Spitting Cobra

We often go to visit our friends at Mavuno village, about an hour's drive outside Mwanza.  At Mavuno there is a little beach on the shore of Lake victoria.  We have been fortunate to spot a large monitor lizard on several occasions at the beach, but we were really surprised on Sunday to be greeted by this large spitting cobra.

We had been watching the cobra for a couple of minutes, taking some photographs and video when suddenly a mongoose appeared from the bushes to the right of the picture and attacked the snake.  The cobra retreated to a hole in the rocks on the left of the picture, where it remained hiding for the rest of the afternoon.

All who visit Mavuno beach - take care around these rocks!!  You never quite know what's hiding in there!

Phase 2

Next week we are launching a new training programme for clinical officers which is an exciting step towards significantly increasing the number of rural health workers trained in emergency dentistry.  Currently, we run Phase 1 where we take UK dentists and dental nurses to train the clinical officers.  Phase 2 is about Bridge2Aid training Tanzanian dentists as trainers of clinical officers.  The potential benefits of this are huge.  First, there's the language - Tanzanian dentists are all fluent in Swahili.  Second, they are based in districts around Tanzania where we often can't get UK volunteers due to travelling or accommodation constraints.  Third, they work for the government and part of their job is to supervise rural clinical officers - we will simply be equipping them to offer training, and helping with some of the logistics to provide basic instrument kits.

It's taken a lot of work to get to this stage, and we're almost ready to go.  The Bridge2Aid dental team are working hard this week preparing all the equipment needed for the training programme.  We are really blessed working as part of a team that is so focussed on doing the job well in a professional, ethical, sustainable and relational way.  

We'll keep you updated as the programme develops.

Paul

New Region Trip

Last week, Paul headed off as part of a small team from the Bridge2Aid office to visit two regions in central Tanzania - Manyara and Singida.  The purpose of the visit was to evaluate these regions as possible locations for future dental training programmes.  Furing the 5 day trip we drove almost 2,000km, visited 29 hotels / guest houses, ate lots of beans and rice, and met a lot of key government officials with the opportunity to present the work we do and discuss growth into new regions in Tanzania.

We thank God for safety on the roads and for the opportunity to discuss the programme and gain the support of so many influential people who will help make future programmes in central Tanzania a real success.

We are also blessed to work alongside some great Tanzanian staff who work tirelessly to help us grow the vision and programmes across Tanzania.

See if you can spot the zebra crossing in the 4th picture....we couldn't!

Paul

Moses, Paul and Nizar from Bridge2Aid with Dr Mollel (Regional Dental Officer, Manyara)

View of Lake Manyara

River crossing on the way to Mbulu district

A prize for anyone who can spot the zebra crossing

Windy road to Mbulu at 2,400m elevation