaghetti array of wires and dodgy looking joins. Eventually some fuses were discovered and by a process of elimination and some strategic swapping, we recovered some lights, but only high beam on the right hand side, which did not seem to bring joy to oncoming drivers. A little way up the road there was a horrific accident. In a way, if we had not been delayed by our lights problem, we may have been in the thick of it.

Drivers here in Tanzania often overtake in very tight situations, in the face of oncoming traffic. In the main, this seems to work, as there traffic is never very fast, and people seem to cope without undue anxiety. However, at night, this boldness becomes homicidal, and in the accident tonight, a small sedan smashed into a large lorry which must have been overtaking another vehicle. It was not a pretty sight, and it would be very lucky if there were survivors in the car.

We pulled over at this point as we had called for backup and two smaller busses from the school came to rescue us and deliver us home safely. Needless to say we are quite tired and ready for a sound sleep. Except for me, who is told he must pen a contribution to the blog.

We have med checks in the morning (Thursday) and then time to catch up with entering the data. luckily Friday looks like a nice quiet day (hmmm!)