Hei Jan,

Så er det bare en arbeidsdag igjen, vi drar et døgn tidligere pga regntiden.
For meg har det vært en lærerik og veldig hyggelig tid, travle arbeidsdager med mange forskjellige kasus, litt å bryne seg på for både unge og gamle!

Jeg synes dette prosjektet ditt har vært veldig vellykket og studentene har gitt uttrykk for det samme.
De har vært positive .lærevillige og full av pågangsmot alle som en!
Jeg håper andre studenter og pensjonister blir fristet til dra nedover.
Jeg er veldig glad for at du spanderte turen på meg, tusen takk!

berit seim jørgensen tireb3@hotmail.com 26. mars 2014

Dear Jan, greetings from Theresa, Pietro and Nora, the three dentists from Germany.

We are very much enjoying our stay here at Haydom thanks to the excellent equipment provided by Dental Sør. Especially having an x-ray fulfills or even exceeds our highest expectations. Helping the local patients has already given us the feeling of being able to make a difference, which wouldn’t have been possible without you and the excellent supervision by Berit, who is just perfect.

Thank you very much for making this happen! Love, Theresa, Nora, Pietro

Hei Jan!

Her løper dagene så fort at kommunikasjon med verden utenfor blir skjøvet helt i bakgrunnen.
Team 1 reiste på lørdag, etter stor og god innsats. De fikk prøve seg på det meste og ga uttrykk for at de lærte mye på disse ukene og trivdes veldig godt. Det kommer nok reisebrev og mange fine bilder fra dem når de kommer hjem om en ti dagers tid. Du får evt gi dem et lite hint om det.
Gruppe 2 ankom allerede onsdag, så de ble orientert om alle praktiske ting av sine forgjengere.
I går startet alvoret for dem, og det var tre slitne , men fornøyde jenter som avsluttet arbeidsdagen.
Vi skal på outreach på fredag, blir sikkert spennende for dem også.

Takk for oversendt utstyr, både fra deg og tannlege Sørensen.
Det er godt når lageret er fullt, neste tannlege trenger ikke ta med seg stort. Jeg skal sende liste om det senere.

Berit S Jørgensen

Til Dentral Sør:

Tannlege Berit fra Bergen er her, sammen med flotte studenter fra Tyskland.

Dental Sør og Jan Thomassen, gjør en fantastisk innsats med å skaffe tannleger og tannlegestudenter til Haydom. Her jobber pensjonerte tannleger sammen med unge studenter, som får en praksis utenom det vanlige. Med andre ord: De blir veldig gode til å trekke ut tenner, og det kan være litt av en ”sjau” og store utfordringer. Infeksjoner, byller og tumor  i munnen,  er de problemene som ellers går igjen blant pasientene. Tannlegekontoret er moderne og oppdatert, takket være Dental Sør og deres bidrag til Haydom.

Lilli Ann Aanensen, frivillig arbeidende sykepelier fra Mandal.

Les hennes fantastiske skildringer her: http://haydom.no/artikler/les-reisebrevene-fra-lilli-ann/

Spesial project, by Jan Thomassen

More ore less at the same time, two different groups of students from Germany contacted us regarding voluntarily work at Dental Unit Haydom. Unfortunally they all needed guidens by a trained dentist, due to lack off examination diploma. So we had to search for a dentist to join them.

I mailed all former “Dentist fore Haydom» workers, and Berit Seim Jørgensen immediate responded positive, she wanted to join the students on their first trip to Haydom.

Dental Sør have restored and send down to good working Heka units, and hope they are installed whit in February 2014. For this special good course, we even paid Berit´s air ticket.
Looking forward to receive report end pictures after your stay, and good luck whit your planning!

In the mean time, read about their plans  and feedback below:

Haydom 14. feruar 2014 fra Berit:

Hei Jan, nå har vi vært i full sving siden tirsdag, og jeg kan glede deg med at alt fungerer veldig bra.
På utstyrssiden har vi alt vi trenger for lange tider, studentene hadde med seg både forbruksvarer og gode instrumenter.
de har fått prøvd seg både på fyllinger og ekstraksjoner, og er overlykkelig når de lykkes.
I dag var vi på outreach siden det var eneste muligheten i den perioden de er her. Det gjorde stort inntrykk…langt inne i bushen! Mye ros og bravo da første tannen kom ut!

Studentene har allerede tatt en masse bilder, de skal prøve å få dem på Facebook, men vi har litt problemer med dette gamle treskeverket av en computer jeg har tatt med. Klarer vi det ikke, håper jeg Annette har en bedre. I alle fall kommer det før eller siden. God helg til deg, beste hilsen Berit .

Our group is comprised of three dental students studying at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The members include, Kristina (26), Friederike or “Frieda” (24), and one half-Norwegian, Annette (24) coming from Frederikstad. We will be going to Haydom, Tanzania in March 2014 after the ninth semester of our studies. Therefore, there will only be one semester and the dental exam left before we can be considered practicing dentists.

We chose to apply for the Dental Sør Haydom Project because we want to use our last break to work in a developing country, where dental treatment is greatly needed. From the beginning of our studies, Kristina had a strong desire to go abroad and after continuously talking about possible adventures, Frieda and Annette were hooked! We started to have serious discussions about going abroad starting in November 2012. In May 2013, after months of looking for the “right” project, we found Dental Sør’s project in Haydom; thanks to the recommendation Annette received from the Norwegian Dental Association (DNTF).

There are many opportunities for German medical or dental students to study abroad. However, we genuinely wanted to go somewhere where our help was needed the most and not just a popular destination where every student is going. After reading the travel report written by Ane Ribe and the three dental students apart of Haydom summer 2012, we instantly thought “this is our project!” In so much excitement, it only took us a half an hour to send our first email to Jan Thomassen.

Now, we are so grateful to have been selected to go to Haydom. We have started the process to find sponsors who can financially support our endeavor in Africa. Just being able to actually plan our journey to Tanzania feels surreal. What we are looking forward to the most is: the culture, the patients, the treatment and last but not least, our trained dentist Berit Jørgensen, who will spending her time with us in Africa. We are very curious and anxious of the challenges awaiting for us in Haydom. Nevertheless, we are certain that our group is the best fit for this project and Haydom will have a positive impact on the rest of our lives.

In our introduction Letter we would like to tell who we are and why we decided to start such a
thrilling experience in far country as Tanzania is.

We are three students of dentistry in the fifth and last year of our University studies. In the last two
years the couses we had to attend focused on the latest and most modern techniques of dentistry,
applied in the real life situation of a patient. In fact, the professors and the university gave us the
fantastic opportunity to treat dental deseases on patients, which is not common or taken for granted
in other european universities.

In these years we tried to build up a conscious, health oriented sense and method of patient
treatment, not just only for the dental aspect, which is central, but also for the psychologic and
mental wellness of all the dental stuff, as the patient itself, but also the rich amount of people who
work with us.

Dental treatments in Tanzania appeared for us the ultimate chance to let us demonstrate ourselves
our capacities, combined with the willing of helping and supporting populations who need help and
nurse from us and the world. We hope we will succeed in this difficult task and build up a stable
relationship with the other medical stuff.

Searching for an appropriate relief project, Haydom Lutheran Hospital fulfills all our expectations.
It seems to be a well organized hospital in a really nice region and gives us the opportunity to add to
the work that is been done there. However, we‘ll be confrontated with different problems as in
Germany, dental as well as human, but we‘re really excited about treating patients abroad,
especially confronted with limited technical equipment.

We‘re looking forward to tasting the Tanzanian culture and hospitality and are sure we‘ll have a
nice time there with a lot of new experiences.