Back on Track

Hooray!! We’re back online (sort of). After 10 days of communication isolation our modem is back. However, we apologise that we were unable to upload last week’s promised video. After trying 3 different copies and paying about £10 in mobile phone fees, we failed. And we have had problems attaching documents to emails. Oh the joys of ‘always on’ broadband in England – sweet memories! But I have loaded the video on Youtube, so I hope the following works. http://www.youtube.com/v/ZniR0wO8K8Y&hl=en

On Saturday we went to Dodoma by bus to get some money (we were down to our last £2) and shopping. As a capital city, Dodoma has about 6 ATM machines – all of which were out of order – except for one where after queuing for about 20 minutes watching others walk away with nothing, Malcolm managed to withdraw the maximum of 200,000 shillings – about £80.
We had a very relaxing lunch at the Hospital Manager’s house on the way back from Dodoma. Katrin and her husband are very particular about food so we had an excellent salad and ‘beef casserole’ (although it is a posher German dish than that) followed by crepe suzettes (or pancakes to Malcolm). And after lunch Malcolm managed to watch some cricket – he hadn’t even realised there had been a first Test Match against New Zealand, let alone a second!

One of the highlights of this week was Tuesday. Simon and Laura, our neighbours, had the new Archbishop of Central Tangyanika round for tea. (I know – name dropping!!). We popped round when we heard the church choir/rock group singing and dancing in the back garden. It is the first time we’ve ever met an Archbishop – particularly listening to a church choir in a garden. We had a chat – seems a nice bloke, and he wished me the best in learning Swahili.

We had our fourth Swahili lesson straight away. We’re up to ‘Please close (or open) the window’. Not something we’ve had much call to say yet – particularly as there are not many conventional windows, being mainly glass louvre shutters with mosquito screens. Malcolm’s problem is that 10 minutes after the lesson he’s forgotten every word he’s ‘learned’. The word for ‘to close’ is almost the same as ‘to open’. Can you spot the difference between:
‘Samahani, unapenda kufunga derisha’ and ‘Samahani, unapenda kufungua derisha’? He does try Swahili at work but has found out his chief cashier (and only member of staff) is developing an act mimicking his attempts at speaking Swahili in a ‘soufeast’ London accent.

Apart from meeting the Archbishop work continues to be challenging. Malcolm is trying to sort out a budget for the year beginning July – unfortunately he has very little to work from. Most of the financial records up to January disappeared with the previous management team and the accounts havn’t been audited for a year or so, at least. He’s discovered the previously approved budget had some significant errors meaning that rather than making a surplus, the hospital agreed a plan to spend about 50,000,000 shillings (about 15% of its turnover, or 2 months paybill) more than its income – a plan they have achieved as its limited reserves have been wiped out and debts have escalated to such an extent it is now difficult to pay staff. There was a meeting with the District Medical Officer on Friday to discuss the problems, and to consider the implications and demands of the Hospital being upgraded to a Designated District Hospital in July. The funding from the District Council is less than was hoped far. The Manager is meeting the Minister of Health with the DMO next Wednesday to find out how the Government will fund the Hospital.

Irene continues to sort out the filing system. The piles of unsorted files are beginning to disappear which gives her some hope that the task will end. However, she is aware of the need to ensure that the filing clerks are able to replace files used by the doctors in the right place – not a problem for most people you might expect. However…..

She has now bought the material for a new dress. It will be a skirt and blouse and the material cost 4,500 shillings – almost £2!!! Now to select a ‘fundi’ to make it.

On Friday Irene did go and speak with the owner of a clothes company. George Davies (of ‘George’ at Asdas) (name dropping again) flew into Dodoma (in his own jet) to lay the foundation stone for the extension at the Mvumi Secondary school. Stuart Rose (Marks and Spencers) and Malcolm had hoped to be there but they couldn’t make it. Irene had a chat with George – a nice, down to earth bloke. Malcolm’s not sure whether a deal was struck, but has been told she got a kiss from him – the first time she’s been kissed by a multi millionaire.

So – planning for next week:
· more work on sorting out the Hospital’s budget in preparation for a meeting with

the Diocese Finance Board sometime in the next fortnight
· Hospital Manager to meet Minister for Health
· yet more filing for Irene
· and Malcolm has an appointment with a dentist on Tuesday!!!!!