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.