Taking a breather.

It isn’t all hard work.

As with any visitors or immigrants to a foreign country us ‘mzungu’s’ (as white people are known) enjoy each other’s company for relaxation. We discovered that the row of houses we live in is colloquially known as ‘mzungu road’ because most of the houses used to be occupied by white people – now there are only two and when we leave there will probably be just one.

Corrie (Cornelia Verduyn, or as she is known here, Dr Corrie) has been in Tanzania for a year and will return to England next September. She came on a two year assignment with the VSO mainly to run the HIV / Aids clinic. Her specialty is as a gynaecologist so she also works hard in the maternity ward, and, as Irene has witnessed, is a wiz with the scalpel in caesarean operations. One of her early ‘innovation’s was to introduce the horizontal ‘bikini line’ cut rather than the vertical slash favoured by Tanzanians as it apparently saves the surgeon a few seconds work – and only a life time of scarring, and weakened muscles (though Tanzanian women here would never be seen in a bikini). Corrie is from Holland though is currently seconded from Manchester Hospital.

Nearby is Mvumi Secondary school which has strong links with Eton. John Clarke is a housemaster at Eton but was seconded for 3 years to be Headmaster here. One of his specialties is teaching Economics. He seems to spend most of his time at the schools one way or another. He goes to get the boarders out at 7 a.m., works all day and often entertains visitors to the school in the evening. (He has a regular stream of gap year students or teachers visiting for a few weeks to a few months, who supplement the ‘wazungus)’. He makes us look positively lazy. He is a keen walker and bird watcher and seems to have eyes like a hawk When he says ‘look at that bird in that tree’ Malcolm’s response is usually ‘What tree?’ let alone being able to distinguish a bird from a twig. At the moment John expects to return to England next May though is wrestling with whether to stay longer but risk losing his job.

The remaining ‘mzungu’s’ are Gordon and Rae from New South Wales, Australia who live about 5 miles away at the Amani agricultural project. It sounds like their Australian home has prepared them for life here as it is in the outback, and some distance from the nearest village. Like us they are a retired couple. Rae teaches at the local village school and Gordon’s speciality is trees. He is teaching the workers to grow saplings to plant in the local village to replace the trees that have been cut down for firewood. The area is now sparse shrubland though Gordon has been told that 40 or 50 years ago it was more wooded and there used to be lions. His other specialty is hairdressing, which will make him popular with the lady ‘wazungu’s’. They return to Australia next March after a year here.

We usually get together for a meal once or twice a week. On Friday night we went to Gordon and Raes for a pleasant evening at the Amani Project and enjoyed pasta, carrots, beans and meat stew followed by fruit pudding and custard – and raspberry jelly (a novelty to the Dutch and Australians!!!). We shared our experiences (we were all feeling rather jaded with the frustrations of working here) and shared ideas for visiting Mikumi National Park and Zanzibar.
Tonight we hope to go to John’s for a meal with one of his visitors and to watch a video.

Other social events include going for walks around the village and meeting with Corrie at the Hospital most days for a mid morning cup of tea and doughnut.

There have not been many developments at work. Malcolm has been busy sorting out some of the procedures and preparing information for the District Council for discussions about the staff affected by transfer to Designated District Hospital (DDH) status. He has calculated that excluding holidays etc there are 24 working days left – not long to write up notes and explain to the remaining member of finance staff on what to do in addition to progressing DDH.

Irene has been attempting to write “fool proof” instructions for the filing system, in hopes that the system may continue to be followed when we leave.

Next week looks very similar to what we were expecting this week:

- the planned visit to Mheza Hospital has had to be cancelled. It is intended instead to visit the Ministry of Health in Dar Es Salaam in the next fortnight

- still waiting (yet again) for more shelving so Irene can complete filing the medical Records (for the third time the architect says it will be next week)

- Malcolm to report to the Hospital Managers on the result of the Magistrates hearing and the need to reach some agreement with NSSF

- Prepare to meet the Bishop to discuss whether to return next year, (or whether we will be invited to return)

There is a new video on Youtube showing the building of St Andrew’s church, http://www.youtube.com/v/nzHXEzgJrRs&hl=en&fs=1

and an article about Malcolm on his Accountancy Institute members’ magazine
http://www.cipfa.org.uk/members/download/JulySpreadsheet.pdf