Some reflections on completing our mission

The kids above are without a doubt some of the favorite ones who we served within the span of the past six days. I'd like to say that I recall each and every child who we served, but, in all honesty, the entire experience has passed by like a whirlwind, with few moments of true rest and reflection. Even when we sit down to process, we are pouring over paper charts that need to be transposed into Excel charts that need to be cross checked with order forms and converted into new spreadsheets to check test/retest reliability. All in all, we saw about 200 kids in five full working days. Tomorrow is officially our last day of work, as we'll be seeing one final kid who was bussed in over the weekend and all of the staff of Under the Same Sun. But there still will be so much more to be done in terms of sorting through the massive "paper trail" of vision records, dental records, health histories, order forms and spreadsheets; consolidating it all to make sense for the staff at UTSS who will then be responsible for providing for the follow-up care to the kids; and setting up next steps as much as possible for future teams and our local partner optometrists. Please do pray for that entire process, for focused time, organized efforts and good discernment.


I do want to share that on our final two days of serving scholarship children, we met dozens of older students with albinism who were already making inroads in secondary school, college and graduate studies. Some of them were studying social work, others working towards becoming educators and still others well on their way to becoming practicing lawyers. Education is one of the main vehicles that UTSS uses to transform the culture of Tanzania and we were able to catch these small glimpses of the near future leaders of this society. Praise God for that! In a related story, last night we were invited to an art show and concert headlined by a band featuring a very talented drummer who happened to have albinism. It took the crowd a little bit of time to get warmed up, but, before long, it seemed like the entire room (full of local Tanzanians, Europeans and Americans--i.e., us) had morphed into a giant conga-line, led by the infectious beats of the drummer.


But there are two sides to every story. I recall the feeling of unease that came upon me one of the mornings as we drove towards the UTSS office, seeing an older, disheveled man with albinism stumbling through traffic towards our car, begging for money. And in addition to all the older kids and young adults with high aspirations, already living out their promise in so many ways, we saw more than ever people with albinism with missing limbs, chopped off and sold to witch doctors, sometimes by their own family members. There is still so much that needs to be done in this place, so much darkness tied to wrong ideas, beliefs and attitudes towards people with albinism. My prayer is simple: that God would reclaim this city, this people and this nation as His own, that He would wipe away the lies and deceit, and overthrow the powers and principalities of the enemy in this place.


Finally, I want to leave you with a picture of something beautiful, of some of the kids in the playground who we met during our journey up north. One of the dentists decided that she wanted to pull out her camera and snap a few pictures, and then the game was on as the kids rushed forward, waving and dancing and wanting to get into every frame. A few seconds later, the dentists decided that they had to jump in, too!

Back in Dar

Hi all,

We are back in the big city (Dar es Salaam) after 4 days in Mwanza.  Today was mostly a day of rest, with a little bit of time devoted to catching up on charting and more than a little bit of time catching up on sleep.  We are still recuperating after seeing nearly 120 kids over the course of three days.  To put this in perspective, most optometrists see about 8 patients or so a day!  Many of the kids had to be bussed in from far away schools, some from nearly three hours (200 km) away.  Praise the Lord that we were able to see so many!!

There are so many sad and wonderful stories to share, but here are just a few:

• There was a girl who was a recent victim of an attack.  Several men approached her and ordered her to stick out her hands so that they could chop them off.  She adamantly refused and pulled her hands from their grasps.  In response, they viciously beat her, only slowing to look for a machete to complete the act.  In the confusion that followed (none of the attacked could find a machete), she rushed away.  Despite all the hostility and hatred directed at her, I just remember this girl being such a beautiful, kind and gentle soul.  I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hurt her.
• On the second day, one of the Under The Same Sun staff members helped me in the dispensing station, training the kids on using their brand new telescopes.  I remember the joy and confidence he expressed in showing them how to focus the telescopes, testing their abilities on a visual acuity chart and tying straps on the telescopes so that the kids wouldn't lose them.  This was the picture of one of these kids, fully grown, educated, employed, accepted by his peers and empowering the next generation.
• Towards the end of one day, we sat at the edge of the school and watched the kids (with albinism and without) playing.  Hope, Cheryl and Anna had noticed one boy with albinism who would stand day-after-day by himself hugging a tree.  Anna finally got up the courage to walk up to him, give him a bag of trail mix and talk openly with him in front of a growing crowd of other kids.  She wasn't sure what he said, but I think that little encounter may linger with him for awhile.  We also saw one little girl (with albinism) playing a game with a typically pigmented kid.  There just seemed to be such a childlike, playful innocence about the encounter, untainted by any hint of prejudice or animosity.  A moment later, another girl with albinism led a whole group of kids (again, some pigmented and some not) in singing and dancing--we'll definitely post this up!  The girl had the loudest voice and definitely the most rhythm.  I got a kick out of seeing David try to follow along.

These are just a few of the moments that I could recall.  I've also attached a brief update from Anna below.  Now that we're back in the city, we'll post more frequently, including some pictures and videos!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Much love,
-Steve

"Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your prayers!  We can truly feel it here!  We are now in Dar Es Salaam at a hotel with Internet!  Yay!  Back to civilization!  We spent the last 3 days in Mwanza (about 1hr 20 min plane ride from here) to treat about 120 kids that have been bused in from different schools.  Some kids traveled 3 hours to come see us!  On the dental side, we set up a clinic in their library and did cleanings and screenings.  They were very long days and our backs were killing by the end of them since we didn't have any type of reclining chair to use.  We all also miss our dental assistants sooooo much because we had to do everything ourselves from set up to clean up to sterilization!!  Although they were tough days, to be able to love on and interact with these kids made it all worth it!  We will try to put a video of the kids singing on our blog.  Steve has been busy learning the optometry side.  It's been really great to serve with him and watch him use his skills during this trip.  We both are staying in different rooms for the entire time because it would be awkward for David and Michelle to stay together.  This is the first time since we've been married that we are sleeping apart.  It's kind of like when we were dating again!

We have met some of the bravest, most amazing children.  Today, we treated a 10 year old girl who was attacked and had her arm cut off.  I don't exactly know how she managed to escape but she did!   Another little boy had his finger cut off but escaped by biting his attacker.  Please continue to pray for our trip and also for these children. There are some schools where the teachers really take care of the children and then there are others where the kids are more neglected.  In those school, I saw a lot of kids with sunburn and different skin lesions that could be the precursor to cancer.  It really broke my heart...

That is my update so far...getting really late...have to get sleep!  I miss you guys!

Love,
Anna & Steve"

Meet the team

Becky Kammer is the ringleader of team. She first learned about the plight of people with albinism in Tanzania while watching a documentary produced by Under The Same Sun. She is an O.D. and an expert in low-vision, which is particularly useful in working with people with albinism.

David Nguyen is an optometry student who leads the Fellowship of Christian Optometrists at the Southern California College of Optometry. He is the baby of the team and has a fan club of adoring (female) colleagues.









   

Michelle Lee is also an optometry student at SCCO. She was recently elected American Optometric Student Association Trustee, which is kind of a big deal. She has a season pass to Disneyland and likes men who wear suspenders well.









 

 

Hope Ann Nguyen is a pediatric dentist and mother to an adorable dog named Shelby. Her favorite restaurant is Cafe Chloe and for some reason she has a chandelier that hangs over her bathtub.

 

Cheryl Estiva works alongside Hope as a pediatric dentist. She really enjoys finger puppets and has a surprising depth of sports knowledge, especially as it relates to the Bay Area teams.

 

Steve Wang and Anna Chandsawangbhuwana are husband and wife, optometry student and pediatric dentist, respectively. They really like to travel and eat, and never in their wildest dreams expected to be going to Africa this summer. Yes, Anna has a very long last name and, no, nobody has ever told her that before.






Thank you for taking the time to get to know all our amazing team members. We are excited, frightened and expectantly awaiting amazing things on our journey to Tanzania. So many things still need to be done, such as packing the rest of our supplies, learning a bit of Swahili, making sure that we are 100% malaria resistant, completing the homework assignment that Dr. Kammer gave us all and just really preparing our hearts to go on this voyage together. By God's grace we have the good fortune of being able to provide something of value to the people we will be serving. So many of you have already contributed an exceedingly generous amount in financial support, but we ask you now to also partner with us in these upcoming weeks with your thoughts and prayers. We'll send out a complete list of prayers within the next couple of days and we will try to update you as much as possible with our experiences along the way.

God bless,
Steve