Places Then and Now.

It is 17 years since Malcolm and Irene left Mvumi in Central Tanzania. Last week Malcolm returned for the first week of his 8 week trip to Tanzania. Previously Malcolm and Irene worked for 2 periods of 6 months, April to September, the ‘Dry Season’ at Mvumi Hospital; this time Malcolm visited Mvumi Secondary school with the Chairman of the UK Trust and former headmaster of Mvumi Secondary School, John Clark. Malcolm is also a trustee of the Trust which gives bursaries to poor but bright students to attend the school, and to visually impaired students  to attend a special Unit at the school.

 

Mvumi is a large, but remote village in the centre of Tanzania, about 20 miles south of the country's capital city, Dodoma. (Note: Contrary to common belief Dar es Salaam may be the largest city but is not the political Capital). When we worked here access was by rough dirt roads and almost all the houses were simple mud or concrete block buildings often without electricity or running water.

The first change was the growth of Dodoma. It is gradually becoming the active Capital of Dodoma, with a new Parliament building, Government Offices, ‘posh’ hotels, a university  and expanded airport which we used to travel from and to Dar es Salaam. The rail service from Dar es Salaam has also improved from a slow and unreliable diesel service with only 2 trains per week to a modern electric service with new tracks and 4 trains a day each way reducing a 9 hour coach journey to 3 hour by train.

Another change meant I was also surprised not to see many other ‘white’ people in our several visits to the city as 18 years ago there was a thriving expat community.

The road to Mvumi was the next change. We had grown used to the bumpy dirt roads from Dodoma which seemed to take forever to travel the 24 miles to Mvumi. Most of that road still exists, but is gradually being replaced by a smooth, wide, tarmac road.

Above is a video of the dirt road

Mvumi itself has also grown with new schools and modern house with smart, rather than rusty steel roofs. The hospital has new buildings for the School of Nursing (now a Health Training Institute) and administration block However, despite the changes, I managed to find the houses we had lived in.

Because we had only previously visited in the dry season we had never seen rain in Mvumi, and in 2009, because the February rains were very poor, the crops had failed and sun flowers, millet and maize had died before harvest. There was therefore severe food shortage for the community that relies on their crops. They required emergency supplies being brought in my the Government and Aid Agencies.

 This year we were pleased to be blessed by the continuing heavy rain which meant that the countryside we had only seen as barren with dried up rivers and lakes was now well watered, green with excellent crops which should provide the community with adequate food for the coming dry season.

Our objective at the school was to meet a range of people: the local representatives of the Trust, Joy and Dickson, the 100+ students funded by the Trust, the Headmaster, the Bishop of the the Diocese, the chairman of Governors and John met old friends who worked with him as teachers when he was headmaster.

 

The students thought it particularly very funny when Malcolm tried to say good morning in the local language, Cigogo. Sounds like 'Mborkweni'.

In between meetings we did a fair amount of walking around the village. On Wednesday late afternoon we walked to see the sunset and happened to pass the church, St Andrews, Irene and Malcolm used to attend – all services being in Cigigo / Kiswahili! It happened that it was practice night for one of the young people’s choirs so we were warmly welcomed and the choir sang for Malcolm and John. We also met Mama Asante, who had kept house for Malcolm and Irene 18 years ago, and her husband.

On the return Malcolm lost the way and we were very late back for dinner!

On Friday we said farewell to Mvumi. Malcolm parted from John and travelled on to Arusha for his assignment with a developing workshop called SAFI (See Ability First International) which is also a marketing outlet for adults with physical and other disabilities 

Safari njema, Malcolm (Have a safe journey in Kiswahili)

 

Kisiizi Hospital is 66 years old!

In 1958 a large crowd came here  to commit to God the building of the Hospital in this remote, mountainous part of south west Uganda. The basic facilities with just a few staff that existed then have grown to the substantial hospital that is here today.

Each year, to celebrate its founding and to thank God for what He has done through the Hospital and its staff  there is a week of special clinics where patients attend for free because normal consultation fees (of  less than £1 or almost a day’s minimum pay) are waived. This attracts a large number of people with health concerns who would normally be put off because of the cost. On ’Kisiizi Day’, the official birthday of the Hospital, staff gather for a short service, entertainment and cake,

For the celebration students from the Hospital’s School of Nursing performed a traditional dance. Malcolm would love to explain what it was about but his knowledge of the local tribal language, Rukiga (pronounced Roo- chig-a), isn’t good enough!

Staff each month vote for the ‘Employee of the Month’ and this was an opportunity to honour  this year’s 12  winners. Staff also voted for the ‘Employee of the Year’ which was won by Dr. Paul Matovu. Because he was working his wife, Becky, accepted the reward for him. This was presented by Dr Henry, the Medical Superintendent .

Malcolm is getting ready to return home and to hand over his work to the other staff in the Accounts department. The Accountant, Lynn has returned from maternity leave with a baby boy and is back  at work.

One of the main functions of the office is the cashier service which receives the income from patients and others  manages the payments to staff and suppliers etc and calculates the bills for in-patients. , The service is open 7 days a week, 12 hours a day and is provided  by 3 accountancy assistants,  Esther, Lean and Sabiiti,  To help Malcolm with some of the work, the Deputy Principal Nursing Officer, Sister Agnes spends half her time in the office helping to prepare payment vouchers, checking that claims for payment are legitimate and chasing people for signatures.

Peter is currently a ‘volunteer’ on a small allowance who provides back-office support.

Berlina manages the finances of the HIV /AIDS project funded by USAID, the USA Government’s International Aid agency.

One of Malcolm’s last jobs is to update his wardrobe of African style shirts. The Hospital’s tailor, Sam, (who is also pastor of a local Assemblies of God church), was able to make one to measure. Just right for a celebration event!

"…but you can call me Stu."

 

Malcolm has been meeting a lot of new friends this week.

Easter is a traditional time for Christenings in Uganda. On Easter Sunday Sasha,the granddaughter of Medius, a Theatre Assistant, was Christened at the Hospital chapel.

Malcolm met another 6 day old baby, Faith, daughter of Abraham and Prima who are a Radiology Assistant and a nurse at the Hospital. The delivery was by Caesarean Section the previous Monday and Prima invited Malcolm for Sunday lunch just 6 days later! Amazing. Many women whose family depend on food grown on their small plot of land to survive will return to work on the land soon after having a baby. (Nothing like a bit of digging to get those stomach muscles back into condition!)

At the start of his morning walk Malcolm passes the girl’s hostel of the hospital’s School of Nursing. A routine is that every morning some of the students are tasked with sweeping the dust off the ‘pavement’ outside the hostel –a challenging job as with mud roads and paths there is dust everywhere.

This week on his walk Malcolm got into discussion with a group of children about what they eat for Easter (vegetables as their families can’t afford meat), Continents and how far the UK is from Uganda. The ambition of many children is to travel to countries such as England even though their parents usually struggle to pay their school fees of a couple of hundred pounds a year.

 

You don’t see people taking dogs for a walk here – but you do see them walking with goats and cows. Malcolm decided this one was called Stewart (Stu for short) brother of Cassie, Meatloaf, Wellington and Lunch.

Traditional butchers here do not have the hygiene standards expected in England. Cows may be butchered on a bench by the road and joints carried off strapped to the back of motorbikes or bicycles to various small shops or kiosks. Unlike the UK where meat is ‘hung’ in a cold room for several days to soften, here meat is sold and cooked the same day – absolutely necessary in a warm country where people do not own fridges, but it results in a lot tougher meat to eat.

 

Easter – from death to life

As well as treating the sick, Kisiizi Hospital also has a tourist attraction. One of the reasons the hospital was built here was the availability of water, and in particular for the hydro-electric system serviced by the local river and waterfall.

 

For the local tribe (the Bakiga - pronounced Baa-chiga) the waterfall has cultural significance, with a sad background. Daughters were valued in part because of the custom that still exists that a suitor has to pay her family if he wants to marry  – this custom, the bride price, still exists though the price of several cows has been largely replaced by cash equivalent. 

 

However, in Uganda if a daughter became pregnant before marriage and before a bride-price had been agreed then this not only brought great shame on the family, but meant that her value as a potential bride was shattered.

Different family groups had different practices. In the neighbouring town of Kabale the practice was to abandon a pregnant daughter on a small island at the centre of a lake to either die, or be claimed by any man who wanted her, who might not normally be able to afford a bride price.

In Kisiizi the custom was that the family would take the daughter to the top of the waterfall, and push her over to her death.

The task of execution was given to the eldest brother, because he would have expected the bride-price received for his sister to be used to pay for his own bride, and her pregnancy had denied him of that money / herd of cows.

Fortunately the custom of executing pregnant daughters no longer happens, in part due to the teaching of missionaries who first came to the region about 100 years ago, though the custom of bride-price continues.

A few years ago a sculpture was erected showing the change to Kisiizi. 

Once this was a place of death and grief for unmarried pregnant women and their families;

 now it's a hospital sharing the good news of Easter, and a place of joy and new life.

 

To celebrate Christian new spiritual life, on Good Friday services are held to remember Jesus’s sacrifice so that we might live. One of the local catholic churches held a walk of witness which passed the hospital, which was one of the places where they stopped and prayed for the area.

Footnote:

If you are shocked by Bakiga culture,the local young women here are shocked by how little value Britsh culture places on our daughters. Our custom was that the bride's family had to pay a dowry to the groom's family before the marriage. It is still common for the bride's family to pay for the wedding.

Ho, Ho, Hoe!

 In an attempt to keep fit (and to try and not put on too much weight) Malcolm goes for a 3 mile walk every morning, usually before breakfast. Because the hospital is  at the bottom of a valley this is 1 ½ miles, and 1 ½ miles back along the same road. As the sun rises between 6.30 and 7am this means  he  starts out in the dark.

 

Most of the people he meets are school children. Schools start very early here, with many children getting to school by 7am. The school day is much longer then in the UK with lessons ending about 5pm, just in time for the children to walk home before it gets dark

As  Malcolm walks the same route at the same time every day he has become a familiar sight, greeting the children in English and sharing ‘high fives’.

Last Thursday most of the children were carting gardening tools, presumably so that they could do  some digging to help tidy up the school  grounds. Some of the children were carrying traditional hoes. Others were carrying large machetes; knifes over 40cm long used for cutting grass, and which would be regarded as a dangerous weapon if carried in the UK.

 

Today is Palm Sunday. Here palm trees are plentiful so members of the Hospital chapel brought them to the service.

 

When Malcolm arrived he at first wondered if all branches had to be left outside.

 

He needn’t have worried. The branches were outside so that those who forgot to bring their own could pick off a few leaves to wave during the hymns