Three Birthdays and a Funeral

Hitesh – The focus of the construction has now moved to the building of the first staff house, which will be the Helsby’s house. They’re currently living in the volunteer house. When they have short-termers like us coming over for a few months, we would stay in the volunteer house.

Just a bit background to the staff house – it was originally contracted out to a local contractor to complete the foundation, base slab and drainage. It was the same contractor bloke that kept on talking to me when we first arrived and wanted my address – see earlier blog (posted 7 March 2010). Anyway he got sacked because he cut corners by not putting in any lateral reinforcement to the foundation wall below the ground floor base slab. For the non-engineers: concrete is very good in compression (squashing force), but poor in tension (pulling apart). When you have a wall supporting anything, you need to have reinforcement the form of steel bars to take the tension forces, otherwise the wall will break. We found out that he did not put any lateral reinforcement (steel bars along the edges) because we were using a tractor to compress the soil under the ground floor, and the wall broke! It actually didn’t have any steel in it, when his contract explicitly said he needed to put steel in. So as a result, we (Mavuno) have to do the work ourselves, including rebuilding the wall.

Monday was spent re-preparing the slab for concrete. I say re-preparing as we actually started to pour concrete on Friday. But I happened to check the levels of the walls and found that the building sloped about 40mm from one end to the other. Hence, we had to do a bit of a Tanzanian botch job to correct the concrete we’d already poured on Friday afternoon. Then spent the whole of Monday re-positioning the forms and putting in marker pins so that the concrete is poured to level. The sacked contractor put the walls in place, but put them in using a 4-foot spirit level, hence over the 25-30m length of the building, the errors mount up. I was using a laser level to check, which is a lot more accurate. You may get the impression that we take 1 step forward and about 5 back, and you’d be right! It is very frustrating. It’s really hard to believe the locals when they say something’s ok, then you go back and check, and it blatantly isn’t. There are the core group of guys working here who you can trust, but some of the new people need a bit of chaperoning.

Tuesday was a hard and tiring day, as we continued to pour the slab. I was actually helping to lay the concrete and get it as level as possible. About 60% of the slab is poured, but it may be awhile before the rest is poured as we need more gravel. Now guess where the gravel comes from? Nope, it’s not from a quarry, but the locals collect rocks and literally sit and break them with a hammer! No joke. You quite often see groups of people making gravel on roadsides. There are currently a bunch of about 5 women making gravel on site. They get paid by the bucket full. I tried to get a picture of them doing it, but they wouldn’t let me take their picture. Though I will try and post a picture of some other gravel makers when we see some.

Tuesday evening was a bit strange. We ended up going to a funeral – well the burial bit of it. I had finished work and was heading home, but had picked up our washing and some milk from the Helsbys. As I got to the main road, there were loads of people heading the other way. It was the whole village of Kitongo going to the burial. Loads of people were telling me to come with them, and I tried to explain that I’d drop the washing and milk home and then come. I eventually got home and dropped everything off, then turned back to meet Esther and Lucy, who were waiting for me on the road. We caught up with the procession and followed it into a corn field. The men were at the top end of the field burying the coffin. The women just sat and watched on the side. We didn’t know what to do, so we just sat and watched. Then thankfully Dave and Becky arrived, and Dave and I went to where the men were. All the men had to be involved in the burial part. So what you’d see is people just shifting dirt around in between four branches that were used to mark the position of the coffin, as it had already been backfilled! So I took my turn with the shovel and shifted some muck about, then someone came and took it off me for their turn. The locals were all really pleased that we came and “took part”. When someone dies in the village, the whole village mourns for the person. There’s a big stigma about not dishonouring the dead, and respecting the “spirits of ancestors”. Many Africans claim to be Christians, but their lives actually reflect a syncretism between Christianity and animistic beliefs. Then you get the whole witch doctor thing. Won’t talk about witch doctors today, as we haven’t met any! I have met a former witch doctor, but that was just in passing. Anyway, after the burial bit, there was a eulogy of the person that died. He / she was 40 years old and had 4 kids. I’m not sure whether they were male or female as there are no masculine or feminine pronouns in Swahili like he or she! Dave was translating for me, but couldn’t tell. We walked back home with the locals, and they were so happy that we were there and were part of the village. Hopefully they’re accepting us wazungus more and more! There’s normally a period of mourning after the burial where no work is to be done as a means of paying respect. Wednesday was the day of mourning. They take is very seriously if you are found working. You get fined. Though organisations like Mavuno are allowed to continue working. The days of mourning can be a real problem during harvest time or planting time. Often the days of mourning can be three days long. Dave and Becky were telling me that in one village they were staying, people kept on dying during the harvest time, and the villagers couldn’t go into their fields to harvest. The harvest got spoilt and people literally starved. It sounds pretty ridiculous to us, but people out here fear offending any spirits in case they get cursed.

The rest of the week has been fairly quiet. I had a day off on Wednesday as it rained the whole morning, and only really cleared up later in the afternoon. Hence I was able to spend the day with Esther and Lucy, which was great. Thursday was Lucy’s birthday, but I was working cutting and planing wood for shelves for the store room in the first family house. Working with wood out here is always a bit more challenging than at home. Even just putting up shelves requires you to make batons from planks of wood (which are still green – they haven’t been dried!), and try and find a source of power for the tools – normally involves using a generator. Friday morning I actually got to place some of the batons that I’d cut the day before. Check out Lucy’s entry to see what we did the rest of the weekend.

Oh yes, forgot to mention about my hand. It is healing extremely well. So well in fact that I haven’t had to wear a bandage for most of the week, and have full mobility with it. Touching it doesn’t cause any pain, so praise God!

Lucy –The weather has definitely been on the change this week with a fair amount of rain during the days now as well as at night, and today has been positively cool; in African terms at least. I had to wear my fleece most of today, which is the first time since we arrived!

On Monday Baseki (our neighbour) came over for chai and a chat (well, as much chatting as I can manage on my very limited, but very slowly improving, Swahili). I do enjoy having her around to visit although conversation really is quite hard. Still, she is very patient!

On Tuesday Baseki’s brother-in-law, Kahabe, popped around. He is only 12 and he came around asking for “dawa”. He had managed to graze both his knees (“goti”) quite badly and so we put some antiseptic cream on them for him, and told him to come back tomorrow (“kesho”). He did come back the next day and after having had some more cream put on his knees he kind of just waited around looking at our kitchen table, which happened to have a couple of pens and pencils on it. It was all a bit odd really, but seems to be fairly common, particularly amongst the kids. I think partly they are intrigued to see how these white “wazungu” live, but also a part of them is kind expecting us to give them something. I did give him a banana, but still he waited. It was a little uncomfortable. He kept saying things, but I didn’t understand what he was asking. However, as we were about to go out we kind of made our excuses and he left. All a bit tricky really.

On Thursday it was my birthday (bizarrely enough it was Wayne’s birthday, and one of the Helsby children’s birthday the day before mine, so we’d had 3 birthday’s in 2 days) ! I had a really nice day, although obviously not the usual birthday things… no going to the cinema, the theatre or going out for a meal here! In the morning we had our usual Thursday morning kids ‘worship time’ at the Helsbys. All the kids get together and sing choruses and worship God together. As soon as I walked through the door they sung Happy Birthday, which was really nice. Then after the worship time I headed back home with Esther and Milka and her 2 orphan kids, Mariam and Jona. It’s becoming a bit of a tradition that they come over for chai on Thursday mornings. I asked Milka if she could see if Baseki wanted to come too so she came around and just as we were sitting down Velo, our home help popped around. She hasn’t worked for the last couple of weeks as at first she was not well and then her son, Paulo, was unwell too. So she was just coming around to tell me she would start work again on Monday. So I invited her (and Paulo) in too. So all in all there were 4 adults and 5 kids around for chai which was really nice. After they had gone I prepared lunch for the 3 of us and Wayne, who was coming to lunch too. He is the other volunteer out here at the moment. We had a nice lunch together and just chatted about life out here.

Birthday chai time

In the evening Becky had invited us all over for dinner. So we had a gorgeous spaghetti bolognaise followed by a big chocolate cake which they had made especially for me – which was lovely!! After dinner Lauren and Megan (age 6 and 4) performed their version of Happy Birthday whilst banging on saucepans with metal spoons – was very touching! The two of them had also looked through the things they owned and picked out things to give to me, as a birthday gift. I was really amazed at their kindness and generosity and also their willingness to give away their own possessions. The following morning Hitesh presented me with a small wooden cross that he had made himself for my birthday, from local materials. I love it!

Birthday cake

Singing Happy Birthday

On Friday I actually did some work!! I went out in the afternoon for a couple of hours, to measure out the existing water supply pipeline here. This runs from the pump house, where it draws water from Lake Victoria and then delivers water to the individual homes out here. At present it is only feeding a couple of homes and the compound/workshop/dairy area. In the future though it will feed more water tanks for more houses and is also likely to be used for irrigation of the fields of crops that Mavuno will be planting. Once I have all the data needed I am aiming to model the existing system, and I should then be able to advise them on future works.

Yesterday was cool, and a bit different. We went to a place outside Mwanza to visit Jana (who I had me on the Ladies Day that we had a Mavuno about a month ago), and her husband Dan, and two kids Grace and Silas. Jana had invited us over if we got the chance and the Helsbys were gong to visit their neighbours, and asked if we’d like to come with them to visit Jana. We had a really good day just hearing about how they came to be in Africa, (they’re originally from the States) and the kind of work they’re involved in. They’re living on an area of land which has been bought by the organisation they work for. On this land there is currently an orphanage housing 51 kids and a training college, training up locals to become pastors of churches. Jana’s husband is currently involved in planting new churches in the area. There is quite a big problem in Africa that many pastors of churches have very little knowledge of the bible and no training in it. This has led to some incorrect teachings becoming prevalent throughout Africa. As such, there is a real need for training in the bible for those who want to become pastors.

Whilst we were there we also got to spend a bit of time with some of the older kids, blowing bubbles, and playing in the sand pit and in the mud. We had a LOT of rain whilst we were there; hence it really was very muddy. It was good to see these kids, many of whom have simply been abandoned by their families, having so much fun with simple things like bubbles and sand!

Blowing bubbles

More bubbles!

Esther has been really good fun this week. It’s amazing to see her change and develop and learn to do new things. One of her new achievements this week is to try and make a moo sound every time she sees or hears one of the local cows. She hasn’t got it quite right, but it’s very sweet to watch her try!

Esther – I has been learning all about different animals and the sounds they make. Daddy and Mummy said that we’d hopefully see some lions soon, but for now I have this great book with lots of pictures. I have been practising the noises that lions make.

Esther practising her lion's roar!

Pole Sana and the Power of Prayer

Hitesh – It has been a bit of a slow week in terms of the work done, but it has definitely been very eventful. Before I start to go into what we’ve done this week, I just want to talk a little bit about the types of support we’ve had. We’ve had financial support to be out here, and we’ve already talked about God’s provision on the money front. However the most important support we have had is in the form of prayer. Why do we pray? Prayer is a form of worship to God, and by praying, we are asking the almighty, all powerful, and all-knowing God to help and intervene in situations and circumstances. God loves us and He wants to relate with us, and it gives Him great pleasure to answer our prayers.

In our prayer letters, one of the things we’ve asked prayer for is protection over us, and especially Esther. We have been greatly encouraged by your messages, and especially any words you have had for us from God. There have been a number of instances where we have felt God’s protection for us, but will only mention three.

A couple of weeks ago, we got up in the morning and after breakfast went to change Esther’s nappy. In it we found a dead scorpion! It was small, about an inch long and we’re not sure how it got in there, as I didn’t see anything when I put the nappy on! But Esther was completely fine. There wasn’t any sign of a bite or sting or any mark whatsoever on her, so praise God for that!

This week we got an email from a good friend in our church that’s been praying for us. She had a picture and some verses from God saying that He is protecting us and looking out for us, and wanted to encourage us that God is with us. We read this email on Tuesday morning. During Tuesday afternoon, Lucy found Esther chewing something green, and took it out of her mouth. It was a small piece of unburned mosquito coil that she’d picked up whilst exploring the garden. Those coils are full of insecticide, and we were initially worried for Esther, but were reminded of the email we received that morning. Esther has been completely fine and hasn’t shown any ill effects! Praise God!

The third incidence involved me on Wednesday afternoon. I was trimming some plastic pipe with a 4” angle grinder, when it slipped and hit my right hand just below the knuckle. Blood literally sprayed out, and I had to hold it tight to stop any major blood flow. I had thought I’d hit the vein, as blood shot out pretty quickly! I managed to walk to Wayne, who was driving the tractor close by, whilst clutching my hand. He took me the Helsby’s house, where Becky gave me first aid. I had visions of tearing down the road to Mwanza to hospital, but thank God the cut missed the vein, the tendon and bone. It is a deep cut, as you can see in the picture. Thank God that the bleeding stopped very quickly, and the Helsby’s had some butterfly stitches that were brought by Becky’s parents, who only just left last Monday! The wound has healed really well, as the stitches have done the trick, plus I have full mobility. It is still slightly sore, but that hasn’t stopped me writing another lengthy blog – sorry!

The grinder cut on my hand

Anyway, I took Thursday off and helped Lucy look after the kids (see below), and took it very easy on Friday. Though I did spend the afternoon helping to cast a concrete slab for the first staff house!

Oh yeah, forgot to explain the title of the blog. Well the power of prayer bit is obvious, but “pole sana” (pole pronounced “poleh”) is Swahili for “very sorry”. All the locals keep coming up to me, pointing at my bandage and saying “pole sana”. I think I may have even adopted a new name! Actually I’m known around the village as Baba Esther, literally Father of Esther. As soon as you have a child, you get know as Baba … or in Lucy’s case, she is Mama Esther! Anyway, time to go!

Lucy –We have spent today (Sunday) in the house today which has been really nice. It’s been pretty rainy all day (the rainy season has now started although is generally at it’s heaviest in April and May). We did ‘church’ at home this morning listening to one of the sermons from our home church that we downloaded the other day. I also spent nearly 2 hours shelling peanuts! Mavuno grow peanuts and I learnt and saw (for the first time in nearly 33 years on this earth) how peanuts grow! We bought a bag of them from Mavuno and boiled a big batch 2 nights ago. Never realised how long peanuts take to shell and just made me realise, once again, how easy it is for us back in the West – so much of the initial preparation of food is done for us.

This week, on Thursday, the locals who work for Mavuno village were treated to a day out in the Serengeti. Around 7 guys, plus their wives went along. None of them had ever been before, with the majority of them having spent their entire lives living about an hour’s drive away. The main reason being is the cost of transport to, from and within the reserve. The entrance fee for a local is around 75p (the non-resident fee is, in contrast, $50!) But the cost of bringing a vehicle into the park is $200. Needless to say, they all had a fantastic time and saw lions, giraffes and elephants – all for the first time. I was talking to Milka (the first on-site “mum”) and she was so excited about seeing an elephant. Until now she had only ever seen one in books.

As both Milka and John (the on-site “parents”) went to the Serengeti, I was asked to look after the 3 children they care for – Esther (age 9), Mariam (age about 5) and Jona (aged about 2). Esther was at school during the day and so generally I was just looking after Mariam and Jona. At first, it was a bit daunting. They don’t speak English and I speak very little Swahili and no Sukoma, the local tribal language… But they are lovely kids and were really pretty easy to care for! Hitesh was around too for most of the day (see above as to why!) so that definitely helped. We picked them up at 7:45 in the morning and brought them back to ours. In the morning they played with Esther and her toys, and drew pictures. We then went to the Helsby’s for lunch, and they then came back to ours for a nap. Both Mariam and Jona fell asleep on our bed, with no complaints, and no noise whatsoever. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know many kids who would do that in somebody else’s house – but as Becky explained they have, until now, lived such an unsettled, neglected and unloved life, that they have probably learnt to accept whatever happens to them, which was so sad to hear. In the afternoon we headed back to the Helsby’s for them to play a bit with the other kids, whilst Becky, Amy and I had a bit of a bible study. We then headed back here for more playing and then dinner. We hadn’t planned on having to do dinner so it was a bit of an odd mix – but they loved it. Pancakes, Peanuts, Avocado, Mango and Bananas – they devoured it all. And just kept eating whatever we put in front of them! John and Milka arrived at ours just before 8 to pick them up. I was really glad we could help out - this was such a ‘special’ day for John and Milka, and the others.

Esther and Mariam

Mariam, Lucy, Esther, Esther and Jona

Yesterday too, was an interesting day. I was collecting some of our washing to take over to the Helsby’s to use their was machine, and as I lifted up the clothes, which is always a high risk operation as there is often a spider or some other bug beneath, out ran a mouse - a very cute and small mouse, but a mouse none-the-less. It definitely surprised me, but was preferable to some of the very big spiders we have around here. We caught it under a bowl and released it outside.

The Mouse

During the afternoon, for 3 hours, we had an AIM Prayer Day, held down on the beach at Mavuno. There were only 9 of us there – but it was really good to meet some other missionaries and find out a bit about what work other people are involved in, in Tanzania. Also to be able to pray together for the work that’s going on whilst surrounded by the beauty of the beach definitely helped. We also saw a fish eagle sitting on a nearby tree surveying the surroundings.

In the late afternoon I popped over to visit the Catholic Choir who were having another practice session. I wanted to give them a copy of the disk we had made for them of them singing, last week. (see last blog entry). I couldn’t believe the reception I got. They started clapping as I approached them, and then when I handed the leader the disk, he literally jumped for joy. He was so excited and was jumping around, thanking me again and again. He then opened the envelope with the DVD in it and his hands were shaking. The other members of the choir too, were so excited. They all gathered around to look at the DVD. It was such a small thing for us to do, I felt so incredibly humbled and amazed at the happiness it brought. We have so many CDs and DVDs at home, so many electronic gadgets, and ‘things’ in general, and yet I don’t think I have ever seen someone so happy to receive a gift. I left feeling pretty privileged but also very thoughtful.

Esther continues to do well, and is such a big source of happiness to us. Today she learnt a new trick of putting Hitesh’s shorts on her head and over her eyes, and then tried walking until she bumped into something! Not the most sensible move ever, but very entertaining for us. She is now also getting to the ‘helping out’ stage and wants to be involved in whatever Hitesh or I are doing – it’s lovely to watch – if a little frustrating at times!

Esther helping with the peanuts

Esther – Harrow again! I has had a fun week and got to play lots with my friends Kate, Jona and Mariam. It was all rainy today, but Mummy and Daddy still took me out for a walk, though I was all cover-ded up, which was good fun.

Going for a walk in the rain

The Catholic Church Choir

Hello! We just wanted to share with you the wonderful voices of the Catholic Church Choir here in Kitongo. They practice at another house less than 100m away. They practice three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It was these guys we were supposed to see last Saturday when we got confused between Western and Swahili time!

Anyway, their voices are amazing, and it was a privilege to see and hear them. We been to a few practices (to listen), and may well go an pop along to the Catholic Church to see them properly. In the video clips you will also see how adaptable they are and how they deal with their kids! You will also notice that there is only one bloke. There are other male singers, but I think they come along on other days. Watch out for:

• The two women breastfeeding whilst singing (one is blatantly obvious!)
• Esther wandering and adding her own words
• Lucy trying to keep an eye on Esther
  
• Wandering chickens
• Other kids wandering through and joining in!

In total the four clips are about 15ish minutes long, but well worth it. Turn up the volume! :-)



Choir Clip 1



Choir Clip 2



Choir Clip 3




Choir Clip 4

Half way through

Lucy - Well, it’s Sunday night, Esther is asleep, Hitesh is reading and so it’s now about time for me to catch up a bit with our blog. Things here now kind of feel as if they’re settling into a bit of a routine, which is nice, and a bit weird! We’ve now been in our little house for coming up to 3 weeks and are beginning to feel pretty settled here. At first all the bugs and things were a bit off-putting, but that concern has been reduced considerably since Hitesh installed a wooden baton across the front of both our back and our front door (along the bottom). This has greatly reduced the bugs that can now get into the house in the evening – which I, for one, am very pleased about! Although, as I write this, every few seconds a very small fly drops on me from the ceiling. These are lake flies, they’re tiny, harmless, but there are an awful lot of them! They can fit between the gaps in the mozi screens over the windows and there are thousands of them swarming around the light at the moment.

As I haven’t written for a couple of weeks now this blog will pick up the goings-on for the last 2 weeks. In general life has continued much the same as described in the “African Musings” blog, but here are some of the highlights. Last week after praying about wanting to get to know the locals better the following happened (copied from my diary): –

What a humbling experience. I have just come back from spending about an hour at the neighbours. We sat outside. Most people sitting on the ground, but me on a chair which is the custom for guests. I tried to speak Swahili, they laughed at me. I managed to tell them that I am going to Mwanza tomorrow (our nearest big town), and that Becky has 6 kids – and that was about all! Baseki counted to 10 in English and I did the same in Swahili (but then I did have it written down in front of me!). They then asked me to join them for some food. They came out with a bowl of ugali (an African staple of maize flour and water, resembling a very dense type of bread, but not as tasty). The ugali was in a small pan which was to feed 5 adults and 2 kids. Baseki then cut off about 1/2 of it to give to me!! I got her to cut it in half and then in half again by saying “Kidogo” lots – which means little. They then brought out a bowl and jug and poured out some water for me to wash my hands. Made the Westerner mistake of washing both my hands in the water. They will only ever eat with their right hand (the left is used for ‘dirty’ work) and so therefore will only wash their right hand. They then gave me my own bowl of ugali, brought over a plastic tub to serve as a table for me, and put on it a whole bowl of dagar (small fish) for me to dip my ugali into. There was only really 2 ½ bowls of fish for everyone, and so I ate very little of the fish and gave it back to them. Only once I had got a good way through my food did they begin to eat (after saying grace – to my shame!). The whole experience was so humbling. These people don’t have breakfast and generally eat lunch around 3 o’clock so this was the first meal of the day, after having been working all morning. They have so little and were willing to share so much of it with me. I really couldn’t get over their humility and generosity.

Baseki (far right) and her family

Another amazing thing we’re beginning to learn about our neighbours is their fantastic ability to sing! Three times a week there is choir practice for the local Catholic Church. I have been along a few times now and am blown away by their beautiful singing and fantastic harmonies, all completely unaccompanied. We have asked if we can record them on our video camera. They really want us to, and we have tried but so far failed, due to the different understanding of time that we appear to have. Here the day starts at sunrise, and so does the clock. And so, this means that at 6am is when their day starts and so 7am is 1 o’clock Swahili time. We’re beginning to understand it now but only after turning up yesterday at 3pm to see the choir practise only to discover that the practise had already taken place at 9am! They told us the practice would start at 3 o’clock, which we presumed was 3pm, but was actually 3 o’clock Swahili time, which is 9am. All very confusing!

This week I had the first ‘on-site parent’ pop around for Chai (tea). Her name is Milka and she is from originally Kenya. She speaks brilliant English, and is really nice so I really like talking to her and finding out what I can about life out here. She lived in the house we’re now in for about 4 months before moving to the first completed family house, 3 weeks ago. It was so good to talk to her about her experiences here and it is great learning more about her culture, and also what she has experienced of the Tanzanian culture. The plan is for her to come around every Thursday now. I have also asked Baseki along next week as I think it’ll really help me to be able to get to know Baseki better as Milka can talk to Baseki in Swahili and translate a bit for me.

For those of you who are interested in food (and who wouldn’t be) I thought I’d also include a bit on what we’ve been eating whilst we’ve been in our little house. Generally speaking for breakfast we are having oats and milk… reasonably standard breakfast you might think, but not quite. The oats come with number of added extras, namely small little bugs. Not entirely sure what they are but I managed to fish about 10 out of my bowl this morning before adding the milk… which can put you off your breakfast a little. The milk is the ‘straight from a cow’ type, boiled the night before. It is very nice and pretty creamy so I think we’ll have some adjusting to do when we get back home. Esther loves it too – which is good.

In general for lunch we’ll have rice together with some of the vegetables we get from the market every week – generally tomatoes, onions and peppers, with maybe an egg or two thrown in to make egg fried rice.

I don’t think we’ve ever eaten so much fruit and veg as we are at the moment – which is great! However there are a few extra bits of work involved before we can eat the fruit and veg. Every week when I get back from the market I go through the process of filling the sink with water, adding a few grains of Potassium Permanganate to the water, and putting as much of the fruit and veg as I can fit into the sink. This kills of any bugs/germs which may be present. I leave them to soak for 10-15 minutes then let them dry. I won’t miss doing this when we get back home, but I will miss the fantastic fruit and veg they have here. The highlights are the huge avocados, the very red and very tasty tomatoes, and the gorgeous mangoes, pineapples and watermelon. With the avocados costing about 20p each, and being 3 times the size of the ones at home, and a pineapple costing about 50p I’m going to miss the prices too! We haven’t been eating very much meat though. We finally managed to get our fridge working last week, so haven’t had any means of keeping any meat cool. Though we have had fish once – Tilapia from the Lake.

A week's supply of fruit and veg

Dinner tends to be smaller than lunch and sometimes we’ll just have bread and cheese, with some avocados and tomatoes, followed by some fruit. Although I have also made pancakes a few times, based on an American recipe book, so they are very chunky pancakes – and very nice.

Hitesh – I’ve had another busy week, as we’ve been desperately trying to get the drain field completed, mainly trying to battle against the flooding from the heavy rain. Early Monday morning, we had a massive deluge of rain. When we went to look at the drain field on Monday morning, the trenches resembled a swimming pool. If I had trunks, I could have happily swum lengths as the water was at least a couple of feet deep!

We spent Monday morning pumping the water out, and using the tractor plus plough to dig interception drains and trenches to divert the run off from the hills around the drain filed. By the end of the day, we were able to place the sand bedding for the pipes.

What’s been amazing this week, is how blessed we’ve felt with the work we’ve been doing. We’ve really needed dry weather to get the drain field completed, so we prayed that we’d get a dry spell during the rainy season, and it’s been dry! We did have one very small shower one evening, but that wasn’t a problem. We finished the drain field on Friday, and finished making the pipe connections yesterday. Also, the tractor stopped working on Tuesday. It just would not start. So, we prayed for it, that God would fix it, had a go at starting it, and it started! Haven’t had any problems with it since!

Have also spent some time driving the tractor! Wayne let me have a go to backfill the drain field trench after we’d placed the pipe, covering sand, and the “geotextile” (the cement bags!). It was an interesting experience! I had some problems getting the backfill material into the bucket, and often turned up with only half a bucket full! It looked full when I loaded it, but as I dumped it, it looked a bit pathetic, and took rather a long time to get the trench backfilled! The guys that were spreading the stuff out were often just standing around waiting for me to get more stuff!

Have also spent this week dealing with various bugs. As the man of the house, ridding our humble home of any nasty creepy crawlies has fallen to me. We have met quite an array of God’s creation already, so much so that we’ll be doing a “blog special” on bugs and insects very soon. But one bug I’ve had to deal with this week is a funnel web spider! Lucy found one making its home above the front entrance to our house. I’m not sure how they compare to the Australian variety, but as soon as we saw the funnel web, we thought we’d serve an eviction notice. We have this spray here called “Doom”, and it does what it says on the tin and spell doom for all insects. Doom did the job on the spider.

Funnel web spider

Esther – Harrow everyone! I am fine here in ‘Frica. I like our new house and exploring outside, though mummy and daddy don’t let me go too far. I is liking the fruits here, especially the mangoes and watermelon. They is lovely!

Esther after eating mango

Esther and Kate trying out their new hairstyles!

Pipes and People

Hitesh - Hi! Well what a busy couple of weeks it has been! Although it has been busy, it hasn’t been as frantic as before. Now that the push to get the first family house completed is over, the focus has been to work on the drain field for the current family house, and future family houses. Now you may be thinking, drain field for the family house – but didn’t he say the first family house is finished? Well, the house is more or less there minus a few snagging issues, and although the septic tank is finished, the grey water drain from the septic tank is not quite finished. For those non-Engineers reading this, all the waste water from the house (toilet waste, washing and cleaning water etc) goes in to a septic tank, where bacteria eat all the solids breaking it down. The “grey” water remaining, when the water level in the tank gets high, passes down into a pipe with lots of holes in it and goes into the ground. Now this field with the pipes with holes in it is called the drain field, and will become a football pitch in the future. We managed to buy some time in finishing the drain field as the septic tank is big, plus we’ve taped up the loos to the family house, so the family are still using an outside squatter!

Perforated pipe for the drain field (Note that you cannot buy perforated pipe here in Tanzania. A guy spent nearly two days drilling the holes in each pipe!)

So the last couple of weeks have involved digging trenches and laying pipe in African “sand”, all whilst being violently toasted in the African sun. Actually the sun hasn’t been quite as relentless as it has been when we first got here. The rainy season is starting, so we do get some overcast and wet days, but that has meant that we’ve had to find work to do indoors as the rain is vey heavy. When it has rained, I’ve been mainly working in the family house putting up curtain tracks, shower curtains and door stops.

The pipe laying has been extremely physical and tiring. But I’ve been working with Wayne, who is from Montana in the US, and is here for a total of 8 weeks helping out at Mavuno. He is a fantastic guy, and I’ve loved working and talking with him. He’s brilliant with a welder, and I’m hoping to get some welding lessons before he goes back home. He’s also been giving me tractor lessons! So I’ve been learning to drive and use the tractor here! It’s pretty cool and I’m gradually getting the hang of it. We’ve been using it to backfill the trenches with sand, as it’s got a bucket attachment for the front – just like a digger.

Pipes laid and partially backfilled (for the engineers - nope they're not cement bags with holes punched using a pitching fork, but really the Tanzanian Terram 1000 geotextile!)

We did have a couple of local guys “helping” us. Both were there in body, but only one was actually doing any work. Do you remember me telling you about the guy that was supposed to be digging a trench for me, and didn’t do very much, and I could have done more with a spoon? Well that guy was “helping” too. He managed to shovel a few spadefuls of sand in the morning, but did absolutely nothing in the afternoon. I mean he just sat and watched all afternoon. Did he think we wouldn’t notice? I really would like to know what he was thinking. He even had the audacity to come over at 5pm (clocking off time), to tell me it was 5pm, and time to go home! The reason he specifically told me it was time to go, was that I was driving the pick up truck, and he wanted a lift back! Cheek! To say he did no work in the afternoon is a slight lie, in that as it was gone 5pm, he decided to help us put in a pipe, thinking that we’d pack up after and give him a lift back. But Wayne and I wanted to finish the trench, and we had one other pipe to lay, so once he realised we were staying on, he went off. The sad thing is that Dave also spotted him doing nothing and told him to get back to work. We did tell Dave that he didn’t do anything, and was docked half a day’s pay, and was told not to come back to work. I think it’s a real shame that he wasn’t motivated to work. By western standards, they don’t get a good pay, I think it works out to be just under £2 per day. But, that is actually good by African standards, and Mavuno pay above the minimum wage, and obviously more depending on the skills. Plus it’s obvious that there’s loads of work going on at Mavuno, so surely you want to impress your employer so that he’d keep you on?

I think I’ve given the Africans more bad press than good, which I apologise sincerely. That one guy really sticks out as a bad example. But, the African women work extremely hard, and most of them have a kid attached to their backs whilst they’re carrying stuff or ploughing a field or whatever. Plus the core guys that work at Mavuno are a great bunch. They’re very friendly, very forgiving when I get my Swahili messed up, they work hard, and they are all big supporters of English football! Musa, who looks after all the casual labour and organises the work – sort of a general foreman for the site, is a HUGE Manchester United fan. He says that if you cut his wrist, it will say Man U in his blood! Pretty extreme I know, but he knows the football scores before I do, and he doesn’t have internet! His neighbour has satellite TV and is also a big Man U fan, so they watch the games together, or he listens to the games on the radio, as some of the Tanzanian radio stations air the matches live. The other guys on site all generally support one of the big four – Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea. They know all the players, all the scores, know when the next game is, all very impressive!

English football is very big here in Africa. When we arrived in Kenya, I was amazed to see all the guys at Mayfield crowd round the TV at about 11pm to watch the games live! We’re three hours ahead, and they’d watch all of it, and somehow there wouldn’t be any bleary eyes in the morning. Maybe they just hide it better!

I’ve been a bit homesick the past couple of weeks, but after a bit of prayer, feel much better and re-energised. Living with the Helsbys was a great start to our trip, but moving into our more basic house, coupled with the physical tiredness of a hard day’s work have affected me. I’ve also realised that I do like my own space, and that’s probably one of the reasons that I like running so much (though I haven’t been doing all that much the past couple of years!), and now that we’re in the village, we are more exposed, and it’s not that easy to have a quiet journey to and from home. Plus we do get the odd “hodi” (Swahili for knocking on an open door) as people drop by and say hi. One other thing that has tainted the last couple of weeks is that fact that I unintentionally “put up my guard” to the locals, due to an unfortunate conversation with a local contractor that worked on site. When we first arrived, I wanted to be open and friendly and was happy to talk to people. This one guy spoke English and would talk to me quite a lot. He then said that he wanted to take my address so that he could write to me. I mentioned it to the Helsbys, and it turns out that this guy was only trying to get my address to ask me for money. He would regularly speak to Dave asking for more money for the contract as Dave was his “little rich man” and needed to look after him. I’m happy to give, but not when I’m hounded for money, or when someone is trying it on. This happened in my first week at Mavuno, so I put up my guard, and has made me a bit suspicious with the locals here in the village. We do get the odd kid turn up wanting money, but generally the people have been extremely welcoming and friendly, and my suspicions have been unfounded. It’s amazing how one bad experience can affect you so profoundly.

Esther relaxing after a hard day!



Lucy & Esther looking at the local wildlife

African Musings

Lucy – You’ve heard a lot of what Hitesh has been doing, but below is a typical day for me here in Tanzania. Apologies for the length of it (not your typical blog entry), feel free to get a cuppa and hope you enjoy.

I wake up. First thing I see is the mosquito net. It’s already light and our very thin curtains do little to keep out the morning. First sounds I hear are the chirruping of crickets, lots of birds (unidentifiable to me) singing, and Esther! I love listening to the sounds of crickets, hadn’t realised though what they actually looked like until a couple of days ago – was a bit of a shock! They don’t look as nice as they sound.

We get up. Checking the floor carefully for bugs in general and worst case, scorpions! So far I have only seen one scorpion in the five weeks we’ve been here – but always best to check. They are tiny – 2 inches at their very biggest, but they can give a nasty sting.

Unfortunately as soon as I’m awake the immediate thing I need to do is go to the toilet. No small task. Flip flops on, unlock the back door, and walk about 15 metres to our little blockwork ‘outhouse’. As I approach there are generally at least 3 geckos sunning themselves on the wall they, scarpa as I approach. I unlock the padlock and after a quick visual check on the floor for bugs /snakes or whatever, I close the door and do my thing! Really not that easy for girls. Initial positioning is crucial!

Generally the main ‘interesting’ animals seen on the toilet trip are geckos and stray dogs. However, this morning, I saw the largest snail I had ever seen. It was about 7 inches long with a 4 inch shell. Very impressive and very cool. Nice to see a new bug that isn’t in any way scary! The other day Esther walked into the house carrying a huge centipede, it must have been about 5inches long and half an inch thick! It definitely freaked Hitesh out at lot more than it did Esther! They are harmless but it was scary to see her with it in her hand!

After the business is complete it’s back to house to have breakfast (following a dousing with the hand sanitiser!). At the moment the house has no fridge and so breakfast is somewhat interesting. We get milk from the Helsbys the night before (about 5 mins walk away), but the last 2 mornings it appeared to have turned to yoghurt over night. Last night they gave us a bottle of milk together with a bottle of frozen water which seemed to do the trick so we actually managed cereal this morning (well, oats and milk).

After breakfast has finished Hitesh generally heads off to work and I set to sorting out the house. First stop is Esther. After breakfast she has her multivitamins, which she loves, then comes the joy of teeth-brushing. Generally not her favourite past-time. She then heads back to bed for a nap. I then start the task of washing the dishes, which is a lot more labour-intensive than at home. First fill a pan with water from the only tap in the house. This is fed from the rainwater tank just outside the house which, thanks to the last couple of nights, is now nearly completely full of rainwater. This pan is then put on the gas stove to heat up for couple of minutes. Next I start filling the sink. This involves filling a plastic tub from the tap, then pouring this into the sink. Only once the water is the pan is hot and the sink has been filled from the tap can the washing begin.

Once the washing up is complete I fill up the water filter from the tap, ready for the day ahead, and I then tend to spend half an hour reading the bible/thinking/praying. I love this time of day. It’s so peaceful. I sit at our table, and look out onto the area of land in front of our house. This consists of a number of trees, grassy areas, 2 abandoned mud huts, finches and sparrows hopping around and generally a very blue sky. It is lovely. It is so good to be able to have time to sit and think, especially when surrounded by so much of God’s beautiful creation.

This is then followed by half an hour working through a “Teach yourself Swahili” book, which I really enjoy. Swahili seems to be a fairly simple language and does have the odd English word popping up in it. Generally Swahili is written exactly as it is said, which is very handy when learning to speak it. For a lot of the nouns there is no need to differentiate between he/she and it – which is also very handy. I learnt the other day that the Swahili for bird, is the same as the Swahili for plane…which I rather liked!

I am desperate to improve my Swahili, especially now that we are living in the village. We have some lovely neighbours and I would really like to be able to do more than just greet them and ask then how they are. There is a girl who lives in the house behind us, called Basiki, who is lovely. The previous lady who lived here (who is one of the Mavuno house parents – Milka – of John and Milka), became really good friends with Basiki and actually started doing bible studies with her. Basiki has popped around a couple of times and I have been over to hers too. Quite often if I am outside then I hear a “Mama Esther, Mama Esther, Karibu”. When I head over to hers the traditional African hospitality is that she brings a chair out for me to sit on. So I sit on the chair outside her house and she sits on the floor, which feels a bit odd. She then desperately tries to get me to understand her by speaking slowly and repeating herself in Swahili – it’s so frustrating. She is very patient with me, and we always laugh about my inability to understand anything she says – but it would be so good to be able to talk to her, even just a bit more freely. Will have to borrow a dictionary from the Helsbys- the ‘Teach Yourself Swahili’ book is rather limited in its dictionary. The other day when Basiki came over we had a few minutes of getting no-where conversation. She then pointed at the tomatoes in my kitchen. She taught me the Swahili for Tomato, Nyanya and I taught her the English. I had a feeling she may have been asking for a tomato and so I gave her one. Was a bit unsure as we have been warned about giving stuff away, in that people can learn to really take advantage of you. However, I trusted her and felt it was the right thing to do. Just yesterday she called me over to the area of land in between our two houses where she was harvesting some sweet potatoes, and she gave me one of her potatoes. Felt really touched. These people have so little but she just wanted to share something with me, who has so much.

At about 10 o’clock Vero comes over. She is a girl, probably a couple of years younger than me, who lives in the house in front of ours. She is our house help. Felt a bit weird about getting a home help. There are only 3 of us and as I’m about most of day I can manage to make lunch and dinner without too much of a problem. But the thing is people here, really want to work. The women in particular are desperate for work, and in reality, in a village like this a long way from the nearest town, there is very little work around. So Vero comes for an hour a day to wash clothes, clean the house, or prepare lunch. It may be that this increases to 2 hours a day on some days so she can wash cloths a couple of times a week, and make lunch. We still have to work out the details. We pay her 400 shillings an hour. This is a very good wage for home help. A lot of people will only earn 1000 shillings a day. But 400 shillings is about 20 pence. I can’t believe how little we pay her. But we have been advised that anything more than that would be wrong, especially as we’re only here for another 2 months, and once we’ve gone, that income will stop. Vero does speak a little bit of English – which definitely helps.

The other day I thought I would prepare some rice for lunch as Vero had only had time to do the clothes washing. A bit of rice will be easy I thought…. Oh no, I couldn’t have been more wrong. First the rice has to be sorted. I poured some rice on a plate and began the sort through. There are all kinds of things that can crop up in the rice you buy here. It’s mainly things like bits of husk, but there are also a number of small stones. If you don’t get these out it can make for a very painful lunch when you crunch down on a stone. And so, before I could even begin to cook the rice, I spent half an hour sorting through it …. And that’s just rice for two adults, one baby. Suddenly gained a new respect for the women out here. There is so much work for them to do even in the relatively simple task of cooking rice.

One of the things that continues to amaze me is the happiness that there is amongst the locals here. As the majority of the women don’t ‘go’ to work, once they have finished their harvesting/planting/cleaning they often sit around and talk and laugh together. I have walked past, a couple of times now, a group of women who, on most days around 5ish, sit down together and sing. They have the most amazing voices. I could sit and listen to them for hours! It’s all totally unaccompanied but in perfect harmony it’s lovely. Apparently they are from the local Catholic church.

We walked past a whole group of women the other day on their way to harvest the field of sunflowers grown for oil as part of the Mavuno project. They greeted Esther and I and kept trying to pick Esther out of my arms. Esther was having none of it and kept screaming at them – which made them all laugh! After a bit of greeting and small talk (as much as I can mange at the moment) they headed of to work, laughing, shouting and talking together. We in England when walking to work can so often look so down… and yet these guys with so little, seem so happy and content.

Hitesh then heads home at around one and we all have lunch together, which is really nice. We catch up on our morning experiences and are generally kept entertained by Esther. At 2 o’clock Hitesh then heads back to work. For more info on the kind of stuff Hitesh has been involved in see other posts on our blog.

After lunch I tend to pop over to the Helsbys to see Becky and the kids. The Helsby’s have been over here for 4 years now so they have a lot of understanding of life over here. Some of the stories they have shared have been funny, some really sad, and others just bizarre.

This is definitely a country where death and illness are so much more a part of life than they are at home. We really are so incredibly lucky with what we come to expect as the ‘norm’ back in England. Becky told me a really sad story about Vero, our home-help. She was pregnant a while ago and suddenly her waters broke. I think they then took her to a dispensary (I can’t remember now the details of why they went there first) where the doctor there wrote on a piece of paper with some initials basically stating that the baby was already dead. But he had told Vero and Dave and Becky that he could still hear the heartbeat. They then went to the hospital, where they handed in the note, and kept being told to wait. Vero was in a lot of pain, but still nothing was being done, and still she was just being ignored. Becky then demanded that somebody should see her. Becky was then taken to one side and was told what the doctor had written on the paper about the baby already being dead. She demanded that somebody else test to see if the baby was still alive, and finally, after hours and hours of waiting, somebody did. And there was still a heartbeat. She then went in to labour. A lovely baby girl was born. Seemingly healthy, and yet, only the next day she died. The thing that makes it just so hard to hear is the knowledge that in the UK this would never have happened. Vero would have been seen immediately and the baby induced. It just feels so incredibly wrong. Becky went to visit Vero a few days later to see how she was. She seemed to be OK. Becky asked how she was feeling about God and whether she was angry with Him. Vero looked shocked and simply replied "no", to her it was blasphemy to blame God. Very humbling.

I really am beginning to learn more about trusting God in these kinds of situations. The Helsby’s have 6 kids, the youngest being just a few months older than Esther. To come from somewhere like America, to here with such limited medical facilities is really a massive exercise in trusting God. He has proved to be faithful though and every time they, or one of the children has been ill, there has either been a doctor in the team (from the US) which happens to be there at the time, or there has been a Western doctor at the local hospital. This was proved true even a few days ago. Kate, their youngest, trapped her finger in the hinges of their metal porch door. The skin was broken right through to the bone and they suspected the finger too may have been broken. They took her to the local hospital and when they arrived there was a doctor there from the States together with an Indian Hand specialist who happened to be there too! They arrived in the evening but were told they had should come back in the morning as there was not enough electricity to power the lights for the operation! They went back the next morning and by lunchtime she had had the operation, and was all bandaged up. Becky’s parents arrived that day too… and her Dad is a paediatrician! She is now recovering well.

On a slightly lighter note, one of the Helsby’s older girls may need to have braces. So the other day they took her to the local dentist. It turns out that he is not actually an orthodontist and so he wanted to consult with a qualified orthodontist in Nairobi. And so… his solution? He took a whole series of photos of her teeth, on his phone, and texted through to the dentist in Nairobi!!! We wait to hear his views on the matter!

The Helsby’s live about 5 minutes walk away. Sometimes I put Esther in the baby carrier we’ve got. Similar to a rucksack with space for a small child. The locals find it really odd that I carry her in it – however they find even odder when Hitesh carries her in it! A man seen to be carrying the baby is pretty much unheard of over here. However, it is not at all unusual to see a four or five year old girl carrying here baby brother or sister, usually asleep, on her back.

On the short walk to the Helsby’s I will invariably be followed by a small group of large dragonflies, who look as if they have pom-poms attached to the end of their wings! These dragon-flies follow people at feet level in the hope that in the process of footsteps falling and rising small ants and other bugs will be unearthed – quite clever really! There are also a large number of really pretty butterflies out here. Really big and really colourful – am forever trying to catch them on camera. Not very easy though. The other main bugs that I am likely to pass are siafu. Incredible ants who march in a line about an inch thick on their search for food – They’re amazing to watch but it’s best to keep an eye on where you put your feet as if you end up in a line of them they can start crawling up your body and, apparently you can know nothing about it until they are half way up you and all decide to bite you at the same time – very clever, but an experience I think I could do without.

One afternoon a week Becky and I meet up with Amy (the wife of the other American family working out here). The 3 of us have a bit of bible study which is good. It’s nice to be able to freely chat with people where you’re not completely limited by your understanding of the language!

On Thursday afternoon there is a bible club held in the Helsbys back porch. About 20 kids from the local village turn up and then we sing a few songs in Swahili – which is probably a good way for me to start learning the language. After that they have a short bible story told by Milka in Swahili, with a couple of the main scenes displayed on a large felt display board. They then have about 10-15 minutes of drawing time. Theoretically drawing a scene from the story they’ve just heard. However, the other day one of the older boys was drawing something and came up and gave me the picture. It was two guys fighting with the words “commando” and “Jackie Chan” written around the picture! Was a bit surreal really… here we are in the middle of nowhere and these kids have heard of Jackie Chan!!

Although a lot of these kids say they go to church, many of the churches here do not have any special teaching for the children and most of the very well known stories we are going through the kids have never heard before. I love this time as it’s exciting to see these kids learning a little about God’s love for them and His hand at work throughout history.

Some days we may head into Mwanza to do a market shop. Mwanza is about an hours drive away and is the second biggest town in Tanzania. On the drive there Becky is forever having to beep the horn to make sure that the people walking and cycling along the road move out of the way. People seem to quite happily drift into the road, somewhat oblivious to vehicles approaching from behind them, which makes driving a bit scary. The other thing you see a lot of on the drive to Mwanza is Coke, Pepsi and 7-up adverts. These are all painted on the sides and fronts of people’s shops. Apparently the deal is that to paint your shop could be quite expensive and so Coca-Cola and Pepsi will paint your shop for free…with their adverts. Which means that virtually every shop you pass is either ‘Coke’ red, ‘7-up’ green or ‘Pepsi’ blue. They have even painted some of the very large rocks lying next to the road – I guess it’s seen as free advertising space!

Going to the market is great fun! I love it. It’s really good fun with Esther too as she gets a lot of attention. The market owners seem to love little children and they are forever giving her free samples of their produce. They are a really friendly bunch of people and it’s definitely a very lively place to be.

At around 5 I tend to head home to start sorting something out for dinner. With limited choice of food supplies it’s not always the most exciting of meals – but at least we’re eating a lot of fruits and vegetables - definitely get more than our 5 a day! The fruit here is amazing. The Mangoes are gorgeous and I have never seen such big avocados in my life! Mavuno also has a very small dairy and so often we will take back some fresh milk for the morning. We’ve just started to take fresh milk, instead of the milk that Becky has already boiled, in the hope that this may last until the morning. I then boil in the evening to effectively pasteurise it, and then (theoretically) we have it in the morning. This morning it worked well so maybe this is the best way of coping with the milk, at least until we get our fridge working!

After dinner, and the lengthy washing up process, it’s time for a bit of unwind. This consists of us sitting at the table, with mosi repellent smeared on our arms and ankles, either reading, chatting, updating the blog, or playing scrabble! All to the sound of the water filter dripping away in the background.

Near the end of the day we tend to try and have a shower. I use the term shower, very loosely. Our shower is a blue bowl filled water, partly heated on the gas stove, and a cup. It’s not as bad as it sounds, and you definitely do feel a lot cleaner afterwards. Quite often you’ll look up to see a small gecko on the wall watching you shower – which is a little disconcerting!

And so the day ends to the sound of crickets, stray dogs, the occasional bull-frog (I think) and if we’re lucky the sound of the village disco/movie screening. Very bizarre music, very loudly played! The only other sound we may here is the rain. We’re just coming into the rainy season now, and there is a LOT of rain, particularly at night. The house we’re living in has a tin roof and so when it does rain, it really roars in the house. Often it’s so loud that although it is a thunder storm you just can’t hear the thunder over the sound of the rain. Somehow though, Esther seems to sleep though it all – which we are very pleased about!