Living On The Edge...

...of the Airport!

Our home at in Dodoma is unique, even by MAF standards, as our MAF home is situated right on the edge of the runway and Dodoma's airport. Not all MAF bases have their staff housed quite so close to the aviation action! A woven-wood fence and the long, white building which is the MAF hangar are all that separate our house from the runway, where all aircraft flying into Tanzania's capital city whizz past for take-offs or landings.

We often take our unique location for granted, but this week we spent a moment appreciating the excitement of living so close to an airport. It's great that the children are able to see so many aircraft up close from the fence at the end of our MAF compound (although Joel seems more interested in all the stones he could pick up from the rocky ground!!):

 Although we live in the capital city of Tanzania, Dodoma's airport is domestic flights only. It is usually pretty quiet over at Dodoma's airport terminals: Arrivals (on the left) and Departures (on the right):

 Somewhat different from airports in other capital cities!! However, we often take a walk over there, as it's interesting for look at the airport fire-engine and to see any helicopters or planes that may be parked on the apron. Andrew knows most of the airport staff, so it's a friendly little walk as they all exchange greetings, and  it is nice to have a stroll just around the corner from our home.

Being close to the MAF hangar can also provide a bit of family entertainment. When Andrew is working on flight following in the hangar office (which overlooks our back garden and house), we can pop over to say "hi" and take him a cup of coffee:

 On quiet weekend days, Andrew can take the children to the MAF hangar to look over the plane he flies. Last Saturday, Ben was very excited to have the chance to sit in the "captain's" seat and pretend to fly the plane:

We also enjoyed showing new friends around the hangar last weekend. I took a moment to pose by the plane Andrew usually flies with my new UK friend, who has recently arrived here:

Sometimes I forget the novelty of living so close to an aviation base. It was good to take stock this week and enjoy the privilege of being part of MAF and appreciate the opportunities we have on our Dodoma doorstep! :-)

Return of The Noise

He's back!! And, if it is possible,he is louder than ever! Mr. Noisy down the road has started his pre-dawn broadcasts again, much to our dismay. He is once again dictating the time that the Parker family have to wake up each and every day- a dark and early 05:30.
Our new windows are not proving to be as sound-proof as we had hoped. They do help to soften the blow a little but do not stop him from waking us. We can just about drown him out if we shut out all the fresh air and turn on our noisy fan- which also helps to prevent us from suffocating indoors in the stifling heat which is now building up as Dodoma's Hot Season gets underway!
A noisy fan and closed windows don't really produce a restful atmosphere for us to get back to sleep, so we once again find ourselves losing our evenings, as we have to get to bed early to get enough sleep before the daily wake-up blasts us out of our beds. It looks like we're in for a tiring time in the months ahead- unless anyone has any good suggestions to help???

Tailor-Made

In Dodoma, we are far removed from the convenience of High Street clothes shops, where one can buy ready-made clothes to fit all sizes. There's no Dodoma equivalent of "Marks and Spencer's" or "Next". Nor do we have the option of clothing catalogues or internet to order clothes, with the luxury of home delivery.

However, Dodoma does have row upon row of small, wooden shops where we can pick out and purchase materials of many colours and textures:

And Dodoma does have Philippa:

Philippa is one of the many talented tailors who sit at the side of Dodoma's streets, busy creating clothes to order, with their sewing machines buzzing away and their measuring tapes constantly to hand.
 Each day, the tailors, both men and women, set up their machines and their clothes-racks in assigned places around the centre of town. Andrew's sister Claire discovered Philippa over a year ago. Philippa does such fantastic sewing that she is the one we go to whenever we need a new item of clothing. (Thanks,Claire, for the above photo!). She created a great African-style outfit for my Mum on her visit in March. Over the past year, I have been taking material to her whenever we need new clothes for Family Parker.
A few weeks ago, I found a beautiful blue "kanga" material in town, so after some thought and consulting with creative friends at MAF, I came up with an idea of what I would like to have created from this material. It is sometimes to difficult to know what kind of clothes I would like to have made, since I have never needed to think up designs before Tanzania! It still feels like a novelty to be able to choose material and I appreciate advice on what to have made from friends who are far more gifted than I in creative clothing design!
I decided to go along with a popular Tanzanian theme of having a matching outfit made for mother and daughter. Next, I paid a visit to Philippa- and a week later, picked up the matching items. They may not be very "M+S" or "Next", but these clothes are cool to wear in the hot African weather. Last Sunday, Esther and I enjoyed being "twins" for the day in our matching outfits!

The Language Challenge

Tomorrow morning, Mama Kambenga will come to my house at 9am to assist me with the ongoing challenge of learning Swahili. Mama Kambenga is an excellent language helper. Tomorrow, she will be testing me on 12 different words we can use in Swahili to say "which". One short word in English. Twelve words in Swahili- and there are even more ways to say "which" if I delve even deeper into the intricacies of Swahili! However, my tired brain can't bear the thought of even more work, so I will be content to try and master 12 of the "which" words!
Trying to better my Swahili whilst spending most of my time at home in an English-speaking environment is a constant challenge. I frequently make very silly mistakes. One of my most memorable mistakes was when I muddled up "dhambi" (sin, or fault) and "damu" (blood). Instead of asking Jane to clean up the blood in the fridge which had leaked from a bag of beef, I asked her to clean up the sin in my fridge!! No wonder poor Jane looked at me strangely and seemed very confused!

Since I often end up feeling very daft, often embarrass myself and often amuse my Tanzanian friends with my Swahili errors, I find that I get really cheered up when I see silly errors made by other people in English. I know it should make me sympathetic, but it is oh-so-reassuring when I come across language errors in English, made by non-English people!! It helps me enormously to be reminded that we can all make mistakes- and (unintentionally) cheer other people up in the process! Recently, I have come across a couple of labels on local products that have brought a big smile to my face:

• for cashew nuts...

• for "exotic" scented soap:

Well, I must dash now. Just enough time to go and swot up on those "which" words before I head to bed...