The first corner

Hi.




It has been a very pleasant week weather-wise. Just like very nice summer's days in England – except we are approaching winter. Sun rises about 6a.m and sets about 7p.m. Because we are close to the equator there is very little change in sunrise and sunset between summer and winter. Malcolm was talking to our Tanzanian hospital administrator today and was surprised that she finds the weather too hot. She is from the North of Tanzania, near Kilimanjaro, which is cooler because of the higher altitude. I thought is ironic that she seemed to be suffering more than a pale skinned English man!!!!

Our house:
We have received a comment that our chalet/bungalow/hut looks nicer than our Chesham house. Well, it:
- is bigger.
- has three bedrooms
- has quite nice gardens (if you like the scorched earth look!)
- is fairly quiet (no / very little traffic)
- is peaceful (no street lights)
- receives unexpected visitors (in addition to salesmen/beggars we have had goats, chickens and pigs pass through the gardens)
- is close to the town / market / shacks (300 yards)
- has a grand piano (out of tune) with a book on how to repair and tune a piano




However:
- there is no running drinking water
- there is no hot water (Malcolm doesn't mind cold showers)
- there is no shower
- rats scurry about in the loft (subject to the rat poison we have put down)
- ants seem to love our kitchen
- has no carpets – only a concrete floor with a few straw rugs
- no refuse collection – and no Council Tax!!!!


Just as well we used to camp!!


However (again), it is far more luxurious than most locals – it is made out of concrete rather than mud, has furniture and at least there is running water 12 hours a day and electricity (usually).




We have employed a young woman (Mama Asante - which means 'Mother of Thankyou' (Thankyou is the name of her eldest child (Irene is sometimes called Mama David)- some children are called 'Trouble' or 'Pain') to do the cleaning , washing etc. She is working now and Irene has to teach her how to clean for westerners. She is very nice but we do have one minor problem, she speaks no English at all. Irene is hoping that later on, when they can communicate a little better, she will teach her some African cooking, and how to make bread, gestures can only go so far!




Meat will be a very rare part of our diet now but you will be happy to know that every thing is very fresh, straight from the ground to the local market to us, the milk comes in warm from the cow next door! Lots of different beans, chapatis, rice and fruit. Beans and rice have to be sorted through before cooking (that will be Mama Asante's job too) to get rid of all the stones and bugs.







We will also be heavily into recycling. Forget about fortnightly collections and wheelie bins here there are no waste collections at all! Any food scraps will be put into a bucket for Simon and Laura's chickens next door (they are trying to persuade us to have some ourselves, chickens that is not scraps) paper and burnable scraps are burnt outside and anything else e.g tins is put into a large hole in the garden, (known as a tak tak).

Our work
We started working at the hospital on Monday. Highlights for Malcolm have been:
- supporting a hospital manager who is focussed on raising the medical standards of the hospital and correcting some of the mis-management previously introduced
- enjoying conversations with staff who make fun of his attempts at Swahili
finding out on Monday we couldn't pay the April salaries (due 30th April) as there was not enough money in the bank
- when sufficient funds were received, being involved in his first cash payroll for about 30 years. A bit of an eye-opener. Staff have become used to not having pay slips (so not knowing why they get the amount they do). And lets just say that the system is not up to UK probity(yet)!!!
- meeting with his predecessor who left under a cloud, but who is protected heavily by labour laws which are more favourable to the employee than in the UK. He won't resign and the Diocese won't sack him – sounds like a future legal case – but who's help we need to recover missing prime documents which support government grant claims
- trying to learn how electronic cash tills work in order to consider re-introducing one in the cashier's office
- establishing a budget, and printing lunch and dinner vouchers, for a celebration on Monday 12th May of Florence Nightingale nurses day which will involve visitors to the hospital from across the Region.
- having discussions with some managers who think raising funds for laptops (when they havn't been using computers etc previously donated) is more important than repairing leaking roofs
thinking about what to say at a meeting next week with the National Health Board (equivalent of the Inland Revenue) to explain why the hospital is unable to pay a sum of about £50,000 (equal to about ¼ of its annual budget) in unpaid National Insurance arrears.




Highlights for Irene have been:
- beginning to understand when someone speaks Swahili
- looking at projects to improve the feeding of babies, and distributing clothes to the community with the hospital chaplain (Meshak Sudayi)
- making friends with a woman generally considered to be a bit of a martinette (takes one to know one)
- having fizzy drinks and doughnuts served at meetings
- seeing on a tour with the Hospital Manager the need to improve hospital conditions and ensure nurses are seen more in the ward than in the grounds.

Church
Last Sunday we went to Simon and Laura's church, St Andrew's. The furnishings were basic with benches to sit on. Some things were familiar with a liturgy and communion, and a worship group with electric guitars and drums. Many things were different – there were 4 choirs, each taking there turn to sing a number of choruses. And everything was in Swahili (with a friend interpreting) except when we had to stand up and introduce ourselves – a tradition that all visitors have to do, or those who miss more than a couple of services on the assumption they will bring blessings from other churches they have visited. Seems to me a good way of encouraging people not to miss a service, and to discourage visitors – but then I'd rather keep out of sight in a new place!!!!

So – what will next week bring:



- tomorrow, our first shopping trip alone to Dodoma by local bus – 6.45 a.m. Start!!
to visit a different church (oh no – another introduction)
- a Diocese farewell celebration in Dodoma on Sunday to an Australian who's worked as Education Officer for over 10 years
- the Florence Nightingale Nurses day bash on Monday
- the meeting with the National Health Board about the current criminal action against the hospital for unpaid National Insurance on Tuesday
- finding out more about the hospital's (lack of) finances and wondering which holes in the Financial Systems to look at