Farewells

Two years is a long time away from home.

This week the Hospital VSO Doctor, Dr Corrie, packed up to return to England after 2 years in Tanzania. For the last 18 months she has run the HIV clinic and been responsible for the obstetrics and gynaecology wards of the Hospital as well helping train the student clinical officers at the training school. For those who work in Africa for any length of time the experience can be very frustrating. The novelty of a different culture soon goes thin and it can become very wearing because it feels that you are achieving little compared to what you know is possible, and Africans have a different view of priorities and relationships.

Her last weekend in Dodoma was spent saying goodbye to friends including going to a party with some of the many babies she has helped deliver here. She has carried out almost 200 operations including caesaerean and sterilisations.

It is also a bit of a milestone in the life of the Hospital. The first white doctor (from Australia) arrived when the Hospital first opened in 1938, and there has probably been a continuity of ‘western’ doctors since then – Dr Corrie is, for the time being, the end of that line. For the first time the Medical staff at the Hospital will be entirely Tanzanian with no-one being a qualified Doctor to European standards with 'Drs'having no more than 3 years basic training.

We had a special ‘farewell’ meal on Thursday night when the entire Mzungu community of Mvumi met – that is us, Dr Corrie, Julia and the two ‘gappies’ at the school Zoe and Hamish (who were also starting their return journey to England the next day). Irene baked a special cake, and our gift was a wooden carving of a doctor by one of the nearby villagers.

Irene had an interesting day visiting a nearby village nursery school, at Mgangwa. She listened to the children reciting their English lessons. Bearing in mind English is their third language (after Swahili and Chigogo) she was amazed at the language skills of the 3 to 5 year olds. Irene’s contribution was to teach them a song about colours; ‘I can sing a rainbow’. On the way there she also saw a whirlwind which we understand can be quite dangerous on occasions.

When we go for walks around the village there are usually 3 things that are shouted at us by the children:

‘Mzungu, mzungu’, or

‘I want money’, or

‘Picha, picha!’.

The first statement we either tend to ignore, or Malcolm tries to say in his best Swahili ‘Where? I don’t see a Mzungu’ which tends to confuse them.

The second we reply that we won’t give any money. The problem is that the more the children think that white people will give them money, the more they will pester them and the more they will expect to be given money rather than working for it.

When asked to have their picture taken, we often oblige. The children get excited about seeing their pictures instantly on a digital camera as almost all cameras here use film. There was just such an opportunity last Sunday when Malcolm went for a walk. A group of children, several of the girls carrying heavy buckets of food or water on their heads, were delighted


At work Malcolm has started to prepare for leaving. The annual audit is taking place at the Eye Department have eventually agreed to make their books available for audit along with those of the Hospital – not much of an achievement after almost 17 months! Malcolm also ‘hosted’ a seminar by NSSF to Hospital staff and staff from the secondary school to explain their entitlement to pensions, health care and maternity benefits. It seemed to go down well as many staff do not realise their rights – at least Malcolm thinks so as it was all in Swahili – except for his introduction.

Egg production from the remaining 4 hens has slowed down to about one a day. This means total of about 150 eggs costing £46 or just over 30p each.

Although the Hospital is saying goodbye to Corrie, we are not doing so just yet. On Saturday we go with her on safari to Mikumi nature reserve followed by a few days in Iringa – but more of that next week.