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!