Ken's Journey to Tanzania: Journal Entry #3

Ken Russo is spending three months this winter volunteering at The Baobab Home, an orphanage in Bagamoyo, Tanzania that provides care for children with HIV/AIDS. He is documenting his fascinating experiences and sends us periodic updates from his journal.
Here is his latest entry. Read about his whole journey starting back at the end of January …

Wednesday, February 3

Total chaos at the clinic breakfast this morning! The children, their mothers and a few male prisoners all waiting for uji, the mixed grain porridge, Our cook at the clinic who prepares the uji was a little behind this morning. It took him a while to get the wood fire going in the clinic kitchen. It is straight out of medieval times. A huge vat of porridge that he stirs with a giant wooden spoon and the smoke is so dense you can’t spend more than a few minutes with the cook. He is incredibly good natured and helpful but has no sense of time. I carried the heavy bucket 100 yards to the clinic and Katie, the other volunteer, carried the huge basket of plastic cups. We were immediately surrounded by children and their mothers and we were ladling furiously and working up a sweat in the humid 90 degree weather. In all the chaos no one forgot to say Asante, thank you. Several mothers helped distribute the uji and we quickly ran out the first batch and returned to the kitchen for the second batch. The pace was much slower and I spoke to one of the manacled prisoner. He was in an orange jump suit with a white tag sewn to the front. The tag had the date of his incarceration and of his release. I asked him why he was serving 3 years and he said in broken English “trouble with wife” which was incredibly disturbing. I then spotted Halima (I wrote about her in my previous email) She literally ran over to greet me with a huge smile and a burst of rapid fire Swahili that left me looking at her with a stunned expression. She realized I understood nothing and started laughing which of course got me laughing. I told her pole, pole (slowly, slowly) and I figured out that her 3 foster sons were excited that I will be escorting them to pre-school and that Terri had called her to say I would be at the clinic and she was looking forward to seeing me. She was there escorting a sick friend. There is such joy and kindness in this woman. People are drawn to her as they were at the clinic. I am drawn to her also and there is something else that just occurred to me, she reminds me of my own grandmother.

I took Katie to lunch after the clinic to the nicest hotel in Bagamoyo, The Traveller’s Lodge; yes they spell it with two Ls. It was a nice chance to relax and have a healthy lunch, talk about our hectic morning and get out our emails. The Australian manager, Nicholas, had kindly invited us to use the wireless connection at the hotel for no charge. A very generous offer in Bagamoyo. I sent an email to my HIV doc in Boston inquiring as to whether he knows if it’s possible to somehow get Steve to the US for treatment. He will not live long with what the Tanzanian medical system has to offer. Each day I spend with this beautiful child reveals another layer of his personality, his intelligence and his off beat sense of humor. Today I joked with him and asked him to please climb up Terri’s coconut tree to get me a coconut as I was very hungry. He looked at me and with a huge grin he gestured for me to climb the tree and get one for him to drink because he was thirsty. We both started laughing and he reached out to hold my hand and we just sat quietly enjoying the moment.

I will be sending a separate email with photos to everyone. Unfortunately I don’t know how to re-size my pics and the camera only lets me choose large or small format. A lot of you are not getting the photos because your mailboxes are too small. Sorry about that.

Thursday, February 4
The day started with a great deal of promise and ended with uncertainty. I walked to Halima’s to pick up her 3 foster sons, Shaboni, Habibu and Arthumani. These little guys are break your heart cute. Halima greeted me in her usual open arms fashion. There was picture taking, a lot of smiles and Asantes (thank yous). It was already hot and humid at 8am with no breeze and we had a mile walk on a very busy road. The boys stayed close as the road is intimidating and I delivered them safely to the school yard. Of course there is no getting away easily from a group of school children here as they always come running over to practice their English.

On to have 6 more passport photos taken for my volunteer visa. It was $100 for the tourist visa at the airport and $120 for the volunteer visa. It’s a real scam. After the photographer positioned me for the pics she gave me a sly smile, walked away, came back and handed me a comb. The second I started laughing so did she.

When I delivered the photos to Terri it was obvious Steve was struggling to breathe and he was crying in pain. Terri called a taxi and we were off to the Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar es Salaam, about 1 1⁄2 hours away. An x-ray showed a marked deterioration in his lung capacity and his respiration rate was about 60/minute. We met with the oncologist, Trish Scanlon from Canada a woman of great determination and compassion. She said it appears that Steve has systemic KS (Kaposi sarcoma) and his prognosis is very poor. He was so weak I had to carry him back to the car. Pain meds helped as did an ice cream cone. We are working on finding portable oxygen to be administered at home. His blood oxygen level is 73% and should be 95-99%.
I’m so glad I’m here for Terri as Steve is like a son to her and I can see the toll this is taking. Early to bed as there is a 5am wake up call and back to Dar with Steve for an 8am lymph node biopsy.

Friday, February 5
A storm blew in last night around 10pm. For one hour the skies opened up. The rain on the tin roof was deafening and soothing at the same time. It was accompanied by continuous lightning and booming thunder. The lightning lit up the blue mbu (mosquito) net over my bed. The temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees and it was the first time since I arrived that I pulled the sheet over me.

We were on our way to Dar, watching the sun rise over the verdant landscape. Closer to Dar traffic was at standstill and we had a firm 8am appointment at the hospital. We still had 3 or 4 miles to go so Terri, Steve and I jumped out of the cab and flagged down a bejudgee, a 3 wheeled, enclosed motorcycle with a seat for 3 behind the driver. They are ubiquitous in the city. The next 20 minutes we flew down the unpaved, badly rutted shoulder of the road in a mad cap, white knuckled ride where it felt like the vehicle was going to tip over at any moment. The young driver was honking wildly and we were weaving back and forth between the shoulder and the road. Steve was between the 2 terrified adults and slept through the whole ordeal. We were shaky but laughing when we exited the cab and grateful to be back on solid ground. We carried Steve in. He was terrified but stoic and he did very well. The results of the biopsy are due next week. If it’s KS he will not be subjected to anymore poking and prodding and we will move on to palliative care. If it’s lymphoma a decision has to be made around a course of chemotherapy and unless Steve was insistent Terri and I do not want to see him go through it.

We are finally delivering on a week old promise to see Avatar and he is subdued but excited nonetheless. Again, he has so much gratitude for such a small thing.