Wet and dry chickens

A lovely, relaxing, long weekend on the beach at Kigamboni near Dar es Salaam was marred only by having to say goodbye to our good friend John Clark. He returned to England on Tuesday to go back to his work at Eton College where he will in principle be deputy head, although with a different title. Unfortunately they have been quarantined because of an outbreak of Swine Flu (which is quite ironic) - but he is fearless!! He has spent 3 years as head master of Mvumi secondary school and will be greatly missed by all. We spent a long time on the beach where we saw jellyfish, a camel and a herd of cows. Most of us went for a sail on a traditional fishing dhow and got absolutely drenched - Malcolm stayed behind to keep dry., justifying this as a non-swimmer, if the boat sank then he wouldn’t need saving putting others at risk!!! Chicken!!

(Talking of which, we have now had 6 more eggs. Over the weekend 4 were laid. We usually lets them out of their run into the fenced off garden for some exercise and “grub eating” but has found that they don’t lay when given this freedom. Obviously being kept in there small pen encourages laying, which may be an argument for factory eggs? The total so far is 22 eggs for £43 – less than £2 each!!!!!)

For our final meal with John we visited an unusual Ethiopian restaurant in Dar es Salaam where you end up eating your table cloth! Don’t worry it is made of dough and the food was excellent.

Whilst in Dar Malcolm spent a happy morning visiting shops to get copies of receipts to assist an audit investigation. He also visited the Ministry of Health to find out more about the grants the Hospital should receive – Irene and Co. spent the time on the beach

Returning to Mvumi we were pleased to see that Stumpy was still coming to sleep in the veranda and that our house hadn’t been broken into. Our Swahili teacher had sent us a text whilst we were away to say that her home had been robbed whist she was at church. For local people to be the victims of such crime illustrates the growing desperation in a community with poor crops. The money she had saved was to buy food so its loss will be a hardship.

At work Irene is continuing to tidy up the medical files. Malcolm is helping to sort out the medical stores ready for and end of year stock-take, and learning about the use of all sorts of medical equipment. The Hospital Matron, Rehema Sawe, has worked hard to get the stores into order over the past year and has introduced a basic but simple stores system - a great improvement over last year when, because of lack of space, the medical stores was a jumble of boxes in no particular order or system. It is even looking professional!!! Well done Rehema.

We think next week will be a ‘nothing special’ week – but we wait and see!!!!