Finally a post

Rose and I just beat Simon and Graham 2 games straight at cribbage. Now it is time to reflect on our last few weeks.
You have heard from Leah lately and if you are reading the boys blogs you have even more idea of our tales

Got a speeding warning yesterday ( 85 in a 50) initially there was a suggestion of a 20,000 TZ.SH. fine but the more senior officer suggested a warning which garnered a hearty asante sana from me.

At a slower and hotter pace we still have a full life.It does end at 930ish at night although Leah and I watched our first movie ,since flying,the other night and stayed up to 11!
‘The Visitor’ highly recommended.

The ‘full life’ just has other less stressful and usually less time dependent issues. Going to the market to get today’s produce. A small fridge means daily market visits. Or roasting and grinding our own coffee beans. Using jay slater’s traveling coffee press technology we are hardly missing our Café Fantastico lattes (leah says’not’)

At present we are many .Graham is here which makes us whole at 5, Sally and Rose,plus we have daily visits from our new friends Alex and Emily , another couple who are docs here from England for 10 months.
They are staying with the nuns at the guest house at the school where the boys are attending and have lunch with us most days( Juliette’s soup is daily, different and delicious)
Ilse our last roommate( a dutch MD doing pediatric malaria research) has been here variably as her parents are visiting Tanzania for the first time from Holland and she is spending as much time with them as possible.

School for the boys is tolerated as they have other distractions ( Graham) and the courses work is a bit boring ad although lunch is provided.. beans rice and ugale (corn flour porridge) is not very appealing.They cycle with leah both ways every day ( unless a rain storm)This is strenuous and hot( afternoon rides can be up to 34 degrees C.) ,but they are getting fitter and fitter and the hills are flattening out. They started bringing a small lunch today and Leah meets them with a treat and water before their return sweat.

Rose has been teaching introductory IT up at the school to the 3rd through 6th formers with mutual enthusiasm.Sal is helping rose and dabbling in about 3 other projects . I think the boys like have them up at school( very familiar faces)

Much to our dear friend Paul Best’s chagrin we have started talking about Christmas and are making plans to go to Zanzibar.

I have been reading as much as I can both books ( slowly slogging through Paris 1919, embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of events that occurred before July 6 1954)newspapers, economists,walrures brought by Graham are being slowly devoured.

Not real happy about Canadian election results very sad for Brione Penn.
Highland political updates make me wish I was home to help during
the election.US election more promising. We get some info on line when power and internet connection and certain indeterminate stars line up appropriately. also I just found out that I can access CNN at the Diana center on some days

Can someone please lend me $$3.275 trillion or so?
those of you who know Dan Nevin( you should all know Dan.N.) should get a copy of an editorial he sent me ( and others I am sure) about the ‘Banksters”

Soccer a number of days a week is how I get a sweat up. Usually with a bunch of younger friends but once with men Graham’s age ( yes graham is a man) Griff stopped watching after awhile. It was not a pretty sight.After the game a fellow asked me if I would give him my soccer boots, I guess he felt I was wasting them or he realized there were many untapped goals still in them.

Silvia is in France for Paula’s 50th (I am not actually sure of the occasion but I am sure it is not her 60th) with Paula ( really) and joel.I found out our dear friends Suasan and Phillip ( who recently lost their wonderful son David)are meeting them and I seriously considered surprising them but just not enough notice to pull it off.

So for me this week was a perfect example of the wonders of this trip with all its ups and downs

Downs

-Graham left
-Sy not keen on school on Monday
-Long discussion with palliative care leadership( karilyn Collins the english MD who encouraged us to come and who developed much of the palliative care here during her 6 years here is visiting) executives of one of the Sainsbury trusts ( considering some funding). The challenges, the personalities, the politics felt quite overwhelming
-No power for over 50 hours( no fans!!,limited cooking- finally got kerosene cooker up and running for morning coffee)
-sally sick with GI complaints ( no further details necessary ) for 36 hours
-a poorly managed , poorly palliated pediatric death – very troubling and representative

Ups

-boys school routine better every day
-griff invited a new friend home for marbles and xactica( card game)
-10 visiting brits( Anglican donors-don’t usually hang with Anglican donors) brought along with their faith a grand enthusiasm- and another new card game Wizard.we assisted in hosting them even with a candlelight meal their first night here and other meals and times together. If you come and visit we found a great “bar/restaurant” the we call Frankie’s ( after the”Maitre D”). we had dinner there for graham’s last night and had 2 large wasungu dinners there over the last week.good food, cold beer, great conversations
-I finally won at Settlers of Catan.. a slightly hollow victory as simon made a late trade out of sympathy rather than strategy . but for now I will take it
-leah and my biggest highlight this week( after a few tough days in a row) occurred when we prepared ( adapted and improved) our local ( muheza) palliative care power point presentation( introduction to palliative care)it was met here with reasonable interest but low attendance, for presenting in the regional capital Tanga at their large hospital Bombo Regional hospital.We made 20 copies of the presentation , only to walk into a room of over 200 people.the presentation went very well, well received, and good discussion after. We will be following up with further didactic teaching and ward teaching over the next 4 months. It made us feel like we can do as we hoped and improve and help develop a sustainable palliative program in the 2-3 major hospitals in the region
next week is a 5 day workshop that had been previously planned to further develop a palliative care presence and we will be assisting in its presentation. It too is in tanga so there will be logistic issues both for our to and froms and the boys schooling. Fortunately sal and rose can help
-simon has restarted violin practice( with the encouragement of financial support for a dirt jumping bike when he returns…he has also developed quite a skill at playing hearts which was the second ”adult” card game I learned after crib
-and finally a wonderful card ..our first snail mail… sent by our dear friend deb lefrank with messages from a large number of friends congregated for a thanksgiving meal at debbie and dan’s place. Thank you so much deb


sadly this is sally and rose’s last week and we will all say goodbye with heavy hearts and leah and I will have to create a new chapter and routine

I heard this week that my dear friend nou’s father died suddenly( he had been in poor health but his death was unexpected)
It has been a peculiar year for life and death juxtaposition( sadly I believe this is the new stage many of us are in)I miss not being there to support him as has me for so many years.

This an adventure ……life is an adventure

Stay tuned don’t touch that dial……


Ps. Hopefully graham will soon download some pics from his visit onto the blog

PPS leah will soon add her thoughts to the blog.. as I said earlier it is a full life and electronic communication is only one of our
Priorities

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