Before and after

Today I borrowed a set of clippers from our friends the Cousleys (if you've had a MAF News you'll have read about them). This is the result! Joshua is also much-cropped, and my beard is now much more civilised. It was about time, I was starting to look like the wild man of the West.

In case you were wondering why Caleb is so transfixed in these pictures, he is watching The Wiggles on my laptop - which is always guaranteed to keep him still for extended periods of time.

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This has been quite an interesting week, at least for me. It has been my second week in the office, and I have spent most of it trying to get a grip on the procedures that are in place (or aren't as the case may be) and trying to work out what I am going to do to sort them out. Unfortunate side-effect of this *and maybe the Larium) is that I've spent most of the nights this week wide awake thinking about work-stuff. I'm planning to miss out the pill this weekend, and see if that makes a difference. Our language training starts on Monday, so I'll have something else to think about all night!

One of the models they used on our 'Facts & Friction' orientation course to explain the 'transition process' was the image of a house built of of lots of smaller blocks - each block representing an aspect of life (e.g. house, friends, church, job, car, family etc). Making the kind of move we have involves laying down each of these in turn and then 'rebuilding' at the other end. The process of transition takes up to two years, so it is useful to have the model in your mind, so you can mentally slot each block into place as and when it arrives.

I've inserted two blocks recently - working again (after a four and half month 'break'); and yesterday, taking possession of our new car. I say car, it's more of a tank. (I'll see if I can find a picture to post below). We feel a bit guilty having such a big car, but then you only have to drive about half a mile out of town (as we did this morning, just to road test it) before the nice tarmac road peters out and you're left with bone-shaking dust tracks. At least in our car your bones don't get so shaken! 4x4's are about the only thing that can take that kind of beating.

Anyway, I'll leave you with another before and after...



























{P.S. For those of you who are supporting us financially, we didn't have to pay from this out of our support. MAF provides the vehicles from central funding!}

Mamas and Papas

Saturday, May 20

- Partly sunny and beautiful, High: 31° C, RealFeel: 35° C

This has pretty much been the weather all week and this is winter! Daniel has been at the office all week and I've been home alone, well with Caleb and my ladies, Mama Verian and Mama Alexi. Here is a picture of them in our porch.

They didn't mind having their picture taken, but I'm not sure what they'd think if they knew they were going to end up on the web. Incidentally my name here is Mama Joshua.

The week has been OK. I have done lots of cooking, lots of washing up and lots of sweeping the floor. Unbelievably I am nearly half way through the 25KG of flour I bought when we first arrived. I cooked a passion fruit and pineapple crumble, which I recommend [editors note: so do I!] Bizzarely apples are really expensive here, well relatively. I can buy a bag of passion fruit for about 30p but apples are about 25p each. Considering that I hate thinking about what we're going to eat; shopping for food; cooking it and washing up, and that's basically all I seem to do here, it hasn't been a bad week. I've taken the kids swimming every afternoon, which is quite fun now that Bethany and Joshua are fairly confident by themselves. Also because

the pool is so close to our house we can come home to shower.

Daniel especially seems to love it here. He seems to be thriving on all the new experiences and people and loves living in the land of perpetual summer. In the nearly 9 years since we've been married, this is the happiest I've seen him. I guess God knows what he's doing. The kids seem really happy (although they do miss their friends and family) and love school. They come home every day full of what they've done, and are quite happy to wave goodbye to me when their lift arrives in the morning. I'll leave you with some photos of the children, as some have been requested. [You mean you're not interested in photos of fruit and vegetables!!]

Flora challenge: A confession

I have to hold my hands up - when I set this quiz, I made the (apparently incorrect) assumption that our gardener would know what these trees were. At least in Swahili. Unfortunately not. This being the case the answers to the quiz are:

a) Banana - well done all entrants
b) Don't know, but not edible (well done Steve)
c) Paw-Paw (Guy, you were so close!)
d) Don't know, but not edible. But in honour of Jane, this shall forever be known as the 'Mobongo Tree' (I admit, you had me fooled for a minute!)

Anyway, none and all were winners, respect and esteem all round (except for me of course).

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As a by-the-by, this is our 100th post! What a ride it's been...


[By the way, the picture is an African banana up close (one from our tree I believe). They're mostly orange on the inside!]

House Girl Diaries

Just to prove that we can be gender equal even in Africa, here's the result of one of my tasks on Saturday:















This was our fruit and veg haul after I had cleaned it in tap water; sterilised it in Ansi, and rinsed it in filtered water.

For those fiscally minded people among you, the cost of this list of shopping was:

3kg potatoes - 1,000 Tanzanian Shillings (Tsh) [= c. £0.50]
Root ginger (a lot!) - 400 Tsh [= c. £0.20]
11 tangerines - 1,000 Tsh (Note - for some unknown reason, these are green in Tanzania!)
5 bananas - 300 Tsh [= c. £0.15]
5 onions, red - 350 Tsh [= c. £0.18]
1 garlic - 200 Tsh [= c. £0.10]
5 mangos - 1,500 Tsh [= c. £0.75]
1kg tomatoes - 1,000 Tsh [= c. £0.50]

Total cost (after adding in the 5 kg of rice for 5,000 Tsh [£2.50] and the 2kg beans for 1,600 Tsh [£0.80] = £6.18.

That's how much things from the market cost. Things from the supermarket are considerably more expensive.

I then spent most of the afternoon peeling and slicing most of the potatoes into little packets of chips to put in the freezer - to be 'fast-ish food', later on.

It might be taking my desire not to throw things away a step too far, but I then made 'potato-peel crisps' out of the peelings. These were fairly nice immediately after cooking, but deteriorated rather after than. Once salted, and used as a dip condiment they were pretty reasonable. And such economy!

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Note: I was much impressed by Libby today, who borrowed a friend's car and drove to the supermarket all by herself. Given how happy she was to drive anywhere in the UK [not much], this has to be the cause for considerable kudos! The 'car' was also a 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser Prado - which is about three times the size of anything she's ever driven before.

Moral dilemmi

Really struggling today with having someone help in the house. I know some of you are thinking how hard can your life be if that's what you're worried about, but it is an issue. Don't get me wrong it's great having someone to help, but it just feels so wrong. It feels so colonial having a black person slaving away in the kitchen doing all the jobs I would normally do at home. It's also really strange having someone else in your house all day, who you don't really know, but is more at home in the house than you are. I can't help thinking: "When she goes home does she have to start cooking her meal and cleaning her house and what is she thinking when she cooks our meals? Can she afford to eat meat, where does she live, what are her living conditions like, what does she think of me?" I worked really hard this morning dusting, cleaning floors, mopping, washing etc.. You don't really feel you can sit down and have a coffee when she's working so hard. At the same time I don't think I could cope without the help and she is glad of the job. There is already a queue of people hoping to be employed when we move into our own house. I don't think I would feel so bad about this it if we were actually earning money rather than being supported by people at home. How do you guys feel about it? Just trying to work out my place as a human being/christian/in this society.

It's just so bizzare going from Mrs Joe regular at home to being one of the elite in society. It's very different when the developing world is in your house and outside your front door not just on your TV screens. Also what do we do about all the beggars. As soon as you start giving out money you get a reputation, and the world and his dog comes to ask you for money. So far we have said 'no', while we work out a strategy. What do you guys think, it's your money? I keep thinking about those verses - When I was hungry etc..

{Daniel's comment - the other argument you always get given is that you can't tell who are genuinely poor people, and who are professional beggars - who may not actually 'need' the money, and who probably don't get to keep what you give them anyway. The recommended route is to give to churches and other charities who have programmes for helping the homeless and poor. And/or to give people food rather than money. Tricky}

Libby's week

Some things never change, Bethany has woken me up early, so I thought I may as well write a blog. I am drinking 'Africafe' which is not really that nice, so I'm so looking forward to the arrival of our container and my stockpile of real coffee. I have done my usual morning cockroach scan, and fortunately there don't seem to be any lurking about. I really hate cockroaches they make my skin crawl and there are usually one or two about. I have an agreement with Daniel that he'll deal with the cockroches if I deal with the spiders. It seems to be working out well so far, for me at least, as we haven't seen any spiders yet and cockroaches turn up every few days. However, saying that there is definitely something big lurking behind the toilet cistern!!! There is a big blue lizard that lives outside the front door along with a couple of gigantic hornets. Daniel keeps trying to photograph the wildlife but they are rather uncooperative.

We have had an OK week, although I found it quite hard at the beginning. Everything takes so long and cooking and shopping is such a headache. I keep trying to think up menu ideas and then realising you can't buy half the ingredients. I thought I'd really miss Tesco on line shopping here but the Tanzanian equivalent turned up on Thursday in the form of Mamma Pendo who offered to do my shopping for me. For a small fee of course, but much cheaper than Tesco and as she can gets things cheaper than me at the market anyway it all works out rather well. There are also a few ladies that come round to the compound selling fresh fruit and vegetables so I try and buy things off them as it means so much to them and it's really not that much money for me.

I went to buy meat yesterday. Basically all you can buy is beef, although for a price you can buy one type of sausage, bacon and mince, in the Asian supermarket. The problem is you don't really know how many times it has been defrosted!! There is no chicken or pork or lamb or anything else, although apparently once or twice a year someone will come round to the compound selling chickens or a pig. The trick is to buy lots when you see it and put it in the freezer, then pray you don't have a powercut. Anyway back to the beef, they sell it in small blood spattered shacks in town. Basically there is a counter, some scales and a whole cow hanging on a hook and that's it. Oh I forgot the thousands of flies and the revolting smell. I just had to stand outside because I thought I was going to vomit. You just tell them which cut of meat you want and then they hack it off for you and sling it in a bag. Remember me next time you're buying your nicely cellophaned meat selections from Tesco or Waitrose and appreciate the choice you have. Once we got the meat home it all has to be sterilised in a bucket and then washed in filtered water. Now it's all in bags in the freezer waiting for me to actually feel like eating it. Becoming a vegetarian seems rather appealing at the moment!! By the time the meat was sorted and the vegetables all cleaned ( Daniel did that he makes quite a good house girl) it was already four a clock and time to start cooking the tea. It feels like I spend most of my time in the kitchen.

My wonderful house lady came twice this week. She is a real whizz in the kitchen. In a morning she has knocked me up 5 loaves of bread, some rolls, fresh passion fruit juice, a huge pan of tomato soup (made from scratch) and a pile of chapatis. It would have taken me weeks to make all that but she seems to do it so effortlessly. I so glad of the help, especially when Daniel starts work next week.

For Wendy's (my sister) benefit, I will download some photos of our house. This isn't actually our house as eventually we will be moving next door or to one of the other houses on the compound, but all the houses are the same so it gives you some idea.

Kitchen



















Lounge/dining room














Kids' bedroom














Our bedroom














Bathroom (but without the bath)














Outside

Flora challenge (not the margarine)

Just for a bit of variation, here's a quiz. I've posted below the pictures of 4 of the trees in our garden, with their associated fruit/flower. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to identify the aforementioned trees/fruit.

You've got a week. Answers in a comment please. First person correctly identifying all four is the winner. No prizes I'm afraid (other than the respect and esteem of your peers).

A.

B.

C.

D.

Bon chance!

Sights, sounds and first impressions

For those of you who are information junkies I will try and give you some detail about our new life, whilst it is all still new to me. Flying into Dodoma, the landscape is not particularly inspiring; flat, though quite green and with a few rocky outcrops and the occasional hill. The guide books were right, there is nothing to see in Dodoma in terms of things of architectual or cultural interest or really anything beautiful, but at the same time it's fascinating because it's so different to home. In lots of ways it's a run-down, ramshackle town. Nothing is really finished off and the roads are mostly potholed tracks. There always seem to be plenty of people about, not really doing that much and once in a while you come across a duka (small shop) selling oddments. The one just outside our compound, where we went to buy sodas, was selling a few fly covered tomatoes, rather overripe brown bananas and bizzarely, hair extensions. The price for a crate of sodas was 18,000 Tanzanian shillings until we asked for a receipt and the price became 12,000 Tsh!

Going round the market is very interesting, an assault on the senses, in terms of sights, sounds and smells. It's a huge maze of small winding paths with stall after stall piled with fruit, vegetables, spices, rice, flour, nuts and fish. Being one of only about 120 white people in a town of 40,000 makes you really stand out at the market, and as soon as you climb out of your four wheel drive, you are immediately surrounded by beggars and accosted by street traders trying to sell you things. I quickly learnt the Kiswahili for 'not to day, thank you'. The good thing at the market was that I was able to pay a boy to carry all my fruit and veg for me in exchange for 10p and a banana. I was carrying Caleb (buggies are useless in the market), and it was very hot so I was very grateful for the help. In lots of ways it is always a relief to return to the compound and relative obscurity.

The compound is similar to a mobile-home park, or at least that's the closest I can think of to it in the UK. There are about 10 houses - all one storey - with corrugated iron roofs and their own gardens. There is lots of vegetation, banana trees, mango trees and beautiful flowers. The houses are quite nice inside and thankfully quite cool. They all have cement floors dyed red which is actually quite nice to walk on in bare feet. The windows are all screened to stop the mosquitoes getting in and we sleep under mosquito nets at night.

Cooking and cleaning is much harder work. You have to be very vigilant about cleaning up the kitchen because of the heat and the army of bugs and cockroaches that invade if you leave food out for too long. I'm still not sure how much of a buffer zone I have before the invasion occurrs, but I'm not taking any chances. We have fresh milk (straight from the cow) delivered every morning. It's unpasteurised so we have to boil it for 10 mins when it arrives, before putting it in the fridge. We can only use filtered water (even for cleaning our teeth) and everything bought at the market has to be soaked in stuff called Ansi (like Milton) then soaked in filtered water before use. Rice has to be carefully washed to remove all the stones. All the washing dried outside has to be ironed to kill the mango flies that could potentially burrow into your skin. Fortunately it's relatively cheap to hire ladies to help in the house. Mama Alexei came on Thursday and made bread, rolls, fresh tomato soup and did all the ironing. Everything has to made from scratch, including the bread. I impressed myself yesterday by making a passion fruit mousse for pudding!

Well that's enough rambling. I hope that's gives you some idea of what it's like here. I'll try and take some more photos, if I can without being too obvious.

People, teddy bears and Toy Story

Libby has berated me for not including more 'people' pictures on my previous post, so I'll try and make up for it now!

Joshua and Bethany started at nursery school on Wednesday (and are there again now - ah, the peace!) [NB they were when I started this, but it's a day later now!] They go with 3 other MAF children, and seem to have a whale of a time. They are 'studying' teddy bears at the moment, and had a 'teddy bears picnic' on Wednesday


The school is called the 'Canon Andreas Mawaka Interna tional School' (or Cams for short). The class is just about equally split between white, black and asian children.

Joshua will probably start going every day next week, as he will start in the reception class after the summer holidays. When this happens, we will need to have him ready by 7.20 each morning to catch the school bus! I'm sure that will be a prayer point at some time in the future!

Caleb enjoys the outdoor life, but he still isn't old enough to be left outside by himself, so his time alone outside is limited (as well by the heat). His other favourite occupations are being held by mummy and being fed.

[This is a picture of Caleb in the shade of the banana tree.]


The plans for us have changed slightly since we arrived (another lesson in Africa: "Plans and agreements are never confirmed until they've happened"!) We now have two weeks of 'settling in' time, followed by two weeks of me working alongside the current finance manager. We will then have 6 weeks of language training (probably one in the morning, one in the afternoon - with the rotating joy of looking after the children); and then a two week handover period. After that, I'm on my own!


I'll leave you with a final photo of our sprogs and their friend Joshua (Cousley) at their usual pastime of 'Toy Story 2 watching' (some things never change!)

Lesson in Africa #1

We're here!

Sorry it's taken us so long to get a grip and let you all know - which is kind of pertinent really, as lesson in Africa #1 is: "Relax, this could take a while".

Our flights over were fairly hard work, but under the circumstances probably pretty good. After the excitement of the own TV screens, real customer service (quite a surprise after being used to Easyjet) and food, the kids all managed to sleep - Caleb in his Skycot for a bit, and then on Libby's lap; and the other two lying down on two seats each. Libby denies sleeping, as do I, but Libby swears she poked me and I didn't move. But I didn't feel like I'd slept.

When we arrived at Dar Es Salaam (Dar hereafter, for my fingers' sake) it was dripping with humidity and, more surprisingly, with rain. A helpful chappy helped us with our luggage, and pointed out to us which queues to wait in - wrongly as it turns out. Russell from the Dar office turned up with our residence permit in the nick of time (i.e. while we were waiting in the queue!) I am grateful to God that I didn't know that we wouldn't have been let in without it! We had enough to deal with.

We then had a bit of a wait because the chap who had been on our flight and was meant to be travelling on to Dodoma with us had accidentally wandered out of the holding area - which meant (obviously) that he had to go through all the immigration/customs etc to get back into the airport!

We then had another wait, for the MAF plane, as the BA flight had arrived unexpectedly on time and we were not expected for at least another half an hour. The plane finally arrived and after all the rigmarole of weighing all our luggage (and estimating our own weights) we took off.

Unfortunately, about ten minutes into the flight, our pilot was informed that there were a further two passengers, whom he had not known about, due to take the flight! We therefore had to turn around, and go back to Dar! It also meant that the plane had insufficient fuel to get us to Dodoma, and so we had to refuel. Which meant waiting until the guy with the fuel truck felt like turning up! Actually, this didn't take too long (around half an hour). However, in the meantime the weather turned a bit nasty, so we were stuck for quite a while waiting for the rain to diminish.

This meant we had ample time to sit around soaking in our first taste of Tanzania (and the rain!) Just for the record, our first purchase in Tanzania was a packet of Pringles!

Anyway, we eventually made it to Dodoma (after a flight in a Cessna Grand Caravan for those who are interested in that kind of thing! - for those who aren't that's the bigger of the two planes that MAF Tanzania fly - a 12-seater). We had a very warm welcome (in more ways than one!) with all the MAF families waiting near the airstrip to greet us. We learnt and promptly forgot everyones' names, and then went to lunch with one of the MAF families.

Since then we have:

1. Spent one night in the MAF guesthouse

2. Moved into our 'first' house and unpacked all our stuff (we will be moving again in a month or two):

3. Slept under mosquito nets
4. Swam (or nearly drowned in Bethany's case) in the pool here on the compound.
5. Been to 'Two Sisters' (the Asian supermarket - where you can buy most things, if you're prepared to pay); 'Saba Saba' (the second hand market); and the main market.
6. Spent 80,000 shillings.
7. Been out to dinner 5 times.
8. Attended one prayer meeting.
9. Missed one church meeting.
10. Been too hot (day) and too cold (night).
11. Cleaned our hands (a lot); our children (in a bucket); the floors (a lot); our fruit and veg (in sterilising solution); our water (in the filter), and our milk (in a big pan).
12. Not been ill yet!

I think that's probably enough to digest for now. Congratulations if you've got this far!

All in all, we are very happy (if tired), and grateful to God for keeping us together (in all ways!) over the last week. Thank you for your prayers.