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………
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………
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