Driving in Africa continued.

It can be interesting driving in Africa!!

Top 10 tips for travelling in Africa

Well Daniel arrived back safely from South Africa on Sunday night, but without his luggage. Who knows where it went, but fortunately it arrived safely back in Dodoma yesterday. Good job, because it was full of exciting things that I had ordered. Well exciting to me!! Kiddie toothpaste and brushes, vitamin pills, shampoo and conditioner! Things that are difficult or expensive to get here.

I have been reading the news on the Internet this week about swine flu or whatever it is. I have to admit it did worry me slightly not being in the best place for good medical care. However, God gave me two verses. "God rescues and saves his people. He performs miracles in heaven and earth." Daniel 6 v 27 and "In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind" Job 12 v10. Just by way of comment on the way the world is responding to this 'pandemic', every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria. That fact makes me want to cry. Why isn't the world putting more effort into eradicating malaria? Oh yes I forgot there isn't malaria in Europe and America!!

Daniel's cousin and her husband are planning a 9-month drive from London to Cape Town. It got me thinking about what advice I would give to people travelling through Africa. Here are my top ten tips. I am putting it on our website so as not to annoy them in case they know all this already.

1. If you need accommodation, look for the nearest Catholic mission. They always have every clean, basic accommodation with safe food and at a good price.
2. Always drink bottled water unless you know you have a reliable source elsewhere. Avoid ice-cubes in restaurants.
3. Coke, despite all it other evils, is actually medicine. Excellent for dodgy stomachs. Sodas in general, although they rot your teeth are a good alternative if you are unsure about the drinking water.
4.Make sure your have appropriate clothing for all the countries you go through. You can get away with allsorts, but it is nice not to offend the locals!
5. Take insect repellent and insect cream for all those itchy bites.
6.Take malaria testing kit and treatment with you.
7.Take basic medicines you may need. You can buy medicines but they are not always of the best quality.
8. Depending on the malaria risk of where you are going it may be helpful to take your own nets.
9.Take the best camera you can!
10.Learn to use the four-wheel drive!

Power cut

Sorry, I seem to be getting a bit slack at blogging and Daniel has managed to get out of it again by going to South Africa! It's just life is quite normal, at least it seems normal to me and it doesn't seem worth writing about.

Caleb recovered from his illness, it must have been a virus after all. However neurotic mother that I am, I e-mailed about 4 doctors and had 4 malaria tests done. In my defence he did have a high fever for 6-7 days and you do hear about mistakes being made with malaria tests. At least everyone is healthy here now just in time to go back to school!

We had a nice time at Easter. We had a new American family over. They will be doing similar work to that of Wycliff bible translators but are working by themselves. The good news is they have two girls age 5 and 8. With the almost certain departure of Bethany's best friend next year, this may just fill the gap.

On Sunday we had guests round, but just as I was about to start cooking the power went out. This time it was only our house so I had to cook the whole meal next door. Nice to have friendly MAF neighbours. We later discovered it was the cooker that was cutting out the power. Monday we had a MAF brunch and because of our cooker problems were invited next door for tea. The cooker was fixed on Tuesday so we now have to cook for ourselves again-shame!

This week all drivers had to go to the police to register with a passport photo. I was quite pleased to be stopped by the police on Friday hoping to catch me out. I smugly handed over all the correct documentation and was waved on.

A busy week

Another very busy week. I was very busy sorting out Dutch business men at the beginning of the week and we also had the Easter production at school and a farewell for 3 staff members. Caleb and Bethany have also been unwell, which has led to quite a few rough nights. Last night Caleb was up around midnight throwing up and with a high temperature. We decided to do a malaria test as we have a kit from Dar that allows you to do your own tests at home. It looks like a pregnancy test, it needs a drop of blood and then you wait 15 minutes. 1 line and you are fine and two lines you have malaria. The test was out of date so we did another one at the local place this afternoon, just to make sure. Both tests were negative, so conclude that Caleb is sick, but of the non-tropical variety. Other things that have happened this week: The Chameleon who lived in our back garden died. Possibly from too much poking from a certain young boy. Also, all the rain we have had this week has created the ultimate playground, or at least our kids think so!! They spend hours playing games outside in the mud. I just lock the door and switch the hot water on!!