Flerimo Hospital - with one foot in prison

It could have been a beautiful day and no, I did not end up in prison - Saskia just panicked a little.

Today I thought I could take Saskia (one of the girls here who is studying psychology and has trained as a paramedic) to the hospital. It all started off really well. Unfortunately, the hospital director was not there, but we asked the doctors and nurses if it was okay for Saskia to come along. Everyone welcomed us warmly and so we went to the delivery room. To shock her, there was a dead baby from the night lying there. After we got over the shock, we continued.

We assisted a woman in labor who gave birth quite quickly. Saskia's first birth - and that in Tanzania!!!

And then our luck turned. We received a message from our 'host father' asking why Saskia was at the hospital. This is apparently forbidden and now he is at the government office having to pay a fine. We were totally shocked, as none of us expected this. We were warmly welcomed and no one approached us to say that it was forbidden. But they could call our host father and cause trouble. At first, we were so shocked, feeling incredibly guilty, full of regret that our host father had to bear the brunt of it and Saskia was also panicked about ending up in prison. So we quickly went home and waited for him there. In the next few hours, our guilt turned into anger and disappointment. Thanks to Mama, who wrote to me saying that she was done with Africa.

I realized that it is simply impossible how they treated me at the hospital. I come here, for which I have paid a fortune, to help and do something good for the people here. And they are too proud to accept this help in the first place and they can't even manage to give a sincere welcome and be friendly. I have never felt such aversion in my whole life. If we behaved like that in Germany, it would be called racism and I would receive a reprimand for my unfriendly behavior at the hospital.

I am really sad and disappointed about this experience at the hospital. And yet I am very grateful for all the experiences I have had here and all the beautiful moments that have been given to me. With the encouragement of Mama+Papa and the great support of Matthias, I have decided to pack up my tent this Friday and move further north. I will take a 15-hour bus ride to Moshi. That is a city right by Mount Kilimanjaro. I will spend 6 days there until I make my way to the coast to meet Matthias!