Hello Everyone,

One again I find myself back in Arusha, East Africa. This has actually been my fourth trip and I have to say that I am very happy to say that there has been such a huge change in the care of patients living with HIV/AIDS.

We have met many of our old friends and have made many new ones and it has all been a positive experience. On this trip it was a welcome change to visit Mt. Meru Hospital which is a Government run facility and to see that there inpatient population has now dropped due to the actual ARV treatment of HIV/AIDS patients and to see that they have an outpatient clinic that they can do there follow up. It was very encouraging to see that there clinical lab has expanded and there growth is continueing. The is excellant news for the people of Arusha.

One of the stongest memories on this trip for me will be the day Cheryl Arteaga went to Mount Meru to do the testing on patients and they actually had a female who tested negative and they double checked there results and the lady actually was not HIV positive. I wish we could have all been there to see that lady receive that wonderful news.

On this trip we have visited a few other facilities and have been very impressed to see that they are all working on problems to help there people understand the problems related with HIV/AIDS. One of the main hurdles now is getting proper nutrition to the people. There is now a very strong presence of Hope in the people and it is so wonderful to see.

Our team’s presence here in Arusha with there HIV/AIDS has been well received by all we have met. Our Medical Symposium was a huge success and it was great seeing those buses full of medical people arriving at the conference room.

Today our team leaves for Safari and it will be hard for us to get internet access but we will post pictures as soon as we can.

See you all back in the States.