The opening of the new hospital occurred on Thursday, the 11th of
December after years and years of work to get it ready. The cool picture of the chameleon has nothing to do with that celebration, fyi. For the past week either Jessica or Stephen has accompanied me to the hospital to assist in all of the activities necessary to pull off the opening. I received an e-mail from Sue Green, the wife of Mark Green who is the US Ambassador to Tanzania, saying that she had got an e-mail 
from my uncle Phil Hauck who she knows in Green Bay. She read our blog and her husband was happy to greet us at the opening. Small world. Picture to the left is Mark Green shaking the hand of Eunice Simonson (see info later). Apparently the country of Tanzania is the largest recipient of both malaria and AIDS treatment funds in the entire world (thank you USA), which is good, they need it. Kathleen and I found out on Friday that the hospital is assisting to educate over 5,300 kids in the Arusha region who don’t have parents, and 75% of those kids are orphans due to AIDS. The extended families take care of these children, they are not in “orphanages” as we think of them (there are orphanages in Africa but they are more like schools with extended “day care” Kids go to the orphanages during the 
day for school, meals and to be bathed. In the evening, they go home to the relatives with who9m they live). The president of Tanzania was supposed to do the opening ceremonies but unfortunately he was predisposed at the last moment and the vice-president came in his absence to do the ribbon cutting. FYI - Mark Jacobson, the man behind the whole hospital, is shown at right. A couple hours late but again, this is Africa, get used to it. But perhaps the biggest honor was meeting Eunice and David Simonson (see picture on left) who are partially responsible for the 
Lutherans even having hospitals in this part of the world. David is very aged but is the only white Maasai (he killed a lion that was accosting a village which earned him the unique title) that I believe ever existed. His wife, Eunice, in the 1980s was serving medications out of her back porch when 3 out of 5 children didn’t make it to age 5. It isn’t great now, “weanies” is the term that is used to refer to children who are off of breast milk and that is when the death rate is the highest because at family meals they are the last to be offered food, men first, then women, then children from oldest to youngest. It may sound awful but if, for example, you reversed that and fed the men last and they died then there would be no food for the family which would mean….you get the idea. Years ago I heard that they were bringing AIDS vaccine to Africa but were giving it to parents, not kids. It sounded so awful but follows the same logic, if the parents die, there is little chance for the kids. FYI - The picture of Mack and Zoe also has nothing to do with this post. But we were talking about the opening of the hospital. Cannot tell you how big of a deal this is, Arusha which is 
home to hundreds of thousands of people, now has an ICU unit opening next week. People with money will no longer need to go across the border to Nairobi, Kenya for great medical assistance, it is located in Arusha, right here, right now! Yea. So it was an awesome opening. We arrived at 8:30 and it was a lesson in patience to hang out for hours to await the vice president who was several hours late. Truth be known, we unfortunately left 15 minutes before he finally arrived because we were really late for an appointment to visit the International School where, if we returned to do work for a longer period, our children would possibly attend. We love it here. Need more friends for everyone but the next couple weeks should be fruitful in that category.
Love, ben’s little family
December after years and years of work to get it ready. The cool picture of the chameleon has nothing to do with that celebration, fyi. For the past week either Jessica or Stephen has accompanied me to the hospital to assist in all of the activities necessary to pull off the opening. I received an e-mail from Sue Green, the wife of Mark Green who is the US Ambassador to Tanzania, saying that she had got an e-mail 
from my uncle Phil Hauck who she knows in Green Bay. She read our blog and her husband was happy to greet us at the opening. Small world. Picture to the left is Mark Green shaking the hand of Eunice Simonson (see info later). Apparently the country of Tanzania is the largest recipient of both malaria and AIDS treatment funds in the entire world (thank you USA), which is good, they need it. Kathleen and I found out on Friday that the hospital is assisting to educate over 5,300 kids in the Arusha region who don’t have parents, and 75% of those kids are orphans due to AIDS. The extended families take care of these children, they are not in “orphanages” as we think of them (there are orphanages in Africa but they are more like schools with extended “day care” Kids go to the orphanages during the 
day for school, meals and to be bathed. In the evening, they go home to the relatives with who9m they live). The president of Tanzania was supposed to do the opening ceremonies but unfortunately he was predisposed at the last moment and the vice-president came in his absence to do the ribbon cutting. FYI - Mark Jacobson, the man behind the whole hospital, is shown at right. A couple hours late but again, this is Africa, get used to it. But perhaps the biggest honor was meeting Eunice and David Simonson (see picture on left) who are partially responsible for the 
Lutherans even having hospitals in this part of the world. David is very aged but is the only white Maasai (he killed a lion that was accosting a village which earned him the unique title) that I believe ever existed. His wife, Eunice, in the 1980s was serving medications out of her back porch when 3 out of 5 children didn’t make it to age 5. It isn’t great now, “weanies” is the term that is used to refer to children who are off of breast milk and that is when the death rate is the highest because at family meals they are the last to be offered food, men first, then women, then children from oldest to youngest. It may sound awful but if, for example, you reversed that and fed the men last and they died then there would be no food for the family which would mean….you get the idea. Years ago I heard that they were bringing AIDS vaccine to Africa but were giving it to parents, not kids. It sounded so awful but follows the same logic, if the parents die, there is little chance for the kids. FYI - The picture of Mack and Zoe also has nothing to do with this post. But we were talking about the opening of the hospital. Cannot tell you how big of a deal this is, Arusha which is 
home to hundreds of thousands of people, now has an ICU unit opening next week. People with money will no longer need to go across the border to Nairobi, Kenya for great medical assistance, it is located in Arusha, right here, right now! Yea. So it was an awesome opening. We arrived at 8:30 and it was a lesson in patience to hang out for hours to await the vice president who was several hours late. Truth be known, we unfortunately left 15 minutes before he finally arrived because we were really late for an appointment to visit the International School where, if we returned to do work for a longer period, our children would possibly attend. We love it here. Need more friends for everyone but the next couple weeks should be fruitful in that category.Love, ben’s little family
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