We have arrived!!
A lot has happened in the past few days with new experiences. I won’t try and describe everything – I have to leave something for later weeks.
It is not as hot as you might expect.
Winter is approaching. The weather is quite pleasant – a bit like a hot English summer’s day. On our 24 hour stay in Dar es Salaam there was a heavy rainstorm which left large puddles in the mainly unmade road. One American we met had a driving lesson and went through what she thought was a puddle only to find it was a ditch – it is difficult to tell the difference after heavy rains .
On Wednesday we caught the ‘deluxe bus’ (it is difficult to know how it earns that description but we havn’t tried the others yet) to travel the 250 miles to Dodoma. Fortunately the road is one of the few decent tarmacced roads in the area so the journey was fine. The fare (about £5 each) included a bottle of water, a bottle of lemon squash, a packet of biscuits and a handful of chocolate éclairs which were a pleasant surprise
The first 3 cooked meals we had here, including the one at the ‘services’ at Mogorogoro half way on our journey, all happened to be fried chicken – must be a popular dish. The countryside and villages we passed through were fascinating, with the locals on the bus, in the know, asking to stop at some villages to buy things like bread and large bags of vegetables.
We were met by Laura Walton for our 45 minute car ride to Mvumi through what is prettier countryside than I expected. It is a hilly, almost mountainous area which the dust / unmade road passes (or bumps its way through) and the village sits on a hill in a valley.
We have moved into our bungalow which has been recently basically painted and equipped by Jack and Maria who work for the hospital. For those who visited our rented house in Chesham we have been well prepared!!!! By European standards the furnishings are simple – by African standards, luxurious. Most of the furnishings are ‘mature’ in age (just like Chesham) and we have simple equipment (just like Chesham) but no carpets. The main disappointment is that the hot water system doesn’t work (a big hole in the tank) though we have noticed a solar panel on the roof so wonder if anything is salvageable.
Buying second hand and recycling is a way of life. There are no waste collections. Plastic bottles are valued for storage and any waste needs to be burned or fed to the animals. We spent a day in Dodoma yesterday, mainly shopping. Our iron was bought from a market that buys used items from, say, Oxfam which they don’t want to sell in their shops. We bought a range of kitchen equipment which is cheap in quality and price. All our vegetables were bought in a market – no plastic carrier bags there.
We also had our first meeting with the Mvumi Hospital Task Force Advisory Group, which steers the restructuring work which we will play a part. Key issues for us our:
- Malcolm will start looking at out-sourcing the Nurses school catering facilities (reminds him a bit of Compulsory Competitive Tendering in Local Government) and reviewing the system for reclaiming from the Government drugs issued to staff under the National Health scheme – the pharmacy know it issues drugs valued at about 900,000TSH per month (£35,000) but paperwork sorts a claim for just about half that amount
- Irene will focus on finding out how the babies and children’s unit works and see how she might support it
- An outstanding issue is the termination of employment of the previous accountant and obtaining appropriate legal advice – I hope this doesn’t become an ongoing issue for us.
‘This is Africa’ (TIA) refers to how things don’t happen as you might expect. Unfortunately key people were unable (or unwilling) to attend the meeting including a Government officer – the solution seems to be to pay people to attend. That would be a new one in the UK to ensure Civil Servants to attend what are effectively meetings with an organisation under special measures. Hey ho - TIA.
Monday next – start work at 8.00am for the first time for over 9 months. It will be an interesting time. My main role seems to be to implement procedures that UK Councils take for granted to ensure that monies due to the hospital stay with the hospital and that patients don’t pay unofficial extras to ensure treatment. I hope to tell you how it goes next week.
PS. One or our little ‘pets’ has died. We got home late last night to discover in our lounge a large black ‘fly’ (about 2 cms long), a black lizard and a small, dead, rat type animal. Just as well we used to keep tame rats! The body disappeared from the back door-step overnight. I wonder what took it?
A lot has happened in the past few days with new experiences. I won’t try and describe everything – I have to leave something for later weeks.
It is not as hot as you might expect.
Winter is approaching. The weather is quite pleasant – a bit like a hot English summer’s day. On our 24 hour stay in Dar es Salaam there was a heavy rainstorm which left large puddles in the mainly unmade road. One American we met had a driving lesson and went through what she thought was a puddle only to find it was a ditch – it is difficult to tell the difference after heavy rains .
On Wednesday we caught the ‘deluxe bus’ (it is difficult to know how it earns that description but we havn’t tried the others yet) to travel the 250 miles to Dodoma. Fortunately the road is one of the few decent tarmacced roads in the area so the journey was fine. The fare (about £5 each) included a bottle of water, a bottle of lemon squash, a packet of biscuits and a handful of chocolate éclairs which were a pleasant surprise
The first 3 cooked meals we had here, including the one at the ‘services’ at Mogorogoro half way on our journey, all happened to be fried chicken – must be a popular dish. The countryside and villages we passed through were fascinating, with the locals on the bus, in the know, asking to stop at some villages to buy things like bread and large bags of vegetables.
We were met by Laura Walton for our 45 minute car ride to Mvumi through what is prettier countryside than I expected. It is a hilly, almost mountainous area which the dust / unmade road passes (or bumps its way through) and the village sits on a hill in a valley.
We have moved into our bungalow which has been recently basically painted and equipped by Jack and Maria who work for the hospital. For those who visited our rented house in Chesham we have been well prepared!!!! By European standards the furnishings are simple – by African standards, luxurious. Most of the furnishings are ‘mature’ in age (just like Chesham) and we have simple equipment (just like Chesham) but no carpets. The main disappointment is that the hot water system doesn’t work (a big hole in the tank) though we have noticed a solar panel on the roof so wonder if anything is salvageable.
Buying second hand and recycling is a way of life. There are no waste collections. Plastic bottles are valued for storage and any waste needs to be burned or fed to the animals. We spent a day in Dodoma yesterday, mainly shopping. Our iron was bought from a market that buys used items from, say, Oxfam which they don’t want to sell in their shops. We bought a range of kitchen equipment which is cheap in quality and price. All our vegetables were bought in a market – no plastic carrier bags there.
We also had our first meeting with the Mvumi Hospital Task Force Advisory Group, which steers the restructuring work which we will play a part. Key issues for us our:
- Malcolm will start looking at out-sourcing the Nurses school catering facilities (reminds him a bit of Compulsory Competitive Tendering in Local Government) and reviewing the system for reclaiming from the Government drugs issued to staff under the National Health scheme – the pharmacy know it issues drugs valued at about 900,000TSH per month (£35,000) but paperwork sorts a claim for just about half that amount
- Irene will focus on finding out how the babies and children’s unit works and see how she might support it
- An outstanding issue is the termination of employment of the previous accountant and obtaining appropriate legal advice – I hope this doesn’t become an ongoing issue for us.
‘This is Africa’ (TIA) refers to how things don’t happen as you might expect. Unfortunately key people were unable (or unwilling) to attend the meeting including a Government officer – the solution seems to be to pay people to attend. That would be a new one in the UK to ensure Civil Servants to attend what are effectively meetings with an organisation under special measures. Hey ho - TIA.
Monday next – start work at 8.00am for the first time for over 9 months. It will be an interesting time. My main role seems to be to implement procedures that UK Councils take for granted to ensure that monies due to the hospital stay with the hospital and that patients don’t pay unofficial extras to ensure treatment. I hope to tell you how it goes next week.
PS. One or our little ‘pets’ has died. We got home late last night to discover in our lounge a large black ‘fly’ (about 2 cms long), a black lizard and a small, dead, rat type animal. Just as well we used to keep tame rats! The body disappeared from the back door-step overnight. I wonder what took it?
3 comments:
Glad you have arrived safely and are settling into life Mvumi style. Our prayers are with you.
Eskdale Homegroup
Looks nice, need more pics! :D
Your bungalow looks lovely and I will look forward to lots of updates. Tell us lots of TIA stories!
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