Birthday Girls

The past couple of weeks have seen a few birthdays at MAF Dodoma.

Jane had her birthday last Saturday and invited us 4 to her home on Saturday morning to celebrate and to meet her grandson, Brown, who lives with her. We baked her a cake, which Ben and Esther decorated with bright pink icing (!!) and candles. We sat and sang to her, shared the cake and were treated to a fizzy soda drink each. We also met her sister, who was very warm and welcoming, with true Tanzanian hospitality.

Brown, Esther, Jane and Ben:

The weekend prior to that, our MAF neighbour Julie-Anne celebrated her 40th birthday. In collaboration with her husband, Glenn, we planned a Surprise Party to take place on the Sunday afternoon of her birthday in our back garden. Despite the proximity of our homes on the MAF compound, we all managed to keep it a surprise- although I suspect that not telling any of the MAF children what was going on really helped to keep it all secret! A friend also baked an amazing cake, topped with a fizzing candle that went off like a mini-firework when lit!

The birthday girl was completely taken by surprise and a great afternoon was had by all...

Party time in our garden:As for Ben and the boys, they celebrated the special day by digging busily in our sandpit:

There were plenty of snacks, which were enjoyed by all, especially the little ones!

The next birthday will be Ben's 3rd and the invitations to his Pizza Lunch Party have just gone out ready for next week, much to Ben's excitement!

Yuk- It's Raining...maggots!!!

There has been something suspicious going on in our little bathroom over the past few days. First, I have been repelled by the stink - and this was no normal toilet-stink. I spent a while two days ago cleaning and re-cleaning the toilet and the basin with all kinds of cleaning products- to no avail. The awful smell lingered. It was worse than anything I could blame on the members of the household, whatever they may have eaten!!

Next, I noticed this morning that there seemed to be a few tasty insect-morsels caught in a web by our resident daddy-long-legs (they are handy allies out here for catching unwelcome guests). On closer inspection, I discovered some rather foul looking maggots. Ben and his friend, little Esther C from next door, came to look as well, with great interest. We swept up the bugs and popped them down the loo (apologies to Mr daddy-long-legs).

Half an hour later, I walked past the open door of the bathroom and saw several more maggots writhing around on the floor! Again, we disposed of them. Checking again, 20 minutes later, even more maggots had miraculously appeared on the floor! I then realised that they were, in fact, raining down, in a kind of slow but steady drizzle, from the gaps in our wooden ceiling!

A photo sample of our most unwelcome drop-in guests:

Quite horrified by the invasion and still repelled by the dreadful stench, I asked Jane's opinion and we concluded that there must be something dead and decaying somewhere up in our roof and the effects of this were now leaking through into the bathroom.

So we called in the troops... Jane went down to the nearby MAF workshop to ask for assistance. A short while later, local MAF staff, Jeremiah and Ema, came to save the day. They duly disappeared up a ladder into the cobwebby confines of our attic on their mission of discovery...

...and found this most disgusting and totally stinking culprit!

Now, the vile lizard has thankfully been removed, although I must admit to a rather embarassing scream when Ema presented a box to me containing the cause of our latest Tanzanian adventure! Next, we need to work on removing the foul odour, which still seems to be lingering, as well as the odd maggot, still falling from the gaps in the ceiling...

Graduation Day

Since arriving in Tanzania just over a year ago, there have been many "first time" experiences. Yesterday was another "first" for me. Earlier in the week, my neighbour Julie-Anne popped in to ask me if I would consider being a 'Guest of Honour' at a Graduation ceremony and coming along to give a speech!

It all sounded rather daunting, but as the details emerged, I realised it was not as huge a task as it first sounded and would be a fun afternoon for us all. It would be the older children at a local Tanzanian Nursery school (where Julie-Anne helps out) who would be "graduating" from pre-school and preparing to start Reception class early next year. My speech, thankfully, was to be less than 5 minutes long and there would be a translator, so I could go ahead and speak in English. My role was to congratulate the children, to hand out their end-of-year prizes, smile sweetly at the "top table" and give a short speech addressed to parents, children and the church pastor who was hosting the event. I was looking forward to it -and extra pleased to have such a grand-sounding title for such a pleasant task!

Esther and Ben thoroughly enjoyed themselves with their MAF friends, Julie-Anne's children (named Esther, Benjamin and Joshua!!) and made new friends. There was a local choir performing music and dance, while the small pupils performed some drama and singing. Andrew and I got to practise our Swahili in a local environment, despite doing the main part of my speech in English. We all sampled delicious graduation cake -Ben's favourite part, I think- which is fed to you by the graduates (!! a bit tricky but lots of fun!) and we enjoyed the meal of rice and beans served to all after the event, cooked by the mums and teachers. I even got presented with beautiful, bright, Tanzanian dress for my role as 'Elizabeti Parker, Guest of Honour'!

The Entertainment:

Ben P and Benjamin C watch the proceedings attentively:

But Esther and Esther appear to be a little distracted by their toys: Happy Graduates:

Graduation cake: Cake-feeding time: Julie-Anne and I round off the evening with our cake, beans and rice:

Battles with Nature

It's not every day that your husband comes home from work to tell you that he killed a snake. But on Saturday, Andrew was recounting his day out in one of the villages with a medical and evangelistic team and happened to mention, "Oh, I killed a snake which was trying to get into the aircraft"!

Apparently, as he was unloading the plane, the watching villagers departed hurriedly as a snake came slithering across the ground and headed straight to the plane. It tried -and failed- to climb up the wheels of the aeroplane and then attempted to rear up and get into the open pod. It was time for the pilot to take action- so when the villagers handed him a big stick, he knew what they intended and used the stick to thrash at the snake and regretfully kill the creature because of the threat it posed. Just another part of a day's work...

Meanwhile, back at home, we had our own battle with nature on Saturday afternoon as an army of large black ants decided to invade our garden. Not wanting them to progress towards the house, we waged war on them, but with great care, as they can give a nasty bite if they get on your skin. It was all hands on deck to force them off the premises- with the help of a hosepipe, some bleach,a bottle of anti-insect-spray and 3 small, willing helpers to lend a hand to Mum and Auntie Claire...

The invasion of the fierce black ants with their stripey backs:

The counter-attack:

At Home

I learnt a new Swahili word in my lesson the other day: "kulinganisha". It has such a great sound to it! It means 'to compare'- which is something I find myself doing as I learn about life in a different culture. I often find myself drawing comparisons between life here and life in the UK.

This week, Esther, Ben and myself had the privilege of visiting a Tanzanian friend at her home and were welcomed in for a soda (a bottle of 'Sprite'). Sometimes on these visits, I can feel uncomfortably aware of how luxurious our home must seem in comparison and how my ideas of what I consider "necessary" in my own home would in fact be an unaffordable luxury for alot of Tanzanians we have met.

It is a fact that "home" for many Tanzanians can mean one or maybe two rooms, with a curtain hung between the sleeping area and the main living area of the home.For each family member to have their own bed is still a luxury for many, never mind having your own personal bedroom!Your toilet may be shared between a few families and could be a concrete stand-up affair rather than a sit-down "western style" toilet. Sometimes it may be situated outside in a little shed, like the loos of yesteryear of English innercity terraced housing. The shower room might be a small room with a concrete floor where you can bring your bucket of water to wash yourself, perhaps boiled over the fire first to warm it up a little.

A few Dodoma homes near the MAF base:

Even in the larger houses we see around Dodoma, houses can often be shared between several families, with just a single room for your own family, perhaps separated by a thick curtain off the main corridor.

Many of the kitchens I have seen are nothing like the image such a word conjures up in my English mind:

No work benches, fancy cupboards, sink with taps, electric gadgets, kettle, cooker or washing machine. Cooking is done over the small stove placed on the floor, heated by charcoal or firewood, with pots placed on top to heat the water or cook the rice, boil the meat or fry the chapatis or samosas. If this is done indoors, the smoke created can lead to health problems, as there is no chimney to let the smoke and fumes escape. Once the water is boiled, the thermos flask comes into its own, storing the hot water in order to make cups of tea later through the day- note the sieve on the tea-cup where the tea-leaves will be placed to make the "chai" . Other boiled water may be stored in a bucket, so that the family has clean, boiled water as their daily drinking water. A lot more work than just turning on a tap where clean, filtered water flows out.

Although I am told that most houses in the city or towns do have taps, the water is not generally considered safe enough for drinking. Also, I still see that many homes rely on outside taps in the street, shared between neighbours, where I greet the mamas as I go past, busy at their task of filling their buckets with water.

However, in the villages, "home" is a different life again: water has to be fetched from wells, rivers or springs, usually by the women and girls. So much of your daily time is taken up simply to provide for the basic needs of your family- fetching water, collecting firewood or charcoal just to light your fire, boiling your water, cooking your meals over the stove, growing and tending your crops for your own table or to sell at market... the list could go on... the comparisons between lifestyles and different ways of being "at home" are many.

Village home: