a way of living....

Habari Za Asubuhi! (Good morning)

You’ll be pleased to hear the house now has been given a girlie touch and the walls are decorated with cards from all you guys which helps (not that we can see them in the dark when the electricity is out!!) Excitingly we had a flood to contend with the other morning and woke to find the kitchen and living area like a paddling pool. It’s a long story. Anyway it gave the locals lots to talk about as they watched crazy mzungu’s sweeping water out their front door at dawn!

We have decided to pay a local lady to help us with the cooking and cleaning whilst we are here. It is apparently good for the economy to provide work but it feels soooooooo odd. In the long term it is also good for our pocket as she can get a better rate down the local market than us mzungu’s. White skin equals a price hike in most things. That said the cost of living here is embarrassingly cheap for us despite such vast poverty in the local communities. A difficult pill to swallow – I think it will take some time to get my head round this one. Anyway the consequence of having Mary is that I am eating some delicious home cooked Tanzanian food and having joked before leaving that I need to lay down some extra layers I fear I may come home chubbier than when I left at this rate! The staple diet is rice or ugali with veggies (yummy!) and chicken, fish or ‘meat’ – all mostly fried. Having seen the butchers at Mwanza I must say meat is a little less appealing and you need pretty strong teeth for the job!  The fruit is devine here. Ripe mango’s and pineapple straight from the market. None of the cruddy – I’m an unripe mango one minute, turn your back and I’ve gone off rubbish you get in our supermarkets! Oh and ‘soda’ i.e. fizzy pop - They drink buckets of it here. We are going through bottle water like billy-o so are currently in the process of acquiring some rain water for cooking and tea. This girl likes a cup of tea!

In terms of location we are actually based at a remote little place called Kolandoto about 14km (15-20mins by car) outside Shinyanga town which is busy and buzzing. The AICT (African Inland Church Tanzania) hospital is based at Kolandoto and we will be working with the palliative care team here as one part of our role. Getting back and forth to Shinyanga where a large part of our work will take place is going to be logistically challenging. The most likely option is going to be riding in the sweaty armpits of others in a dala dala. A minbus type affair in which I figure the rules seem to be similar to that game ‘how many people can you squash into a mini’! Have resigned myself to the fact that in view of my washing facilities, weather (currenly mid 30’s) and mode of transport to and from work I am going to be one smelly lady for the next 3 months…. Nice!

On that note time to wave cheery bye for now!

C x