There's Something Strange...

...in the middle of my fridge!!

This is it:

 The strange, tall, dark shape at the back of the shelf... It is not food; neither is it a flask of cold coffee...

It is, in fact, a flask of needles, containing Joel's vaccinations to better protect his health here in Tanzania:

 This flask had to be transported back to Tanzania with us in February, from the offices of Interhealth in London. We have had to ensure over several weeks that we kept it at at even temperature to ensure that the vaccinations will still be effective when the time came to use them.

I've had to get used to some very strange things since we set out for life in Tanzania. Carrying a flask full of sharps and vaccination medicines on a long-haul flight is one of many different aspects of travelling with small children to live in a developing country. You get some very strange looks from fellow passengers when you check in your luggage but are left holding a suspicious cooler bag with a sealed black flask poking out the top. Their frowns grow deeper when they overhear you declaring the "sharps" in your hand-luggage! You get even stranger looks when you sit down at your aeroplane seat and request a bag of ice from the cabin crew, then proceed to stuff the ice into a cooler bag at your feet! Not for me the conventional travel gear of a neat little hand-luggage bag and glossy-looking magazine!

This particular flask has been very useful, containing the 3 shots necessary to protect Joel against Rabies. We had to transport it from England since this vaccination is not readily available in Tanzania. Furthermore, Joel could not have it administered in England while we were there, as he had to have so many other injections and needed time before a new course of vaccinations could begin!

 Over the last couple of months since we returned home to Dodoma, Joel has followed a course of 3 Rabies vaccinations, thanks to the contents of this flask. We finally completed the course -and emptied the flask- yesterday. There was no trip down the road to the doctor's surgery, as we would have in England, but rather a stroll round the corner, carrying our own injections in the flask, to our neighbour's home on our MAF compound. Our friend Andrea, a nurse, settled Joel comfortably on the sofa, with a car to distract him, before administering the final dose to help prevent Rabies.

We then had to fill in his medical record book with all the relevant details of the injection. This little book is so vital to us, as it contains a clear record, as well as proof at border controls, of the many injections we have had in order to be protected health-wise in a country with many frightening medical threats.

As a mother, it is difficult for me to see my children having to have so many more injections than they would need in a developed country such as England. I feel so sorry for them, as they become like little Parker Pin-cushions for a host of injections and even blood tests during our UK health check-ups! Once, Esther had to have 3 injections at the same sitting, so to make the ordeal pass as quickly as possible, 2 nurses came at her from either side, injecting both her left and her right arm simultaneously! OW!!

 Joel's record is still quite sparse in comparison to his brother's and sister's records, despite some of the tropical vaccinations he has had listed below: Meningitis AC, W +Y, Hep A, Rabies, TB, along with the standard UK injections to protect against MMR, Hep B and rotavirus...etc.

Now that Joel is 2 years old, we will have to start planning to find an opportunity to give him his typhoid, yellow fever and cholera vaccinations. Since these are not easily available to us in Tanzania, such vaccinations require good research and planning to ensure that they happen.
Despite the difficulty of seeing my little ones endure painful vaccination regimes, I have to say that I am so grateful for the excellent medical advice and vaccinations we have access to. Sadly, so many children in this country simply do not have this privilege- which is why the work of MAF can be so important. Later this week, Andrew will be flying small medical teams, alongside evangelistic teams, to more remote villages, where routine vaccinations for babies and young children will take place over a 3 day period. It's good to know that MAF can help doctors and nurses to reach these vulnerable little ones in isolated places and at least bring basic vaccinations to help protect these children.

Shocking Sight

I was 18 when I first saw a dead body. Even then, it was far enough away not to be too gruesome a sight, although still very shocking. A young man had been drowned in the sea at Brighton when a freak wave rolled his dumper truck into the sea; he could not get out of the cab in time to survive. I remember how a sensation of cold fear ran through me as I realised what I was seeing, floating face down in the sea, below the cliff-top where I was standing.

Today, my 5 year old and my 7 year old were unfortunate enough to drive past a serious road accident on their way to school at 7:30 this morning. They both saw the victim out of the school bus window- a lady lying in the road, her face covered in blood, lifeless and shocking.

In a country where the general public do not have access to emergency response services, the scene was still open and the traffic was not diverted, so there was nothing the bus driver could do to avoid passing the dreadful scene and nothing she could do to prevent the children seeing the results of a horrible road accident.

Esther and Ben are now asking all kinds of questions. How did the school bus driver know that the lady was dead? What will happen to her now she has died? What if it's a lady that we know?.... It's a sad day for that lady's family.

It's a stark reminder for us of the need for protection on the roads in a nation where the number of road fatalities is among the highest on an international scale. Perhaps it is also a reminder that we cannot always protect our young children here from sights that they may not have to encounter in a more developed country, where efficient emergency response systems would have been in place.

Again, we are thankful that we are all safe today. I am grateful that Esther and Ben seem to be matter of fact about the incident, although I am preparing myself in case we get more questions. I am hoping that the children do not find themselves having nightmares later. Meanwhile, our hearts go out to the families involved in the tragedy this morning as we pray for them at this time.

Zoo

Who needs to go to the zoo for a bit of interest when you can come and live in Tanzania?

Yesterday evening, I had a frog in my kitchen, a snake in the washing-machine room, 4 kittens and a cat in a box by the back door and a hedgehog sniffing round the cat-bowl. That's not to mention the geckos who live in our larder and bathrooms and all the many insects we do battle with on a daily basis. Or, a little further afield, the huge cow who nearly knocked Ben and I off our bikes as we went for a short cycle ride yesterday afternoon!
 This huge and very determined brown cow bore down on us with surprising speed- we just had time to pull our bikes into the bush at the side of the path before she galloped past- and even then, the overpowering stink of mud on her flanks nearly knocked us over! I'm still not sure whether I was more scared of being flattened by the run-a-way cow or of the snake that slithered past my bare feet last night on its way out of the back door!!
One thing is for certain. Life is never boring in Dodoma.

Only in Africa??

We had a bit of an accident in the car yesterday.

I was driving along with the 3 children, on our way to a swimming outing at a conference centre on the main road to Dar es Salaam. Not far from home, on a quiet side street before reaching the busy main road, the car gave a huge "bang!". It lurched forward heavily into the ground as if I had hit a huge pot-hole, whilst the engine gave up its powerful roar and switched to a feeble moaning sound. The car shuddered to an unexpected halt.

 Thinking that I must have had hit a pot-hole that I hadn't spotted in the road (a high possibility, as this road is badly riddled with pot-holes even by Dodoma standards!!) , I had a final attempt at my usual getting-out-of-Tanzanian-potholes trick. I switched off the engine, then restarted it, ready to try a bit of action with the acceleration in 1st gear. But the engine barely came alive. The gears and steering were not responding.

"What's happening, Mummy?" shouted the children, impatient to get to their friends for our fun swimming outing.

Not sure what was going on myself, I climbed out and walked around the car- and was rather shocked at what I saw! From the front..:

...from the left-hand side:

And on closer inspection:

The car looked pretty sorry for itself, stranded in the middle of the road:

 There was no pot-hole under the car when I bent down to inspect the road, so I realised that what had happened was not because of recklessly careering over one of the muddy craters in the road. I climbed back into the car as the heavens opened and torrential rain started hammering on the roof. Taken aback and unsure what to do next, I told the children what had happened. They wanted to see for themselves, so we all climbed down into the rain and had a good look, then climbed back inside. Fortunately, we were already clad in our swimming costumes under our clothes, so getting a good soaking didn't matter!
Stranded in a broken car with 3 small children, with several onlookers stopping around us and exclaiming in surprise, it took me a few moments to decide what to do next! I attempted to call the MAF garage, but realised that I did not have the mechanic's number on my mobile phone! (An oversight that I have since rectified!). Andrew is away until Friday evening, so I was not sure who to call next... As I was wondering what to do, a very good idea came to me- and I called a very capable MAF friend who I was confident would have all the answers, as well as all the phone numbers that I would need! Sure enough, our friend Patricia came to our rescue, asking all the right questions, ready with all the practical suggestions I needed in my slighty numbed state and able to call the garage on my behalf.
It was a very welcome sight when Patricia came into view in her car, closely followed by the MAF garage vehicle! In the meantime, I had made quite a lot of new friends with local interested bystanders! A grandfather on his bike, offering condoleances. A tribesman dressed in a blue "shuka" (a type of sheet worn around the body) from out of town,  who seemed absolutely stunned by what he was looking at. A group of very sympathetic grannies and mums, who loved Esther, Ben and Joel and were quite concerned for them,  ushering them into the shade of a road-side tree as the sun came out again. Some not-so-helpful young men, who kept telling me that my car wheel had fallen off- a fact that I was painfully aware of!!

However, help had now arrived. The rescue was underway! Both mechanics were reassuring. No, the accident was not my fault (phew!!). Yes, it looked like the car could eventually be towed back to MAF, although they would need to work hard first to lift it and would need to find a stronger tow truck. Apparently, the bearing that holds the wheel in the correct place and directs the steering had worn away, so the whole wheel mechanism had collapsed. This is the offending bearing:

And this is the consequence of it breaking:

In true Tanzanian style, one of the MAF mechanics had taken down some branches off a nearby tree to place them in the road as a warning to oncoming vehicles. I just had to get a photo of that- it is so typically Tanzanian!

A mechanic also showed me the marks in the road where the mechanism had fallen and started to drag through the tar, before the actual wheel fell and got lodged under the car itself.

This particular road is so full of holes and in such bad condition that I hadn't distinguished the bumping and grinding noises of the collapsing wheel from the general banging and bumping that I associate with driving in Tanzania!!

I was told that the bearing could have given way at any time. If I had been going fast, driving down the main road a few minutes later and hemmed in by buses, trucks and speeding cars, the consequences could have been far, far worse. Apparently, I would have lost all control of the vehicle if I had been going at speed. So I was flooded with a sense of thankfulness that all 3 children and I had been kept safe and that the collapse happened when and where it did. The "what ifs?" of it all happening just a few roads later do not bear thinking about. We were definitely being looked after yesterday. For those of you who pray for our safety on the roads out here, I think we can say that your prayers were being answered! :-)

I am also incredibly grateful for the friends we are blessed with here in Dodoma. Patricia took great care of us, putting her own plans on hold while she helped us out. First, she took me home to collect my camera for the shots above (as much for Andrew's benefit as well as for this blog!!), then took us 4 wet waifs in her car to MAF Compound B , to new friend Jenny's house. The children were happily distracted by biscuits, muffins, drinks and a chance to play with their friends. I was thankful for the lovely cup of nice, hot tea- mmm, there's nothing like a cuppa for a true English-woman, to calm her nerves in a drama, even in far-off Africa!!- and also a bar of much-treasured chocolate!! (thanks, Jenny, I know what sharing  a precious bar of chocolate means to us all out here in Dodoma!! :-) )

When we got back to Compound A, I took the children for a quick swim in the MAF pool, since we were already damp and were still wearing our costumes! After the swim, we were relieved to see that the MAF mechanics had done a great job in successfully towing our car back to the MAF car-park:

#

The children posed for some shots, with their "dramatic" expressions in front of the empty wheel cab:

If the correct parts can be located, the problem is "fix-able". So we should not be stuck for too long without our much-used car. 

I can't help noting that this is the 3rd machine that has broken since we got back to Tanzania this year!! Hopefully this means that there are no more breakages to come, as breakages often seem to happen in threes...??!! Perhaps I am just being silly and superstitious! BUT I know I am not being silly when I repeat how grateful we are that we were kept safe yesterday and that we are all here today! We may be in Africa, where road safety and vehicle maintenance is not always up to the standard that it should be, but Psalm 91 verse 11 tells me that "He orders his angels to protect you wherever you go". I feel that this was proved true for us yesterday, here in Africa as much as it would be anywhere else. 

Easter-time Eggcitement

It has been an Easter full of activity and excitement!

Easter-time began with a bit of preparation in the form of a Hot-Cross-Bun-Making Saturday! Joined by 2 lovely teachers from Esther and Ben's school, the bun-making began on the Saturday before Easter:

Mmmmm- tasty-looking hot cross buns ready to pop into the oven...

 The proof is, of course, in the eating- so we had to try to try them out- and they tasted very good!

A few days later, it was time for the traditional annual Easter play at the school. Ben's class were involved in the singing, sporting their Easter crowns! They sang beautifully! Ben is in the second row... you probably can't see him, but I promise that he is there, singing his heart out!

Oh, here's a brief glimpse!

The older primary children did a wonderful job of portraying the Easter story, with some very moving scenes and great singing from their "Gospel Choir":

Later that same day, the action continued at home, with a MAF Farewell BBQ in our back garden. The Dodoma MAF staff gathered together to wish our Programme Manager well. He will soon be leaving his job in Tanzania and returning to his home in Finland with his family.

As far as the children were concerned, the most exciting part of the BBQ was toasting marshmallows over the dying charcoal fire:

The next exciting event was the arrival of Auntie Claire from Kenya, on Thursday evening! It's been great to have her back in Dodoma with us, spending the school holidays with us and celebrating Easter.
I had brought some genuine UK chocolate Easter eggs back in my suitcase in February, and it was definitely well worth squeezing them in so that we could have fun opening them on Easter day!

Claire also brought us some Kinder-Surprise Easter eggs from Nairobi, which turned out to be most appropriate for a MAF pilot family, as the "surprise" inside was a set of model mini-aeroplanes!

Easter brought some exciting arrivals from England, with a parcel from my Mum, containing chocolate treats including these cute little chicks, which we used to create Easter cakes:

 The cakes were made to take to the Easter-day party that we went to on the other MAF compound- an Easter celebration combined with a 70th birthday party for our MAF friend/ Keep-Fit teacher, Margaret:

We all had a really fun afternoon- great food, crazy party games, good company, birthday cake and a time to greet the birthday girl! Here's Esther passing on her congratulations to birthday-girl Margaret:

For the children, the fun just kept going when we had a night of rain, providing cooler weather and a chance to drink hot chocolate (with mini-marshmallows from Nana's parcel) without us feeling too hot and sweaty to enjoy it!

 For me, Easter Monday was super-exciting: MY NEW WASHING MACHINE ARRIVED!!!

 All the way from Dar es Salaam, transported by a visiting MAF family from Dar. I don't know if they fully appreciate how very, very grateful I am to get this fabulous new machine, to get it plugged in to my new voltage-protector and to start using it!! Has ever a machine been so well received??

It's a good job I've got it up and running, as the rains came again on Thursday night, bringing oodles of soggy mud to our garden, which of course, meant extra fun for Ben and his friends..

 With Ben having so much fun, my machine is going to be put to VERY good use!

 Muddy play means consequences for my children as well as my new washing machine, but Esther and Ben seem quite happy to clean their muddy wellies, treating it as part of their Easter holiday fun!

And a final exciting event in the past week, which has thoroughly delighted Esther, Ben and Joel, has been the arrival of  four furry bundles of joy, courtesy of Moshi-Mother-Cat: