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!