A few Headlines (Libby)

Toddler rallies after chicken pox bout

Caleb is still spotty, but the chicken pox hasn’t been too bad. We kept him inside quite a bit to keep him cool and fortunately the weather hasn’t been too baking hot.
I don’t think he really realises he’s covered in spots. He’s very concerned about the one spot he can see on his hand, which he thinks is a bite, but is fairly oblivious of the rest.

5 year old is victim of unexplained bites

Joshua seem to be getting rather a lot of bites at the moment. We’re not sure if there is something in his bed or he’s getting bitten when he gets up to go to the toilet in the night. Today I washed all the bedding, all the soft toys and sprayed with my bug killer spray,so we’ll see what happens. Maybe he's just tasty!

Youths injured in violent mugging

The son of the programme manager here and his friend were mugged and violently beaten on Saturday night as they walked home between our compound and the other MAF compound. They are in Tanzania for 6 months to work at the school and have only been here a few weeks. They were walking back to compound A ‘the short cut way’ about 10pm and were set upon by three guys with sticks. They had everything stolen, including shoes, glasses, necklaces and were badly beaten. They managed to make it back to compound ‘A’, but their head injuries were so bad they ended up being taken to Dodoma general hospital, where they spent the night. They were given a ‘private’ room, and the doctor there did a good job of stiching them up. I’m not sure if the sheets were clean, but there were mosquito nets and for 7000 TS a night (about £3) you can’t really complain. One of the MAF guys discharged them in the morning and the total medical bill including the accommodation and big tip came to under £15.
They are now on compound B where one of the American doctors came to check them out and decided they didn’t need to go to Dar for further treatment. They can be seen once a day walking up and down the compound very slowly and heavily bandaged. Please pray for there quick recovery both physically and mentally.

Man attacked by bull

On Sunday morning a few people went to the scene of the attack to see if they could recover any personal belongings, specifically glasses. It’s an area of wasteland where there are often cows grazing and, unbeknown to us, a bull. I have often walked this way (maybe not any more) and never noticed a bull. Anyway, the bull appeared from no where picked up one of the guys with his horns and pinned him against a tree. I guess he must have been a bit worried at the time, but now it seems quite funny. Anyway he managed to get away with only a few scrapes. Good job really as everyone had had enough drama for one weekend. I now have 2 reasons not to go the short cut way!!

Girl dies from malaria

One of Sarah’s nieces died on Saturday from malaria-possibly! She was only 18. People often seem to die here for no particular reason, I guess they must die of something, but no one seems that bothered to find out the cause. I never know what to say, it happens so often. In some ways you become hardened to it, say you're sorry and carry on with what ever it was you were doing. It’s difficult to find the right degree of emotion for something which is so huge but at the same time happens all the time. I think it’s only in the long run that the sorrow of it builds up and you break down much later on at some seemingly trivial event.

Small boy questions God’s judgement

To end on a rather less depressing note. Joshua said to me tonight “ Mummy why did God make mosquitoes, that was a bad idea”!!!!

Currently...(again) Libby

Currently not enjoying:

* Caleb has broken out in chicken pox type spots today, so I guess Bethany did have shingles. Between Bethany and Caleb we’ll probably manage to infect a good percentage of the population here. Why are you at your most infectious before you realise you’re ill? It just makes me itchy thinking about it.

* The fact that there are loads more mosquitoes in our house at the moment and we don’t know why. Hence why I am typing this wearing a long sleeve top and jeans tucked into my socks - I can’t help it that I’m a style icon.

* That either cool weather, shingles and now chicken pox is keeping us from going to the pool.


Currently enjoying:

* Having no visitors on Thursdays. I tell the guard that I’m not seeing anyone and then shut the curtains and do my aerobics DVD. Made more challenging by Caleb sitting on my tummy whilst I’m doing sit ups.

* Having a new mosquito net that reaches the floor and has a door on each side of the bed. The old one was too small for the bed and we had to tuck it in. Very annoying when you have to get out of bed 300 times a night to sort out children (well it feels like 300 times)


Praying about:

*Street children project - the way ahead

*Church - again

* Kudra - The little street girl Kudra had an accident today. I’m really not sure what happened. I was told that she’d hurt her leg, but it turned out that it was nothing to do with her leg but she’d been unconscious for 3 hours for no apparent reason. I started to research this on the Internet but decided a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and we should try and find someone who knows what they are talking about rather than just has broadband Internet connection.


Currently working on projects:

* Helping Sarah improve her house ( I don’t mean update the kitchen or replace the carpet in the backroom, I mean put in windows, put down a floor, put up ceiling boards, put in electricity). How much do we help her? Do we do it just because we can? What about everybody else who would like a nice white person to improve their house?

Any advice? I would like to be able to sort out electricity because it’s not great for the children to study by kerosene lamp. If we help Sarah how much do we help Elizabeti? I have been agonising about this for weeks. I have all the figures to extend the house and improve the old one, but we still can’t make a decision.

* Buying all Sarah and Elizabeti’s children one decent set of clothes (via another guy whose clothes business I am trying to help).

* Writing a newsletter that is vaguely interesting to those who read the blog and doesn’t just repeat what they already know in colour print.


Currently watching:

* 24: Season 5 - Actually, we have 1 episode left and are looking forward to freedom from 24. It’s great to watch but addictive and takes over the evenings until we’ve finished watching it.

We all need our fix of Jack Bauer but is it plausible to make Seasons 6, 7 and 8??? How much stress can one guy take? Interestingly our most heated marital debate has been about 24. I like to read ahead the episode synopsis to better understand what is going on, and (horror of horrors) I sometimes look on the Internet to see what’s going to happen in the next series. To Daniel this is close to treason and reasonable grounds for divorce.


Currently reading:

* 'The Constant Princess' about Catherine of Arragon. I read all the books I brought back with me in about 2 weeks, so I am back to raiding the sources round here. They haven’t improved much - especially since our new neighbours are Swedish.

* The Little Orange Book - daily reading type thing for kids.

* Old Hat, New Hat - Caleb’s absolute favourite


Currently preferred food:

* Bit bored of food at the moment. Kind of wish they would open a McDonalds in Dodoma but I think the people here have enough problems without inflicting Big Macs and egg McMuffins on them.


Currently wishing for:

* More books to read

* A church to go to

* A medical degree/a good doctor

Cucumbers and things (Libby)

A few pictures this time. Josh building a tower with videos, Caleb playing 'I'm a little robot', a water fight in the garden and for those who are interested Bethany's rash.

I was thinking today that it isn’t really normal (whatever that is) to go through as many cucumbers a week as we do. I buy at least 6 at a time and I do that 2 or 3 times as week. My children are obsessed with eating cucumber and Caleb can easily down a whole one in one sitting. I guess it’s a fairly healthy obsession but it can produce rather interesting results the other end!!!!

My Internet research has continued and I have concluded that Bethany has shingles. The nurse here agrees. Apparently shingles in children can be painless, fortunately, and Bethany isn’t really bothered by it. She’s been to school all week, so I guess if there is a chicken pox outbreak in a few weeks, I’ll know for sure. Good job it wasn’t life threatening because it took me a week to work it out!! The big down side to this type of research is that you find out about all the horrible skin conditions you could get but didn’t even know about.

I’m typing while I wait for a lump of pig to arrive. I’ve been putting it off because I hate chopping it up, but it will be a nice addition to our diet. We’ve been eating a bit more chicken lately, but one chicken hardly feeds the whole family, it’s like eating a plate of bones. Talking of which we went out for bones and chips on Wednesday which was a bank holiday. We ordered once; waited for about 45 minutes; ordered again (obviously we weren’t clear enough the first time, or they thought it was just a general conversation about chips rather than an actual order - we were the only customers and why else would we be there??). This time they said it would be 10 minutes!! One of the guys disappeared, probably to go to town to buy potatoes and there were some chickens in a cage near by, who were obviously awaiting their demise. Anyway 40 minutes later (we walked home in the middle to go to the toilet) stone cold chips with a side of piping hot chicken bones arrived. Oh well. At least the coke was OK, we didn’t get food poisoning and the kids want to know when we can go again. Weird how they obviously had a completely different experience to us - the rusty old seesaw and the old tyre swings were enough to lure them back again!!

ER: Dodoma style

Last Friday, Joshua Cousley (a 4-year old from another MAF family) badly hurt his finger by jamming it in the main gate on Compound A. Everyone rushed around trying to find medical equipment. We found steri-strips; various sizes of suture kit; a do-it-yourself Caesarean section kit etc., but unfortunately there was no one who could actually stitch. The wound was patched up as best as we could and then the plan was to medevac him to Dar the next morning (the injury happened in the evening and we can’t drive or fly at night). However, there just happened to be an American doctor having dinner at the Dodoma Hotel (as were all the MAF engineers). Thus a few phone calls later the doctor came, complete with local anaesthetic, and was able to stitch the finger up.

It really felt that God was in control; all the people that were needed were in the right place at the right time.

However, any doctors out there who would like to come and serve the missionary community in Dodoma, you would be very welcome.

Other news:

The children went back to school today (Monday). Bethany started reception and Joshua went into Standard 1. They both start at 7:45am, but Bethany finishes at 12 and Josh goes on until 2pm. They were both a little nervous, but Josh’s first words on arriving home were “Mummy, I loved it”. I had a screaming Caleb who was so upset that he wasn’t going to school too, that it took me 10 minutes to strap him back into the car. He can start next February when he is 3.

Joseph came to get my list for the market this morning, so I thought I would politely inquire how he was doing after the death of his son. I’m not sure whether he is more upset about the fact that his son has died or that his son dying has left him almost bankrupt and with 5 more dependents. The custom here is that when someone dies all the extended family comes to stay at the expense of the immediate family. Thus Joseph had to provide hospitality to a number of relatives and pay their transport costs to the funeral. All the money he was saving is now gone, so it is a big tragedy for him in more ways than one. I haven’t dared ask, but I expect it also included the loan I gave him to buy a cow. What do I do about that? Cancel the loan; re-issue the loan? Nothing is ever simple here.

We are currently making plans to extend Sarah’s house, to house more street children. However, if we do that we are wondering whether to renovate the rest of the house. She has the basic shell of a house, but it needs a celing put in, a floor put down, windows, doors, plaster and so on. Actually when I write it like that it doesn’t really sound habitable, but that’s the Tanzanian way. When a house is vaguely livable in you move in and improve it later if and when you can. I guess we do that in Europe too, we just move in a lot further down the process. Please pray for wisdom as to how best use our resources. Any comments welcome.

Please pray for Bethany who currently has an unexplained rash on her torso. Internet searching has yet to diagnose it as it seems to characteristics of many different conditions. However, it would be good to work out what it is so we can treat it and know if it is infectious or not. For those medics out there it spread around her torso in a kind of blistery rash. No pain like in shingles, slightly itchy but not very, no yellow crust like in impetigo, don't really have any other ideas. At least apart from the rash she has no other symptoms, so it probably isn't that serious. It started last Friday and no one else has contracted it. Any ideas welcome.