Some finish their laps.

For us we have almost completed ‘half a lap’ as we are 3 months into our 6 month visit here – having spent time getting into the work we now have to start winding down. For others it’s a week of farewells as they finish their laps.

Last Saturday St Andrew’s church held a special service to say thank you to Simon, Laura and family who have now left Mvumi after 8 years work in the Hospital, church and community. The service was held in the new church building, and it had been hoped that it would also celebrate the opening of the new church – unfortunately the ‘fundis’ havn’t yet completed the roof so it was a very hot, open air service. I like to think one of the highlights was the singing of the ‘mzungu’ (white man’s) choir which the Tanzanians seemed to enjoy (or take pity on!!!). However the heart of the service was communion and the opportunity for the many people and organisations that Simon and Laura have helped over the years to express their gratitude.

For the Waltons it was a very hard fortnight. The children have spent most of their lives in Mvumi so were saying goodbye to childhood friends. For Simon and Laura as well as saying goodbye they also had the difficulty of moving their belongings into store, and travelling to Dar es Salaam twice in a week (400 miles each way) for the court case to approve the adoption of their son. And there is no Pickford’s here to help you move!! All done manually in the back of a car to a container in Dodoma.

We hope they can now relax for a week in Dar s Salaam before flying back to the UK for a year. However, Simon will be staying a bit longer as he now has to deal with UK bureaucracy (designed to make it difficult to enter the UK) to get an entry visa for their son’s Tanzanian passport. It sounds like this will take about 4 or 5 visits to the British embassy and will take a fortnight, which means he will return a week after Laura and the girls. More time to relax queuing in the embassy!!! Be positive – time for father-son bonding (the modern term for changing nappies, I think!!!)

It makes our challenge of moving into their house this weekend look easy – a few suitcases and a fridge – mustn’t complain!! We do ‘inherit’ some food and other items ,including joy O joy, tartare and horseradish sauce, a pumice stone, rhubarb (crumble here we come). But more exciting – hot water!!!!!! Also hens & ducks (eggs etc) and (temporarily) a German shepherd dog, Squashy. We hope to move in on Sunday.

What else has been happening. The tax inspectors completed their assessment of the Hospital on Tuesday, but worryingly said they will not be ready to brief us until later – this probably means there are lots of issues they need to sort out.

One surprise this week was when I visited the bank and discovered that the Hospital has 16 bank accounts – we knew about 11, which itself was too many. One of the reasons seems to be l lack of trust in the management so that departments decided the answer was they have their own accounts, and more – loss of control by the Diocese over the Hospital Funds, and a gift to the bank in charges. Some of the accounts seem to have been used for dubious purposes and several were overdrawn due to monthly bank charges. We’ve immediately closed 4 accounts and will review the rest. I’ve also arranged with the bank to receive monthly bank statements on them all (another first I think as the bank hasn’t been sending us any statements – we have to travel 40km to request them individually!!!!)

On Thursday we interviewed the applicant for Director of the Hospital schools. He has been offered a one year contract. One of the reasons for the appointment is to try and bring together the 3 schools each of which acts as if they are totally independent of the others, even to the extent they each employ their own cooks but use a common kitchen and dining hall.

On the way back from the interview we visited the depot of the Hospital Manager’s husband’s building company to see three snakes that had been captured. These included an 8 ft python and a puff adder. The python was skinned to make a belt for the manager.

The is a new video of the Hospital published on Youtube. See: http://www.youtube.com/v/EdT_LfTkxE0

We are looking forward to next week:
• feedback from the Tax Inspectors?
• we move into our new house – and have hot showers!
• Management committee will be briefed on the new structure and redundancies. I will report that there are not enough funds in the main account to pay July salaries unless management agree to use some of the money in their accounts to reduce their debts to the General Account

Still a long way to go

Last Friday we had a long weekend in Dar es Salaam. Although it was a break we wouldn't exactly call it restful. The journey should take about 1 ½ hours by bus to Dodoma and then about 7 hours by coach to Dar es Salaam - that's when the Mvumi bus doesn’t break down, which ours did on the way delaying us by 1 ½ hours and causing us to miss the 1st coach where we had tickets booked near the front. Fortunately there was space on the next coach 2 hours latter with the only seats left being right at the back - not the best of position on Tanzanian roads!

Its strange how perceptions change. The last time we travelled from Dar to Dodoma was our first day when the coach seemed grubby and the country strange. This time the coach looked fairly smart (compared with the Mvumi bus) the roads smooth (compared to dirt tracks) and the surroundings familiar.

Whilst there we did a bit of sightseeing, though there is not a lot for tourists in the centre of Dar. We had quite a nice day out on a local island uninhabited Bongoyo Island) where there was nothing to do but sunbathe and swim – great for Irene. Needless to say Malcolm quickly got bored and opted for a walk along the island instead. It was long and narrow with thick ‘jungle’ along its length which very few people seemed to walk along its narrow path. This meant that there was a lot of wildlife with a close up view of Kingfisher-like birds and mice-like mammals.
Dar itself isn't a tourist place. We did visit a couple of tourist shopping plazas and markets. In one a coffee and milk-shake cost an unbelievable £2.50 (compared with the normal price of less than £1) – scandalous.

We walked around Dar on Monday as Malcolm needed to visit the Ministry of Health and the Treasury for work. We spent some time in the National Museum which had displays on the history of Tanzania and some of the tribes. The city reminded us a lot of Stoke on Trent, but without the new bits! A bit scruffy, noisy and dirty. We travelled in local daladalas – small mini buses where the competition seemed to be how many people could be squeezed on-board. Flat fare of about 14p. However there was no route map so it was difficult to work out which one to catch. It was nice to have hot showers and share a double bed even though the mosquitoes were more prevalent and vicious than in Mvumi and we both got quite a few bites.
Dar is quite a bit wetter than Mvumi and we even had a few drops of rain – the first we had seen since first arriving in Dar. It’s surprising how soon you get used to things. We were quite taken aback by the fact the rivers had water in them; it actually looked odd as we are so used to dry sandy river beds here.

Back to work on Wednesday. Irene is plodding on with the filing and sorting the clothes store. On Friday she started a stock-take in the medical store mainly to relieve Malcolm of the job as it was on his “to do” list in order to know the value of the stores, and what stock is held. There is no list of items which means the doctors don’t know what’s available to treat patients. A few weeks ago a baby died from lack of food because the doctor did not know the stores had feeding tubes.

On Thursday the tax inspectors came for a routine assessment. Tax has become a controversial issue. The staff have become used to only paying tax on their basic salary and not on other allowances or pay awards – and not in accordance with the Tanzanian Tax regime which, like the UK system, regards most payments to staff as taxable. The problem is that no-one anywhere likes to start paying tax – and no tax inspector likes to find places where staff aren’t paying enough tax. And Malcolm is in the middle!!!!! He had a long discussion with some nurses who were not happy that they were paying the correct tax.

Coming up next week:
· the Tax Inspectors finish their inspection
· Simon and Laura Walton have their farewell service and leave Mvumi
· We may move into their old house (Hot water!!!! Double bed!!!!! Hooray!!!)

Stamina!!!!!

The Tanzanians have stamina!!

Last week we talked about the 10 hour Board meeting.

On Saturday we attended the graduation ceremony for the Laboratory School, There was a service at the church at 10.am followed by the ceremony in the Dining Rom – it should have started at 12 noon, actually began at 2 pm and finished about 6.30.

Part of the ceremony is like those in the UK. Certificates are presented. As we were two of the Guests of Honour all the graduates shook our hands. Unlike the UK once certificates are received, friends and family shower each graduate with gifts and garlands – very colourful.

For the previous 2 or so hours a range of entertainment is put on by choirs and dancers – including the ‘Twist’ and jiving – as well as food.

To follow this, Monday was a Bank Holiday. As it was one of the last days Simon and Laura would be in Mvumi the Hospital arranged a ceremony to say farewell to the Waltons. It was an occasion they were not looking forward to. The celebration was chaired by the Bishop and lasted a mere 2 ½ hours plus food. Malcolm had queried the original timetable as it said the Bishop would open with prayers and a speech at 10, and the next item would start 1 ½ hours later. He forgot that in Tanzania starting promptly at 10 means, maybe, 11 am, and the Bishop did in fact finish his prayer and opening speech at about 11.30.

Three choirs sang and representatives of the Hospital, Patients and District Council expressed their best wishes. We’d like to tell you what, but it was all in Swahili.

Irene’s excitement for the week was to be present during a Caesarean section – something she is unlikely to do in UK. This was for a private patient friend of the VSO Doctor Corrie. It had its complications and lots of blood!!! – Malcolm was glad not to be invited.

Apart from that Irene is drawing to the end of what she can do with the filing until more shelving is provided. She is looking forward to moving on to something more exciting. Unfortunately Malcolm has asked her to look at the stock-taking of the Medical Supplies which hasn’t been done for several years.

The pressure is building up on the finances. Things are tighter this month than last which means we havn’t paid May’s PAYE and are struggling to find the cash for last months pay. One of the problems is that the Training Schools and Eye Department acquired their own bank accounts a few years ago and since then have not been paying the Hospital the agreed contributions for staff, electricity and water etc – and now don’t see why they should. The fact that the Hospital does not have enough money to pay all their staff doesn’t seem to matter – nor that the money is in fact the Mission’s rather than their departments. It is making work very difficult as Malcolm does not have a complete picture of the financial state of the Hospital.

The pressure from the tax man has been delayed as they postponed their visit for about a week. Again there is a bit of a struggle persuading the departments that when the tax man says he wants to see all the payment records of the Hospital it includes them.

Looking forward to next week:

· a long week-end in Dar es Salaam including meetings at the Ministry of Health about how the Hospital’s grant is calculated.

· the Tax Inspectors come, possibly on Wednesday

· a meeting with Management and staff to tell them of last week’s Health Board decision

· Malcolm tries on his new, tailored shirt

· Irene starts a stock-take

Ups and Downs

Its been one of those weeks. Very wearing.

We started with a long weekend in Dodoma. We stayed in a Guest House owned by the Mission Aviation Fellowship which was a very nice, self contained unit. Irene enjoyed the swimming pool and had about 10 hot showers!!!!! Very clean.

We enjoyed a dinner at a near-by hotel – fish and chips and a steak which were excellent. One down-side is that they warned it would take about 25 minutes to cook but it took about an hour – still, we didn’t have much else to do.

Another down-side was that Irene’s back was bad so she couldn’t walk or travel far. Whilst she was recuperating by the pool with the rather large lizards, Malcolm went with the Walton’s to a village about 2 hours away to visit a friend from Mvumi who is now a pastor. We took gifts a maize and bananas – but left with more – a live cockerel (now consumed) and a sack of rice grown by the pastor’s family. We didn’t know rice could be grown in dry soil as we’ve usually seen it on TV in Chinese paddy fields. They put on quite a spread – much of it grown by the family – the rest bought especially in Dodoma the previous day - a long and uncomfortable bus journey.

And then, the second posh meal at the Dodoma Hotel which has a smart Chinese restaurant. Total cost about Tsh 70,000 for 4 – or £7.50 each including dinks and tip

It has been a tiring week at work. On Wednesday Malcolm attended a 6 hour meeting to prepare recommendations to the Health Board to change the Hospital structure. The Board met on Thursday – the meeting started at 10 a.m. and ended after 8 p.m. – the Tanzanians have some constitution. The decisions made about the Hospital were possibly seismic in restructuring the schools and making about 15 staff redundant, but are necessary to improve the quality standards and start to balance the budget.

Malcolm had to leave early to meet the Tax Inspectors who will be visiting the Hospital next week to audit PAYE. This was a routine discussion but the results of the audit will be difficult as they will not only assess that the Hospital has significant amounts of unpaid tax (as no sums deducted from salaries were submitted to the Tax Office for 2 years) but that staff have also had too little tax deducted. This means for some there will be arrears of tax to recover – more unhappy people.

Personally the major down was that we heard our dog, Ulyssess, died over the weekend. This was a surprise as although he had heart problems he was only six years old. It sounds as if he was healthy and happy but suddenly he had a heart attack. It’s a shame for us – we only hope not too traumatic for the family who were looking after him to see what owning a dog was like, and had realised how much they become part of the family.

The ups for Irene include:
- being given a hole-punch. This is after six weeks trying to fix papers into files using pieces of string through holes made with a screwdriver – try it and you will find out how wonderful a hole-punch is
- being able to speak a whole sentence in Swahili
- picking up her new outfit from a ‘fundi’
- swimming
- hot showers

Looking forward to next week:
· tomorrow is the graduation ceremony for one of the schools – only lasts for about 10 hours – we don’t think we will stay for it all (we don’t have the Tanzanian Constitution!!!)
· a Farewell celebration for Simon and Laura at the Hospital – a more manageable 2 hours
· the Tax Inspectors come on Tuesday
· still have to carry out a stock-take
· Malcolm picks up a new shirt from the ‘fundi’
· probably a long week-end in Dar es Salaam