Diaries

This week on Tuesday everyone in the MAF program was asked to write a diary entry about their day. Here are ours: Gives you an idea of what we spend our days doing!!

Libby

Woke up at 6:30am or rather was woken up by the guards outside the window making a racket and someone in the neighbourhood blaring out music. Why is it perfectly acceptable here to play loud music at any time of the night or day? Had the usual battle of Trafalgar to get 3 children out of the house to go to school on the 7:20am bus, reasonably clean, fed, and at least half awake. Today was even more of a struggle as I was doing the driving and had to be out the door too. The youngest member of the family starts school later, so had a very exciting trip to the office with daddy whilst mummy did the bus run. Drove the very LOUD MAF kids to school, picking up one of the MAF house ladies on the way back. Dropped the bus off at compound A ready for the next run and picked up Caleb. Returned home to clear up the battlefield that we had previously fled, until it was time for Caleb to go to school. Had a quick chat with the house lady about jobs to be done for the day. Caleb got a lot of mosquito bites last night so I asked her to wash and soak his mosquito net in ‘dawa’ (Swahili for the chemicals you soak the net in – and anything else vaguely chemical in nature for that matter). I also asked her to clean out the kitchen cupboards because in the last few weeks I have noticed a few cockroaches rearing their ugly heads.

Went to compound A to do some photocopying for children’s club. (A small club we run for the local Tanzanian children, that involves lots of playing, singing, a bible story and juice and biscuits. About 30 usually come). It was Jonah and the whale this week so I (surprisingly) photocopied loads of whale pictures. Returned via the duka (small shop) to stock up on dawa for the mosquito net and citric acid to clean swimming pool parts (the swimming pool is having a major overhaul and I volunteered to help clean a few things). I also stopped by a small fruit and veg stall to stock up on - you got it - fruit and veg. Pleased to see mangos are back in season; it must be nearly Christmas.

Set up compound B for children’s club, opened the gate at 10:30 and the children swarmed in, excited as usual to play with the wazungu (white people) toys, bikes, trucks, swings, slide etc…Pleased to see Juliet (the little girl who had a serious head injury last month and was medevac’ed by MAF) playing happily with the other children. Children’s club finished around 12. Just enough time to tidy up and then Caleb arrived home from school. Quick lunch (soup and chapattis) and then an even quicker trip into town in the car to buy some ham I needed for tea, as Caleb had devoured the ham I had at lunch. Spent a short amount of time cleaning swimming pool parts. Seriously beginning to regret volunteering for this job, but still feel I should do something as I am a big fan of the pool and can’t wait for it to open again.

The older children arrive home from school. Usual discussion about why they haven’t eaten various items of their lunch. Plug them into a DVD because it is too hot to do anything else and it gives me an opportunity to write this. Having let the electronic babysitter do its work I cooked the evening meal - some weird (sorry, different) Dutch recipe I got from next door.

Spent some time doing homework with the older two, then the usual evening routine: dinner, bath, stories and bed. Re-hung the mosquito net (twice because I did it the wrong way round first); gave Caleb his Malarone (he’s been on it for the last two weeks because we spent a few days at the coast, but have decided to continue in light of his bites), and put cream on various bits of children who all seem to have some kind of ailment. Joshua has a slightly infected toe - the result of Caleb trying to strangle a cow and then the cow stamping on Joshua’s foot!!

All is nearly quiet in the house now. I have received an e-mail about the pool parts. Are they ready yet and can I take them to the prayer meeting?!! Maybe they are trying a new approach tonight?? Anyway I haven’t finished them, so if I don’t get to the prayer meeting tonight, you’ll know what a fun evening I’ve had…


Daniel

Today is a high stress day. The management accounts (which were due 6 days ago) are still unfinished. This is mainly because we were away on holiday for most of the week before last, and there was also a bank holiday last week, which always knocks the cycle out of kilter. My finance colleagues have all done their bits, and it is now down to me to finish off everything that needs doing to get the accounts out. MAF I have been chasing so I will try and keep my head down and avoid interruptions – some hope!

My first task of the day is to reconcile the income and costs for our vehicle workshop department. Most of yesterday was spent preparing all the garage invoices for last month, but now I need to check that everything that should have been invoiced has been, and that any costs for unfinished jobs are carried forward to next month. It’s amazing how much of my job is spent doing that kind of thing. If the income and costs don’t match up, the accounts are unreliable – and you tend to get nasty surprises later on!

Most of the rest of the morning is spent trying to sort out aviation spares. We maintain upwards of 10 aircraft, so there are lots of parts in stock – and lots of movements in and out. The trickiest ones are what we call ‘rotables’ – i.e. those parts (like radios, for example) which can be taken off a plane, repaired and reused. These parts have a value even if they’re not working (what we call a ‘core’ value). Unfortunately, these parts tend to get shifted around all over the place, and keeping track of them is a big job. Our Chief Engineer has also been on holiday, so he is similarly behind on the paperwork, so we are fighting to catch up! Finally manage to get all my questions answered just before lunch – and am happy that my figures in PSF (our accounting software) agree to the figures in WASP (the maintenance department’s stock control package). There are some differences in the transactions – but naturally my figures are the right ones J

Just before lunch I manage to squeeze in analysing out the medical bills. We pay the medical costs for our Tanzanian staff – but there is a limit on how much we will pay (theoretically). Each month I get a huge wad of sick sheets through from the dispensary, and have to analyse them out by employee (and department) and record how much they have incurred. I usually start by splitting them in to ‘names beginning with m’ and ‘names not beginning with m’. The Kiswahili noun class for people related things is the ‘M/WA’ class (i.e. most things related to people begin with ‘m’), so this split is about 50:50. I whip through the analysis in record time, and manage to process the invoice before lunch.

I cycle home the ‘short cut’ route. We live on Compound B, which is about 1km away from Compound A (where the other houses, hangar and offices are). This is about the extent of my exercise, so it’s good that we live there! It is getting to one of the hottest times of year – just before the rains start – so although it is very dry, it is HOT! I can tell when it’s hot because I don’t where my coat to work any more, and after lunch the ceiling fan has to go on in the office!

I manage to sneak 5 minutes of my book during lunch, before heading back to the office (HOT!) to crack on with the accounts. Now I have completed all the major parts of the accounts, it is time to go through all the smaller (but equally important) things that need to happen. These include recharging the water costs for Compound A (we get one bill, but each house has it’s own meter, so the bill has to be split). There is still a difference occurring between the total of the individual meters and the total from the main meter. This is a long-standing problem – about a third of the water can’t be accounted for, but it is fairly obvious that there is not a mains leak. It’s so dry here that 100 cubic meters of water leaking would be fairly noticeable!

I also need to recharge the generator costs. As it’s the driest part of the year the power supply is less reliable than usual (lots of the mains power is hydroelectric) so the generators are getting more usage. These costs need to be recharged between the houses and the various other buildings. There seems to be a lot more fuel used that I would expect – I file this away in my head for something to think about later.


I also need to process the figures for the VAT return. As we provide some services which are ‘taxable’ (like the guesthouse and vehicle maintenance) we are required to be VAT registered – the system is much like the UK. However, as air transport is ‘exempt’, this complicates things so the VAT return is quite a chore. This is a reflection of the finances of MAF TZ generally – because of the many different services we provide, the accounting can get quite complex. Striking the balance between accuracy and simplicity is one of the hardest parts of my job.

I finally finish the VAT return and all (hopefully!) the other bits and pieces that need doing around 4.30 – half an hour to go! I process the PSF figures into the management accounts spreadsheet, and then go through reviewing the figures. I need to ensure that everything ‘makes sense’ – why are some figures higher or lower than expected? It could be as a result of a mistake (which needs correcting) or there could be a reasonable explanation – which will need noting in the accounts.

I also need to look ahead at the figures that were previously forecast for the rest of the year – are the assumptions we are making still the same? Is there new information which I can take advantage of to improve the accuracy of our ‘guess’ for the rest of the year. There are only a couple of changes – looking at our estimated flying hours for the next month, we are not expecting to achieve as many as we originally hoped. (This is partly as one of our larger aircraft has had to be grounded for a couple of weeks for maintenance). I adjust the expected hours accordingly. There are also some costs that I was expecting to have happened – but they haven’t! I adjust the forecast for these as well.

The final touch is the ‘key factors’ page – which highlights the various important things that the MAF I finance team need to be aware of. (I have a sneaking suspicion that this is all they look at J). The good news is that for the first time this year, we are actually predicting a forecast that will achieve the target set in our financial plan. After the worries over fuel prices in recent months, this is something of a relief! I share the good news with the Programme Manager.

I was hoping to get the accounts of to MAF I this evening, but the Deputy Ops Manager is chasing me to shut down my computer. There is a problem with the quality of the HF Radio signal (used to communicate with the aircraft) and they want to shut off all power to see they can isolate the problem. Oh well, MAF I have waited 6 days – I’m sure one more won’t hurt!

Guest blog # 4 Pippa Simkins

Dodoma

Last Sunday I travelled from Zanzibar via Dar Es Salaam to Dodoma with my brother and his family where they live and work. Dodoma has been Tanzania's national capital since 1973, which may surprise some as it really is in the middle of nowhere with a desert-like climate and with not much to recommend itself, save for its central geographical location. Nevertheless I found the journey from Dar Es Salaam an eye opener and my time here has enabled me to experience some of the differences in everyday life that a white missionary family have living in a place like Dodoma.

The 7-hour car journey from Dar Es Salaam was dusty and hot and I was glad of our air conditioning. The further we got from Dar the dryer the landscape became and the poorer the housing and livelihood - in Dar there are quite a lot of concrete housing but in the countryside there were generally mud brick housing, skeletal looking cows, and little sign of water or agriculture. It really made you wander what people lived off and how they could manage to survive. Here are some more interesting facts about Tanzania which may help you to understand the poverty here;
Ø Only 6% of the population have graduated from primary school
Ø The average wage is about 80,000 shillings a month (£35)
Ø The average life expectancy is 45years.

At the beginning of the week my brother gave me a tour of the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) base in Dodoma where he works. In Dodoma there are about 14 expats working for MAF (not including women and children) - from engineers and pilots to personal and accounting staff. I got to be introduced to many of the staff and see the hanger where the airplanes are as well as see the accounting office where my brother works. There are 2 compounds here for works - during my stay I stayed in a guest house at compound A with a group of Canadians and I have been walking daily the 1 km to compound B to spend the day with the family. I enjoyed these walks – opportunities to see the locals in this fairly wealthy area of the city (though still many half built houses!) Today I saw people on their bicycles with baskets carrying chickens and a man carrying a huge bundle of charcoal on his head! There are a couple of shops (though not what we call shops – open air shops where clothes hang in the trees, or a sofa is sitting on the dusty side street).

I was also taken around the market this week, which sold many things I had never seen or eaten before. I brought home plantain bananas, which the house lady cooked for me – tastes very similar to potato and looks a greener version of a banana. I also bought home a red grain which is milled into a kind of flour which the Africans cook to make a porridge. One of the house ladies also cooked me ‘Ugali’ (maize meal – looks like white mash potato but tastes more like rice) which I enjoyed and also a local dish called ‘mboga’ (pronounced ‘umboga’) made of coconut milk, and vegetables. This is commonly eaten with Ugali or white rice and the stable diet for local Tanzanians. They also like to eat a donut type bread which is round and small and deep fried called ‘mendazi’ It is quite a novelty being able to walk in the compound in MAF and see bananas and mangos growing off the trees!

You are probably wondering by now what I mean by a house ‘lady’. Each MAF family has a house lady or two working for them in the daytime that do much of the household tasks (which are many more here due to issues around sanitation. For example you have to sterilise all fruit and vegetables, iron all clothing in case of mango fleas and boil milk/filter water before it can be drunk. It is beneficial for locals to be employed in this way as MAF adhere to local laws regarding pay and they get a more decent wage than elsewhere - it also helps to reduce the high unemployment levels here. Spending time with the local Tanzanian house ladies has enabled me to learn some Swahili words here, here are a few that may interest you;
Ø ‘Jambo’ or ‘Hujambo’ means hello
Ø ‘Karibu’ – welcome
Ø ‘Kwaheri’ – goodbye
Ø ‘Asante’ – thankyhou
Ø ‘Moja’ – one
Ø ‘Mbili’- two (pronounced ‘umbili’)

Staying in Dodoma has given me an insight into what an expat life is like here and also enabled me to have contact with some of the locals – I went to visit one of the house ladies houses’ which was an eye opener. Her kitchen consisted of a few pots and pans – no sink or oven and she had a hole outside in the ground for a toilet. My brother Daniel and his wife are helping to support this Christian lady to look after some of the street children (which she herself has a heart for doing so) – she currently houses about 9 children (2 being her own) and Daniel and Libby along with their sponsors have enabled many of these children to be clothed, fed and educated – as well as building an extra room onto her house for them to sleep in.

It has been wonderful to spend time seeing my family and I’ve spend a lot of time playing with my nephews and nieces aged 7,5 and 3. I will miss them when I move on to Moshi on Monday. Seeing some of the poverty in a non touristy part of Africa has once again left me with all sorts of real questions and feelings; the suppressed guilt of seeing poverty, wondering ‘why me’ for being placed in the richest part of the world and also wondering how I am going to take away from this experience – how can I use my money more wisely.

Zanzibar

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while. We have been busy with guests (my sister and husband and Daniel's sister) and we have been away for a week in Dar and Zanzibar. Being able to go to exotic locations is definitely one of the perks of living here. We had a scary flight to Zanzibar, we took off in a rain storm and the plane was bumping around all over the place. The children thought it was great fun and were quite disappointed by the calm flight on the way back. Joshua thought Stone Town was boring, but I thought it was quite interesting, which shows how old I am now. Having being dragged around cultural sites by my parents I think it is only fair to do the same to my children. However, the boat trips, the snorkeling, the giant turtles and playing on the beach all but made up for the 'boring bits'. I was a little bit nervous about the kids snorkeling, especially as there were lots of jellyfish around. The boat man took the boat out over a coral reef, Caleb and Bethany couldn't quite get the hang of it and kept climbing in and out of the boat, but Joshua managed a bit and saw some beautiful fish. They all now want their own snorkeling sets. However, I think with small children snorkeling from the shore is probably easier than jumping from the boat in the middle of the sea!! Here are a few pictures. If you ever get the opportunity, I definitely recommend Zanzibar.