Keep on going

We have been here for two months now and are getting into a routine. What used to novel is now becoming a matter of course.

Our normal weekday usually starts at dawn which is always 6 o clock; its hard to sleep after that as a whole chorus of cockerels crow together and most of the locals are up and about singing or chatting as they move around. We have a pathway down the side of our house and a “road” (dirt track) at the back and as windows are never shut noise travels well.

Malcolm still gets up first to take Irene a cup of tea in bed (bless him). The making of tea depends on a number of things. As we don’t have drinking water, we place plastic bottles of tap water in the sun during the day to sterilise the water. It then goes through a proper filter to remove any nasties before used for drinking, cooking or making tea. Milk comes from the Walton’s cow, but before use has to be heated, strained and cooled to remove other nasties like brucellosis. You can then make tea.

Malcolm then often goes to a 7.30 students service. He enjoys the Hymns, which are Swahili words to often familiar, old hymn tunes and picks up the occasional bit of Swahili in the talk.

The working day is 8.00 to 4.30. Everything stops for tea at about 10.30, well everything except Malcolm! and Irene usually goes to his office for tea and a Mndazi (a type of doughnut). Irene is still spending most of the day sorting out the medical files – she’s almost broken the back of that – but unfortunately has also hurt her own back in the process!!!

Malcolm’s day is more varied. He’s recently been preparing the budget, improving the spreadsheet payroll system, trying too find out the Hospital’s debts etc. Once a week there is a Management meeting with all the Task Force, Heads of Departments and School Principals.

After lunch (about 1 pm) the work (but not usually Malcolm) officially ends at 4.30pm and the afternoon seems very short – no time for another tea break!!!!

We have a ‘maid’ (Mama Asante) who comes at 7.30ish and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and works till 2pm for about £4 a week – a good wage locally. A Gardener (Stephen)comes once a week for a couple of hours to keep the site clean (and free from snakes and scorpions!!!)

Evening meals are fairly basic, a mixture of Tanzanian and English. We are eating less meat and more beans and rice but also potatoes, carrots and cabbage. No convenience meals here although occasionally we make semolina pudding or crumble (Malcolm’s Banana and orange crumble was a recent success)

In the evenings (it gets dark about 7pm all year) Malcolm often works, or tries to get information from the Internet. Our biggest single expense is the modem recharge cards – about £15 per week. Irene sews, read or plays on her D.S. Sometimes we watch a DVD (about £1.50 to buy with 18 films on one DVD).

In many ways a lot of the things here are like Britain 50 years ago, and that includes our kitchen. Electricity has been reasonable so far though we have the occasional black outs and hot water would be nice but you soon get used to heating it up. At least we have running tap water at the moment. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like before the mobile phone masts arrived in the last few years bringing communication and the Internet. We’re not sure we would have wanted to be here without them, as it is invaluable for keeping contact with family and the rest of the world.

At the weekend we have either gone to Dodoma or just ambled around the market and village here. You can get most essentials here if you are happy to eat Tanzanian style and only need to go to Dodoma for mzungu food (mzungu is any white person – when we walk around the village often young children shout ‘Mzungu! Mzungu! Malcolm has learnt to say in Swahili ‘Mzungu! Where? I can’t see a Mzungu' which confuses them but amuses him.

We go to a local church where we sit on hard benches with no backs (we have found some near the wall to lean back on) and Laura Walton translates if the sermon is in Swahili though sometimes they speak the local tribal language of Chigogo so she is lost then too. The services should start at 10, usually start about 10.15, most people arrive after 10.30 and they finish about 12.30.

We have had one or two little rambles round the village but its a bit hot for going too far until the evening and then the mosquitoes are out ! The area around is very beautiful, I suppose the nearest thing in Britain would be the Scottish highlands or lake district without the water, and the sky at night is incredible, with no street lights and few clouds the stars are really obvious and bright.

Around the hospital (and whole village really) you find lots of stray dogs, they all seem to be pretty friendly and don't pack together or bark much as one might expect. Strangely enough we have not seen any dog mess at all. Probably because the poor things hardly get any food or maybe the local insects clear it away. Other local animal life includes wandering pigs, chickens, goats and lots of lizards, not to mention some peculiar insects.

Well – we hope that has not been too dull!!!! But in many ways this is just as normal as living in the UK.

Looking forward to next week:
· we are staying this weekend in a guest house at the Mission Aviation Fellowship complex in Dodoma. Hot water, a swimming pool for £11 a night
· we are waiting for a response from the Revenues Authority about the Hospital’s tax affairs
· a meeting of the Diocese’s Health Board which will discuss the Hospitals Budget
· having a stock take of the medical stores
· Irene will pick up her second outfit from the ‘fundi’.