Kongwa

We had a trip to Kongwa today for a barbecue, complete with essential plastic chairs, which always, I think, enhance the landscape!! I have posted some pictures so you can see how lush and beautiful Tanzania can be. Kongwa is a about an hours drive from Dodoma.

The building is an old hostel built by a Canadian missionary in 1912. One of the MAF couples is currently renovating it so we can use it as a weekend retreat.

The outdoor life

Caleb has spent all day outdoors today, I have hardly seen him. He has been playing with the guard, stayed with the guard whilst I went shopping, had a picnic lunch outside with the guard and made mud cakes with the guard. He has only come in now because Josh is watching Tarzan. The guard for some inexplicable reason has covered his bike with kid’s comics. Maybe he thinks it looks cool. I doubt he even knows who all the characters are. Anyway the kids think it a great bike because it is covered with all their favourite TV characters.

Short update on the street boys. They are now all eating breakfast and a main meal at Sarah’s house. I encouraged them that breakfast is an important meal and they are eating a porridge type meal with peanuts. I have devised a menu and I buy the food and Sarah’s house lady cooks it. It’s not very exciting but it is nutritious and filling and it’s exciting to see them look so much healthier.

The other problem that has come up is that the boys now want to sleep at Sarah’s house too. They say they can’t sleep at home because of all the insects crawling all over them. This is a problem in dwellings where people don’t use the toilet and do their doings wherever they please. This can be very unpleasant in confined spaces. They have no beds and just spread a sheet on the dirt floor to sleep. The last few nights they have been sleeping in Sarah’s shop which is no palace either. It is very small and also has a mud floor, but apparently less insects!!

We have already built one extra room on Sarah’s house, which currently houses 1 bunk bed and one single bed. I have decided to buy two new bunk beds, remove the single bed and put the bunk beds in instead. It will be a bit of a dormitory, but at least most people will have a bed. After that it is Sarah’s decision as to whether she wants to let the boys sleep at her house. Maybe eventually we will build an extra room.

Anyway you can be assured that your money is making a big difference to these boys. All their basic needs are being met. They go to school, are fed and have somewhere to sleep.

Another plan I have is eventually to send some of the boys to college to learn a trade. There is a local one called Don Bosco. Many of them have started learning late and don’t find it that easy. I really can’t see them going to secondary school. Once they have a basic amount of education, if they want to, I think it would be good for them to learn a trade to become a ‘fundi’ in Swahili or skilled person in something, plumbing, electrics etc... That way they may be able to earn a living.

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I discovered recently that you can buy one paracetamol at a time at the local shop.! The storekeeper has a huge pot of about 3000 paracetemol-is that even legal?

They have made some new mini roundabouts in town. Cheap and effective, they have just dumped big tyres in the middle of the crossroads. You have to drive round them and you can’t drive over them. I think Reading Borough Council could learn from this. Cheap and recycling!! The rest of the road system is still chaotic. It’s like driving through the Himalayas and the great lakes at the same time.

We are off on a bush excursion tomorrow, so will try and take some pictures.

Currently...

I realise that these currently blogs may give you more information that you really want to know about our family. However, they help me organise some thoughts when I feel like not much has happened here.

So here goes
Currently reading: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller.

Reading this paragraph I realise I am not really embracing the whole African experience.

“I have fleabites up and down my arms and on my legs …they are small, familiar red bumps-almost friendly-and are less irritating than the swollen lumps from mosquitoes, or the burning place where a tick has bitten and needs to be watched in case of infection.”

Maybe I am just not cut out for bush living!!

Currently watching: Mcleods Daughters-sheep farming soap from Australia. Almost as far removed from here as you can get, I have never seen a sheep or a horse here, although they do have a lot of bugs, power cuts and hot weather.


Currently working on projects: Making Kitchen blinds. Who was it that said “necessity is the mother of invention”. I guess blinds are not exactly necessary, but they are nice to have when you live in a gold fish bowl with guards patrolling round the house all night. Really they don’t need to see me in my pyjamas, although it may liven up their night!


Currently enjoying: It’s raining it’s pouring. Today it’s grey and only 20 degrees C, by Dodoma standards it’s absolutely freezing and allows us to wear all manner of exciting things like socks and shoes and fleeces.


Currently not enjoying: Caleb is sick, hopefully not malaria. I did a blood slide yesterday and it came back negative. Amazing how it really doesn’t bother me now to squeeze blood out of my children’s fingers. He runs around on ‘Calpol’ highs and then comes crashing down again. (See photo of him asleep in the guards hut yesterday.)


Currently preferred food:Being spoilt westerners we very quickly get bored of the food here. We are a little bit ‘mangoed out’ and are longing for a nice apple. They are currently hard to find on the market and if you do find any it will cost a third of a Tanzanians daily wage for 1. When I’m eating apples I definitely feel rich.

Currently-most interesting quote“The church in the UK is going through a phase that is best called ‘gradualism’. Let me illustrate what I mean by telling you about a frog. When the frog was put into boiling water it understandably jumped out. But when it was put in cold water and the heat was increased gradually, it adapted to the temperature until it was boiled alive! We are in danger of being brainwashed by the world-not only by its post-Christian ideas but also by its lifestyle” Selwyn Hughes.

Currently praying for: To manage our time more effectively. Believe it or not the slow pace of life here is a myth. Things are pretty frantic here most of the time and there is a lot to fit in.

Currently challenged by:
Whether I should wear skirts more often here. Those of you who know me will know that I am not really a big skirt wearing person, however I have been thinking about the "one another verses" in the bible. Many of which refer to loving one another. I wonder whether wearing a skirt omes into that category. I know that I can get away with wearing trousers and I can easily argue my case, but is that really the point. Tanzanian culture really prefers women in skirts, so maybe I should comply. It's not about my rights, it's about loving other people. Maybe God is just trying to work through a rebellious streak in me!! Skirts are one thing, dresses are quite another!!! I don't think God has done a big enough work in me for that!!

3rd Birthday

It was Caleb's 3rd birthday today. We celebrated with our neighbours with cake and sodas. Caleb has now spent more than half his life in Tanzania.

It's strange that in some ways our children know more about life here than they do in the UK. Bethany doesn't believe me that sugar is white because we hardly ever have white sugar. She also doesn't know what tights are! Why would she, it's not like you need them here.

...
We are blessed to have a Swedish doctor here for a month.It has been very useful this week as Bethany and Joshua had a reaction to a jab and he has been able to advise. One of our group members recently did a first Aid course back in the UK. However, he said he's not sure how useful it was because the instructed kept saying things like, " by now the ambulance will have arrived and the paramedic will be there"- not in Dodoma. I think the instructor couldn't really get his head around a place where there is no emergency services.

Unfortunately, this week one of our staff members hit and killed a cyclist. Initially he thought the cyclist was OK, but he had a punctured lung and died later in hospital. I wonder whether with better medical care he wouldn't have died.

Last night the baby of one of the local Tanzanian ladies died of malaria and pnemonia, it was only two months old. It's such a shame because it sounded like with a bit more knowledge and better medical care the baby would have survived.

Living here you realise that the medical care you can get in the UK is pretty amazing, even with it's faults.

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If you have been watching the news you may know that the Tanzanian Prime Minister resigned this week along with a number of other cabinet members. I have no idea what this means for Tanzania but hopefully some good members will take their place and the country will move forward.

Of Death and Taxes (but not taxes)

Do you ever get that sinking feeling when you realise that you've got yourself into a situation that you really don't want to be in, but there is nothing you can do about it?

On Tuesday, Libby rang me just before I left work and told me about an abandoned kitten that she had seen crying at the side of the road. Unfortunately, we are both softies - so I cycled that way on my way home, and couldn't leave it by the side of the road.

It was crawling with bugs (ticks we think) and caked in little thread like white things - probably worms of some kind, and it's eyes were glued shut with conjunctivitus. And it was filthy.

So I spent a couple of hours bathing it, and coming out all the worms - even after two dunkings it was still making the towel brown when I rubbed it dry - but it was looking a lot more healthy.

We then tried feeding it milk with a syringe - which was fairly tricky, as it didn't really seem to get the idea.



This was the point at which we realised the great advantage of having two guys outside your house who are being paid to stay awake all night :). We asked the guard to watch the kitten during the night, and feed it when it cried. In the morning it seemed like they had done a pretty good job. And during the day Focus, our day guard, was good at looking after it. Libby also washed it's eyes with salt water solution. We only ever got it able to open one of them, but it gunged up fairly quickly again.

For 24 hours or so it seemed to do OK, and we kept shoving the milk in. Unfortunately Libby then read online that you should never give a small kitten cows milk :(

So we resorted to a recommended solution of condensed milk and water and mayonnaise. This just seemed to make a sticky mess.

Anyway, by Thursday night it became pretty clear that it wasn't doing so well. It could hardly hold it's head up, was having difficulty swallowing, and had minimal body heat. I gave it to the guard with a half prayer that it would die quickly and painlessly. Unfortunately it hung on, and by the morning it was in an even worse state. Dominic (the guard who'd done most of the feeding) confided to me that it would die soon - which I'd worked out for myself. Interestingly, he was quite shocked at my suggestion that we 'help' it die -"that would be killing it" he said.

Anway, I left it with him and we went variously to work and assembly.

By the time I got home at lunch, Libby had asked our neighbour to 'help' it die. Although none of the Tanzanian's were willing to do the deed, they were all concerned that if it was left to die on it's own all the bugs which they believed were infesting it, would all crawl out and infest us (ticks, we think). I think it was for the best anyway.

Which raises an interesting question - why is it so clearly merciful to put a suffering kitten out of it's misery, but we would shy away from even considering doing it for a person? (Don't worry, I'm not about to be converted to euthanasia, but it's an interesting question - answers on a postcard).

Anyway, we all have the inevitable emotional shell shock except the kids of course, who were just temporarily mildly sad).

I don't have any idea whether it's true or not, but the idea of the kitten now gambolling happily and healthily in heaven is quite comforting.

When I was cleaning it up when we'd first found it, it made me think of what God does for us - picking us up, abandoned at the edge of the road, cleaning us up and giving us a chance - I guess he's better at knowing what we need, and keeping us alive.

Why did this little episode happen? - no idea
Am I happy or sad that it happened? - no idea

And we move on...

Misc.

Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while, but have been completely uninspired. The children went back to school yesterday, after a very long Christmas holiday, so I now have more time for writing. Caleb as usual is very cross because he can’t start school yet, but he’ll cope.

Unfortunately there are only 2 mums now with older school age children, so I now have a lot more school runs, in particular the early 7:20am runs. As it has now started to rain on and off, it is also the time ‘they’ have decided to ‘repair’ the roads in Dodoma. I haven’t seen any improvements yet, although a lot of roads are blocked off, meaning you have to drive off road in 1st gear a lot more. Everyone decides on their own diversion, there is no lane demarcation, so you have traffic driving in both directions on various sections of road. Maybe you have to see it to believe it. Those of you who have driven with us in Dar will understand a bit more what I am talking about.

Anyway the children seem happy to be back at school. I was sitting waiting for the afternoon pick-up when I saw a fairly normal 11-year-old boy with a large, pink, ‘My Little Pony’ rucksack on his back. The sort Bethany would be proud to own. I thought I quite like a school where a boy can get away with that and it’s OK. Nearly everyone in the school is ‘different’ in some way; different is normal.

I have decided to apply for a work permit to work with street children. That way I can do what I like without having to worry about being hauled in by Immigration. I am still waiting for the lady from Africa Inland Mission to come, but her date keeps being put back and she is now supposed to be coming in June. Kudra the first little girl we took in has not returned, although someone saw her on the street at the weekend, looking very rough. Joseph (the one who was sick) is now back on the street because his mother won’t let him go to school. The other boys are all going to school, but I saw Yohanna on Sunday looking rather malnourished with a big tummy.

I don’t think any of us can really appreciate how poor these people are. They really have nothing, even though I see it I can’t begin to understand what a struggle their daily life is. These are whole families living on less than a £1 a day. Even here that doesn’t go very far. I think it is so easy to forget that the standard of living that many of us have is enjoyed by only a minority of the world’s population.

I am stealing this from Daniel’s cousin’s blog (hope you don’t mind Adam and Jo) www.clanblack.co.uk, but it really makes you think:

'If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.'

'And if you are reading this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.'

'If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.'

'If you can attend a place of worship without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.'

'If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.'

We can’t save the world, but we can appreciate the blessings we have and steward the resources we have wisely.

For now, I can’t start any big programs without a work permit and permission from the authorities. So for now I just want to provide food so the boys can have one decent meal a day. It isn’t enough but it’s better than nothing.

Well I did until I calculated that it would cost me 124,000 shillings a month to feed 5 boys, one meal a day. That's eating a very basic diet of fish, beans, vegetables and ugali, no meat, no dairy products, no fruit, no sugar etc..
I pay my house ladies 80,000 shillings per month. On that Sarah has to feed 9 people three meals a day. I asked her how she does it. She said, well some days we don't eat!!!! What can I do?

Floods and wars

It's very tiring here. I can't remember the last time I stayed up to watch a whole movie. 9pm is the new missionary midnight. The three hour time difference makes it difficult to speak to family and friends back home because as they are coming back from work I am going to bed.

We had a mini flash flood today. As I drove along the main street, it was deserted and I felt like I was driving along a river. Driving here can be interesting, but I'm getting braver and learning that most lakes I drive through I do come out the other side. I had to laugh though last week when I was driving out of town a bit and a male collegue got stuck in the mud because he tried to go round the ditch and avoid the water, whereas I just drove straight through and had no problems. I have to remember that a 4x4 is actually quite high off the ground and can cope with pretty rough terrain if it's handled properly.

Those of you who keep up on the news will know the situation in Kenya is still bad. Although it seems to have quickly gone out of the news in favour of what Britney is up to. Two oposition politicians were shot this week and there is a lot of killing still going on. If you are able to pray about things so far removed please pray for Kenya, that the country does not decend into civil war.The phone does not stop ringing in MAF Kenya with demands for medevacs!

Also yesterday, the MAF team in Chad evacuated as rebels marched on the capital Ndjamena.

Both these situations make us realise how peaceful life is in Tanzania and how fortunate we are.

We had another incident this week with a stray kitten, but I'll let Daniel tell you about that.