December 2010

Dear Friends and supporters of IHP,

 

We send the warmest and best wishes for a wonderful New Year’s. This year for IHP has been wonderful and it looks as though next year will be even better.

 

The Lofstrom van has moved over 10,000 miles so far this year and we’ll have one more month of fund raising to do before we return to Tanzania. It has been so rewarding, and SO exciting to see the interest in the project build as we meet new people and re-visit friends we have met before.

 

We wrote before from Newberg, Oregon. Now we’re back in Rochester, MN. Den’s hip replacement surgery was today. It went extremely well and we’ll be back on the road in a week with his doctor’s blessing.

 

The promising events so far are that the Lutheran/Presbyterian church of Truckee is leading a community team from Truckee, CA to begin fund raising for the physical therapy/rehabilitation unit.  Yeah!

 

Another thrill is that seven churches in Southern California are combining to start funding the pediatric unit. Wow!

 

The well is being drilled now and the pump will be installed next week. Since the rains have failed, having a dependable source of water is a big, big thing for Nyakato Health Center.

 

Den is back from surgery and his new hip is firmly in place. We will only be in the hospital here in Rochester for a couple of days. He says the procedure was a breeze.

 

The goals for Nyakato right now are to finish the laundry and eye center. When the laundry is done, the birthing center can open. The water projects are almost done as Sele relates below.

 

In order to accomplish those goals we’ll need “finishing money” for the buildings. It’s the “finishing” that takes so much time and always costs more than we’d like. If you would like to help with the “finishing” of the projects already begun, or contribute to the projects projected for 2011, x-ray, pediatrics, physical therapy and creating bed space for students and volunteers, please send your tax deductible gift to:

 

International Health Partners, US & TZ

Joyce Zemel, Treasurer

1811 So. 39^th St. #36

Mesa, AZ   85206

 

Or, go to our website, www.ihptz.org and click on Just Give!

 

The container from Mississippi will be staged in February. Anyone with items for shipment to Nyakato, please contact Craig Bjorgum at craig@belindastewartarchitects.com to alert him you’re sending something for the container. Please include about $10.50 per cubic foot to help cover the cost of shipping. Please remember that any medical items must be certified as in good working condition and no medications go in the container. Contributions need to be covered with a letter stating they are a bone fide free gift to International Health Partners, US & Tz, and the value must be stated.

 

Since we are HERE and Nyakato is THERE, we asked Sele, our project manager, and Dr. Bonaventura to give us something of an update on what’s happening now at Nyakato.

 

Sele writing:

Dear Friends who care about IHP;

 

I just want to let you know that there is not enough rain this year; this is bad news for the crops since the Tanzanian economy depends on farming (crops).The source of electricity in our country is rain, many people are crying from hunger. Electricity is the big problem in our country because sometimes lights can go out for more than twelve hours and it is so hard to operate our lab with no power. There are some wonderful people gave us some money to dig the well and we are going to start digging right after Christmas and new year hopefully, after two weeks we can get water from our own well, patients will be drinking this water, bathe and this will keep our hospital and laundry clean. Thank you very much you people for sending money for the well, thanks again and I think you know how important you are to IHP,''THANK GOD''.

 

We have already finished building our cistern for water harvesting. This was so hard and cost a lot of money but you are the ones who sent the money and we did the job. Thank you so much. After Christmas we are going to connect the pipes from the rain gutters to the cistern then we will be able to start harvesting rain water (when the rains come). Since this was hard work we had a goat party to celebrate finishing it. Thanks again because we know without you this could not be done.

 

We are going to close our work for Christmas and New Year and we will be back on January 3, 2011. The dental room in eye center is almost done. When we come back we will do the floor, tiles above the counter and two windows, then it will be done.

 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR CHOOSING GOD'S WORK AND TOGETHER WE ARE DOING GOD'S WORK AND THANK YOU FOR BEING WITH US FOR ALL the GOOD TIMES AND BAD TIMES. THANK YOU.

 

Dr. Bon writing:

Okay Paula

This is the story about Nyakato Clinic in your absence.

This is a peculiar year I can say, in past years we were getting fewer patients in December because people were usually reserving money for Christmas and New Year celebration and some reserve money for their children's school fees.

 

But this December we have been getting the same number of patients attending the clinic for treatment as for other months. We have been attending some very sick patients. I remember one case when a woman came very later at the time of closing the clinic. I was in my room entering the daily collection money in the Quickbooks accounting system. Grace [one of our nurses] and Mama JJ [a tech]were on the way going home, a lady of about 23yrs old came screaming with very severe pain due to miscarriage of 4 months pregnancy with heavy pelvic bleeding. Lab. technician Jimmy was gone so we didn't do Hemoglobin test.

 

I examined the patient the buttock of the fetus was hanging outside the vagina. I squeezed out the uterus to deliver a dead female baby but she had retained placenta. We spent almost 2 hrs to remove it manually. When mama JJ was cleaning the blood from the patient and Grace giving the pain medicine, the patient fainted. She was very pale; I started resuscitation, Grace set the IV line, Mama JJ called Sele to bring a car to refer the patient Bugando, The patient does not have money so I used money from the Special Needs Fund. Sele drove as fast as he could and we were praying to God all the way to Bugando [regional referral hospital in downtown Mwanza]. Patient got blood transfusion and discharged after 3 days. Last Wednesday she came walking to the clinic to say thanks.

 

Other good news is that Dr. Frank Mpelumbe performed 4 operations in our theatre and admitted the patients to the Patricia ward. The patients were happy saying how nice the rooms are so they paid 25,000 Tsh per day as a bed fee with no complaint.

 

I think this is enough

Best wishes

Regards Bon M

 

Paula writing:

Many, many prayers were said for Den this day. They were ALL answered. We are so grateful for your prayer support. He’s sitting up and eating and calling his kids and talking about how little pain he has. Thank you to each and every one of you who held the high watch for us today. We thank God for answering the prayers and for this wonderful outcome.

 

On January 5th we will be speaking at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. From there it is on to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, then Elkhardt, Indiana, then Chicago. After that we’ll speak in Baxter, MN, on Jan. 16th. On Jan. 20th we speak at the Rotary in Waseka, MN, then speak at Grace Lutheran in Albert Lea, MN. We’ll speak at United Methodist in Rochester on Jan. 25th then zip back to Kansas City to pack up and prepare to return to Tanzania, leaving on Feb. 1st.

 

Every day is a gift. Every friend is a gift. Every moment includes the presence of God.

 

May 2011 be a year filled with your awareness of God’s gifts to you.

Blessings and Gratitude,

Paula and Den

 

 

The dental room inside the eye center is getting close to completion.  It won't be long now.

 

 

The sink inside the dental unit.

 

 

View of the doors leading into the dental unit.