Mysterious Culprit

Last Wednesday afternoon, poor little Esther came up in a sudden, nasty rash. By the evening, she was having difficulty breathing evenly and normally. By 10:30pm, she was still awake and feeling quite distressed, so we got her up to give her an antihistimine tablet and bathe her sore skin. By now, she was covered in  bumpy, red, itchy patches, which seemed to be appearing before our very eyes.
On Thursday, the rash was so bad all over, so we kept her away from school and emailed London doctors at Interhealth with some attached photos to ask for some medical advice. They confirmed that she had an allergic reaction and that we were following the correct course of action. It is so helpful to have professional doctors at the end of an email connection! My confidence in the advice I may be given from the local clinic in this incidence is very low, so it was good to have trusted advice from afar.
However, the mystery still remained about what exactly caused such a violent skin reaction.
Here's a small example from her arm:

The cause has not been found, although I suspect it could have been some strange East African creepy-crawly lurking in the bushes in the school playground?!? By Friday, Esther was completely better and back to her sunny self, so off to school she went - and lets hope she remains well clear of the mysterious allergy-inducing culprit in the future!

House Help

A few months ago, I read an excellent novel: "The Help", by Kathryn Stockett. This novel focuses on the lives of the African American ladies who worked as house helpers in the homes of white families in America's "Deep South" in the early 1960s. It was a fascinating read and one that caused me to reflect on the way I relate to the ladies who come to help out in my home here in Tanzania.
Having "House Help" was a new concept that I have had to get used to living here in Tanzania. When we first arrived in Tanzania, I was told that most overseas families employ a local lady to come in and help around the house with all the extra jobs. To choose not to employ someone would have 2 main implications: being seen as too proud to offer employment to local people who need the income of a steady job, and secondly, meaning that I would have so much housework to do that I would be doing very little other than working in the kitchen or cleaning.

With this in mind, I "inherited" the help of Jane, from a MAF family who were leaving Dodoma. Jane has been working for us since November 2009 and has been a big help around the home. Joel enjoys having her around on the 3 days that she comes in to our home to help us and she is very fond of him, chatting to him in Swahili and delighting in Joel's daily progress. One of Jane's main tasks is baking our bread. She is whizz at whipping up the dough, never needing a recipe, unlike me, who has to reach for my Delia Smith Cookbook and turn on my Kenwood food mixer to cut corners with all that kneading!

In May this year, Jane suddenly became very ill with a mystery illness- swellings on her face, a fierce fever, vomiting (Jane filled me in on all the gory details and told me that it was all bright red...most worrying) and an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and weakness. Several visits to doctors and hospital could not enlighten us further and Jane spent a miserable month feeling very unwell. She stayed at home for the entire month.  I found it a real struggle to keep up with all the jobs at in my home. I employed another lady part time, but found someone who was available to help me long-term...Pendo:

Pendo was able to come in 2 mornings a week to help me out with the tasks that were building up. When Jane returned to work, I asked Pendo to stay on, as Jane was still weak and unable to carry out some of the more physical household tasks. Now, we have settled into a rhythm, with Pendo coming to assist Jane on 2 mornings a week.

For me, having house help is a mixed blessing.

On the one hand, I so appreciate the work of these lovely ladies. I would struggle enormously with having to do all the extra work which comes along with living in a developing country- kitchen work I would not need to do in the UK: baking all our bread, making food from scratch (want chips? budget in time for cleaning spuds, peeling them, chopping them... want pizza? budget in time for making dough, chopping the tomatoes,creating the topping... want biscuits? budget time to bake them, as well as trying to locate the necessary ingredients in town), cleaning wheat to mill it for flour, checking flour for bugs, boiling the milk, making yoghurt... the list of kitchen jobs could go on and on...
Meanwhile, hot and dusty weather means piles of dust daily to wipe up, dirty concrete floors that need mopping, bugs on clothes that hang outside to dry, creating oodles of extra ironing, louvre windows that need wiping pane by pane so that we can actually see out of them....
I need Jane's and Pendo's help to manage these overwhelming tasks!

On the other hand, I often struggle with the necessity of having other people in my home; with the lack of  privacy and space. It can be a strain having non-family knowing and seeing all aspects of your family life, chatting together about your children (albeit in Swahili!) and knowing all the ins and outs of your home-life.
 I relish the days we do not have House Help- my Mondays, Wednesdays and weekends, when I don't need to rush around in the early mornings, organising the list of household jobs, the equipment and the extra meals my House Help ladies will need. The days when I can play with Joel on the floor and chat on the phone without other people watching or listening in. I find that it is a mental strain and sometimes I want to close all the doors and just have my home to myself and my family!

This means I live with the contradiction of needing and appreciating the help and friendship of Jane and  Pendo, while also struggling with the lack of privacy. Just another aspect of life in Tanzania!

The World's Biggest Chocolate Button??!!

Last weekend it was my birthday and in the post I received from England a specially requested packet of Chocolate Buttons (THANKS, Anna!!). Chocolate has to be one of my favourite things and chocolate buttons are high on my list as some of the tastiest chocolate.

Eating chocolate buttons in Dodoma is a bit different from eating chocolate buttons in England.
In England, I am able to eat the chocolate button by button.
In Dodoma,  the African sun has had its melting effect whilst the chocolate was in transit, so I end up with ONE gigantic, very tasty button! The world's biggest and arguably most tasty Chocolate Button:

Confirmation

The young man in the suit, above, is called Brown and is the grandson of our househelper lady, Jane.
 On Monday this week, Brown was confirmed at his local Anglican church by the bishop of Dodoma.
 On Tuesday, the family had a large celebration to mark the event.
In Tanzanian culture, family celebrations are hugely important and become a time for the whole community to get together and have a party. Church confirmation is one of those occasions. Jane invited us to go along to her home and be part of her family's celebration on Tuesday afternoon.
Jane was so proud of her grandson and was in her element, surrounded by family, friends and neighbours:

The event was set up outside, to accommodate lots of guests, with old cement sacks sewn together to make an awning. A white sheet hung on the outside wall to make a pretty background for the "stage", where Brown and his "best man" (a good friend dressed smartly to support him on this special occasion) sat on the outdoor step of Jane's home. Strings of plastic flowers added further decoration, along with strips of material  wound around the outdoor pillars of the house. Many chairs had been arranged for us guests to sit on (spot Andrew with Esther, Ben, Joel, on the left of the photo, given special seats as Jane's boss) and watch proceedings:

There was even a Master of Ceremonies employed to announce events and introduce the family, the guests and mark proceedings. Inbetween the MC's annoucements, loud music was played from speakers set out on the step.
One of the Important Moments was the arrival of the Confirmation Cake, carried round the back of the guests and then through the middle of us all by the younger sister and friends of Brown, whilst Brown's aunties followed behind with graceful dance moves, all accompanied by the booming music (some of the smaller children found the music a bit too loud and were covering their ears for protection, which was also what Ben had resorted to!!):

After formally receiving the cake, there followed the Cake Feeding ceremony! This is when the Important Person of the day feeds pieces of cake to honoured guests: a very significant part of formal Tanzanian celebrations- weddings, graduation ceremonies...etc.  Brown was fed first by his friend, then Brown fed pieces of cake to his Dad, Mum, sister, Grandmother Jane and then other family members. Here is his little sister receiving her cake off the end of a cocktail stick:

Andrew and I were also included in receiving cake, which was lovely for us to be given such an honour. We climbed up onto the step and were fed a slice of tasty cake:

Next there was a time for us all to stand up one by one and take gifts to Brown, as he stood on his stage to receive them. For those who did not bring gifts, the MC strongly encouraged them, by name, to come forward and place money in a plate set in front of Brown! A concept very different to our western culture, where such demands for gifts and money would seem shocking and embarrassing, but are a normal part of Tanzanian celebrations! I was relieved that we had come with a couple of gifts for Brown, although I had made a cultural "faux pas" of giving Brown one of his presents when we had first arrived, as I would do in a western setting! Thankfully, I still had one gift in my bag that I could take forward and place on the growing pile of presents for Brown at the correct time, so I did not have to go through the embarrassment of being called forward individually to present money or gifts while the guests looked on curiously to see how much the foreigner would give!
I noticed later that the money was wrapped up and given to Brown's mother, which seems fair enough, as it would help defray the costs of such a generous celebration. The family are not wealthy and this Tanzanian way of raising money to help pay the cost of traditionally welcoming a large number of guests seems sensible, in a country where many struggle to pay the bills and do not have the luxury of disposable income to cover the costs of big celebrations.

After gifts came food! We were all invited inside Jane's home. A lady poured warm water over our hands to wash them as we filed past, then we were all given platefuls of tasty Tanzanian food: pilau rice, roast goat, boiled potato, fried cabbage. Delicious.

After food came home time, as it was getting towards dusk, when mosquitoes start biting, so we wanted the children safely home and under their mosquito nets. Jane tells me that the celebrations continued until late into the night, with many more neighbours popping by after they returned home from work. She had a wonderful time and loved having lots of family to stay with her this week, including 7 children, all relatives, who joined them in Dodoma for this special family occasion. I'm glad she included us in the happy celebrations too!

Nane Nane 2012

 This is the entrance to "Nane Nane"- Dodoma's large, annual agricultural show, held each year on the 8th day of the 8th month- hence the name, as "nane" means "eight".
This year was Andrew's first visit, although I went last year with the children (see 2011 blog!). The children were very keen to go back and see the African animals and experience some of the fun of this major annual event, unlike anything else we have in Dodoma. So we set off mid-morning, joined by our MAF friend Gladys who works as an engineer in the MAF hangar. The 8th of the 8th is a national public holiday across Tanzania, in recognition of farming, so the children all have the day off school (despite only starting their new school year 2 days ago!!) - and everyone seemed to be at the Nane Nane show today...

This year, we visited the Bee-Keeping tent and display and learnt about bees, honeycombs and hives- and about the "stingless bee"- something we had never heard of! These little bees create a wonderfully sweet honey which we were all able to sample in the bee-keeping information tent.

Then we moved on to look at the larger animals- a great opportunity for me to learn some new Swahili vocabulary for animal names. Unfortunately, this creature was so tightly curled up that I could not fathom what was in the cage and the Swahili sign did nothing to enlighten me! I had to look this word up back at home and discovered that we had seen a sleeping civet cat!

The crowds were immense and I imagine it must actually be very stressful for the poor caged creatures with all of us peering in and exclaiming over them, along with the noise and the heat. The poor hyena in the cage below was pacing unhappily and it felt mean to snap pictures of him. Instead, my photo was to picture the crowds around his cage, of about 5 people deep, all fascinated by his every move:

In stark contrast, the huge lion seemed totally relaxed. He was still King of the Animals, even when on display in a small cage in front of thousands of visitors. He seemed to be having a wonderfully relaxing sunbathe, one paw outstretched against the bars of his prison, showing off his sharp claws and strong legs whilst snoozing in the afternoon heat:

 The lion's sheer size made Joel look very vulnerable and small, even when Joel was standing several feet away:

I think the Swahili name for this shy porcupine is such a fabulous word!

 This next cage brought everyone to a standstill. Inside was an enormous, and rather active, python. Esther and Ben were fascinated, but its National Parks Keeper did not seem too concerned about the enormously dangerous creature slithering and sliding about just inches away from her!

The python seemed to be intent on looking for a gap in the metal to try and make its escape; we didn't hang around too long, I would not want to be nearby if it succeeded!

 
There are roadways filled with visitors, leading to various agricultural displays. There are hundreds of stalls lining the way, selling everything you can think of,  from food to underwear to carpets to kitchenware, plants, toys, shoes... you name it, you could probably find it if you had the inclination to push through the ever-thickening crowds and put up with the burning heat as the sun rose higher in the Dodoma sky! Throngs of people had flocked to Nane Nane today along with us and I took the photo below as we pushed our way along the dusty roadways. The noise was intense at times, with everyone announcing their wares on loud speakers, like the one pictured on the top right of this photo:

 We climbed up the bank at one of the roadsides and found a shady spot by this fence to have a short rest and a drink of water!

 Refreshed a little, we set off to increase our agricultural knowledge...Ben was fascinated by this tall, green machine, which takes sunflower seeds, squashes them into paste, then into oil, filters the oil and finally produces the golden sunflower oil which Dodoma is famous for producing:

 Then it was time for Farmer Ben to try out the seat of this John Deere tractor:

 Esther had a turn too, much to the amusement of the onlookers:

Finally, after all the excitement, we headed back to the car, with a brief road-side stop to buy some hot chips cooked in the Tanzanian way:. Esther paid the chip-seller and made sure she stood well away from the hot pan and coals!

 We watched as the sliced potatoes were tossed from a bucket of water into the scorching heat of this pan full of oil, cooking on hot coals...

 ... then deftly removed from the frying pan in this pink colander, then portioned out into the smaller frying pan, ready to be bought and kept warm on these hot coals:

The chips were served in a black plastic bag, were liberally sprinkled with salt and were absolutely delicious! A great end to a great outing! :-)

Four Weeks of Fun

 After our week at Fox's Farm, Esther and Ben still had 4 wonderful weeks of school holiday stretching ahead of them, to fill up with fun! However, at the beginning of these 4 weeks, we first of all had a sad farewell at Dodoma's bus station :-(
 It was time to say "goodbye" to Auntie Claire, as her 2 year teaching contract here in Dodoma had finished. She returned to England a few days after we got home to Dodoma from Fox's Farm. We took her to the bus station to board the bus, where we were too sad to take photos of each other, but the bus you see above was the one that delivered her safely to Dar es Salaam, ready for her flight to pastures new. We miss having Claire here in Tanzania, just down the road from us, but are grateful for the blessing of having her nearby during the past 2 years.

For the rest of the holidays, it was rather quiet at MAF and in Dodoma, as everyone we knew seemed to be away, but we filled the time nicely at home.Here are some of the children's activities:
It was too cold (this is our "winter" holiday at this time of year!!) to go swimming in the swimming pool, but we did squeeze in some water fun in a new paddling pool that we "inherited" from yet another family that has just moved on and left Dodoma! There was also time for Esther and Ben to facepaint their own faces beforehand (and it took much more than paddling pool water to remove their painted designs!!).

Fun was had when we put up our tent in the garden, made campfire sausages and had 1 and a half nights of camping outside! On the first night, Joel and Dad stayed indoors, but Esther and Ben slept really well outdoors. (I can't say the same for myself- I worried about mosquitoes biting us and snakes and scorpions for most of the night!!). The second night was only half a night really, as the campers had to be evacuated at midnight, with Joel screaming indoors and assistance needed from both parents! However, it was still fun and the tent provided a great day-time diversion too!

We made time for plenty of opportunities for creative expression...

 ...including these cute peg-creatures the children created from a craft-pack, which arrived in an exciting parcel from England! :-)

Joel loved having his big sister and brother home for the holidays- he made the most of Mum being busier than usual to sneak away and get into the mud- one of his favourite pastimes...

 ...along with any games involving water and pouring- a great way to keep Joel occupied whilst Esther watched her ballet DVD or Ben watched his Big Machines DVD on my computer!

 Today,  Esther and Ben went happily off to school on the MAF school bus, to begin a new academic year. They both felt very grown up, with Esther moving to Year 2 and Ben to the Reception class. Here's hoping that they are having a fun day in their new classes as I write this!!

New Windows

 These windows that you see in the photo above are the louvre windows that we have throughout our MAF homes here in Dodoma. They are good for letting in the fresh air but not so great for preventing the relentless dust and sand which blows through the outer mosquito netting and into our rooms. They are also impossible to shut completely, so the noise from the early morning preaching can never be muted by the glass, as the noise just blew straight in like the Dodoma dust.
The invasion of noise each day from the early preaching became so stressful for me that I came close to wondering if I could actually carry on living here. It was an unusually stressful situation. However, Andrew hit on the bright idea of changing our windows- it would not prevent the noise from being heard, as the volume is so loud, but it would help to soften it a little.
So we put in an application with the MAF team who work on maintaining our homes and they agreed to change the windows in our bedroom! :-) A couple of weeks ago, the louvre windows above were ripped out and replaced by the closed glass panels below, fixed into place by workman Tumaini:

Tumaini did a great job. The windows are not double glazed, but it is a help in blocking both noise and dust. However, I am very, very happy to report that there have been wonderfully silent mornings recently and not a single early morning sermon for the whole of July, and only the occasional early sermon in June, which has  helped to preserve my sanity while allowing me the luxury of choosing to wake up when I need to and not at 05:30 every morning. What a relief.

Snake Alert!

There was a snake in our next door neighour's garden this morning! Thankfully, it was swiftly dealt with.

The snake provided much excitement for the children, with lots of wild screaming, with running up and down the MAF compound whilst the adults were busy dropping stones on it to kill it and then it became a fascinating nature lesson, once it no longer posed a threat!

 We're still not sure what type of snake it was- maybe a harmless grass snake, maybe a deadly mamba... definitely not taking a risk waiting to find out, especially with lots of little children busy playing on the compound.
Where there are snakes, there are likely to be many rats- a preferred delicacy of the snake menu, I hear. I am therefore extremely grateful for our cat Moshi, who is a brilliant Rat-Killer. However, I would prefer it if she did not drop off her offerings on my back door step! This charming gift was deposited at my door early one morning a couple of weeks ago:

The following morning Moshi surpassed herself by leaving an even more gruesome offering- she must have been extra hungry, as this time we opened the door to find these hind quarters of a rat!

 Andrew is getting used to hearing me screaming when I open the back door! I only hope that if something really dangerous presents itself close at hand, I can muster up a special emergency scream to make sure Andrew takes good notice and doesn't dismiss the emergency as simply another dead rat!