As promised, the following year we traveled to Tanzania to the same hospital.
To avoid having to check in quite as much luggage, we had a large portion of our medical supplies transported via a logistics company.
Arriving at the airport in Arusha, we wanted to pick up our medical luggage from the storage area. This proved to be extremely difficult because the delivery note listed more bottles of disinfectant than were actually present there. As a result, they refused to hand over the entire shipment to us. In addition, they had read on our disinfectant that it contained alcohol, which in their opinion meant an alcohol tax had to be paid. Even the fact that we were in the country to operate on the poor population for free did not make the customs officers change their minds. The discussion lasted for about 5 hours, during which we were detained at customs and could not start our long journey to Gonja. Completely exasperated, Dr. Exner finally grabbed one of the boxes, turned around, and left the customs office. Fortunately, our fears that he would be arrested or worse did not come true.
Arriving in Gonja, we were expected this time and given a joyful welcome. The hospital director provided us with his house and another neighboring house, which we were allowed to move into. Our meals were cooked for us in the hospital canteen, which consisted of a single room with three tables where only we were served.
This time, our team consisted of Dr. Klaus Exner, Dr. Zeynep Altayli, and myself, Dr. Bianca Baican as plastic surgeons, Dr. Genia Kunits and Dr. Livia Köhler as anesthetists, Claudia Bickel as anesthetic nurse, and Ralf Dröge as surgical nurse.
Many patients with clubfeet, whom we had operated on the year before, came for a follow-up. It was so wonderful to see that the children could walk completely normally. And this, above all, in a country where very long distances have to be covered on foot.
On the afternoon of the last day of the mission, after we had already packed everything up since we had treated all the patients who had presented themselves, a father appeared with his two sons. Both showed clubfeet. We asked him why he had come so late, as we were at the end of our mission. He reported that he had only heard about our arrival very late and had already been traveling for two and a half days. He could only afford a bus ticket for a short distance, so that they had to walk most of the way.
So we unpacked everything again and operated on the two boys before our departure.
