Day 183 – Thursday 29th July 2010

We made use of the sleep button twice this morning, so had a bit of a rushed breakfast before heading to work.

Armorel had a normal sort of day at the clinic with a mixture of cleaning, seeing patients and sorting out the ward. She did see a one day old baby first thing who arrived with a congenital defect. The first she’d seen. The baby had a large growth on its forehead. There was nothing they could do so referred the baby to the regional hospital, and we just pray that he receives the right treatment from a hospital with not the greatest track record.

Today went very slowly at the school, and I seemed to be talking gibberish to most students. Luckily it was sport afterschool so Armorel and I had some good fun playing football and netball, though it was a baking hot afternoon.

I arrived home and subsequently fell asleep until after 7pm, whilst Armorel did some work. 

We had a lovely dinner and suddenly it is bedtime already. Though I am not feeling that tired surprisingly!

Day 182 – Wednesday 28th July 2010

It is back around to another village outreach clinic, so Armorel left early to the village of Kilungu.

It was a busy day with over 70 patients, 30 antenatal consultations and 100 child vaccinations. Armorel took on the role of nurse and doctor.

There was one particular little girl that hit her heart. She had a nasty ear infection, but was also suffering from very dry skin and in general just a very sad girl. To go along with these feelings, you have to witness a very hard attitude toward emotions in this culture, especially in children. All you want to do is give the child a hug, but they are told to toughen up and left alone.

School for me was fairly productive, with some positive steps being taken, sadly only with the students and not the management. We are going for a ‘Back2Basics’ approach, so today was looking at the word “A”.

After work I took the brave step of heading for African haircut number two!

We had success, again!

We had a lovely evening stroll followed by dinner and a game of something called ‘Bananagrams’. Imagine a mix of crosswords and scrabble. I have no idea why they link it with a banana though.

Some of the wards new artwork!

Day 181 – Tuesday 27th July 2010

Another regular start to a Tuesday. I was teaching and Armorel was running her cardiac clinic. She has also arranged for a local man to do some paintings around the clinic to brighten the place up, which he started today. Picture tomorrow we hope.

Then just after lunch it got tough.

Armorel had to perform CPR on a 7 day old baby who arrived at the clinic in a very serious condition. They rushed her to the district hospital but we feel it was all too late.

It is hard.

But the day has to continue. I headed off to the farm to check the progress on the soil regeneration and ended up bringing about 8 trees back with me.

I have no idea why. Our anglo-swahili isn’t quite that advanced yet. The guys just strapped them in the back and then told me to ‘Twende’ (go), so I did.

We go to bed feeling as though the day has been a good one, but wondering how when such tough situations hit you.

“Just another day in Africa!”

Day 180 – Monday 26th July 2010

A new week, and on my final day of anti-malarials, we headed into work.

I was feeling despondent at the poor performance of my students in an English test I had set for Friday. It made me wonder what I am doing in the classroom. One student made me feel even better today when he decided to not speak when I tried to ask why he wouldn’t do his work. Not a word would come from his lips.

I was left with two choices, ignore and shrug my shoulders, or get annoyed and see him get canned!

This afternoon Armorel and the clinic staff were ordered to a seminar about holistic nursing care, which continues tomorrow. The content was good, and sound, and the organisers are keen to implement a training course about it in Tabora. The only problem is that the course would be in English, which kind of denies access to all but the foreigners, whose training will have already covered the material.

Short sighted or no thought?

We need an early night, so only one episode of ER before bed.

Day 179 – Sunday 25h July 2010

I am feeling much better this morning.

We headed off to church where I was leading the whole service. They got a bit of a shock when I made us all sit in a circle and didn’t quite follow the ‘normal’ routine.

I also got told off for doing the blessing! Only ordained priests can do that John. Never mind.

We headed back home and luckily got an invite for a BBQ at Danny’s house. He is a Zimbabwean who is in Tabora working for one of the tobacco companies. We had a fun afternoon, though food didn’t arrive till after 4pm. We were starving!

We did also manage to sell 10 jars of jam.

Tonight we have 11 UK students descending on us to watch a DVD. They are a group of engineers doing some water projects, and we took pity on them, as they had no entertainment with them.

Hopefully the power will remain on, otherwise we will need some creative forms of entertainment!

My cure for malaria – Mashed up Papaya and Passion Fruit! Sublime!

Day 178 – Saturday 24th July 2010

Today our Saturday lie in was disrupted by my malaria drugs.

I had to get up and have them at 7:45am with breakfast. As a kind husband, I let Armorel stay in bed.

We had a very lazy day today, and didn’t do much at all. Armorel popped into town and did a few jobs, but we spent most of the day reading, relaxing and drinking tea.

I did also attempt to bake a cake, which went spectacularly wrong!

I blame the malaria.

Day 177 – Friday 23rd July 2010

The drugs are definitely kicking in, but I am not up for heading into work. Eating breakfast tires me out. As you can see it’s a nice treat to have with your tea!

So a nice lazy day for me of reading and relaxing, though I am now bored of this. I can’t sit still this long. I even considered going to Friday football, but the thought of changing was tiring enough.

Armorel had another busy cardiac clinic today, which continues to challenge and stretch her. She also experienced a gem of African living.

She arrived for a meeting on time, as the guy leading it was leaving to pick someone up at the airport. She followed hoping to have the meeting there. They didn’t. She stood around waiting. She had been told she had to be there. Nearly 2 hours later, it was all over and time to return to the clinic. She had been asked nothing, and achieved nothing.

Only in Africa! What a waste of time. The queues of patients waiting for her on her return were not too happy.

This evening I am going to bed early, but Arms is going out to see some friends. I hope tomorrow I will have some more energy.

Day 176 – Thursday 22nd July 2010

I haven’t done much today.

We ventured out to the cash machine at lunchtime, and treated ourselves to an ice cream on the way home.

We also went on a walk down the road for some fresh air, though Armorel got fed up with my pace. Supposedly I was very slow.

Both outings left me a little tired!

I am doing fine though, and will have beaten these parasites soon. I might even venture into school for the morning tomorrow.

We will see how the night goes.

 

 

 

This made us smile!

Day 175 – Wednesday 21st July 2010

Malaria has struck!

I was feeling a bit under the weather last night and this morning no better. After teaching my first lesson I succumb to the pressure and went for a test.

I have 3 malaria parasites per 200 white blood cells supposedly.

Armorel is being a very good nurse and I am taking a copious amount of drugs.

But I am tired and need sleep so, Good night!

Day 174 – Tuesday 20th July 2010

I headed into my English lessons today with high hopes. We have been working hard, looking at ‘Opinions and Feelings.’ I felt confident enough to set a small task, and this was once sentence I read in response.

“My mother opinion cooked Ugali.”

I checked. Her mother’s name was not ‘Opinion’.

This is worrying. What am I teaching them? I secretly hoped that maybe we had been lost in translation and I had been using the wrong Swahili word for opinion.

I checked with the maths teacher. ‘Maoni.’

No help there, that is what I said, I am stumped.

Luckily, Armorel was not so stumped in her cardiac clinic. She really seems to be enjoying the challenge and although very hard work is having fun. The ward is also getting busier which is excellent, but it does reveal one or two cracks, which is frustrating, but Armorel keeps plugging away.

We have had a quiet evening in, and need an early night, so it’s goodnight from us.

And, before I go, our next building project at the clinic has begun.

I seem to managing the construction of a new TB lab!!

Day 173 – Monday 19th July 2010

The music eventually went off around 11:30pm, so we woke on the tired side this morning.

I was teaching for the first 3 hours of the day, non-stop English lessons on ‘Opinions and Feelings’. Luckily the Swahili word for support, propose and agree are pretty much all the same, so trying to describe the differences was tough.

The clinic was packed and Armorel was very busy. She was also caught in a cleaning frenzy, and mosquito killing session, but seemed to have had fun. There are so many mosquitoes it is unbelievable.

We arrived home, and decided we needed waking up from our slumber, so went for a cycle. It turned into a bit of a 10km journey to the airport and back. It was really good fun and some great exercise.

This evening the power has come and gone, but we managed to get a whole ER in and now are heading to bed.

There is no music, so we are hoping for some wonderful deep sleep!

Day 172 – Sunday 18th July 2010

The power was on and off all night which was particularly frustrating, as every time it came on so did our outside light which managed to wake me up.

Luckily power was on in the morning so I was able to have a cup of tea.

Church was good, though quiet this morning, and we then headed into the market to do a veg shop.

It was then our turn to host our market lady friend. We went and picked her and her daughter up, along with two other children. One was her brother’s daughter, but the other one we never worked out who he was.

All seemed to be going well, and we were passing the Swahili test, but then it became apparent that they were expecting lunch!

Lucky that we had just been to the market!

So while Armorel played Frisbee and chatted, I dashed round the kitchen and concocted some food. It seemed to go down alright.

It is great that we are building these relationships, but also very hard with the language barrier. Please pray for this.

Exhausted, we relaxed for a bit and I think both fell asleep. To wake us up we headed out on a walk around the block in the afternoon sun, which is still very warm. It was 43 degrees at 4pm.

On the walk we suddenly heard someone shout ‘John’. Over the fence, our friend Adrian appeared and invited us in. He was just having a BBQ and had too much food. What a result, as we tucked into some lovely delights.

This evening we were able to watch a new nature series, thank you Dom, and had a lovely chat with my folks.

However, we are now thinking we will watch something else, as the local bar is pumping out ridiculously loud music, and we will never be able to sleep.

Lord we pray for a power cut!

Nearly ready to be made into jam!

Day 171 – Saturday 17th July 2010

Armorel headed off early to the village of Umanda to see whether they could start another outreach clinic there. It is about an hour outside of Tabora, and we expect just as busy as the others.

All went well, and they may start as early as in 3 weeks time.

She arrived back about lunchtime, and we headed out to the farm to check on progress and to pay some salaries. As you can see, the brick making is going well, we are nearly finished the making stage and will start the firing stage soon.

This evening we headed out for a nice relaxing dinner before a relatively early night.

Day 170 – Friday 16th July 2010

Today has been very quiet, with not much happening.

I was only teaching first thing, which went by without a hitch, and then I was on Jam production duty.

Armorel ran a cardiac clinic and had lots of patients, all seemingly with added complications, but she didn’t kill anyone.

We took Bryan, the US pastor, to the airport as he is heading home and then rest of the day seems to have just gone, with an interlude of fun with Baraka and Zawadi in the garden.

No Friday football which was rubbish, and Armorel is off to some villages tomorrow so its and early start. She is going to source potential new outreach clinic sites.

Oh and at 10:42, when we are just going to bed, we find out that have run out of water completely.

Day 169 – Thursday 15th July 2010

There is definitely a new rule.

I was the only one who turned up to school this morning, with the rest of the staff arriving in drips and drabs throughout the day, meaning at least half the lessons never took place.

It is just ridiculous.

At the clinic it was a run of the mill day, with nothing too spectacular taking place.

We did sell 4 jars of jam though.

This afternoon Armorel and I were both at the school running some sport. Armorel with the girls for some netball and I had some boys for football in a jungle. The football pitch had been left unattended over the holiday so we had patches of 5ft tall grass to deal with.

It was all very amusing, but also a much needed release for both Armorel and I.

This evening we have done very little and are now heading to bed.

Day 168 – Wednesday 14th July 2010

School continues to keep me amused, and there seems to be a new rule for this term that no one told me about.

Turn up whenever you like.

It does drive you insane, but I guess all I can do is do it right and hope something rubs off on the other staff.

Today, the head was a no show!

Today also saw Armorel as a midwife. She spent the day at the regional hospital shadowing an UK midwife who is over for a few months. I think in total she saw 4 births and had her eyes truly opened. She seemed to have a great day.

However, chatting about it over a cup of tea left us both despondent. So much of the procedures seem barbaric and the lack of basic care makes you want to cry. I don’t know how to express my thoughts and opinions rationally and objectively, so I will leave it at this for the moment.

All I will say is that I have no idea what the solutions are or how we get there. Changes need to be made in so many areas, but I am left questioning if the locals actually want these changes or are willing to work for them.

A game of football with Baraka in the garden helps to quieten the mind and soul.

Day 167 – Tuesday 13th July 2010

So we try again!

This time there were still only 2 teachers but 40 students when I arrived, but two more staff arrived in quick succession.

So we began teaching, and waited for the senior staff to arrive. They were only 2 hours late today.

It was good to finally get back into a classroom and to teach. I have missed it. It is so much easier than working with adults!

Armorel was a fully fledged doctor again today, seeing many patients, and dealing amazingly well.

She is very impressive.

Tonight we were invited out for dinner to Hanneke’s house. She is a lady who has adopted some local children who had been abandoned. We had a fun evening and I got to play games and generally be a big kid. It was great fun!

They are two adorable kids, but with such a past. Both abandoned, one by the roadside and one in a hotel room, in the first weeks of their lives, and they still carry with them the pain and trauma.

Through this though they smile and have hope. Amazing!

It is time for bed and maybe an ER too. We are running low on episodes though, so may need to ration them if they are going to last the year.

Day 166 – Monday 12th July 2010

I don’t know how to really describe today. It was my first day back at school and quite surreal. I didn’t think anything would surprise me.

I was wrong.

I arrived at 7:30am to find the school locked up, one other teacher and 13 students.

We chatted and confirmed that school was indeed starting today.

By 8:30am we had been joined by another teacher, had 20 students and had keys to the school.

I had also learnt that our Biology teacher had been sacked because he actually failed Biology at school and had no qualification and that my line manager, the school manager, had resigned.

At 9:30am the deputy head arrived, hoping that everything would have been ‘arranged’ by now.

At 10:15am the head teacher arrived. He had been shopping.

We then had to have a meeting, which took another hour to organise, while the 20 students sat outside.

The meeting finished and it was decided to try and start school tomorrow instead.

I was lost for words!

On a more positive note, our jam is finished and ready for sale!

Laugh?

Cry?

Despair?

Run away?

Day 165 – Sunday 11th July 2010

There was no English service today as it was time for another ordination. We had bets on the length of the service and settled for 3 hours.

Only 30 minutes longer than we expected and good fun, with singing and dancing.

We had planned a lazy afternoon but as we were leaving we got invited to the celebration lunch, which did however solve our lunch dilemma. We had a lovely afternoon and a good feed.

Our lazy Sunday disappeared completely when we were invited to go with our friends Lucas and Noelina (English service pastor and his wife) to see a famous preacher. He had been in town for 3 days and this was the final day. We joined about 1000 Tanzanians under the canvas and got completely lost in the language. It was a very interesting experience and powerful things were going on.

Tired and hot, we still were not done as we headed out for a late night for the World Cup final. We were very annoyed that extra time meant our bedtime was even later, but enjoyed a good game, though I had been supporting the orange.

Other exciting news was received in a text message saying that we have a new nephew called James Harry Salberg. Congratulations Tom and Debbie!

Day 164 – Saturday 10th July 2010

It was another early start as I was heading off to the farm and Armorel to the clinic. I went to the farm with Bryan (an American pastor) to pay the workers and check how they were all getting on. We are trying a soil regeneration programme, with a group of local women helping us out. They had worked tirelessly and put me completely out of pocket.

Just brilliant.

With an hour or so before we needed to be back we decided we would go for a quick adventure up the mountain / hill. We took one of the workers with us as a guide, and he stormed up the hill with Bryan and me dragging ourselves behind. It was a hot climb but with an amazing view. I sadly forgot my camera but this is the hill taken a few months back.

Armorel had been busy in the clinic and is working hard with a newly diagnosed diabetic whose blood sugar is fluctuating hugely. Simple things make it all so much harder, like not being able to afford to do a blood sugar test all the time.

After a late lunch of soup in the sun we headed to the market. We have gotten to know a number of market sellers and are trying to build on these relationships. Today, we had been invited to the house of the lady, who sells us bananas, and avocados. We had a lovely afternoon with her, her daughter and about 20 kids from the neighbourhood.

She is a single lady who left her husband because he was abusive towards her, with the final straw being when he broke her leg in a rage. This was last year, but she is still and pain and has difficulty walking. However, through this she smiles and is great fun. Next weekend we are returning the favour and she is coming to ours.

We are feeling lazy tonight so will head out for dinner I think.

Day 163 – Friday 9th July 2010

The alarm went off just after 5am.

Emma and James were heading back and catching the 6am bus. It was very strange seeing Tabora quieter than normal, though the bus station itself was packed.

Armorel ran her cardiac clinic in the morning and I did some finance stuff for the clinic. We then took Dr Ruth to the airport for her 2 month break in the UK. It will be strange to be the only expat mzungu, long term missionaries in Tabora.

I then headed off to Friday football sporting the new Saints strip (thank you Helen and Paul) under a punishing sun, BUT the shirt worked and my team dominated, winning 12-4. Apart from my scrappy left foot poachers goal the highlights of the game included a half-volley from 40 yards out that cleared the crossbar and the massive mango tree by some distance. Fellow Saints fans may recall Rory Delap hitting the big screen at St Mary’s with a shot. It was very similar. The second was a 45 / 50 pass move which ended with a brilliant cross, to a now very red faced white man, who met the ball with his sweaty brow, only for the keeper to be standing in the way.

Typical.

We decided a night in was in order and with a great meal sat down to evening of Will Smith in ‘Hitch’. He is a stylish man.

Day 162 – Thursday 8th July 2010

I was not aware of this photo. I happened to fall asleep on the sofa yesterday afternoon and Armorel is making me put it on the blog.

The field purchase is complete.

The landowners arrived this morning, we decided on prices, wrote contracts and signed over the rights.

I have just bought 8.4 acres of land for £286.

A good deal I think.

The clinic was very busy today and with two doctors down, Armorel was again on call as a doctor. The ward was filling up too, with several patients, some quite sick. I don’t know how she does it all.

There was also an emergency ‘Synod’ today, which is a big meeting for all church leaders within the diocese.

I can’t go into the reasons why at the moment but it is all a bit horrible and we ask for your prayers that all decisions are taken with wisdom and that people love each other.

Day 161 – Wednesday 7th July 2010

Today is a national holiday to celebrate the joining of two political parties, called ‘Saba Saba’, namely ‘7,7’.

However, both of us are working.

Armorel headed off early for the village outreach to Mwakashindye in a full car of medics and mosquito nets. She had a busy day seeing over 250 children and injecting 95% of them. This, however, is what she loves, and though tired had a great day.

We also gave out lots of hats and jumpers kindly knitted by friends and family. Thank you!

I also headed out into the wilds, but I headed out with a delegation of locals. The clinic wants to buy some more farmland around the Shamba, and the buying process is a long complicated one.

Today was the official ‘walking’ part.

All sellers of the land, the buyer, an individual witness, a surveyor (supposedly that was me today) and the village chairman have to walk the boundaries of the plots in question.

So we walked the boundaries, checked which trees where which side of the boundary line and disagreed between plot sizes. I do wonder if Tanzanian acres are slightly larger than English ones.

The next phase is tomorrow when we agree on a price for the land, even though the purchase has already been agreed.

After a long day we are both shattered and we are looking forward to our bed.

Day 160 – Tuesday 6th July 2010

They arrived safely, though a little bit dusty, and were very tired after a long journey. They enjoyed a welcome rest this morning.

I continued my role as administrator today sorting out the end of month insurance claims. My head hurts.

I did fall asleep at one point too, and so I am not sure what Armorel got up to. Sorry.

Tonight we headed out for a nice meal, though Armorel and I managed to sit at other ends of the table so again didn’t catch up then either.

I will try and fill you in tomorrow.

Day 159 – Monday 5th July 2010

This is my last week working at the clinic before I am back at school. The early starts are not going to be welcome and to be honest I am not overly looking forward to going back.

This week we have started our new project.

We are making Jam!

The plan is to have a jam making business run by those supported by the ‘Familia Moja’ project, with all the money made going straight back into the project.

We have started with papaya jam.

This is also Dr Ruth’s last week before she returns to the UK for 2 months, so the clinic is busy making sure everything is in place for when she has gone. The clinic will have a very different feel to it and Armorel is starting to feel the pressure of the expectations upon her.

We are welcoming some visitors tonight. Over the weekend we got a call from an old, young person from when we did a youth group. She has been in Uganda and now her and her boyfriend are travelling through Tanzania and need a place to stay.

Let’s hope they manage arrive on the bus.

Day 158 – Sunday 4th July 2010

The mornings are really cold at the moment!

We headed off to church, where it seemed everyone was in a huge rush. Everything was said and sung at 100mph, and my attempts to slow everything down using a loud voice failed to work. BUT our church wouldn’t be the same without some fun and laughter.

This afternoon we listened to the men’s final on the world service. Which was great when we could hear it, but not great when they kept changing the frequency mid game.

This evening we were at the Americans house for a 4^th July party, dressed in our red, white and blue. Supposedly my attempt was poor.

I wore blue jeans, a white shirt and red socks and pants! Perfect I thought! And better than Armorel’s attempt, which included these red / pink flowers. 

We had a lovely evening, and enjoyed some good food, including some wonderful cookies we baked earlier.

We have no more nature programmes so will have to cope with ER tonight.

Day 157 – Saturday 3rd July 2010

So I was meant to be making bricks today, but it would seem that the whole team is too tired. I didn’t fancy the task of brick making in the bush by myself so opted for a morning of reading my book.

Armorel unfortunately headed off to work, but only for the morning.

Sadly it was a tough morning. They had a two year old with ‘kwashiorkor’ which is caused by severe malnutrition, who weighed only 7kg and was in a very bad way. She was so malnourished her skin was just falling off, and they couldn’t register a temperature. Sadly she won’t have survived the night.

We visited the market after Armorel got home and then spent a lovely relaxing afternoon at home, with a lovely walk and a lemon curd making session.

Impressive stuff. 

This was followed by a movie, Ice Age, and then it was to bed.

Day 156 – Friday 2nd July 2010

I felt a little guilty as I waved Armorel off this morning. I am having a stay at home day. There is not much work for me at the clinic and Friday football is again at 1pm, so I took the executive decision to do some bits and pieces at home.

The football was end to end, and hard work. My losing streak continues, with us going down 9-8. Though we were 8-4 down, so had a small comeback, inspired by a glorious / slow individual run from one box to the other, and a calm / scuffed finished into the bottom corner / just past the keeper.

I haven’t lost my touch, but I have lost some fitness, that lung busting run finished me off and it took me nearly the whole game to get back to halfway.

The other moment of skill was when my defensive hoof ended up in the top of a large mango tree, even more impressive was the 7 year old who had climbed it within a minute and retrieved the ball.

Armorel’s day seemed to be even more exhausting though, with even more patients, and sicker ones, and her first cardiac clinic with no assistance. Not even a translator.

That is hard, as every other mazungu gets a translator, except her. I imagine it is because she is so much better than the rest, but it is still tough.

Tonight I have been forced out the house.

A group of about 10 girls are descending on our house to have a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ evening. They seemed to have had a fun evening, ate chocolate and popcorn and did other girlie stuff.

I had an ‘interesting’ (explanations can be emailed if interested) night down the road watching football and playing pool, though sadly everyone decided to move on and not watch the second half of the Ghana game. We only knew of the excitement that I had missed, when at midnight the town erupted, only to be replaced by shouts of anguish moments later.

Is it wrong that I was cheering on Uruguay?

Another random photo of some scaffolding.

Day 155 – Thursday 1st July 2010

The first day of July brings with it a dusty cold wind. We even woke in the night to get a blanket. It is getting chilly, though by 11am it will be up to at least 30.

We both headed into the clinic today. The ward was still busy with a wide range of patients, so Armorel was non-stop. I on the other hand was not. Supposedly I had done too much work yesterday so there wasn’t really anything to do.

I was hoping that this would mean a slightly early finish and maybe tea in the garden with my book.

I was wrong.

Armorel had managed to discharge most of her patients but new ones kept arriving, and then just as we were about to leave a man arrived at the gate having fallen off his bike. His face was pretty messed up, and he had many cuts and scrapes.

We finally left around 6pm.

It was another quiet evening, and we hit the bed nice and early. I was too tired to even try to read my book.

We haven't had any photos for a while, so here is a local butcher.

Are you brave enough to try any meat?