Unpleasantries

There are a couple of less pleasant aspects to our domestic life in Tanzania.

One of these is the flies which buzz about everywhere. They have an uncanny knack of making their way into my home, especially when food is being cooked, despite the fly-netting we have on the doors and windows. One day in December, I waged war using insect spray and I counted at least 40 dead flies on my window sills when I had finished! The mosquitoes at this time of year are also a problem in the evening and early mornings, bringing with them the ever-worrying problem of malaria.

Another unpleasant fact, especially during this season, is the constant burning of small fires, lit to get rid of people's household rubbish. People light them in the street, on patches of common ground and near their gateways, either during the day or early evening and then leave them to smoulder, which can continue through the night. Everything seems to be placed on these fires to burn, from dry leaves to potato peelings to plastic bottles; the result is very smoky, foul-smelling fires. This is rather a frustration for us in our homes, as the wind here in Dodoma invariably blows the fumes over our home and in through our windows, with smoke curling under the doorframes and infiltrating every room. It can get so smoky in the MAF houses that our neighbour's smoke alarm has been set off!

Since there is no organised local-council rubbish collection like many countries are privileged to have, the fires are one way people keep their homes and yards clear of junk. However, they are not strictly necessary, since there is an alternative option to have your waste taken away by local workers who pull heavy, old carts around the streets and collect up the rubbish to dispose of it at the town's rubbish dump- where the poorer people can be seen sifting through it to find bits they might be able to use. The drawback of having your rubbish taken away for you is that you have to pay the cart-pullers to do so- not very much money, but enough to put people off the idea in a country where the average household income is very low.

As a result, we often have homes filled with acrid smoke, which burns our eyes and throats and makes the home smell most unpleasant. I struggle most of all with the night-time fires, since we cannot escape the fumes- the doors can't be opened in case the mosquitoes come in and the windows can't be closed to keep out the smoke, as they are slatted with gaps to let the air in! There is not much we can do about this problem.

BUT at least when it comes to the flies and mossies, we can go on the attack! One way we can do this is to spray our slatted windows and our fly-netting with some potent poison mixture from the local doctor's surgery, similar to the mixture we coat our mosquito nets with. It may make the windows look dirty, but since Margaret came in last Thursday to do the great deed of spraying, I have hardly seen a fly or a mossie in my house :-)

Margaret on the offensive, in make-shift protective gear to avoid the fumes herself:

Salon Parker

One of the first things I need to do on returning to the UK is to book appointments with the doctor, the dentist (if they will let us sign up again after our absence abroad, during which time we have simply relied on regular brushing with "Colgate" to take care of our teeth) and also the hairdresser.
It has been almost a year since Esther and I had the opportunity for a hair-cut with a hairdresser used to the hair of an "mzungu" (white person) and I am starting to get desperate as my hair grows out of control! I have tried a bit of hairdressing on myself but Andrew warned me that it was best I stopped quickly, before I made a total mess! It is not something I am gifted at! So the girls of the house must wait a few weeks yet before we can have the luxury of a visit to the hairdresser.

Meanwhile, the boys of the house have clippers to use and our rather frightening-looking, but very effective, kitchen scissors to trim the unruly edges. Our house was transformed into a Barber's Shop for Andrew and Ben. Claire did a great job with Andrew's hair (he won't let me near his hair, after he saw what I did to my own!!) and Andrew did a great job with Ben's:

Mums With Tums

There are currently 4 Tanzanian MAF Dodoma office workers who are expecting a baby during the next few months- and then there are 2 MAF overseas workers who have returned to the UK and Switzerland respectively and have just had their second babies- and then there is myelf due in April- and then there is also the Mum of Esther's birthday-party friend, Elisabeth, who is expecting her 4th baby in March this year (not to mention Moshi who had her kittens 3 weeks ago!!). With all these expectant Mums, there must be something in the water here in Dodoma...

At Esther and Elisabeth's party on Monday evening, Elisabeth's mum and myself compared bumps:

Expecting a baby in a place where expert medical care is hard to access has been a little worrying at times. So to put my mind at rest and have my second check-up in 6 and a half months of pregnancy, Andrew and I took the long road trip to Dar es Salaam on Tuesday this week. Claire very kindly stayed home in Dodoma with Esther and Ben, making the trip easier with the limited time we had (and it sounds like the 3 of them had great fun together!).

Andrew and I left early on Tuesday and made sure we were home by Wednesday evening in time for Esther's birthday the next day. It was a long way to go, with a 6 hour road trip each way, but Dar es Salaam is far more developed as a city than Dodoma and there is a very good private clinic where I could get a reliable scan, check-up and the advice that I need at this stage in my pregnancy. It was reassuring to get the medical all-clear this week.

Here are some images taken on our trip back home: from the busy bustle of Dar, through the rural villages until we reached the less developed Dodoma at nightfall...

City centre Dar, looking towards the Dar MAF office (the flat red-roof building to the left of the church):

Views of the ocean as we drive along Dar's busy and overcrowded streets:A very exciting sight for us Dodoma-dwellers- a shopping centre with western-style shops and a large food supermarket! This is a long way from Dodoma, where traditional wooden "dukas" rule the shopping areas. In Dar, we can stock up on supplies before heading home:

As we drive out of Dar, the city also gives way to the "dukas" and the streets are bustling with shoppers in a more typical Tanzanian style. Traffic is slow as we head along the busy one-lane main road out of the Big Smoke, contending with "dalla-dalla" mini-buses, 4x4s, lorries, tuk-tuk (sp??) passenger-carriers (the little blue+ black vehicles on the left + centre of the picture), buses, bikes and cars.

A few hours along the route, opportunities for buying goods still pop up occasionally. Some villages have surplus supplies of potatoes and onions, displayed in colourful buckets for passers by to purchase- an eye-catching sight:

In this rainy season, the countryside along our route looks so green compared to the rest of the year. We enjoyed the transformation from dusty-brown views seen for so much of the year to beautiful village scenes set against the greenery and villages with full watering-holes:

Despite some rather bumpy road-works in places...... and some less-than-smooth roads somewhat worn out and melted by the sun's fierce heat in this hot country......we were grateful for safe travels and the opportunity for the medical check-up. Hopefully, the next check-up will be in England, where the availability of reliable and close-at-hand medical care is certainly something I should not take for granted!

Five Years Later...

From this tiny tot...

...to celebrating 5 happy years later with Esther! The birthday girl on her birthday, with one of Moshi's kittens: Esther marked her special day with 2 celebrations. First of all, she shared a joint party on Monday evening with her Swedish friend, Elisabeth, who has her 6th birthday this month. The girls opted for a "Girls Only" Pyjama Party, which was lots of fun!There was nail painting in the Nail Painting Parlour of our lounge...
...cup cake decorating...
Birthday tea...
Birthday cake x2 (one for each birthday girl):
And after changing into pyjamas, there was time for pass the parcel:
Secondly, on the actual birthday day, Esther invited her friend from school, Sam, for a special lunch- and had another birthday cake too! Sam was barred from Monday's birthday party on the grounds that he is not a girl, but instead he was the guest of honour on Thursday, joining the birthday princess for a "home-cinema" experience after lunch and the 2nd birthday cake (which we were able to decorate with strawberries when the strawberry seller from Morogoro just happened to turn up before lunch: a happy coincidence!)

Home Cinema-we hired a projector for the day- lots of fun for the little ones, who have yet to experience a real cinema (something to try out in the UK on our visit there later this year!)...
... with home-made popcorn too!

Finally: The strawberry and vegetable sellers by the MAF gates bringing a treat for Esther's birthday:

Tanzanian Tent-Wear

Being pregnant in a very hot Dodoma can be somewhat uncomfortable. However, help is at hand in the form of my Tanzanian Maternity Wear! It may not seem very fashionable or stylish to the English eye, but it is the best way to be comfy and to feel cooler, as I wear my self-named "tents"!
I now possess 3 "tents", which are incredibly comfortable and just perfect for the scorching temperatures here, as they simply float around my baby-bump and give lots of freedom for climbing in and out of the car, playing with the children, getting on with jobs at home... etc. Horray for my Tanzanian tent-wear!

My new tent, which I spotted in the market last week and my favourite one so far:

This bright and cheerful number was the gift given to me when I acted a "Guest of Honour" at the Nursery School graduation event a few weeks ago- hard to be inconspicuous while wearing it, but my Tanzanian friends love it!

A local lady made this last one for me out of some material I found at the market- it is very comfortable and I was impressed by how quickly Frida transformed a piece of cloth into a dress for me- I seriously lack skill in the sewing department, but many ladies out here are amazing with their dress-making expertise.