Magumbua

Magumbua is one of the more isolated villages which Andrew flies to on a monthly basis. At Magumbua, Andrew picks up a medical team and then takes them to a further village, Birise, for a day of health care and mother/baby clinics. This is the only local health care that the people in Birise have access to. Imagine having a medical team on hand only once a month- otherwise, you would need to set a day aside to walk in the heat to the nearest clinic, many miles away. Sadly, this is often the case in rural Tanzania.
In Magumbua, however, help is at hand in a local clinic, headed up by an Amercian doctor, Dr Jon Eager, working in Magumbua with AIM (Africa Inland Mission). Jon and his family live in the very small community out in the bush. They regularly come to Dodoma to fetch supplies and then stay over in the MAF Guesthouse. That's how I got to meet the family - wife Melissa and 3 children, Josh, Drew and Rachel. We have really enjoyed their company and since they enjoyed living and studying in Liverpool at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, we have had fun swopping stories about our Liverpool experiences. Melissa has often invited us out into the bush to come and visit them. It is a 3-4 hour drive, depending on the state of the dirt roads out in that direction- or a 35 minute MAF flight- a far easier option for a day's visit!
This month, we finally had the opportunity to take Melissa up on her kind offer of hospitality and go to visit our friends in rural Tanzania. Any trip out of Dodoma is exciting for us- but for extra excitement, we flew to Magumbua in the MAF plane- with Andrew as our pilot!!
We have never flown with Andrew as our pilot before, so it was a very excited Parker family that set off just before 8am on Tuesday to climb aboard the red and white MAF plane!

 Ear-plugs in and ready for take-off!

 Esther was thrilled with her vantage point on the way out, sitting next to Captain Dad and enjoying the views out of the window-

 Joel was less impressed, but found that travelling by air is a great chance for a nap!

 Dodoma fell away very quickly as we headed up into the skies of East Africa...

 ...and in only a couple of minutes, our views of the small city of Dodoma gave way to the vast expanses of arid plains which surround Tanzania's capital city:

Half an hour later and here we are descending towards rural Magumbua-if you can make out the white building, that is the clinic:

 

Coming down onto the dusty airstrip...

 ...and our Magumbua welcoming committee is waiting to meet us!

Once we had alighted from the plane, it was time to say "Goodbye" to Andrew, as his work now continued. He left us in Magumbua, while he got busy loading the medical team and their supplies onto the plane and then setting off for a hot day out in Birise, due to return late afternoon to fetch us.

Reminaing in Magumbua, Esther, Ben, Joel and I had a wonderful day with Melissa and the children - and also their home-school teacher from the USA, Meredith, who is living with them for a year. It was fun to spend the day in their home:

 There was also time to walk up to the clinic and see Jon at work and visit the premises. Here are a few pictures... The medical laboratory:

 The operating/ medical procedures room. Melissa told me that this room is often used for circumcision, which is considered very important in Tanzanian culture. Far better to have it carried out by a qualified doctor in the clinic than out in the village with unclean instruments.

 I was interested by this enormous fridge to store medicines, which is powered by gas- hence the large canisters. A great idea in a country with frequent electricity cuts!

 This is the maternity ward, so Melissa felt it fitting that Joel and I should pose here! It is great to have these facilities available out in the bush, although it is a bit different from Ormskirk hospital where Joel was born.

 Here, a couple of patients wait to see the doctor in the cool shade of the clinic. On the other side of the quadrangle, there were many more patients sitting on benches, but it felt rude to photograph them. These two patients gave their consent to be photographed- it was fascinating to see the young lady's beautiful jewellery:

 There was plenty of time to play in the garden and Joel liked the swing:

We had a delicious lunch at home with all of the family. Joel trialled their family high chair and is now borrowing it until we can find one to buy for him- not so easy to find such goods in Dodoma. However, this chair travelled back with us in the plane and is much appreciated!

 All too soon, it was time to return to the dusty, sandy airstrip and head home. Andrew arrived just in time to have a cup of tea, then we had to say our farewells and climb into our seats.

 Melissa, Rachel and Drew and a few villagers came to wave us off:

 On the way home, Ben was delighted to have his turn in the front co-pilot's seat:

 But half way into the flight it seemed that the excitement was just too much for some!