Saturday 25 May 2013

Confinement

Last weekend was pretty miserable in the Parker household. Ben's vomiting and his fever which crept past 40'C added to the general air of pestilence in the Parker's place! Esther, then Liz and then Joel had already been keeping the home thermometer busy earlier in the week, as they one by one succumbed to a nasty virus blowing around Dodoma. High fever, a hacking cough, nausea, runny nose and sneezing were the symptoms that we were all displaying.
On the Tuesday before, things seemed at their worst, when Liz had to take to her bed with chills and fevers, as a bottle of water, inhalers, strepsil tablets, lemsip, paracetamol tablets and the thermometer all jostled for space on her bedside table. Esther was tucked up in her bed in the next-door bedroom, as a miserable Joel and a very bored Ben wandered sadly around the unusually quiet house.
Andrew, meanwhile, was safely installed several hundred miles away in Arusha, having left early Monday morning and not due home again until Thursday afternoon! It was a tough few days for me in Dodoma, coping with being sick and yet having to keep going- we still needed meals, I still needed to wash up before the ants and cockroaches took over my kitchen, I still had to get up at 06:20 to get Ben off to school on the 07:15 school bus, with his packed lunch ready. I still needed to change Joel's nappies, care for a sick Esther and then a sick Joel as he became ill on Wednesday night with his temperature suddenly soaring past 40'C... The curtains were drawn, the door remained closed and the Parkers and their germs stayed within the 4 walls of our Tanzanian home: confined indoors for over a week!
When my children are ill here in Africa, it can make life seem tough as I worry. When our children are ill and I am also ill, it is a bit harder. When our children are ill and I am ill and Andrew is away, it is that bit harder! So last week was not the best week we have had in Dodoma!
Here in Tanzania, the onset of a high fever always awakes worries about malaria. So as a precaution, we always test for malaria whenever the temperature starts climbing past 39'C. Out comes the malaria home- testing kit:

Out comes the paraphernalia to start the testing process:
 
Two very hot, young brothers sit together on the sofa, relieved that the worst of the testing process is over- the jabbing of their heels with a sharp metal needle, to issue the necessary blood for the test:

The test starts to analyse the results of the blood and will show up any signs of malaria that could be present in the bloodstream:

Thankfully, the 4 of us who got ill and who were tested for malaria all had negative results :-). It is always a relief to be able to rule out malaria!
Despite Andrew's absence, our neighbours were very thoughtful- with friends dropping off DVDs to entertain the invalids, dropping off cakes to cheer us up, even very kindly cooking a wonderful meal for us one evening! Another friend took Ben for an afternoon earlier in the week, when he was still healthy and then took Esther another day when she was recovered and the other 3 of us were just getting back on our feet.We may have been confined for a while, but we were grateful to be still be very much part of a caring community here in Dodoma!

Monday 20 May 2013

V.I.P. passenger

This is the aeroplane which Andrew normally flies:
A cessna 206, a 6-seater plane (including Andrew's pilot seat).  Andrew took this photo when he was working up in northern Tanzania, where the "air-strips" are basic, as you can see from his photo! His plane is ideally suited for such basic conditions.

Last week, right up until Thursday, Andrew was scheduled to fly his plane, as pictured above, from Dodoma to Nairobi to pick up a V.I.P. passenger: none other than the newly installed Archbishop of Canterbury! Andrew was due fly early on Friday to go to Nairobi, pick up the archbishop Justin Welby and his wife and 2 other members of clergy and fly them back to Dodoma. With such an exciting passenger on the cards, we were all busy speculating at MAF Dodoma, wondering how we could get some photos and maybe even get to meet Andrew's passenger!

However, when MAF Kenya realised that a world-renowned V.I.P. had booked to fly with our organisation from Nairobi to Dodoma, they stepped in with the offer of a much larger and more comfortable aricraft: one that we do not have use of in Tanzania. Since Andrew does not fly this aricraft type, his schedule was changed and one of MAF Kenya's pilots now had the honour of flying our esteemed passengers down from Nariobi. And so it was that Justin Welby and wife and clergy colleagues arrived in Dodoma on Friday afternoon in this rather posher Pilatus PC12 MAF plane:

Since Andrew was no longer booked to fly on Friday, his work took him into the hangar, where his day now meant office-tasks and flight-following, rather than ferrying VIPs from one East African country to another, which also meant a far less stressful day for Andrew!
Another one of our MAF colleagues got in amongst the action on the run-way when the MAF Kenya plane landed here in Dodoma, getting permission to take photos despite the high security. He took some fantastic shots of the action. So for your interest, here are a couple of his photos of the big event on Friday afternoon! (Photo credits to the Beckwiths- thanks very much :-))




Monday 6 May 2013

Lion Rock

Dodoma is as flat as a pancake. Except, that is, for Lion Rock:


This is the largest rock around Dodoma. We do have one or two other rocky hills around the other side of town, but Lion Rock is the tallest formation on our side of Dodoma. It is famous for its appeal as something to actually climb in a mostly flat place! It is also notorious for the thieves who like to "relieve" would-be tourists of their possessions as they climb or descend the rock.
In my 3 and a half years in Dodoma, I have never ventured up The Rock. Partly out of fear, because of the tales we hear about knives flashing in the sunlight as innocent climbers are threatened by petty-minded robbers! And partly because I often feel too hot here to face the prospect of a hot- and therefore sweaty- clamber up to the top of a rock!

This omission in my Dodoma experience changed last week. May 1st, Wednesday, was a public holiday, meaning the children had the day off school. It occurred to me that now I had the perfect opportunity to "tick the box" and venture up Lion Rock! So, after a few emails in the proceeding days, a group was organised and 17 of us duly set out early on Wednesday morning to conquer the heights of Dodoma!

We met at 07:20 and by 07:30, off we went, complete with back-packs to carry toddlers and bags containing our packed breakfasts to munch at the "summit"! Any cameras were carefully concealed on our persons, while phones and watches were prudently left at home!

And up we went.... to the first little plateau, all smiling happily:

Time for the dads-with-toddlers to pose precariously on rocks like mountain goats (!!):

Onwards and upwards we climbed, until we reached the great summit of Lion Rock!

Breakfast was unpacked. Children were warned to stay well away from the edge of the rock-face (no ridiculously restrictive Health and Safety officials here to spoil the fun or take away the thrill for adventurous children!!). Esther, Ben and Joel sat down for a few brief moments with their friends to top up their never-ending energy with a spot of breakfast. Appropriately, the Parker packed breakfast was pancakes- in keeping with the flat landscape spread out before us!

The mums had a few minutes of well-deserved rest:

 No expedition would be complete for a Brit like me without the compulsory cup of tea...so out came the flask (you might recognise it from last week's blog- now that the rabies vaccinations are used up, I have a very nice, new flask to use!!), the tea-bags, the milk and the tea-spoon! Mmmm, what a tasty cuppa, with such a great view below!

I was a little nervous about Joel wandering off the edge at the top, so held on to him tightly after packing up the picnic breakfast! I think he was a bit taken aback at the slight wind-chill, sucking his thumb for comfort after being woken so early and carted up a bumpy hill to a cold place where he wasn't allowed to run freely!

Just to give you an idea of the general landscape around Dodoma, here is one of my photos- it is flat, flat, flat!! Maybe as you look at this, you might get a glimpse of how exciting this little outing was for us Dodoma-dwellers! (Ben and Esther were so excited about this trip that they were up and fully dressed by 6am, ready for our 7:10 departure!!)

 As we descended just over half way, I tried to get a photo of the MAF compound and hangar. It was harder to spot than I imagined, as Dodoma still has some lovely patches of green after the rainy season. For those with sharp eyes, perhaps you can pick out Dodoma's runway- that will give you an idea of where MAF is based!

Back down on the ground and the children keep going, full-pelt! Is there no end to their energy??

Joel was delighted to be out of his back-pack; he tramped happily along the sandy pathways:

Finally, back to the cars, a short ride home for the kids in the boot with friends and the whole day still stretching out ahead of them to have fun!
 We were home by 10am: time to put that kettle on and have another brew, at a lower elevation!