Essential requirements

So what do you take as essential gifts to people who have spent several months in a Tanzanian village?

This week a family from Llandudno visited for the day. Kathryn Mann had been born in the Hospital in 1963 when her father worked in Dodoma as a telephone engineer. This was her first visit to Tanzania since she left, aged 4. What she brought as were the following essential supplies:

- Bodyshop foot cream for Dr Corrie – when you’ve been walking on dusty tracks here for 18 months you will know why this is essential
- Lady Grey tea and Highlights instant chocolate for Irene – essentials that are totally unavailable here (though last week we were able to buy Earl Grey teabags – amazing)
- Printer cartridges and Duracell AAA batteries for Malcolm
- Theatre gowns, welsh hats, tea towels, toys, exercise books and sweets for the Hospital and school.

They spent an enjoyable day (we hope) at the hospital locating the room where Kathryn’s mother was ‘confined’ (which may now be the eye department workshop) and touring the village and surrounding area to get a feeling of how the locals live. This meant great excitement to the local children who are always looking for opportunities to be photographed and thought it amusing that Kathryn was born in Mvumi a member of the Chigogo tribe?. They bought us lunch at Mvumi’s best reataurant – a total of £11 for cooked meals and drinks for 7. Not bad, eh! They then continued their holiday in Arusha and Zanzibar where they will get a tourists eye view of Tanzania.

Further essential building work has been going on at St Andrews church. Last Sunday there was great happiness because the Mamajus choir had a new keyboard (and speakers and radio microphone) and the walls had been plastered. This week a proper concrete floor is being laid, paid for by the ‘spoons’ project mentioned last week. This is a community effort. On Monday the women walked the long distance to the local well to collect buckets of water (carried on their heads – see Malcolm’s video on Youtube – ‘Using your Head’) to make the cement. On Wednesday the congregation came to mix the cement for the workmen so that the new concrete floor could be laid before the cement set. It was wonderful to see men, women and children of all ages carrying water, mixing the materials and carrying the cement into the church – all by hand and using simple tools as there are no cement mixers, and they had no wheel-barrows.

For those tracking the cost of egg production there has been a bit of a mystery. We had left some eggs with the hens to see if any more chicks would hatch – but the eggs have been disappearing one by one. Each morning, early, the hens do make a bit of a ruckus and our guess is that there may be a n intruder which is coming each day to help itself – we have sometimes seen the tracks of a snake elsewhere in the garden. Our hen run may be cat proof, but not snake proof. This week there have been 18 more eggs – a total so far of £53 for 112 eggs or 46 p each.

For those of you interested in the Hospital dog, Stumpy we are sorry to report that he has fallen foul of the Hospital cull. We will miss him.

We are spending this weekend in Dodoma, with a Ceilidh on Friday and a meal at an Italian restaurant on Saturday.

PS Another essential requirement is a computer. We have reported our broken Dell under a 4 year warranty that we took out before leaving England. It does normally include a home-visit by an engineer to carry out repairs – but not in Tanzania so we don’t now when we will be able to use it again. Fortunately we have borrowed a replacement from Julia for the time being.

The unthinkable!

The unthinkable!

I am afraid the unthinkable has happened. Today our laptop decided to stop working. This has been our main communication and entertainment channel (our lifeline) – enabling us to keep contact via email with friends, watch dvds and save pictures and videos. Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worse, we have been keeping a back up of files on an external hard-drive so at most we have lost 2 week's blogs. We have borrowed Dr Corrie's laptop to write this blog.

It has been a diverse week. On Saturday we met at Dr Corrie’s for breakfast and a spot of bird watching in her garden. Malcolm concentrated on the food (scrambled egg with bacon as smoked salmon was off the menu, muesli, yoghurt and fruit juice.) We were surprised to be joined by Sam, an American Peace Corp volunteer who has lived as the only ‘mzungu’ in the neighbouring village and was about to return to America to go to university as a post-grad.

For the Mamajus choir at St Andrews church the unthinkable happened. They usually rely on an electric keyboard and guitars for their music but several weeks ago their keyboard broke. For the past few weeks they have been improvising with drums and traditional instruments, which has gone down very well with many older people in the church. However, the fear is that younger people would lose interest in being members of the choir and leave the church. This week they were told that the key board is irreparable. A new one costs about £250 which is well out of their reach, and they had asked us for help. Fortunately we found out that the school had a spare keyboard they were happy to sell very reasonably at which the choir were delighted. On Thursday they came to our house and prepared a meal of thanks. One of the gifts was a live cockerel. Stephen, our gardener killed it and Irene plucked and gutted it – having been shown how by her mother over 40 years ago – good old mum!!!!! (Sorry to our children, I don’t think she has shown you how. Maybe when we return to England…….)

At work Malcolm is very sad to find out that several of the lower paid members of staff at the Hospital have probably been tricked by a money lending company into taking out very expensive loans. The rates of interest are over 150% per annum and there are those who have taking out loans that require paying all their monthly take-home pay (about £65) to repay the loan every month for 3 years. In England there are laws to protect people from such loans, though some desperate people are forced to use illegal lenders. Here the laws may not be so good, even though many don’t seem to have understood the cost of the loans when they took them out, and many of the applications seem fraudulent.

It also seems someone has reported Malcolm to immigration, saying he has not got a valid work permit. On Wednesday he was asked as a matter of urgency to take the permit to the Diocese HQ as immigration had asked to see it. Last year the same thing happened to the Task Force Manager (a German Tanzanian) and she was held in a local jail until her mother, a retired MP, and her husbands clients, senior officers in the army intervened. Malcolm has clearly got someone worried about his work to sort out the Hospital finances.

Work at St Andrews has started, plastering the walls and laying a smooth concrete floor. Some weeks ago we mentioned the money raised by a Cornish church by the sale of spoons, and this week the gift is being used. There is great excitement.

For those tracking the cost of producing eggs there have been 17 more eggs – but we’ve had to spend £10 on buying more food – a total so far of £53 for 94 eggs or 56 p each.

Next week we are tempted to say nothing unusual (or unthinkable) is expected – but watch this space………

A testing time in Mvumi.

It is examination time for the training schools! For the past few weeks each school in turn has been setting exams prior to graduation. This week it has been the turn of the Clinical Officers Training College. Dr. Corrie, who has taught obstetrics to the final year students at the College was pleased that all her students have passed that subject – which is quite an achievement as she knows it was all above board! (We are told one way students pass exams in Tanzania is by bribing the examiner).

Unfortunately it has been a testing time for Mama Asante. On May 1st we wrote that her niece had died, and that last year her brother had been killed in a car accident. Last Saturday we were told that her sister had just died from Aids. (Two of her other sisters have previously died – one following a caesarean operation and another stabbed by her husband,) On Monday, before dawn we heard the ambulance siren. Later we were told that the family of Mama Asante’s sister in law living in another village had been attacked during the night by someone with a machete, with one child killed and others seriously injured.

Although the village appears relatively peaceful on the surface, we are aware of the underlying risk of violence especially as the food shortage gets more severe and people become more desperate for food. Although Christianity, and to a lesser extent Islam are predominant (most people profess faith and are active in their church), there is still an underlying culture of black magic. Christianity was only really introduced to this part of the country 120 years ago at the time this Mission was founded so the ‘old’ religions continues under the surface. (This is hardly surprising – St Augustine came to England 1,300 years ago but there are still those who follow pagan beliefs). Because most people have had a very poor or no harvest of maize and millet, those who have a reasonable crop are at risk of being attacked on the assumption they have used black magic or simply from jealousy. We are told some of the men were expected to use magic to make it rain – and risk being attacked because they failed.

We are now both busy at work. Irene has joined Malcolm in trying to help sort out the finances of an organisation – but this time the secondary school. Unfortunately it has been discovered that the former cashier had stolen money and falsified many financial records including the fees paid by students. While they wait for a Bursar to be appointed, Julia has been trying to sort out ‘the mess’ and Irene has been helping her. Like the Hospital every day it seems another problem emerges. Irene also continues to work in the Medical filing stores. At last someone has come to work out the cost of putting more shelves into the stores. The existing ones were poorly designed with shelves to far apart wasting space. There is now no available shelf space and unless more are fitted they will be back to storing files on the floor. There is only one person between Irene and more shelves – Malcolm who has to find the money!!!!!

Last year Malcolm got used someone coming in every week reporting that they were owed money by the Hospital, but he thought that was over. In the last month two former members of staff who left more than 18 months ago have come to complain that heir ‘NSSF’ contributions for 2006 and 2007 had not been paid – which was a surprise as we (and NSSF) had believed all contributions had been paid up to May 2007 as a result of settling the Magistrates Court case last year. As the former accountant had stolen the payroll sheets this had been based on limited information. It now appears that the Hospital’s and (therefore NSSF’s) records of payments due were also inaccurate.

Last Sunday we visited as guests of honour (because we have been distributing Hunger Fund to the parishes) St Pauls church in the village The service was lead by a pastor, Abinery Ghinamata, based at the Hospital for the past month as part of his advanced training. He has been helping the chaplain in leading morning prayers, visiting and baptising patients and preaching at churches. Following the service we were invited to a presentation to him of thank-you presents. He will be returning to the Hospital in a week or so as his wife is heavily pregnant.

Chicken economics. We have had about 15 more eggs which means 77 for £43, the average cost is now 55p each – but we need to buy more food.

Update on Stumpy. Although we still hear occasional shots around the village which we assume are dogs being culled due to fears about rabies, Stumpy is still well spending time sleeping in our verandah.

Next week:
- breakfast with Dr Corrie to watch the birds in her garden
- continuing to work on the Finances of the Hospital and school.

The difference between Malcolm and a thick blanket?

Slowly we are learning snippets of Tanzanian culture. Apparently here, if an unmarried woman wants to find a husband she says she is looking for a ‘thick blanket’. The reason is fairly obvious, except you might wonder why Tanzanians are so affectionate towards their blankets in a country which is so hot. Well at this time of year in winter, even though it is probably as hot as in most of an English summer, there is a cool wind in the evening, which the locals, and some of the ‘Mzungus’, find very cold.

Malcolm must be becoming more Tanzanian in his DIY as well. For almost a year Dr Corrie has had very little water. The Hospital plumbers have been trying to sort out the problem but it may be because too many people are linked to the water supply. This week however, she has moved from famine to glut with too much water as her water tank was overflowing. Because the plumbers were not available Malcolm did a temporary repair wedging the loose ball-cock in position with a stick – later he found out the plumber had done a permanent repair - replacing the stick with a stone! When he returns to England perhaps we should suggest to B&Q they sell stones from their plumbing section

It has been a tiring week at work. Irene has done a mixture of tidying up the filing store and helping Julia at the Secondary school in sorting out some of the financial records. Malcolm has been showing the new accountant ‘some of the ropes’ at the Hospital. It was a shorter week than usual as Tuesday was a public holiday to celebrate Tanzania’s independence (‘Saba saba’ or ‘seventh of the seventh’).

We had a quiet day with Malcolm completing a new video ‘Using you Heads’ which can be found on Youtube (search for ‘thecrawfordclan’ or ‘Mvumi’ or use the URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cThEt5KmdV4. There is a brief intro below ). Rather than carrying bags the tradition here is that women (mainly) carry items on their heads and the short video features this. Because Mama Asante is in the video (singing as well as appearing) she was shown it. We were at first surprised why she found it amusing – perhaps it was she thought it strange that someone would find the subject so interesting. Wouldn’t we think it funny / strange for someone to bother making a video of people carrying handbags?

Last Sunday was a special service at St Andrews. Two former members, from Cornwall but now teachers in Morogoro, Dave and Janet, returned. A month or so ago they came to collect 500 serving spoons bought by church members at about 15p each – a lot of money for the people here. They had taken these on a holiday back to their English church and were selling them there for at least £1 each or more. They returned with about £500 from the sale of half the spoons which they gave to the church to be used to complete the building – it will pay for a proper, smooth floor and plaster for the walls. They likened it to the bible story of the loaves and fishes – someone with a little giving what they had to be blessed by much more being received. (Their only disappointment was that they had expected the Mvumi church members to buy simple but decorative wooden spoons – but because these were thought to be not good enough the locals had bought ‘posher’ low quality aluminium spoons – however everyone seems happy, so who cares!!!!)

We don’t expect anything special next week. Malcolm will be going to Dodoma with the new accountant to collect the payroll, visit NSSF and other places and Irene will get on with her work.

Oh yes – an update on the hens. At last they seem to be getting down to business as there has been a bit of a glut of eggs – perhaps they have heard the alternative to laying eggs becomes a bit final!!!! There have been 24 more eggs this week giving a total of 62 for £43 – only 70 pence each. Some of them have been larger ‘double yolk’ eggs. We’ve started to live on omelettes!!! Fortunately our daughter posted us some empty Tesco egg boxes (a luxury here) so we have something to keep the eggs in.

What is the difference between Malcolm and a thick blanket? A blanket doesn’t fidget!

Work, work, work – and play

It has been a busy working week.

For those accountants reading this, 30th June was the end of the Financial Year. This means Malcolm had the diversion of carrying out a stock-take of the main hospital medical stores and Pharmacy. Last year Irene helped carry out the first stock-take for many years of the medical stores. At the time the stores were in a small building, poorly organised and stocks were limited because of the shortage of money. This time, because of additional funding for supplies they are more plentiful, located in a larger building with shelving and many individual proper ‘bin cards’ and a stock ledger showing what should be in stock. Much of the credit for the organisation goes to the Hospital Matron, Rehema. Consequently, although the stock-take took a full day it was much more rewarding.

The Pharmacy store was also pretty well organised. However, there were worrying signs that procedures were deteriorating. In the past year the doctor in charge, Simon left followed six months later by the Pharmacist. The remaining staff were continuing with what they knew with ordering and issuing drugs but did not understand some of the management controls. Some of the items were there because others had left them, with no plan of what to do with them.

On Wednesday the new hospital accountant, Mr Msonga, began work. This has meant that Malcolm has spent time showing him how the hospital and the financial records work. He is a recently qualified ‘advanced diploma’ accountant which means he has a qualification but not to a level to be registered as a professional accountant. He is enthusiastic but with limited experience which is of concern as unless a permanent Medical Officer in Charge and Administrator are appointed then he will struggle with the Management issues, even if he is a competent book-keeper.

Malcolm had warned him that at Management Meetings he may have to be strong in stating what is required even if colleagues disagreed. An example of this was at a Management Committee called with less than a day’s notice on Friday. Here there are no niceties of circulating an agenda and it was only at the meeting that it was announced the budgets of the Training schools were to be circulated and considered – none of which Malcolm had seen. It was clear that the budget was not in accordance with what the Health Board had approved and Malcolm had to (tactfully???) make this clear.

Irene has had a busy week at the school helping the acting bursar, Julia, with pupil fees and other financial records and tackling accountancy problems.

Good news and bad news on the chicken front. The good news is that we have had 10 more eggs – total 38 for £43 - £1.13 each. The bad news is that because the weather has got chilly (very cold for Tanzania) the two young chicks died. This is despite Irene’s best efforts of trying to keep them warm with a hot water bottle and tender loving care. That means any hopes of recovering some of the cost from new chickens has now gone.

We met the church leaders on Saturday and distributed the second month’s Hunger Fund. The feedback is that the money (£5 a time) has been given to the most needy in each church, some old, disabled, families or orphans living with relatives, and that is is of great help to buy basic food such as maize which is scarce due to the poor harvest but essential to survival. We noticed that most recipients had “signed “their names with a finger print, few having had the benefits of any education,

We were invited to a meal with members of one of the church choirs (Mamajus – which means the wise men from the nativity story). One of the activities to attract and retain young people at a church is to join a choir which provide most of the music at church rather than congregational singing. At St Andrew’s there are 3 choirs – two for young people with keyboard and electric guitars and a ‘Mamas choir ‘ (for more mature ladies) with traditional chigogo drums. Malcolm has used the music as background to some videos of Mvumi on Youtube (search for ‘thecrawfordclan’)

In the coming week we are not aware of anything special – but anything can happen when you are in Tanzania.!!!