Day 91 – Wednesday 28th April 2010

We have not had any water for three weeks now and our reserves are getting low. There is a huge problem with water in Tabora. It looks like the rains have ended, with the reservoirs very low and crops struggling to survive. It is going to be a hard dry season for everyone.

So what do we do? We wait and see if the mains water starts flowing again, or we head of down to the well with the rest of the town and our buckets. It really makes you think, but these wells won’t stay full for long either.

Armorel headed to the village of Kilungu today with the mobile clinic. It was a slight change of roles, which included being the nurse overseeing the vaccinations, but not actually doing them, and the paediatrician. This required Armorel to use her advancing Swahili to try to assess, treat and reassure the patients. She had a great day. I think they want her to become the clinic’s specialist paeds nurse!

I taught this morning and spent the afternoon running around town. Getting bottled water so we could drink, trying to fix the flat with a huge nail in it and trying to sort out our internet. We are relying on a mobile phone dongle connection which isn’t ideal, so few pictures I am afraid.

Tonight, Armorel is fighting tiredness and I am fighting the urge to eat more cinnamon rolls which have been baked today.

So you can be reassured, we aren’t suffering too badly.

Day 90 – Tuesday 27th April 2010

It has not been a particularly relaxing weekend and so the alarm was not welcome this morning.

Unfortunately, a couple of nurses were off and so Armorel was running the ward by herself today, and was busy. One irritating thing was that she had to administer eye drops to one boy every 15 minutes throughout the day, which kind of hindered everything else.

It did mean that Armorel couldn’t make netball club today which was a shame.

My teaching day was unproductive but I did finish my book, and then attempted to train the football team. Such a surface does not help with your basic skills. We might have a game on Saturday!

Armorel is currently on the phone to her best friend Helen, thank you so much for calling, we love it and appreciate it so much, and I am eyeing up the beans and chapattis for dinner. Then I think it will be bed time, as Armorel is off to the villages tomorrow, and will need all her energy for those adventures.

Day 89 – Monday 26th April 2010

Today is Union day, a national holiday to commemorate the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Unfortunately, the others needed to be back early so we have a 7am start. I was thrown the keys to navigate the bumps, bikes, buses and a band of mongoose.

With the early morning light creating horrible shadows across the road I manage to land ourselves in some large holes. We survived and I handed over the keys about 40km outside of Tabora.

Luckily we both had nothing to do, so enjoyed a long afternoon cycle around the town before heading out for an early dinner. Or so we hoped.

We have a flat!

In the dark and with various improvised tools we managed to change the wheel and get to dinner for 8pm, and treated ourselves to a meal each and shared a pizza. It had been a long weekend.

A fascinating insight into the church of Tanzania and some real lessons to be learnt by the UK, the element of fun, the sense of community and the pride in welcoming new vicars. However, there are some other elements that the UK seems to do better, mainly the timing. But I leave you with some remarks the Bishop made at the end of the service.

“I am sorry to our visitors from England for the length of the service, but you need to remember that you have too short services and not enough singing in church, which is why your church is not growing.”

Bishop Sadock Makaya – Bishop of Tabora

Day 88 – Sunday 25th April 2010

We slept well, only being woken a few times by the screeching of nesting storks. There is a tree in the centre of the compound which is just amazing. I have no idea what type of tree it is or why I feel it is so amazing but it gives off this feeling of true power, which must be sensed by the huge numbers of birds taking refuge in its branches. I took lots of photos of it and this is the screeching stork.

The church was only 10 minutes down the road and we headed off in high spirits after a filling breakfast and a guessing game of service length. They ranged from 3 to 6 hours.

Little did we know!

The noise was deafening! The certainly love their speakers turned right up. Asking George later why they enjoyed this noise he replied, “Tanzanians prefer noise to music. It sounds better!”

As we stood looking for the quietest location we were grabbed by the hand and led to the front. We were guests. We sat with all the dignities and various clergy. There was no escaping from these seats.

The first two hours were fascinating. Several choirs sang, there was dancing, including us and the Bishop! I have never seen a Bishop get to the front of the service and dance. Now that is leading from the front. There was also lots of cheering, waving things over people, (any item of clothing was used, as a sign of encouragement. Women would just appear from the congregation at random and dangle a hankie on your head.) and interludes of techno music. Amusing and fun.

The next two hours the service started to drag. It was still very interesting but our interpreters were getting tired and so were we.

We then had communion. That is always at the end of the service.

1 hour later and we are stilling going and then we get called out to be welcomed and introduce ourselves. After 5 hours of sitting in immense heat with limited water and only a tiny pack of sweets we were feeling the effects. I needed the toilet and Armorel felt faint. This better be quick!

At 2:45pm the service ended.

“Now we have a short break before the next part.” Said the vicar interpreting for Armorel.

He wasn’t lying. Food was served for all 500 people, and again we were sat on the top table. It is very strange having 500 people watch you eat (the view below is from our table), let alone some men videoing you, and the fact you have no cutlery and are trying to eat a boiled potato with some semblance of decorum. I failed dramatically.

Luckily for us the Bishop announced that his party had to leave at 4:15pm to make sure they got home that night. We saw our chance and slipped away.

9am until 4:15pm is a new record for me. Who knows what time it actually finished.

Shattered, hot and sweaty we arrived back at the guest house and fell into the freezing pool.

Wonderful!

I can’t really remember what the evening entailed, I was just thankful we were staying an extra night.

Day 87 – Saturday 24th April 2010

Armorel had to pop into work this morning but we managed to have a lazy morning and she didn’t head in much before midday. The plan was to leave at 2:45pm for Nzega.

We are going to be late. The car has a puncture.

It is now touch and go as to whether we should leave today or not. It is 4pm.

We really don’t want to be driving in the dark, but decide to go for it and pray!

We picked up our fellow passengers; Dr Ruth, George (who works at the clinic and would be our guide) and David and Claire. They are from the UK and out here for 12 days with an organisation called SOMA, which stands for something about overseas mission.

The drive was long, dusty and very bumpy, tiring driving which I shared with Ruth. We arrived at just after 6:30pm as dusk was falling at the Pentecostal guest house. It was fantastic!

We found a beautiful compound, quiet and spacious, with excellent rooms and dinner waiting for us on the table, AND.... a swimming pool!

This has been a good choice!

We jumped in the pool quickly to cool off, George had never swam in or pool, nor could he swim so a quick lesson ensued.

We had a fun evening, taught George how to play scrabble, which he and Armorel won. She is becoming a bit of a scrabble shark. We then headed for bed.

The service starts at 9am.

George enjoying the swimming!

Day 86 – Friday 23rd April 2010

Happy Birthday to my brother, and a Happy St George’s Day to you all.

The plan was to head to work this morning but then in the late morning go and sort out our driving licenses.

First stop was to buy a small booklet which will hold the licenses. After a small confusion over language, stage one was complete.

Stage two – Passport photos. We headed to the photo shop were a man greeted us outside. We sat on a bench as his two friends held a purple curtain up behind us and with his 1960’s Nikon camera our photos taken. One hour later and we had six passport photos each, all for £3.50.

Stage three – The eye tests. The plan has come unstuck. They are shut until Tuesday.

Nothing we can do but start again on Tuesday. At least two stages are complete, only another 4 to go!

Tonight we are entertaining. John and his family are coming over for dinner. We are having spag bol and garlic bread, with ice cream for pudding.

It was a great success, and great for our language skills. They have very little English so we ate with the dictionary with us. First time for spag bol and garlic bread for them but they seemed to enjoy. The ice cream was a real hit. We enjoyed sharing photographs of back home and our wedding and finished the evening showing them a planet earth.

I have a wind up penguin which I had given Baraka, the youngest at 3 years, to play with as we talked. They had no idea what a Penguin was. David Attenborough kindly showed us about penguins and the poles. Watching them see these weird strange creatures was just priceless.

This is why we are here. For moments like this, we will go to bed tonight beaming.

Tomorrow we are heading to Nzega, a three hour drive away. We have been invited to an ordination service on Sunday, and as Monday is a national holiday we are making a weekend of it. We have no idea what to expect, all we know is Nzega is a small town and goggle doesn’t have any real pictures!

We will fill you in on our return.

A parcel from the UK brought some Dairy Milk delight. John had no intention of wasting any as he licked the wrapper clean. A real treat!

Day 85 – Thursday 22nd April

I am sorry to say I am still grumpy.

However, Armorel had a great and unexpected miracle today.

You may remember a few days ago we wrote about a young girl who had drunk kerosene. Well our prayers were answered, she came into the clinic today with mum well on the road to recovery.

A real miracle!

Tomorrow we have a date with Tanzanian bureaucracy. We are attempting to get driving licenses. You can use your UK license for the first three months but subsequently need a Tanzanian one. First stop is the eye test. It could be an interesting day.

With my sneezing continuing and my mood not helping I will leave it here and bid you a pleasant evening.

Day 84 – Wednesday 21st April 2010

I could not sleep! Armorel was saintly in her patience and managing not to hit me.

I finally drifted off in the early hours, but am feeling the lack of sleep today.

At school I finished off teaching the present continuous tense with the students before my meeting at 10am.

My meeting started at 2:30pm, and subsequently was postponed because the requirements of the meeting hadn’t been done.

At least I had an after school club, no wait I can’t do that either.

Long story, and I am grumpy.

Armorel had another young child arrive, 5 weeks old, who they think probably has a congenital heart defect, and have had to refer to a hospital in another district some 5 hours away. Health care is just not easy. Armorel also arrived home victorious after sorting out a large equipment cupboard which has been the bane of her life for the past week.

Tonight I have sneezed loads and we have tried to be motivated to study some Swahili. The clock seems to be ticking very slowly and I really want to go to bed.

Day 83 – Tuesday 20th April 2010

We both woke early to the sound of rain, which is lovely but not at 4am. Neither of us managed to get back to sleep really.

So as we ventured to work we were both a bit on the sleepy side. My day at school was less than eventful and I am not sure how I stayed awake.

Armorel on the other hand was busy as usual. They had one particularly horrible case of a two year old who came in after drinking kerosene, and was in a very bad way.

All you could do was pray, there was little anyone could do.

On a lighter note, Armorel is starting to build some great relationships with the nurses. However, I am bit concerned that she has been telling them all, much to their amusement, that I want 11 babies, enough for a football team.

I don’t.

Just one sports professional will do me just fine.

And those genes were on show this afternoon, as Team Salberg showed the locals how to do sport.

Armorel is our new school netball coach and took a session for 25 girls. She seemed to have great fun with limited resources, as in people and a ball, but chairs with people stood on them make great nets.

I on the other hand was showing my silky football skills and preparing for our first game on the 1st May.

The only difficulty is having one ball, the uneven terrain, the pile of rocks in the middle of the pitch and the tree on the left wing, oh and the 35 degrees plus heat.

My team lost 3-1.

Tonight, we are relaxing to some good ole American country music whilst drinking real coffee.

This isn’t bad at all!

Day 82 – Monday 19th April 2010

Those two dreaded words struck again.

Power Cut.

We had managed nearly two weeks without an evening of darkness but 5 minutes into planet earth and the power went. Luckily only a 20 minute delay, and even more fortunate was the appearance of hundreds of penguins, as planet earth did ‘Ice Worlds’.

I do indeed have a small obsession with penguins, they are indeed a great animal. I did only bring out 5 with me.

Today we headed off to work in heavy mist and with heavy eyes. I was leading the school morning prayers / assembly and had to speak on a passage in John which was a bit sparse on material, especially when your audience only understands basic words. This was shown by the readers’ wonderful faux pas that went unnoticed by all. She read ‘Jesus the Rabbi’ as ‘Jesus the Rabbit’. We muddled through.

My day seemed long, and the clock took ages to reach home time. I headed over to the garden, planted some seeds and then headed home. The clinic was busy with patients and so Armorel stayed on and helped. The ward is now in full flow and Armorel has created a great little nurses station with all the information you would need. Even I now know the early warning signs for patients and the correct dosage of quinine given IV for different age groups.

Armorel arrived home around six and we sat in the dark, no power, trying to read our books. The power came on in time for dinner and a game of scrabble. For some reason being in the southern hemisphere has even turned logic upside down. Armorel won again.

And no, winning a game is not one of my aims!

Day 81 – Sunday 18th April 2010

The new church time is a winner. It may be only half an hour later but it makes such a difference. We sat outside with tea and porridge reading our books in the early morning sun.

Church was again amusing and quirky. There was a guest speaker from American speaking at all the services and made a flying visit to speak to the small English speaking clan. A good message though a bit shouty for me.

Today has been a productive and creative day. I baked a loaf of bread, with a large amount of flour missing from the recipe, still tasted lovely, and Armorel put together a peg bag using her loaned sewing machine.

There was one large issue of the day though.

No milk!

No milk means no tea and this is not something to even consider. And on a Sunday, short of milking a cow, our chances of finding any looked slim.

We headed out on a walk with faith and a few coins and to our upmost joy found a small box of UHT in a tiny duka (shop in a shack). Expensive as it may have been, it was worth it. Buoyed by our purchase we carried on our walk, I nearly got run over by a bike and motorbike as I was too busy looking for animals, and then....

the sky went black, and the heavens erupted!

We got soaked to the skin. We attempted sheltering under a tree but the force of the rain was so great that it was pointless. We ran home much to amusement of the local community.

This evening we have dried out and I have carried on with another of my quests.

AIM 12 – Complete Spider solitaire on advanced level.

87 games since being in Tanzania and I am no closer to completing this task.

Sunday evening we have decided will also become ‘Nature’ night so we have a planet earth to watch, and I am currently trying to convince Armorel that ER is also a nature programme. My argument is fragile to say the least!

Day 80 – Saturday 17th April 2010

The headache is pretty much gone, which is good. I did not like that!

Armorel had to go into work today, but before she did we headed into town to do some shopping. We have run out of Jam and it’s not that easy to get nice jam in Tabora. They do a lovely jam/jelly made in Pakistan but we are not that desperate yet.

Unfortunately the short stint at work turned into a long day and Armorel didn’t get home till gone 4pm, but the day had been very productive for her which was great.

Mine less so. I did have a few games of spider solitaire though.

Tonight was a treat for John! We headed out for some dinner so that we could watch the Spurs vs Chelsea game with the locals. Great fun, especially watching the men all jump up and down, and scream when Spurs missed another chance. Great game and result.

We are both shattered so are now heading to bed and luckily we have a day of nothing tomorrow. We are so excited!

I am still not published, but i guess it has only been two days.

Day 79 – Friday 16th April 2010

I have a headache and it hurts!

Luckily it was a Friday and a short day, so as soon as I had finished I came home and slept. I had a very good sleep and only woke for a cup of tea when Armorel got home from work.

We were heading over to Dr Ruth’s for Pizza to meet a Japanese midwife and an Irish lady who has just arrived in Tabora, so the painkillers were taken and off we went.

I survived the evening but now need sleep!

Day 78 – Thursday 15th April 2010

It is a cold morning and I am grateful for the extra warmth and padding that eating 6 cinnamon rolls will give me.

With our jumpers on we headed off to work, and the constant busyness soon warmed us up. The highlight of the day was seeing Peter, a clinic handyman, have a burst of creative energy and do some landscaping of the garden. In our extensive two months of Tanzanian life experience, this is one of the first times I have noted actual individual creativity. The garden now has two unique rock features, and he has plans for more. I am as excited as he is. Photos to follow.

We finished in time to go and pick up our two packages, though sadly it turned out only one was for us! But thank you Helen, ‘Chewits’, ‘Werthers Originals’ and other delights to restore our energy.

So, in the times of quiet out here, I have been doing a lot of pondering and subsequently a lot of writing. Ladies and gentlemen this blog is only the start of my creative juices finding their way to print, and so I welcome you to my latest project. I have written an extensive list of aims for this year.

AIM 1: Get published.

Why? Well why not? It could be fun, and as I have told you all many times ‘Salberg’ is a name that just works!

So any publishers, journalists, or other media types who happen to be reading this (I can dream it is more than the 4 of you) send me an email? And for those four, why not promote your good friend and make his dream come true.

Illusions of grandeur and an episode of ER tonight! I also still want to be a doctor, but that’s number 54 on the list.

Day 77 – Wednesday 14th April 2010

The fly survived, and continues to taunt me as I type.

The gloves are off!

The bishop came to visit us at work today. Firstly he was given the tour of the clinic and ward by Armorel and then they had discussions on when the formal opening would take place. This is going to be a big affair with over 100 guests. The main question was who would be the guest of honour?

Suggestions on a postcard or similar paper alternative.

The bishop then headed over to the school for a less successful visit. I was teaching and no one else was around to give him the tour. Even though this had been arranged and booked in. At least I am not the only one with frustrations.

My afterschool club was then abandoned as it was decided that we must have a school wide debate on the topic of ‘Education vs Money’. My English study session deemed less important.

Hmmmm.

We headed home via the post office, and found two green slips informing us of parcels too large for our box. We will pick them up tomorrow.

Further joy was discovered when we returned home to find a tin full of freshly baked cinnamon rolls.

How many is too many with a cup of tea?

We didn’t ruin our dinner but the temptation not to have just one more is proving a real challenge.

If you pick at it, and it takes longer to eat, then surely that’s ok?

Anyway things go off quicker out here, so we can’t let them go to waste.

Stop tempting me!

 

Coffee and cinnamon rolls……

Day 76 – Tuesday 13th April 2010

Today has been a long day!

We are both exhausted.

The clinic was busy today. The best way to describe how busy it was is by the fact that Armorel didn’t sit down until 5:15pm. A day not to talk about I don’t think.

My day was less hectic but I was cleverly running two afterschool clubs at the same time. One was a reading club and the other was meant to be football.

The football turned into a Maths club!?!?!

Not my choice, I was just told we can’t do football today, and being the only teacher left on site the maths homework came flooding out.

The reason why was given in Swahili, so your guess is as good as mine as to why we couldn’t play.

My brain has been taxed. Of course you have no calculators, and so when a child asks you what the cube root of 21 is, or the square root of 110,889, it hurts!

Prospective employers previous colleagues and students – Don’t panic, I managed to cope with all the questions. I think, and these comments of being taxed in no way reflect my ability to teach maths now, in the past or in the future.

Tonight we have done little. Read the paper and I have tried to get an annoying fly with a ruler.

These flies are not as slow as French ones.

I will get him though. Or maybe he is a she fly? Certainly irritating enough.

Did I just type that?

Day 75 – Monday 12th April 2010

Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad!

We headed off with a determined attitude to make this week productive and stress free.

It lasted most of the day. Depending on your definition of ‘most’.

Armorel was busy in the ward, and although patient numbers are still low, she is busy getting lot’s sorted so when it does get busier they will be ready, willing and organised.

I spent the day being an ‘Excel’ geek and designing a beautiful analysis and performance tracker for students. None of the other teachers really understood why we need such a thing. When teacher kindly replied,

‘Oh? Why?’

Tonight we are heading over to Cindy and Case’s for dinner to celebrate Ruth’s birthday.

However, they have had no power for the day so am not sure what kind of dinner we are expecting.

Day 74 – Sunday 11th April 2010

The comedy of church continues.

It is 9am, and 6 of us are sitting there waiting. Where are the leaders?

Twenty minutes pass and then I start to feel that I am going to have to lead and speak. My brain starts planning.

And then we get asked why we are here so early. We check our watches, no mistake there, and yes it is Sunday.

“Early?”

“The service now starts at 10am.”

There had been talk of maybe moving the service time but that was as far as it had got. So we finished church a bit later today, and so next week we will start at... 9:30am. Don’t ask!

Sunday lunch was a lovely mix of fine Indian cuisine at Mama Joshi’s. It is not a restaurant but in the house of this lovely Indian couple who tell all that they do the best curry in town. They do!

It was a very quirky way to have lunch, very reasonably priced and hopefully safe. We also left with flowers and seeds to plant and homemade curry mix. We wasted away the afternoon sat underneath a Mango tree just taking in the peculiarity of the situation.

This evening we have spent getting ready for another week of work, which we are trying to motivate ourselves for by listening to the pumping tunes of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

Worryingly we know most of the words and have a strange urge to dance a little.

Help!?!?!

Day 73 – Saturday 10th April 2010

How come whenever you have the joy of not putting on the alarm you still wake up early?

Porridge, tea and reading our books on the veranda made up for the early start.

Today has been a quiet day. We headed to town to find all but one shop we needed closed. We read some more of our books and made some watermelon juice and ice cubes.

We did venture out for a quick visit to John’s church, John being the man who lives on the compound with his family. A very simple building of sheet metal walls and roof, but one which he is very proud and excited by. We are hoping to go along next Sunday.

This evening, I managed to finish my book ‘Jesus for President’, which has some very though provoking ideas and I do recommend you read, if you can cope with the strange manner of its design. Armorel did some work and soon the clock had run out and it was time for sleep.

After another ER, or two…

Day 72 – Friday 9th April 2010

Dom was due at the airport for 8am.

But why did we bother to use the information on the ticket?

We turned up to an empty airport and no plane. We discover the flight was now not until 1:30pm.

The joys of Africa.

So we had an unexpected morning with Dom and off work, so we went and did the sights of Tabora one last time. We headed to the market to pick up a dress for Armorel, which our new found sewer friend, January, was making from her. It nearly fits!

Then we headed for one last samosa and some other random things. We try out something new on most visits to Tipha and usually have no idea what it is.

It was a lovely relaxing morning and with unhappy smiles we dropped Dom off and luckily found the plane was indeed taking off at 1:30pm. You just aren’t sure until the plane actually takes off.

Armorel headed into work for the afternoon and I had managed to swing working from home.

Sad and already missing having company we settled down to our Friday film, of Romeo and Juliet and we headed to bed.

The diary is empty tomorrow so we are having a lie in.

Day 71 – Thursday 8th April 2010

There were only about 20 students still missing from school today so the class sizes were getting back to the Tanzanian average.

There was little excitement at school, apart from the History teacher teaching a lesson for 1hr45, when it was meant to be only a 40min lesson.

The students just sat there and listened to him go on about timelines. I can imagine the riotous scene if that happened in the UK.

The ward had a further two patients, and Armorel was busy sorting out the final few teething problems. The nurses, who have never worked on a ward before, hadn’t quite grasped their expected role.

I finished early and met Dom, who had been having a relaxing morning. We headed into town where he treated us to a small shopping spree of expensive luxuries.

I had a tube of Smarties with my tea this afternoon!

After a brief rain shower, which has seemingly cut the temperature, we headed out for a goodbye meal for Dom. He leaves tomorrow.

                                                    This is our only supermarket!

We are very sad to see him go. It has been so nice to have someone to stay, someone to talk to in English and someone to show glimpses of our lives.

Thank you so much Dom, and Karien for letting him visit.

We tried a new place for dinner, and although service was just as slow, the food was good.

There are now 3 places to  eat safely!

Day 70 – Wednesday 6th April 2010

We leave the house at 6:45am.

It is early and cold.

The drive is a good two hours, the first on a road, the second hour was definitely not. I shared the driving out with another guy, and had some great fun, though it was stressful at times.

We arrived at the village had a quick cup of tea before getting down to work.

Armorel was again injecting babies in the clinic. Dom was taking photo’s, weighing babies, helping dispense drugs and playing, and sadly I sat on reception and argued with locals about prices and their ages. All doing good though I guess.

It was a very busy day, and in total we saw  345 patients!

Shattered we headed home in glorious sunshine in the back of the pickup.

We arrived back late and Dom kindly took us out for dinner. Although the food took ages to arrive it was a lovely relaxing evening.

Tomorrow is another day of work.

Day 69 – Tuesday 5th April 2010

Today is the first day of the new term, but one with a difference.

Half the students have not turned up.

Probably because tomorrow is a national holiday and they didn’t want to travel back for one day.

So with small classes, now a sensible size, we carried on as normal. Dom had joined me today to take some photos of the school for a new school brochure I am writing. He had fun snapping away and I provided excellent photos of kids pretending to brush their teeth and take a shower.

Today was also opening day of the ward!

Armorel left this morning feeling excited but anxious, as there seemed to still be lots to do.

It all looked very impressive when I headed over later in the day and the first 2 patients had been admitted. It is an amazing success, and will be truly phenomenal when completely up and running.

We had a quiet night in as tomorrow we are all heading to Mwakashindye for the monthly village clinic.

Day 68 – Monday 5th April 2010

Today we are hosting a real English tea party.

We have an assembled list of nearly all the ex pats coming for an Easter Monday tea.

So, this morning Armorel has the list of jobs and we are busy working.

- Cucumber sandwiches – DONE

- 50 coloured in Easter eggs – DONE

- Lemon drizzle cake – DONE

- Victoria Sponge – DONE

- Sodas – BOUGHT

- Bread – BOUGHT

- Table and Chairs – FOUND

- Napkins – FOLDED

- Cutlery – POLISHED

Are we ready!

Along with our goodies, scones, hot cross buns and cheesecake appeared. We even had a rain shower to give us the authentic English tea party. This luckily came just as the Easter egg hunt began which meant the children had free reign as the adults ran for cover.

DISCLAIMER – The Easter egg hunt consisted of finding pictures of eggs with sweets stuck to the back. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to have chocolate eggs in Tabora.

We even had balloons and face paints!

It has been an exhausting but lovely afternoon and a good end to our Easter weekend.

It is back to work tomorrow and Dom is coming to school with me. 

Day 67 – Sunday 4th April 2010

“For he has risen, death has been conquered and the curtain torn. Halleluiah”

We headed off for church this morning and found a bit of a crowd, nearly 25 people. The service was good, comical in places, but we are starting to love it more.

We then headed back home to get our things ready for a picnic. I was on making coleslaw.

We are having it in the garden of Jay and Lynn who have a stunning garden and then will head out to the dam for an afternoon stroll. A stunning garden, full of flowers and plants. I am being allowed to steal some for my clinic garden.

So much food!

A lovely mix of salads, meats, bread and other things that you just ate without really knowing what they were.

Struggling to move out of our chairs we headed out to the dam, and Dom and I armed with cameras decided to become professional photographers.

I don’t think it is my calling. It was a lovely walk in glorious sunshine.

Shattered we returned home and flopped for the evening. Armorel wrote in her diary and read, Dom and I played guess the flag and trivial pursuit. The guess the flag game is when Dom showed me a flag, I guessed what country it was.

I felt I did well, especially my knowledge of Caribbean islands.

We then watched a bizarre, and so might say very wrong film, ‘Notes on a scandal’.

Just wrong!

Day 66 – Saturday 3rd April

It was so nice to set the alarm that little bit later today. We headed in to the clinic about 9am.

Dom was given the tour and used his new found Swahili, to varying affects. Then it was down to work. Armorel got on with the wards while Dom and I completed a number of DIY jobs around the place. We covered a cupboard, built a partition wall (sounds grander than it was), did some painting and watered the garden.

We are in need of rain, my garden is suffering.

The morning flew past and soon it was time to head home. The drugs trolley ready, suction thingys ready, beds all ready and paperwork will be ready. We await Tuesday with excitement and fear.

I have picked 2 admitted patients for the first day pool, Armorel went for 3.

It was then into Tabora town to show Dom where the action happens. We visited Tipha for Soda’s and Samosa’s and then wandered into the market.

“This place is crazy”

A good way of summing up the market Dom.

On the way home, we had a quick stop to catch the end of the Man Utd vs Chelsea game, and then I was cooking a Sweet Potato Curry tonight.

In between we had a quick game of Frisbee with Baraka and Zawadi, the children who live on our compound. Excellent fun!

The curry was good, though needed more sauce.

Day 65 – Friday 2nd April

It is the start of the Easter weekend and so no work today. We head off early to the market to stock up for the weekend, which is becoming quite busy. We have a picnic to go to and are having a tea party at ours on Monday.

Then it was home for a quick bit of lunch before heading to pick up Dom from the airport.

It feels surreal that he is here, but we are very excited!

We go for a quick tour of the town and a short walk to get a feel for the town. We treat ourselves to dinner at the Tabora and then crash to bed.

Unfortunately tomorrow Armorel has to go into work so we will probably join her and then see what happens.

Day 64 – Thursday 1st April 2010

With it being Easter, today is the last work day of the week.

We wake to a cloudless blue sky and head to the clinic knowing we have a lot of work to get done. So much so, we pass on the morning language lesson and head straight to work on getting the wards ready for opening on Tuesday.

The hours ran by far too quickly and we soon found ourselves heading home with still a list of jobs to do. Looks like we will be working Saturday!

However, the garden is now finished. Today we constructed a fence, a patio, a tarpaulin canopy, cut down half a tree and finished all the paths. All with one hammer, some rope, a panga (machete) and three willing and resourceful locals.

We had great fun trying to communicate and all had an excellent day.

Inside the wards look finished, all beds made, covered in mosquito nets, and the patient lounge is complete. It all is looking amazing. The final touches of filling the drugs trolley and sorting out paper work are Saturday’s job.

We headed home and collapsed with a well earned cup of tea.

Unfortunately, our home help Ruthi is not well, please pray for her, so we spent the evening preparing dinner, boiling water, cleaning and preparing the spare room.

Our good friend Dom arrives for a visit tomorrow!