Flying Medical Service operates in about 30 remote villages in the Tanzanian bush on top of various emergencies or humanitarian flights.
Here is a medical hut in Ngaresero at the foot of an active volcano, Oldoinyo Lengai. This hut is a luxury as in most places villagers didn’t bother to build one. That absence is a bit of an inconvenience when it rains or when patients need some privacy (which is a total foreign concept in the bush…) . I gather there is no TV out there so nobody wants to miss the latest medical gossip, like who got an STD, the sighting of a machete wound, who has elephantiasis on the genitals etc but women don’t like to share their personal problems with the whole bunch around.
Hut or not doesn’t deter people I have to admit. So once in a while some butts need to be whipped…
A village nearby another airstrip. Though I can help in some ways my medical colleagues, I’m still just a pilot and people like to keep roles clearly defined. A driver won’t like you to give him advice and cooks (mostly women but that’s universal) hate to see me cooking my stuff my own way. So if there is no rush, I get to walk around and take time to enjoy the bush.
At 2000 m in the mountains, these guys must be fit.
There is a common joke/knowledge here in Tanzania that wherever you think you’re alone in the bush (when you need to pee for instance), there will always be a Masai popping out of nowhere and greeting you. Indeed they seem to walk out of and to nowhere with no village in sight… never ask a Masai for estimates! For him ‘a little bit further’ or ‘just around the bush tree’ means half a day of walk. It tends to drive white people nuts…
Notice the red pouch with a cell phone.
The doctor of the day with patients. No hut available, that means working under the wing for shade. Trees are convenient too.
Just friends. Homosexuality in Africa is still a crime in many countries, see Uganda and its crazy law projects. In Masai culture, it’s just not talked about.
In the medical hut… obviously no bad news so far.
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