Due to unforeseen medical circumstances the itinerary of our trip to Sumve suddenly had to be altered. Frank Wijffels took the place of Peer Poelmann and the visit to Arusha was cancelled.

After the Sunday night flight via Nairobi to Mwanza the first patients were seen on Monday afternoon ( list 1).  As usual the OPD was busy and somewhat chaotic and with plenty of time taken for teaching. Eventually a theatre list for Tuesday and Wednesday was made ( list 2). This time a physiotherapist from Amsterdam joined in but there were no medical students from Nijmegen.

The small presents that had been taken along were well received by the theatre staff.

The operations went smoothly and without complications. Thursday morning all the operated patients were seen during the rounds and some of the recent developments at the hospital area were visited. The construction of the basement of the new operating theatre was impressive as well as the improved water collecting tanks and the many new solar panels for water heating. There is much ado in Sumve. It was a successful visit.

Writen by: Rick Scholten