Curiosity

When we were surrounded by spectators on last Saturday's outing, Andrew smiled knowingly and commented, "Welcome to my world."

For Andrew, being an object of curiosity is commonplace. His arrival out of the blue African skies onto remote village airstrips in a shiny MAF plane can create alot of interest. In some cases, Andrew has a long wait in the villages while the doctors, medical teams and evangelists complete their work. Sometimes, Andrew heads to the plane to pass part of the long, hot day reading or to grab a snack. In some rural areas where foreigners are rarely seen and where aeroplanes are a complete novelty, Andrew's every move is  monitored by crowds of curious onlookers. People are keen to get a glimpse of this visitor from another world, a foreign white man who drops in from the air in a noisy plane! In Tanzania, there is no embarrassment in staring and Andrew becomes like a character on a TV show as he is closely watched by shifting crowds of locals...

To give you some idea of what it can feel like to be the object of curiosity, here are some of Andrew's photos from a more isloated village, from his pilot's perspective inside the plane:

Being watched at the windows...

 

Being watched at the doors!

 

 

Peace and Quiet...???

We had such a good time at our self-named "Flamingo Lake" a couple of weekends ago that we decided to spread the word and share the joy of a visit out to a "peaceful" place in the countryside! So we sent round an open invitation inviting friends to join us for a morning trip with a bring-your-own picnic lunch. 

On Saturday, several friends joined us on this second outing to the lake. We had promised great views of the flamingoes and a peaceful picnic spot. Here are the gang who came along with Andrew, Esther, Ben, Joel and I:

As we headed off-track and across the rural landscape, our 6 large vehicles surprised several pedestrians out walking on the dusty tracks near the lake. They looked up in amazement as one after another 4x4 vehicle bumped past on the rocky, sandy ground. We were not as inconspicuous as we had been a couple of weekends ago when just 2 vehicles appeared out of nowhere for the afternoon! Our 6 cars were very obvious, gathered on the dusty expanse of the shore with a tarpaulin shade cover rigged up between the roof-racks:

Once the shade cover was up, several of our group set out to walk to the edge of the lake and view the flamingoes, who were still very much in evidence on the lake:

By the time the explorers had returned from the lakeside to our picnic spot under the tarpaulin, "The News" had spread!! Local people literally flocked to the site where we were parked, to view these strangers from another place who had unexpectedly driven past them earlier and who had arrived in their locality bringing lots of strange equipment in their very large cars!
 I have lived in Tanzania long enough now to know that, wherever you go, no matter how remote it seems, you will never be as alone as you may imagine. People are always near. People are always watching. This will apply especially if you arrive in an obvious way, with a group of people and with cars full of energetic children eager to get out and about and to explore! We attracted a LOT of attention on Saturday!

Very quickly, local children gathered on rocks to watch us all:

A group of young lads came hurrying over from the nearby village and they spotted the football one MAF family had brought- so an inpromptu game of football was soon underway:

Meanwhile, another group of young people came simply to stare at us all, as we sat eating sandwiches and drinking tea under our shade cover. There is no shame in staring in Tanzanian culture; as we sat on our picnic blankets and camp chairs, carrying on with our planned picnic, our every move was scrutinised by these young men:

We must have looked incredibly odd to them, with our funny foreign food, our flasks of tea, with our camping furniture and all huddled together under the tarpaulin in a shade-hungry group, so determined to be in the shade that we sat there putting up with the clouds of dust which billowed across the dry shore on this windy Saturday! We provided quite a novelty for them all to stare at, with our foreign language and pale skins, appearing all of a sudden out of the blue in their rural community where 4x4 cars and foreigners are simply not common sights!

It wasn't long before the village elders had heard the news and walked out across the shore to come and talk to us- to find out who we are, what we are doing, how long we were staying and whether we would pay them an allowance for the privilege of visiting their area. When we refused to pay money, as we were not actually on village land, they asked for a gift of fruit juice instead. Since we didn't have any juice, only water, one elder laughed and decided to take his leave, soon followed by his friends.

The children were not so easily drawn away. They were extremely excited when Andrew offered them some free children's Christian booklets in Swahili. In fact, Andrew all but disappeared in the enthusiastic crowd!

Some of our kids encountered the curiosity of the local kids at close quarters as they clambered and played on nearby rocks, literally surrounded by eager faces gazing at them in surprise and amazement

This time round, our trip to the lake of flamingoes had a very different flavour. It was more "interesting" than restful! We had organised the outing with promises of flamingo views and a peaceful picnic spot. Our friends who joined us did get to see the flamingoes, but they did not exactly get the peace and quiet they may have hoped for out in the countryside!

Wild Flamingoes

As a pilot, Andrew sees incredible sights in this beautiful country of Tanzania. Sights that the rest of us can only dream of. Flying over the vast landscape, Andrew is often in the privileged position of seeing wildlife in their natural habitat, albeit from a bird's eye view!

Each month, whilst transporting a team of evangelists and medical workers to remote villages to carry out their vital work, Andrew flies over several salt lakes on the outer rim of the Dodoma region:

At certain times of  the year, Andrew notices that crowds of flamingoes flock to these lakes. He tells me that sometimes, the birds rise up in groups,one after the other like a concertina effect, creating waves of pink that dip and dive several thousand feet below his aircraft. It must be an amazing sight!

Last weekend, Andrew decided that it was time to go and find this lake by land transport, so that we could also enjoy the view of  his wild flamingoes, but from the ground! His overhead view had shown him that getting there by car would be a challenge, as part of the journey would be fully off-road. Only the very sturdiest of 4x4 vehicles would make it! It would also be tricky to know exactly where to drive, as flying over a landscape is completely different from travelling there in a car! With this in mind, Andrew made a sensible plan to travel there with just one other family, who were prepared for a bit of adventure and knew the potential we had for getting lost!

However, we had a very successful trip last Sunday to the lake of wild flamingoes out in the bush, just 45 minutes drive from Dodoma. The Beckwith family who came with us were great travel companions, fully prepared for the unknowns of some off-road driving! Here are some photos of our afternoon outing as our 2 families headed off on our adventure after attending church:

On the way....

You can't see Andrew for dust...full speed ahead over a dried-up lake en-route: he's looking forward to his barbequed meat on the shores of the next lake!

Seriously off-road:

We've arrived! Now, where shall we set up a shade-cover and the BBQ??

The older girls go off to explore...

Looking out flamingo-direction...It was incredible to see so may birds there, just carrying on with their life in the wild! It was amazing to be able to get fairly close up and then to eat our lunch watching over this beautiful, natural and unspoiled lake:

The BBQ site:

The mud in the salt-lake shores is tricky to walk through! Esther's feet got stuck...

 It proved to be much easier to walk without shoes back to our lunch site!

 Apart from wild flamingoes, Andrew discovered this fresh paw-print- it looks rather ominous! Hopefully the big cat that this paw print must belong to only likes fresh animal meat as opposed to marinaded, barbequed meat! Thankfully, we didn't see any other signs of him whilst we were there!

Checking all is well on our home-made BBQ:

Then just enough time to relax...

 ...before heading home again...

Weird and Wonderful

We get some weird creatures in our garden and home in Dodoma.

I am not quite sure what this is... it looks like a leaf, but it crawls! And when you get close up, it is really quite cute:

 He was quite happy on Ben's hand, but personally, I did not enjoy the feel of his sticky little feet on my skin!! Ugh!! Ben is much braver than his mum with "wadudu" ("insects" in Swahili!!).

As for this praying mantis, I find them such fascinating creatures, with their swivelling heads, bulging eyes , skinny stick-like bodies and wings that look just like the leaf he is climbing!

This chap wasn't too happy about having his picture taken. He gave me quite a look, turning his head to give me a hard stare! I didn't dare to touch him- apparently they can give a nasty bite!

Unfortunately, we have lots of the nastiest of weird creepy crawlies in Dodoma- the revolting cockroach! The way they wave their nasty little antennae and the way they scuttle around at 50 miles an hour when I try to capture them gives me the creeps! However, it truly was wonderful to get up in the morning and find this one swimming in the toilet, instead of crawling around in my kitchen! A few flushes later and this one had departed to the underworld of the Dodoma sewerage system- far more suitable than lurking in the dark corners of my cupboards!

Eye Clinic

Joel has conjunctivitis, worse than he has ever had it before. It is not unusual to suffer with conjunctivitis in Dodoma, especially in this Dry Season, when dust and sand are blown about all day and night in the arid air.  Poor Joel: his red, weeping eyes look so sore. Last night, he woke up in the night screaming, as he could not open his eyes, stuck together with the unpleasant eye-discharge. He was so was afraid of the darkness that resulted. Happily, we know an eye doctor from the UK, who works at the university across town. We contacted him and he told us that, in the morning, he would be carrying out a free eye clinic in the centre of town, so if I brought Joel along early, he would examine his eyes! That was good timing for us.

I duly set off  with Joel and accompanied by my new friend Stacey (a new MAF family, from Australia, here in Dodoma for a  year). As we walked across the town square, nice and early in the morning, we were a little taken aback at how many potential patients had already arrived for the free eye-screening clinic!

The equipment was all set up on one side of the town square, ready to start the examinations:

But there were no free chairs for me and Joel to join the throng of patients- and this is only at 9 o'clock in the morning! The people just kept on arriving and arriving...it was a busy place to be and I wondered how on earth I could get Joel seen before sunset if I joined the crowds sitting behind us! Little Joel was also feeling a bit too warm and I didn't want him to get more unwell with a slowly rising fever by hanging about in the hot sun...

To entertain the multitude, the sponsors of the free eye screening event had set up an elaborate, colourful tent from which to make speeches exalting the virtues of their own work and also encouraging people to make the most of this great opportunity to get a free eye test. In a country where health care is an expensive service that must be paid for by patients, I felt it was justifiable to have all this pomp and ceremony in order to advertise a healthcare service that was actually free for today! There were even TV cameras filming the event!

The Doctor had not yet arrived. We stood and listened to the speeches for a few minutes, but were conscious that we were attracting attention as the only non-Tanzanians present. People seemed rather curious as to why we would be there. Starting to feel a little uncomfortable, I sent a text message to Doctor Brian to let him know that we were waiting with the crowds at the Square. His surprised response made me laugh: "Is there a crowd?" Oh, yes, I thought, just wait until you see how many people are here to greet you! It was going to be a busy day for the eye doctor!

A few minutes later, Dr Brian arrived in town. Sensitive to the fact that many, many people wanted to see him, but that he had promised to look at Joel early on, he very wisely suggested that I should bring Joel across the road to the ice-cream parlour so that he could examine him quietly, out of view of the busy crowd. I was very grateful for this suggestion. It meant that Joel could be seen quickly, without sparking the resentment of other patients who didn't know the situation. It could be very awkward if the Dr arrived and immediately singled out one patient from all the others, especially those who had arrived before us- and it would look like favouritism if the white child was given precedence over all the other Tanzanian children present. It was so kind of Dr Brain to take a few minutes before his hectic day to look at Joel's eyes.

It was wonderful to have the professional advice of an expert and to receive a prescription for eye drops that I could be confident was the correct dosage and age-appropriate. This is not always a luxury that we have available to us in Dodoma. Huge thanks to the doctor today for making our day 100 times easier than it could have been if he hadn't told us about the clinic or taken time to see Joel.
I have to say, it is the first time any of my children have had a medical consultation in an ice-cream parlour! But there's a first time for everything! It was rather pleasant to sit at the plastic tables during the eye consultation, with a carton of refreshing mango juice I had just purchased -this is something I've never been able to do in England when my children go to see the doctor at the eye-clinic!

Irony

Irony can be a funny thing.

This weekend, we went to stay at the Guest House at St Philip's College in Kongwa, to enjoy some family time (to see Kongwa Guest House, see previous visits: May 2012 and 2010). We had a great weekend spending time together and enjoying the full-board option this time, with delicious meals prepared by a lovely lady named Hawa (which is Swahli for "Eve"- and guess what her twin brother is called...? Adam :-))

On Saturday evening, the college started to have problems with their water tank. This meant there was no water in any of the taps from Saturday evening inwards. There was still rain water stored in outdoor tanks from the previous rainy season, which was great for drinking, boiling or cooking, but washing was a luxury. "O, don't worry", we told our hosts cheerfully, "When we get home we can have our showers!" So we opted to stay dirty and dusty and happily enjoyed our last morning at Kongwa, before returning home to Dodoma after Hawa's tasty Sunday lunch of beef and rice.

Just before 2pm, I put the key in the lock back in our MAF home and opened the front door, expecting a clean home with the option to shower before visiting friends across town for a birthday celebration- but this is the sight that met my eyes:

I was most surprised to see this great puddle of water spreading out across the lounge floor! Hastily, I paddled through the water to see how far it reached into our home.

This is what I discovered:

 All 3 bedrooms had water covering the floors and several items were soaking wet, like Ben's soggy sandals!  Mosquito nest trailed in the murky flood water and the place smelt damp. I was very sad that my wonderful Union Jack "Keep Calm" storage box was ruined after absorbing so much water, including several of the books I had kept inside.
The water spread across the entire house, filling the bathroom areas, right through the kitchen and out the back room to the back door:

Cupboards had retained water, with the contents of drawers and bottom shelves needing to be be pulled out, wet and dripping. Amazingly, the water had not reached any of our electrical equipment, computer equipment or into the food larder and had not yet spread as far as the sofas or the children's very full floor-level bookcase in the lounge- this was all a huge relief!

Now the clean-up job had to begin, with help from fantastic neighbours who made themselves available and really put some muscle into Operation Mop-Up!

 The lounge and patio were transformed into drying-off areas- what a mess!

After all that work, we were even more in need of showers! Yet we had quickly discovered on our return home that we had absolutely NO water in our house at all! On further investigation, it transpired that the entire compound had had no water since Saturday evening and that the water tank for our houses was completely empty!
Double irony: not only could we not take those expected showers that we had so cheerfully anticipated from a dry Kongwa, but we came from one waterless situation to another waterless place, with a flood to greet us on our arrival!!

It was a bit of a mystery as to how we could have a flood in our home in such a dry place! Gradually we pieced together the reason for our flood... When we had left on Friday afternoon, all the water for our MAF compound had been switched off. We had all gone to use the bathroom one by one before our journey- and one of us had unwittingly left the bathroom tap in the "on" position, since no water was coming out.

We merrily departed, but sometime on Friday evening the water had been switched back on- and flowed freely out of our bathroom tap- and on- and on- right through the night and far into the day on Saturday! There was so much water, it must have poured freely out of the small sink and filled up our house.

However, on Saturday evening, next door had a severe leak in their water pipe, losing litre after litre of precious water before anyone realised- and by then it was too late: our water tank at MAF had run dry! All the houses on our compound lost their water supply- and our busy tap was halted mid-task in its unfortunate flooding of our home! This was an annoying inconvenience for all of our neighbours- but a very happy situation for us Parkers, since the flood was halted!

 We are so thankful that the water was stopped when it was, lessening the impact of the low-level flood in our home. We were therefore quite happy to tolerate our stinking toilets that could not be flushed, a filthy floor that cannot be mopped with clean water, a sink-full of dirty dishes that cannot be washed, the dank mountain of soggy clothes, towels, toys and sheets that need to be washed after sitting in dirty water for much of this weekend and our smelly selves that we have attempted to wash in rationed amounts of bottled drinking water, purchased last night at the shop down the road! All this is a small price to pay when we consider how much more we could have lost in our home if the MAF water supply had not run out when it did! As I was saying, irony can be a funny thing...