This is Tanzania!

The temperature is in the early 40s and climbing, electricity cuts are getting more frequent, water is getting scarcer, there’s been an outbreak of cholera on the edge of the district and 2 men in Malcolm’s office have typhoid; time to go home?

But not yet.

Power cuts are getting more and more frequent. A few weeks ago Malcolm spoke to the General Manager of the local electricity company. Apparently the problem is that there is too much demand on the national grid for the cables to handle and so they are instructed to schedule cuts in parts of the network. He did assure us that there would be no more than 2 cuts a week. This week we had 3, the longest being all day Friday – which is a bit of a problem as that is one day when operations are carried out and the Hospital has limited back-up. Would you fancy having an operation not knowing if the equipment was going to stop working because of a power cut? Fortunately, in a sense, electrical equipment is limited here.

Two of the cuts were at dusk, from 6.30pm, just when Irene was cooking dinner. Having been shown how wagogo cook she quickly adapted to a charcoal fire to cook the meals, and even boiled a cup of tea on a wood fire on Friday. Who needs an Aga?

And power cuts mean less water as it is pumped by the Hospital from a borehole.

Malcolm was feeling a bit feverish and started coughing on Thursday so for peace of mind went to have a routine malaria test. It was negative but apparently a virus is affecting many people in the village. Has swine flu arrived in Tanzania? We hope not, but it probably would seem a blessing compared to Malaria, Typhoid, cholera………….

Mama Asante invited us for a meal. The chicken we had given her the previous week was there – on the plates and we provided the soda (which is usually drunk as a ‘pudding’. Her husband was there, as well as her 2 youngest children, Iluma and Asante.

Last Sunday we were invited to the Good Samaritan church. One of the memorable items in the service was their ‘Mamas’ choir which played a traditional chigogo drumming item. For mainly pensioners it was a very lively performance! Unfortunately Malcolm hadn’t taken his video camera so only got a poor quality video on his digital camera. It might be an activity that the Mother’s Union might want to take up in England.

On Wednesday we had a ‘video evening’ with a difference. Very few people have electricity in the village so they have no TVs or DVD players. We therefore invited the Mamajus choir round to see the videos of their singing at our house 2 weeks ago, and other videos Malcolm has taken of the church over the past 18 months. It was such a novelty that they wanted to see themselves singing 5 times. The first time was in silence as for some it was the first time they had seen moving images of themselves. Each time the video was shown there were more and more comments and laughter. The next problem is, they want to return this Saturday and record on video more songs!!!

It continues to be fun dealing with the bank. Changing cheque signatories gets more and more difficult. Over a month ago we started the process of replacing Dr Corrie with Dr James. The Hospital cashier has been sent away 3 times by the bank;, each time they want something more. We have got the form completed, signatory card completed, photograph taken, Tanzanian ID card, letter from Village Councillor that the person is who he says he is, evidence of residenc video Manajusy, copy of minutes of Hospital committee approving change, letter from me saying Committee approved change, letter from Diocese Accountant approving change. A few weeks ago I joked to our Chief Cashier that the next thing they will want is Dr James’ little finger. This time, the new requirement is that they need him to travel 40km to Dodoma so that he can have his fingerprint taken (the old fashioned way with blue ink). It wouldn’t be so bad but they don’t take fingerprints on cheques and there probably is nobody at the bank skilled in checking fingerprints. In the meantime we are trying to pay suppliers to keep the HIV clinic open. This is Tanzania!

Next week we have a break as we visit Malcolm’s sister in South Africa. From what we can gather although it is still Africa, Pretoria will be a completely different way of life to what we are used to here. Our Swahili will be no use whatsoever (except to confuse touts maybe) and it does not sound so peaceful – we shall see.