Muheza Update: Hillview House, October 10, 2008

We’ve been here a week now and have fallen into a routine of sorts. Up at 6-6:30 and boil water for coffee (we buy the coffee from the market and roast it ourselves). Breakfast is by 7. How we boil water and what we eat depends on whether we have power. Boys cycle to school with Leah. The boys’ school is a 45 minute plus walk along road and trails or a 30 minute cycle which includes a fair bit of pushing bikes up hills. Once we get a bike, we’ll probably take turns accompanying the boys to school.

Ambrose and Leah go to the hospital. The housekeeper, Juliete, arrives at 8. Juliete makes lunch, washes the floor and does laundry by hand every day plus washing windows, sweeping the yard, cleaning shoes and many other chores she performs on a schedule known only to her. She also teaches us Kiswahili.

Hillview House is on the hospital grounds and only a few hundred yards from the main building. From dawn until the late evening, there are streams of people walking up and down this road to seek medical services or bring food to a family member. Ambrose and Leah come home for breaks and lunch as do Alex and Emily, 2 lovely UK doctors, also volunteering at Teule Hospital. Ilsa, a doctor from the Netherlands who also lives at the house usually comes home for lunch also.

Leah cycles to school with the boys and she and/or Ambrose cycle/walk to school to meet the boys and bring them home at 3. We joined them on Tuesday. It was a long hot walk, but beautiful. It is a lovely area with valleys and hills, and gorgeous tress and flowering shrubs. It is not usual for Mzungu to cycle and also not common for children to have bicycles so there is a fear the boys will be mugged for the bikes if they are not accompanied by adults on the trip.

Most of the Muheza we see is market – woodworkers, vegetables, grains, eggs, dairy, soda pop, clothes, shoes, sisal rope, fabric (kangas and katangas), fundi (repair places), general stores, hardware, phone cards.... Due to the small size of the fridge, the frequent power interruptions, and the heat causing food to spoil quickly, food is purchased close to the time it will be used so there is usually one trip to the market everyday if not several.

It is unusual for Wazungu (Europeans/White folks plural of Mzungu) to cycle so there are often comments as we cycle by. The bikes are a blog unto themselves. They are either poorly build or poorly assembled or not suited for this climate and terrain as parts fall off/shake loose on a regular basis. There have been many trips to the fundi. Fortunately the cost is rarely more than 50 cents a visit.

Most afternoons or evenings the boys and Rose and sometimes Ambrose play a game called Settlers of Catan which Sal and Rose gave Simon for his birthday. It is a great game and changes every time we play.

Every day we filter litres and litres of water for drinking. Apparently giardia is common.
Hillview is the biggest house on the hospital compound so it hosts the Wazungu dinners every Wednesday night. The intention of the weekly dinners was to provide a place where the medical students could check in to ensure they were managing the emotional impact of being here.
We have begun to do some volunteer work ourselves. A doctor from the UK named Sally (who has been providing ob/gyn for over 6 years) asked us to compile and price check the hospital’s next drug order. This involves checking prices on-line and inputting the information onto a spread sheet of drugs to be ordered. Given the unreliability of the internet connection, it has been a bit of a challenge, but we are almost done.

Rose has met with Sister Gwynneth at the local Catholic School (which includes Muslin students as well) and will be introducing the United Republic of Tanzania Information and Communication Technology Primary School Syllabus to Standards 3-6 starting next week for 2 half hour sessions a week per class. Griff and Sy are threatening to call in sick, take long bathroom breaks etc during their new IT teachers time slot as we will be starting with – “This is a computer.”
Sally will probably do some reading with students as well. She also hopes to meet with the program leader of a group providing services to orphaned and vulnerable children in the region, to see if there is anything she can do with this program.

We have also successfully done a few shops on our own at the market. Lots of smiling and pointing. We’re starting to get a few basics – greetings, “how much?”, numbers, but still draw a blank a lot too!

Yesterday was Leah’s Birthday. We helped make a nice b-day dinner, including butter tart slice TZ style, and a nice bottle of South African wine.

It’s just after 4pm. We’ve returned from the market with fixings for dinner. The boys are outside playing marbles. We will go to the hospital computer room and try and get access to the internet. (We didn't get access until the morning of the 11th)

Kwa heri (goodbye) for now