Bugs, Beggars and Bananas (Libby)

We've all (except Bethany) come down with a sickness bug this week. Joshua and Caleb are recovering and Daniel is in bed.It's our first bug since August last year, so I don't think we're doing badly. Joshua also seems to have ringworm, what is it with our family and skin conditions?

Joshua actually managed to 'pull a sicky' on his birthday so he was pretty happy as by this time he was convalescing and driving me crazy. We had his party on Saturday because school days are so rushed. I love the fact that you never have to worry here whether the weather will be good enough to party outside. You have 99.9% certainty of sunshine almost everyday. Dodoma probably has one of the best climates in the world. Hot and sunny, but without the humidity.

I am again challenged by what I can do to make a difference here. I went into town this morning to stock on supplies for the sick, coke and nice soft toilet roll!!!!! and got talking to one of the boys who I often see begging in town. He usually begs on behalf of an old blind guy by leading him around town. He is one of my regulars, so we often have a chat. Today I found out that he is 15 and has never been to school but would like to. However, he can't afford to go to school and if he does how will he earn any money. I'm wondering if I could pay for him to go to school and or apprentice him to someone to learn a skill like mending bikes. He is just one of many with no education, no money and no job. To be fair there aren't many jobs in Dodoma. There is a surfeit of unskilled uneducated people and not enough jobs for all of them. However, I realise that I can't pay to educate the whole of Dodoma, I need another plan!

On a more positive note, Sarah's daughter Frida graduated from Primary school last weekend. Graduation from primary school is a big deal here because it's as far as most people go in their education. Only 6% of people in Dodoma go to secondary school! We are now trying to arrange for her to go to secondary school. I am very excited to see how a good education will work out for her in the long run. Hopefully she will eventually be able to go onto further training and at least for herself break the cycle of poverty most Tanzanians are trapped in.

Completely unrelated to this as I was driving through town this morning I saw a guy cycling with 50 bananas on his head. OK not exactly 50, it may have been more,it looked like a whole banana tree, but it was a lot and I wanted you to get the idea of more than a couple of bananas on someones head! I wish I could have taken a photo, but I was driving and had no camera. A little bit further along the main road in town they are digging up the road (not sure why), anyway there was a mound of earth in the middle of the road that I had to drive round and someone had planted a tree in the middle of it!!!! I wonder if it will still be there tomorrow!Maybe it's new traffic calming measure! They do actually build speed bumps here sometimes, but they only seem to last about a week before they've worn away. The pedestrian crossing markings have also worn away, so it takes a while to work out where they are! Driving can certainly be intersting here!!