This was not written by me. It was by Mr Marc Butcher, Alias "BUTCH", (owner of Matupula safaris with Marc Alleman and Mr. Zondo) Who gave us the idea of doing something good in Africa

A MIRACLE IN MATABELELAND
The Story of Sonrisas para Zimbabwe and Matupula ‘s Mobile Dental Safari – DEC 2011
In April 2010 I was on safari again with my good friends Diego Romero and Sergio Morante in the Tsholotsho district of North Western Zimbabwe. I was talking to them about the efforts our company puts into trying to get benefits from wildlife and tourism into the disadvantaged communities in our safari concession areas adjacent to Hwange National Park.

Over lunch later that day they told me of some of their adventures and experiences as young recently graduated dentists doing free dental clinics in the rural areas of Nicaragua with a Catholic church group, some 10 years previously. And so right there underneath a Camel thorn Tree near a place called Korodziba was hatched the plan for our ‘Mobile Dental Safari.’

The concept was for them to put together a team of like minded Spanish dentists who would pay their own way to Zimbabwe in 2011, we’d house them at our safari camps for a week or two and then set up a series of one day Dental clinics at various sites in Bulilima, Tsholotsho and Hwange Districts across north western Zimbabwe. Then, in between providing free dental care we’d try to give the dentists some safari fun at our camps around Hwange Park and Victoria Falls.

When they flew back to Spain they started bouncing the idea around some of their friends and colleagues and slowly a momentum began to build – soon more than 10 said they were in. Later that year as I began to look into the logistics of the plan, I came to realize that to get the numbers of patients to a central point to give the dentists a good days work - say 300+, we would need many vehicles, buses and a great quantity of dental equipment and drugs – and the dollars started to add up.

Andy Schatte from Houston Texas is a friend of 25 years and a wonderful human being. He and his family Annette, Ali and Samantha have a family trust that funds good work all over the world and have funded a number of excellent school and domestic water projects in Matabeleland in Zimbabwe. They loved the idea and generously offered to help us fund the exercise.

And so thru 2011 the work began. We set dates that fit everybody’s schedule – eventually the first 10 days of December. We began sourcing Dental supplies and drugs, booking buses and marquees, and calculating diesel and food and the whole plan grew and the ball began to roll. We began the process of registering the Spanish dentists to practice in Zimbabwe and flights were booked. However, through October the nightmare of registration began to dawn on all of us - it was extremely difficult. Most of the Spaniards later told me that had they not already paid for their air tickets, they would have pulled the plug.

Mid November we still didn’t have the required approval and we began to worry. My partner Njabulo Zondo who had been frantically lobbying Ministry of Health and the Dental Practitioners Association of Zimbabwe had begun to travel up and down from Bulawayo to Harare weekly, trying to convince people of the soundness of our plan and our team.

In the last week in November, Diego arrived, a week before the rest of the group so we could run through preparations and he could do some safari of his own. His legendary good luck once more delivered and on Day 2 we found and he killed a sixty five pound aside bull elephant.

At this point 5 days from kick off we were uncertain about whether or not we were going to be able to conduct any clinics, so of course we were reticent to advertise them – however the key to success was going to be numbers of patients and that needed advertising and organization. We were in a dilemma.

So Diego, my guys and Victor Ncube from Tsholotsho Rural District Council started going village to village speaking to Headman (Sebukhu) and Councillors spreading the word that in a week or so a free dental clinic might be set up in their area at a date and time to be advised – be ready. They understood the vagaries of central government, and encouraged us to do our best. We visited 45 villages dotted across a 3000 square km swathe of Kalahari sand and dust. Most nights we only got back to camp at 10 pm, tired and worried.

On the 29th of November faced with a ‘Go or No Go’ decision to have to make - we decided to gamble. Put everything in place so if Zondo managed to convince the authorities, we were set up to begin work, and in the interimif we had to we’d conduct our dentists on safari from our camp at Bomani. We knew by then we were probably going to lose days, so had to make the tough decision to cut Bulilima District out of our program. Their CAMPFIRE manager’s disappointment was huge.

1st of December arrived, I had driven back into Bulawayo the night before and we met our group off an AIR 2000 charter from Jo’burg .

And the process of getting them out of the airport started, but the homework we’d done with ZIMRA (Customs) paid off and we were only an hour and a half getting them and about 800kg of kit into the country.

They arrived in high spirits and excited to finally be in Africa. Sergio and Natalya, Iniego and Roxanne, Cesar and Karla, Fabio (an Italian)and Isobel , Alfonse and Aranxa, and the bachelors Ramon, Dani and Dino (also an italian) - I could tell quickly that Diego and Sergio had picked their team carefully – during the airport delays there was no complaining and much patience was displayed.

But, in the car park on the phone to Zondo, to me he sounded frankly disillusioned and pessimistic about our prospects – so with a sinking feeling I loaded our circus into buses, land cruisers and our 3.5 ton truck and headed out.

At 9 pm that night we turned off the tar at Sipepa – the District Hospital there was to be the scene of one of our first clinics, maybe. So, we left our trucks and marquees and buses, and a team of our staff there and changed the dentists into the land cruisers and drove through the night to Bomani Camp for a late supper – about 11 pm!

Everybody knew that Friday was to be our make or break day, so the decision was made for only a late start as we weren’t working, just enjoying the area on safari the next day.

A late breakfast the following morning helped ease the hangovers and a leisurely trip was taken into the Park across the Ngamo plain to a pan called Hwa Hwa Du. The rainy season had started a few weeks previously and with that the big dry season concentrations of elephant in that part had dispersed but the green grass was covered with grazers and had triggered the first flushes of alates that are a feature of this area at this time of year – huge flocks of migratory storks and eurasian raptors filled the skies.

Just after lunch time that Friday standing on an anthill at Hwa Hwa Du, while my group napped in the shade, I satphoned Zondo in Harare, he said he though it was probably hopeless he did not know why but he’d hit a brick wall. I was dumbstruck. We brainstormed a bit and could only come up with an idea for him to call the Provincial Administrator in Bulawayo and ask her to lobby the Dental Board on behalf of the people of Tsholotsho and Hwange.

We climbed back onto the land cruisers and knowing we were probably dead in the water we drove back to camp game viewing on the way. The Ngamo plain that evening was magnificent but my mood was very black – all that time, effort, money and planning squandered because of an inefficient bureaucracy. We arrived at camp just after dark and much to my surprise Big Boy our camp manager greeted me with a message from Zondo to say he had had a breakthrough and please call him quick.

Stunned I satphoned Zondo, apparently he been put onto the Provincial Ministry of Health head of Dental services Dr Saka in Bulawayo, who had called Harare late afternoon and ironed out the problem, with apparent ease. We had our go ahead, but would only be able to start work once the permits were issued on Monday morning.

That weekend equipment was rechecked and tested - generators and compressors fired up and drills tested. Drugs and medicines, rubber gloves and swabs, bleach and detergent, anesthetic cartridges and amalgam, and on and on. But after inventorying all the supplies, the rest of the time was spent game viewing, duck hunting, fishing and enjoying perhaps one or two more gin and tonics than were necessary!

At this point the plan hatched assumed that the permits issued in Harare on Monday morning could be driven thru by Zondo (emailed copies were not legal) and another bus would transport the Ministry of Health personell overseeing the work from Bulawayo - with a little luck we might be able to do a small clinic on Monday afternoon.

Geography decided us to set this up at Ngamo school to service the villages within 5 km of it, as the area was too sandy for our buses to take these patients to Sipepa. So we began spreading the word for people to walk in and the elderly and the infirm to wait for land cruisers along the sandy tracks on Monday afternoon.

After brunch on Monday morning our dentists packed up boxes of tools and supplies and equipment and we moved the whole team to Ngamo School. While they set up their equipment, I drove through to Sipepa to meet Dr Saka and his team coming from Bulawayo. They arrived, debussed, unloaded and we turned around.

By the time we got back to Ngamo it was after 3 pm but the school ground was filled with people. Introductions were made with Dr Saka, his nurses and the Spaniards, a few photos taken and the show began – and what a show it was.

Picture a rural African school room with a circle of 13 masked dentists with headlamps, psychedelic surgical hats, armed with syringe guns and stainless steel tools, each hovering over a seated and very scared patient. In the center of the room 2 pairs of nurses are sterilizing, washing and passing tools and bagging drugs, outside a generator and 2 compressors burbling away and an iPod plays Santana.

Then picture a host of local villagers who have never seen a dentist in their lives plus me and my guys all watching through the windows and Jacqui our photographer clicking away crazily - it was like a rock concert had arrived from out of space at Ngamo that afternoon.

Earnest my tracker and friend of 20 years and a resident of Ngamo village looked across at me and I remember we both had wet eyes. We’d pulled off a miracle.

But then the real work began. MJ and Aleck in Land Cruisers were sent out to fetch in the elderly and start spreading the word to the east and the south about the next days clinic to be held at Sipepa. The last patient – the 97th was treated just after dark by flashlight and then driven home.

The mood in the cruisers on our drive back to camp was glorious – excitement, accomplishment, relief, pride and that warm feeling that comes from truly giving something that is needed. At camp we were greeted by the whole camp staff that clapped the team in, in an absolutely open and honest gesture of thanks and congratulations. I recollect the wine flowed freely over dinner that night.

Early the following morning we were all woken to the roaring of lions across the pan from the camp. A quick breakfast was washed down with lots of coffee and fruit juice whilst we loaded all the equipment and the things we’d need for a long day at Sipepa.

When we arrived we set up what was to become the modus operandi for the next week. A short discussion with the Nurse in charge, a quick ‘walk the course’ and a room was chosen for the dental clinic, a marquee set up outside as a waiting room where pre-surgery examinations were conducted, and another for a rest room for the doctors. Nurse Nyoni set up her desk at one end of the ‘waiting room marquee’ recorded each patient and armed them with a piece of paper with their name written on it. The dentist in charge of the pre-exams usually Sergio but sometimes Ramon would then detail the treatment they recommended. As each dentist finished with a patient he would walk them out order their drugs and pain killers from the Nurse and collect another patient and walk them in to the surgery collect and take him to his ‘chair’ on the wall of the surgery.

The bulk of the procedures, maybe 90 %, were extractions. Many of the teeth were highly infected and the majority of patients had multiple removals required. Fillings and root canal work were also undertaken particularly in younger patients and in the case of root canal work particularly where it involved front teeth. Isobel and Arantxa, a renowned root canal specialist, usually set up their fillings and root canal table by a window and there performed endless painstaking root canal procedures, one after the other under extremely difficult conditions, and with never a complaint.

Virtually none of the patients had ever had any dental work done, and their knowledge of it was mainly about extractions done at rural clinics without anesthesia. The fear based mainly on lack of knowledge was palpable, but once people saw that the anesthetics actually worked and clearly the team knew what they were doing the mood outside the surgery in the queues going into the waiting rooms took on an almost carnival atmosphere – no doubt the music and the smiles and jokes amongst the team helped – people relaxed and it became a social event.

Outside a slow but steady stream of patients walked in throughout the day. Our bus drivers and the CAMPFIRE reps from District Council Victor and Bongani acting as conductors deployed down the roads in their overloaded chariots resplendent with banners and stickers identifying them as dental safari buses. They collected groups from our prearranged pick up points ferried them to our clinic and as the last patient from each group was completed, they would all gather together for the next bus to be taken home. All of them sore, with bloody swabs packed into their mouths, but clutching their baggies of Ibuprofen and Amoxicillin - their relief and thanks welled in their eyes.

At the doctors rest area marquee trestle tables and chairs were set up, and cold boxes of iced soft drinks and water as well as sandwiches and cold snacks were laid out. The large numbers of multiple extractions were actually hard physical work for the dentists. During their short well earned breaks – the animated discussions in Spanish (sometimes translated for us) were clear to me as the discussions of highly motivated, experienced, gifted professionals enjoying their work and sharing their knowledge and experiences.

It was fun to watch too during their brief breaks jump up and start dishing out toothbrushes to patients waiting to board buses on their way home and blowing up rubber gloves for balloons for scared kids – everybody fell in love with them.

The team work was fantastic to watch – many times I saw Dino beckon to Fabio, they would stare and probe a patient’s mouth, an animated exchange would follow, then usually a nodding of heads followed by a renewed flurry of dentistry.

The best illustrations of the team work they displayed was when there was a problem. Sometimes a small kid terrified by these ‘people from space’ in masks and goggles with head lamps and waving flashing stainless steel luxators, probes and mirrors would become too much and the child would break into tears and try to run away. The easy and unprofessional thing to do would have been to leave them, but having seen some of the terrible infected teeth in their mouths everybody knew the right thing to do was to finish the job – for the child’s benefit.

Diego was the acknowledged ‘problem child’ expert, I watched him countless times dive in to help when one of the doctors was battling with a deteriorating situation with some child. First the parent would be ordered out of the surgery, usually in loud heavily accented terms and often with difficulty. Once the child realized he was on his own and the balance of power had shifted some calming words often from one of the nurses Moyo or Ncube – was often all that was needed and Diego would grip the child’s head firmly and the troublesome tooth often a deep rooted molar was out in the blink of an eye.

The new Econet cell phone tower at Sipepa that day was smoking – calls were made and received to and from anxious families and friends in Spain, orders were placed with Marc, Heather and Cleo at my office for more materials and diesel. But importantly, plans were made with Zondo to move on to Hwange and spread the word set up pick up points for our clinics in that District on Thursday and friday

And so they all worked through that long day everyone of them heroes bringing relief to poor people who had given up hope that they could ever afford decent dental care in a country where most of the population never see a dentist in their llives.

At the end of that day we had seen another 254 patients. As the last buses were leaving with the people from the villages at Mabandeni and Malila, as the boxes of bloody swabs and wipes were burnt and needles incinerated, chairs trestles and marquees packed on the trucks, we loaded our tired dentists onto our Land Cruiser safari vehicles for the drive back to camp . Water, cokes and beers were passed out for the drive back home and the singing and joking would start.

The next day the procedure was the same except we were going to Mtshayeli clinic – not far from the Dodana gate going into Hwnage Park it was a central point for a huge area we had chosen as our catchment for that day – from Mlevu village in the north, home to Acting Chief Matupula then south and west into Ward one to Sihazela and maybe even Sodaka and Korodziba where the idea for this miracle had been born.

We arrived at Mtshayeli full of anticipation – our team wanted to raise the bar and do 100 more than we did the day before at Sipepa – we had no idea how many people would need attention. We offloaded our trucks set up our marquees laid out our trestle tables and tools. Patients from nearby villages began arriving by foot, and the 4 wheel drive cruisers headed out to the more remote villages and the buses hit the roads.

Our dentists and nurses donned their masks, hats and gloves, generator on, compressors on, music on… and we were open for business.

What a day we had at Mtshayeli that Wednesday. The sky was clear as a bell and as the sun got higher and higher so the temperature soared but the buses just kept coming. Outside my trackers, who are hard men, manned the generators and compressors, but as that sun climbed even they were forced to work in shifts and inside under that asbestos roof in that airless room the doctors and nurses worked like slaves. Sweat poured off them. Countless times a doctor with bloodied gloves on his or her hands motioned me to please dab their brows to keep the sweat from running into their eyes.

We set up one relay of water carriers to keep them hydrated fetching water from the well half a km below us. And another filled up drums for water for the patiently waiting patients, but not long after we passed the 200 mark we had our first patient faint inside there. The long day of travelling and waiting, the fear and pain was too much in that 40 degree plus room. I remember two of the doctors crouched over the young girl pouring water on her face when a second lady went down. We carried them both out and laid them out to revive. I remember watching Diego, Ramon and Iniego exchange looks and nods, and they took their patients they were working on and moved seamlessly outside into the cooler air and carried right on. Soon the whole clinic was being conducted outside.

The last bus load came in from Sodaka about a 2 ½ drive west of us at about 4 pm, but by then the sun had dipped, the air had cooled and we knew we were over the hump, the finish line in sight. We crossed the 300 mark and as the light faded they all picked up the pace, knowing that if we wanted to attend to every patient who had made that long trip before last light, the pressure was on. As the light faded we pulled out the flashlights again to help finish,

A bottle neck was developing in getting all the people back to their villages, I decided to take a cruiser load back to a village called Makeni that were going to be just a half load for one of the buses on a dead end road. Most of the people from Makeni know me , I don’t know all of them by names but recognize their faces, I’ve safari hunted elephant around Makeni for years . I dropped them off at the village well near the centre of the village, they all thanked me enthusiastically but one old grandmother in particular called me by name and said loosely translated “ … Butcher, my calf thank you, because I can now eat, so I can live again…” addressing me as her calf made me smile but clearly we had made a huge impact – she was able to eat again.

We attended 375 patients that day – almost all of them had multiple procedures and because we knew they might never see another dentist we boldly tried to fix all the problems in every mouth. I know dozens of patients received 5+ procedures in their mouths and this in 40+ degree heat.
What a performance, what a miracle and what an inspiration.

I loaded our dentists up into the cruisers to head back to camp. But the buses had to make long drives thru the night to drop off patients and then to return to their base at Sipepa. My guesstimate put them there at 2 a.m. We got in at 9.30 once more to be greeted by our camp staff cheering our doctors home.
That night was our last night at Bomani and our dining table was set up under the stars and our chefs produced a tremendous feast – a grand finale to a remarkable week.

The next day dawned with lion roaring again and a frantic flurry of packing and loading. We had to load all ourselves luggage and kit into two cruisers and trailers haul through 100 km of 4 wheel drive sand across Ngamo Forest and the Gwai river to hopefully meet our convoy of buses and 3.5 tonner at Halfway hotel on the tar road to the Falls. Breakfast was held at our open air table again with a hippo in attendance and we left only a little late.

As I drove hard across the Ngamo Forest area up the old fence line I remember looking in my rear view mirror and seeing most of my load all asleep and bouncing in their seats – they were tired. We crossed the Gwayi and arrived at Halfway and happy days, there was our bus, with the news that the others were ahead of us and Mr Zondo was waiting at Lupote – we were on track.

When we arrived at Lupote clinic 160 km south of Vic Falls I was greeted by a cheerful Reason my truck driver busy offloading marquees – he’d had 2 hours sleep. Zondo was there calm and unflustered with the news that everything was organized other than an Aids Clinic scheduled there for the day had already commandeered the only suitable building. We were relegated to a building that anywhere else would have been condemned, it was filthy, cramped and our worst by far. Looks were exchanged, eyes were rolled back, nothing said, but then nods –“ no complaining, get on with it, can do” – without a word from anyone.

Marquees up, trestle tables up and covered, tools unpacked and laid out, nurses arranging everything into neat rows, Rox and Karla set up their sterilization tables, MJ and Aleck connected up the generator and compressors, a nesting chicken was thrown out, on with masks, goggles, hats and gloves and we were open for business before 10 am and then Diego, Sergio, Iniego, Natalya, Ramon, Dani, Dino, Cesar, Alfonse, Fabio, Saka, Aranxa and Isobel began to perform their miracles.

That day and the next Zondo with Mr Ncube CEO of Hwange Council performed a wonder of organization with the buses - Seve and Ben conducting them didn’t miss out a village.

But inside that little room the dentists were having a hard time.

One of the check in nurses responsibilities was to ask patients if they were HIV positive and then record that on their admittance slip. The number of positives was much higher than the days before – again looks were exchanged and extra gloves donned, but the space and room for bins of blood soaked swabs and bloodied gloves was cramped and difficult, where other surgeries had been a ballet of practiced pros, this one was cramped and stilted. Two other problems had developed – our orders for lignocaine had been provided in vials not in disposable cartridges, so the dentists who’d started with their boxes of cartridges (quick and easy to load) were now forced to reload their syringes and needles from the vials, their rhythm was disrupted. The whole site was difficult and we’d been forced to place the waiting room marquee along the one side of the surgery room, so airflow was disrupted, but worse all the waiting patients were now lined up watching terrified through the windows.

Then to compound it all the roots of the molars of the residents of the western wards of Hwange Communal Area were something else. In Tsholotsho, all our dentists had commented that the teeth had particularly well developed roots from what they were used to dealing with – teeth were harder to pull. But that Thursday at Lupote was much worse. I knew something was going on when Osaka started complaining about it – even he’d never seen teeth like these. As the dentists had to apply more pressure and more force, so there was more blood to worry about, and more fatigue. The waiting patients sensed and saw it and worry increased.

The numbers of ‘problem patients’ increased, everybody’s patience was sorely tested. It reached a climax when Diego had ‘ a problem girl’ who was freaked out by everything and had a particularly deep rooted molar as well. At Diego’s scream for help I remember turning around and seeing at least a couple of the dentists trying to restrain the girl while she ground her teeth viciously on his index finger. Eventually, her mouth was pried open, order was restored and things calmed down, but Diego’s finger nail was black the next day.

Highlights for me that day was when a ‘fat cat’ arrived in a new Mitsubishi Pajero looking for free dental service, she marched up to the front of the queue but was booed by the other patients so left in a huff. The other was when the teenage daughter of Pepsi one of our Gorges manageress’ arrived with one of her friends for some teeth to be pulled, you could tell they were very scared but wanted to be brave. Diego stepped up to the plate and their fear quickly evaporated amongst his jokes and the smiles and joshing from Sergio and Ramon.

At the end of that day we had seen just under 300 patients but everybody was very tired, we finished again needing flashlights to see the last patients. We gathered up all our gear packed and stowed it and boarded our little convoy for Gorges lodge just outside Vic Falls – it was 10 pm when we pulled in there. But as always a hot shower, cold drinks and a good meal and everybody’s spirits were restored.

The next morning we all awoke to the glorious view that is dawn over the Batoka gorge below us. A good breakfast and once more we were off - today to Ndhlovu Clinic, an hour’s drive south from Gorges. We arrived there and all agreed it was our best venue yet – it had a spacious airy semi open courtyard that was perfect for our work.

But of course all was not to be easy. Rain the night before meant conditions were perfect for ploughing and there were drop offs of food by ORAP going on that day too, so were concerned attendance would be low. Hunger is a bigger priority than tooth ache.

But again Zondo and Ncube did great work and collected from all the villages we had planned to cover plus some – even as far as Sidinda over 100 kms away.

The mood was excellent – today was to be our last clinic the next day was to be a tourist day and the weather was cool and cloudy. Work was proceeding steadily and the number of patients wa enough to keep the dentists busy but not stressed. I even got a filling that day from Isobel and Diego.

But again the numbers of HIV positive patients was even higher and so again the stakes were raised – greater concentration more care more attention to detail. Natalya had worked previously in an Aids research clinic and I heard her and Sergio several times encouraging the others to take care.

And then it happened. About 3 pm Dr Saka came to me where I was talking to Zondo and Chief Mvutu to say we had a medical emergency. I ran up and found a very shaken Ramon. Apparently performing an extraction on a known HIV positive patient the impossible had happened - as the tooth came out it broke and a piece of nerve tissue had arced through the air over the top of his goggles and fallen into his eye. He had immediately stretched open his eye lid and the others had rushed in and irrigated – but we were all very worried so we decided we needed some PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) drugs. I rushed him to my land cruiser and Iniego jumped in with us, I thought to ride with me and reassure his friend.

Turned out the incident had spooked Iniego because two days previously at Mtshayeli he had accidentally stabbed himself with a luxator through his double gloves while trying to get at a deep rooted molar. He had decided to down play the incident but in view of what had just happened he thought it wise to maybe get some PEP’s too. On the way into the Falls I phoned ahead and asked Mags Varley to phone around and try to find some. As a back up I also called my office in Bulawayo to look too and check into the availability of a small plane and pilot.

Fortunately as we pulled into the Falls I was told that one of each kind and enough for a week of treatments for 2 guys was available. We tracked it down bought them and Iniego and Ramon took their first doses – then pies and cokes and back out to Ndhlovu. We arrived and we could tell everybody was relieved we had found the drugs .

Then you know what happened - those two heroes finished their cokes and pies, donned their masks and goggles collected a patient each and went back into surgery. That evening once again the light ran out and as we shone torches for our dentists Jax and I both wore our dark glasses.

Just as we were finishing packing up a thunderstorm rolled in on us and the heavens opened up. We took shelter in the clinic for over an hour before it subsided. We tied bucksails over our open land cruisers and decided to make the dash – but half way home and we hit a huge storm again. We arrived at Gorges with everybody soaked and cold but Debs and Chris had arranged a welcome a dancing drumming troupe of locals were there and as they disembarked they were met by a thunder of drumming – tremendous.

Later that night I heard the bus load of patients returning to Sidinda was stopped by a flooded river so they slept in the bus and only got home the next day.

The next day bright and early we took the team into the Falls for their white water rafting trip - as a thankyou they invited at their expense MJ and Jax to accompany them – just after lunch time I watched them pass below me at Gorges and they had had a glorious time. Back to Gorges for a nap and then that night we were into the Falls for dinner at the Boma Restaurant followed by soccer on TV at Shoestrings - Real Madrid’s defeat at the hands of Barcelona ruined the party for some of them.

The next day was the Victoria Falls tour and even though I have seen it countless times the joy of showing them off to our new friends was huge. Several of them were already dressed in their work clothes – when they got off their plane in Madrid the next morning they were going straight to work. At the airport we inventoried their equipment with Zimra again to show that they were in fact taking most (but not all) of it back to Spain and not selling it without paying duty and checked them all in.

The farewells for all of us were emotional – we all knew we had been through and done something incredible together and that always creates a bond that is special. The hugs, kisses, back slaps and hand shakes were sincere and truly heartfelt. I remember Cesar looked me in the eyes and said “ Butcher, you have another friend in Spain.” I was touched.

On my drive back to Bulawayo that afternoon exhausted I was waived down by Police outside Hwange town, they started looking for something to fine me for, and they found it. The night we’d made the mad dash from Ndhlovu in the rain, I’d skirted a creek and torn out my trailer tail light wire – I explained it to the cops and what we had been doing and they laughed at me, hinted for a bribe and made me pay a fine. I was shaking I was so angry.

As I drove angry I brooded on the inequities of my country, the bureaucracy that tried to torpedo the tour, the problems to import medicines, ‘fat cats’ in Pajero’s jumping to the front of queues, on and on…

But then I started to take stock of what we had achieved: 1373 patients from over 100 villages, probably 4500 procedures in 5 clinics in 4 ¼ days across two districts – 250 km in a straight line from furthest south to furthest north. Wow!

And I remembered that old grandmother from Makeni whose life we saved by simply pulling 5 rotten teeth out of her head and giving her a baggie of antibiotics.

Suddenly, I couldn’t stop myself thinking about what we’d need to do, to do it again, but better.

Diego,

I must apologise for not posting the photos you have sent me while I was out of the country.

I have completely forgotten abou them, and just now remembered as I read your post.

Anyway, here they are.

Great job your team has done.

First Class.

Regards, Tim

WOW, what a terrific report. Commendations to all involved!! Truely improving the lives of the disadvantaged with what we take for granted.

Bill

Thanks Saeed. I will try to send a few more photos of the team as a hole.if you could be so kind of posting them I would really appreciate it.
Thanks Tim. We did what we could

My dad is a dentist and will have to show him this report. He would be impressed. Great job guys. I imagine it would have been a lot of hard work and a lot of fun as well.

A most gracious service!

Diego,
You and your friends were truly "the hands of God" in Zimbabwe. My hats off to you and the others for your selfless acts of kindness and charity in the bush! Well done, mi amigo.

Bravo!

My hat is off to you guys! Great work.

It is just disgusting the "beurocracy" you had to deal with on your mission.

The rewards must far outweigh the trouble though.


.

Truly inspiring... Fantastic