Matthew’s Blog

Final Post…

Hello again!  Well, I’m now writing my last post from Tanzania…I cannot believe the 4 weeks of mission work has flown by so quickly!My last week on Bumbire Island was great; I saw quite a few interesting cases at the medical clinic, including a syphilic iritis (eye infection in someone who has syphilis).  It was very educational overall.  As always, lots of stool samples, a few malaria thin smears…the normal.I do have to tell one stool sample story, since it was such a major part of my clinical life here.  One time, we had asked a female patient to provide for us a stool sample.  We gave her a small cardboard box for the sample, and the patient left.  A few minutes later, we here a knock on the door, and the same patient enters and hands me the box, presumably full of stool.  I couldn’t help but notice that, as she handed me the box, it seemed rather more lightweight than a normal sample.  In fact, as my fingers grasped the box, I felt the sudden onset of…how to put this…”drippage” pouring over my fingers.  I looked down, and to my dismay, the “sample” is quickly draining out of the box and all over my fingers and the floor.  My initial reaction was to unhand the mass of hideousness and clean up the mess with a pile of toilet paper, but unfortunately, I needed to get some of the brown liquid for a slide.  So I ran to the sink, pulled out a blank slide, and then, without even thinking, I slightly squeezed the box like a sponge, which produced the necessary 2 drops of stool onto the slide.  At this point none of my fingers were left “unbrowned”.  After confirming the slide was completed, I dropped the box into the sink and began washing my hands…three times over.  I didn’t touch the box until all of the brown nastiness had dripped out.  But, because of these valiant efforts, we diagnosed the patient with Giardia, treated her, and she was on her way.  Just another day in the tropical medicine clinic…Oh!  The JESUS film showing was a HUGE success!  The church building that we held the showing in normally holds a congregation of 20-30 people, but for the “cinema” showing, we had 210 people piled into the tiny building!  Not only was there no sitting or standing room, the people standing in the back pushed Dorothy and I out of the building, and we had to watch the movie through the church’s windows!  It was great.  They actually paid very close attention to the entire thing…most of the islanders had never seen either TV or a movie before, so this was a big deal.  The JESUS film is actually really well done, and at the end there is a Gospel presentation with a sinner’s prayer…some of the African did pray out loud!  Unfortunately, our system of allowing them to respond was flawed.  Unlike in the U.S., when the pastor came on the loudspeaker at the end of the film, no one paid any attention at all; they just got up, started talking, and left the building.  But, the local pastor will start the slow process of finding these people and inviting them to church…and unlike Americans, it seems that the Africans are much more likely to go home and meditate and consider the message they have received, and then make their own efforts to get involved.  So hopefully there will be much long-term impact from the outreach.  Bob and Dorothy plan on showing the film elsewhere on the island, and they hope to get other Christ-centered films to show at this church again.The journey from Bumbire Island to Mwanza spans 2 days, but good news:  instead of taking the 5-hour powered canoe ride to the mainland, Africa Inland Mission provided a float plane ride for us!  I had never been in a float plane before, and it was a great experience…and much smoother overall than I expected.  Lake Victoria, with its many islands, is gorgeous from the air.Tomorrow I depart Mwanza and fly north to Kiliminjaro.  If flights are on time, my friend Bryan will be meeting me at the Kiliminjaro airport on Sunday (5/1), and then we begin the climb on Monday.  The climb is 6 days (5/2 - 5/7), followed by a 2-day safari (5/8-5/9).  If you think of it:  pray for strength and endurance for the climb, safety and good health (esp. with the altitude), and for clear weather.  We need all the help we can get:)This will be my last post, so for all of you who have been following along and praying, I appreciate you all!  The journey so far has been a great one, and I know that your prayers have helped me greatly.  I truly appreciate all of your support, and I hope this blog has given you an idea of my experiences here in Tanzania.  I arrive back in the U.S. on the night of 5/10, and I look forward to seeing most of you all soon!  God Bless!

Hello friends!I hope all is well.  Things here in Tanzania are going great!  Believe it or not, I have only 1 more week of regular clinic, before I begin the 2-day journey back to Mwanza, to eventually fly from there to Kiliminjaro.  The time has flown by so fast!On Easter sunday, the local church that the Matthews are working with is having its first-ever showing of the Jesus Film (in Swahili) as a community outreach.  We are all very excited about it!  We’ve hung up advertising signs at the clinic, but word of mouth seems to be the best method of advertisement…yesterday, Bob and I stopped by a friend’s house, and before we could even mention the film, the friend asked US if we had heard about it…so we think word of mouth is pretty effective!  Please pray for a good turnout on Sunday night, and that the Lord will prepare hearts so that many will come to know Him.The clinic is going well.  I’m pretty much a “big deal” when it comes to preparing and analyzing stool samples…although I’m not sure if that’s something to brag about…We’ve had some really good cases, including one gentlemen who, at 8:30 pm, slipped on the footpath and anteriorly dislocated his right shoulder.  The night watchmen at the clinic ran up to our house to get the “Daktari” and Bob and I rushed down to the clinic to help him.  Since the only lighting in the clinic is from a skylight in the roof and it was now dark outside, we had to work by headlamp only.  Unfortunately, the patient’s shoulder muscles were undergoing painful spasms, so he was unable to relax enough to let us reduce the shoulder.  So, after 3 hours, many failed attempts, and a shot of Ketamine (an agent used in anesthesia), we finally got the shoulder reduced correctly.  I felt bad for the guy…as we began to anesthetize him, all we could hear was mumbling in Swahili, ranging from profanities to cries for his mother to yelling at someone named “Stella”…it was a strange night, but I learned a lot and I realized that if it hadn’t been for the “wagunzi” (white men), there would’ve been absolutely no help on the island for this man, and he would either have to get to the mainland (unlikely) or learn to live with a permanently-dislocated shoulder.I think that, so far, my absolute favorite thing about Africa is the African Christian spirituals that I hear at church every sunday.  Most of the music at the church are rather old hymns that have been translated into Swahili, but one song per week is given over to the islanders, who produce absolutely amazing vocalizations.  In my journal entry from this past sunday, this is what I wrote about them:”It starts with the whole congregation clapping a fast beat.  Then one of the African women begins a Swahili solo, which is echoed by the congregation.  Eventually a tamborine and hand drum join in and produces an even louder beat.  The tone of the call and response grows louder and louder until the entire atmosphere is almost explosive–people are dancing where they stand, yelling out the words, and some women even begin yelling a Mexican-type “Yipppppeeeee!” at random intervals.  The lyrics are extremely repetitive–”God is the Rock…Rock, Rock, Rock, Rock…” or “I praise God because he has seen me…He has seen me…He has seen me…”  But there is something raw–something almost primordial even–about this style of music that almost instantaneously frees me to shed my sarcasm, shed my cynicism, shed my self-centeredness and be free of my inhibitions and worship joyously at the feet of Jesus.  In that moment, there is too much joy to conceive of doing anything else.”I hope you all have a great week!  I appreciate you all!

Hello from Bumbire Island!I hope all is well with all of you!  I am doing great!  We arrived on Bumbire Island this past friday, and it is GORGEOUS!  The island is approx. 5×10 miles and very hilly.  The lower elevations have jungle, while the slopes and summits of hills are all open grassland with sporadic trees.  The natives live in small mud-brick huts with grass-thatched rooves; many grow bananas, pineapple, and Casava, which is a tropical plant they use for a source of starch.  Many others also fish in Lake Victoria, for talapia, Nile Perch, and minows, which they dry and eat whole.  The people are very friendly and always give me curious looks when they see me…I don’t think they see many “Wanguzi” (white people).  I go on hikes almost every night…I can’t resist the beautiful evenings!The clinic is going well also.  We’ve seen a lot of pathology…especially a lot of parasites!  I’ve gotten good at preparing my own stool preps (a little nasty…), malaria thin smears, and today I even did a manual RPR (for diagnosis of syphilis).  This was crazy…today I was looking at a patient’s stool prep under the microscope, zooming through the many brown clumps of nastiness, and all of a sudden there was this wriggling worm in sight!  I had to suppress screaming like a little girl…but then it became strangely interesting, and I may or may not have watched it for a while.  It turned out to be Stronglyoides, a type of diarrhea-causing parasitic roundworm.  I’m finding that I’m really interested in tropical medicine!We diagnosed a patient with HIV today.  It was a difficult experience for me, and I didn’t even understand most of the Swahili.  This was a man in his early 30s with a wife who was newly pregnant, and he came in for pneumonia…and he was HIV positive.  The man was in tears.  The government of Tanzania does not allow our clinic to administer HIV medications, so any patient here on Bumbire Island would have to go to the mainland to get treatment…a feat that few islanders can afford.  For most, that means months of salary to afford just the ferry ride.  It was kind of an overwhelming situation for this man (and for me).   Dr. Matthews took out a Gospel of John and an evangelical pamphlet, and he explained in Swahili the Good News of Christ and encouraged the man to get to know the Lord….the man took the materials but did not make a decision today (he claimed he already was a Christian, but many here claim that without know much about it).  I’m praying for this man…that he will come to know the Lord, and that he will be able to get the medical therapy he needs!Anyways, all is good here.  I’m seeing and learning a lot!  I appreciate you all, and thank you for your prayers.  I’m afraid I still can’t check any email, so if you really need to get a message to me, try writing a “comment” to this post, and I should be able to view it.God Bless!

Hello from Tanzania!

Hello friends!

I hope all is well! I can’t believe I’ve been here almost 1 week already! I have had many problems with the internet, so it has taken heroic effort even to begin my blog…and unfortunately, I can access neither my Ohio State or my Gmail email accounts at this point! But such is life in East Africa!

It has been a fantastic week. I had no problems with airfare at all, and my luggage came on time! I had a 10 hour layover in London, so I navigated the Underground system and spent the afternoon at the British museum. Then, after a full 48 hrs of travel, I arrived in Mwanza, Tanzania where I met my host physician, Dr. Bob Matthews and his wife, Dorothy, at the tiny Mwanza airport (cement-walled building, only 1 gate, no interior lighting).

Amazingly, the first thing that they asked me was this: “We were thinking about changing plans a little bit…would you mind if we went on safari on tuesday?” Are you kidding??? Absolutely! So, on monday we met up with some other Africa Inland Missions (AIM) missionaries, drove to a small AIM seminary for Tanzanians called Nassa Theological College, met other missionaries, and then we all spent the day on safari in Serenghetti on tuesday! The Lord blessed us with great weather, and we saw so many animals, including zebra, lion, warthog, cape buffalo, elephants, a cheetah and her 3 cubs…it was a blessing to experience God’s creation so close! The Serenghetti is everything I had hoped it would be.

Today, we traveled from Mwanza to Kuhunda, a tiny village on the southwestern shore of Lake Victoria, where are are currently staying at another AIM missionary’s house. It is beautiful! The temperature has stayed between 70-80 degrees, little humidity…and there are innumerable flowers and exotic birds everywhere. Lake Victoria is HUGE and it seems like I’m on the ocean, complete with waves crashing and sandy beaches. I could do this for a while:)

Tomorrow we hop aboard a small motorized canoe to cross Lake Victoria and head to Bumbire Island (pronounced “Bum-beer-ee”), which is our final destination. It will be a 4-5 hour journey, depending on weather. We hope to start up the medical clinic on saturday, and various ministries to the islanders take place throughout the week. I’m so excited to learn about tropical medicine there…and hopefully to help build the Lord’s kingdom as well!

Please pray for safe travels as we head to the island. In addition, I could use prayer for my back…I mangled it again in London, and now it hurts most days, but its not terrible. Also, we could all use prayer for the upcoming ministry on Bumbire Island…pray that He will go before us and open the hearts of the islanders so that they will accept the Gospel. Specifically, we will be showing the Jesus Film on Easter Sunday…prayers for good attendance and for many decisions for the Lord. And prayers for my internet!!!

I appreciate you all and will do my best to update you as I can. I have many amazing photos already but my internet will not let me post them on the blog site. Thank you for your prayers and patience!

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