Mums With Tums

There are currently 4 Tanzanian MAF Dodoma office workers who are expecting a baby during the next few months- and then there are 2 MAF overseas workers who have returned to the UK and Switzerland respectively and have just had their second babies- and then there is myelf due in April- and then there is also the Mum of Esther's birthday-party friend, Elisabeth, who is expecting her 4th baby in March this year (not to mention Moshi who had her kittens 3 weeks ago!!). With all these expectant Mums, there must be something in the water here in Dodoma...

At Esther and Elisabeth's party on Monday evening, Elisabeth's mum and myself compared bumps:

Expecting a baby in a place where expert medical care is hard to access has been a little worrying at times. So to put my mind at rest and have my second check-up in 6 and a half months of pregnancy, Andrew and I took the long road trip to Dar es Salaam on Tuesday this week. Claire very kindly stayed home in Dodoma with Esther and Ben, making the trip easier with the limited time we had (and it sounds like the 3 of them had great fun together!).

Andrew and I left early on Tuesday and made sure we were home by Wednesday evening in time for Esther's birthday the next day. It was a long way to go, with a 6 hour road trip each way, but Dar es Salaam is far more developed as a city than Dodoma and there is a very good private clinic where I could get a reliable scan, check-up and the advice that I need at this stage in my pregnancy. It was reassuring to get the medical all-clear this week.

Here are some images taken on our trip back home: from the busy bustle of Dar, through the rural villages until we reached the less developed Dodoma at nightfall...

City centre Dar, looking towards the Dar MAF office (the flat red-roof building to the left of the church):

Views of the ocean as we drive along Dar's busy and overcrowded streets:A very exciting sight for us Dodoma-dwellers- a shopping centre with western-style shops and a large food supermarket! This is a long way from Dodoma, where traditional wooden "dukas" rule the shopping areas. In Dar, we can stock up on supplies before heading home:

As we drive out of Dar, the city also gives way to the "dukas" and the streets are bustling with shoppers in a more typical Tanzanian style. Traffic is slow as we head along the busy one-lane main road out of the Big Smoke, contending with "dalla-dalla" mini-buses, 4x4s, lorries, tuk-tuk (sp??) passenger-carriers (the little blue+ black vehicles on the left + centre of the picture), buses, bikes and cars.

A few hours along the route, opportunities for buying goods still pop up occasionally. Some villages have surplus supplies of potatoes and onions, displayed in colourful buckets for passers by to purchase- an eye-catching sight:

In this rainy season, the countryside along our route looks so green compared to the rest of the year. We enjoyed the transformation from dusty-brown views seen for so much of the year to beautiful village scenes set against the greenery and villages with full watering-holes:

Despite some rather bumpy road-works in places...... and some less-than-smooth roads somewhat worn out and melted by the sun's fierce heat in this hot country......we were grateful for safe travels and the opportunity for the medical check-up. Hopefully, the next check-up will be in England, where the availability of reliable and close-at-hand medical care is certainly something I should not take for granted!