Moshi (3): good prospects in Himo!

We crawl from Moshi to Himo at a snail's pace. We strictly adhere to the mandatory speed of 50 kilometers per hour, so we are not making much progress. Just when I fear that we are going to arrive at an appointment again on African time, the traffic police also pull us over because of a… speeding violation! The officers' magical digital meter shows an equally magical violation of 62 kilometers per hour.

We cannot afford much delay and no one is interested in hours of discussions at a police station. Our driver is used to taking the loss, the fine is paid and we're off. We grumble for a while about the injustice, when, to everyone's astonishment, we are plucked off the road again not long afterwards. Now we try out our Dutch magic: the rear seat windows open and three broadly smiling ladies warmly greet the law enforcement officers. Our charm offensive immediately has an effect on the digital meter and we arrive at the Himo health center without any further financial setbacks.

Head doctor Sudi Mohammed welcomes us and shows us around the clinic. The hallway is full of pregnant women who come for ultrasound checks. It is fantastic to see how obstetric sonographer Jackline runs the entire ultrasound consultation here on her own. Jackline has been trained with the help of the foundation to replace Doctor Maeda, who has just retired a month ago. He is present during the visit to brainstorm about the future based on his experience.

We meet the midwife in charge, Esther, in the pregnancy center. She has  communication skills, seems to have vision and is interested in the ultrasound. We see potential in her and exchange contact details.

We discuss the report on the recent field research, which was carried out with the support of the Mount Meru Foundation and Driving Nurses. This showed that there is enormous potential for mobile ultrasound in the rural areas around Himo. During the conversation with Dr. Sudi Mohammed, it appears that the lack of a second well-trained sonographer is an important bottleneck. Midwife Jackline can hardly cope with the current influx for ultrasound consultations in the clinic. Someone still needs to be trained to operate rural areas using mobile ultrasound.

Training, guiding and then equipping and rolling out our vision is well received by Dr. Sudi Mohammed. He promises to work hard for the necessary government permission to allow one of his employees to start the ultrasound training. He will also do his best to secure a place in that training for his candidate.

Back in Moshi we end the evening in the cozy garden of the Jackfruit restaurant, named after the world's largest tree fruit. The trees frame the terrace where we enjoy a lovely meal outside and toast with a glass of wine on a day that once again bore fruit for the foundation.