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?