Last Minute Blog Entry Before Cleaning the House Because Leah Gets Home Tomorrow

The size of snails and millipedes in Muheza is astounding
. hopefully we will have a photographic record to share on this subject
. the escargot are to die for if you were French ( or maybe to die of)
the storms are more frequent and intense ( a video clip from such a storm in Dar es Salaam will hopefully get posted)

We have survived 16 sleeps without Leah ( although I honestly did not sleep as well). She is in transit as I type and arrives tomorrow.Ross is slowly recuperating and resuming rehabilitation after a rocky complicated post-op period.
While Leah was gone we were busy. The boys finished their first term of school and had a week on their own( continuing their home schooling- Thank you Eva again),cribbage, blogging, videography ( new video soon to be sent to rose for posting), marbles, cycling and reading voraciously ( another true colattral gain from this trip is the 2 boys have turned into readers and we have all enjoyed reading again) , we have also developed bottle cap Texas Hold ‘Em at present Simon is surprisingly ( except to him) whooping us.

The first w/e leah was gone we went to a local nature reserve –Amani, and camped with Alex and Emily ata curious NGO resort> we were hosted by an American born Brit ( Althea) while the owners were at a craft fair in Dar es Salaam..Walks, reads, Frisbee, at a bit of elevation the nights were actually cool…’where are my socks’. The highligt was a guided night walk with A&E and our Irish teacher friends where we found chameleon,stick bugs, large crickets.astoudind and the chameleons so so unusual..

Leah and I were just ramping up with speaking and educational engagements when she left and I was able to meet all of our commitments here in Muheza as well as in Pongwe, Mgamiani and Tanga. I am sure they all missed Leahs slower and clearer delivery but generally it went well.
During the second week the boys were willing to stay on their own because some of my travel days started at 0530..power outages, water rationing and no local internet access has been that much harder with Leah away.
Even though Rose is gone Catan has continued with the medical students. I even leaked out a victory.

Alex and Emily have somehow motivated the powers that be and got housing on the hospital property, eliminating their daily pre work work out. I is nice to see them almost settled, there was painting last w/e and cleaning and shopping
Big news for us is a new cold bigger fridge!! Not North American in girth but neither am I anymore.
Ilse our roommate is gone to New Orleans (her first time in ‘ America’) and then home to Holland for Christmas so we have the house to ourselves for 3 weeks. Anyone want to visit??

The second w/e we went to dare s Salaam so I could meet with some people about improving the availability of morphine to the region. Moderate success but only time will tell. It was strange to be back with Wazungu (white faced folks) travelers, all with their copy (some translated) of the LPG.Long walks through interesting neighbourhoods especially the textile (katan, Katanga) areg and long cab rides through rainstorms and terrible traffic on my way to meetings. We also found a very good quite expensive (but how could I refuse-see above) English bookstore. The highlight and lowlight was the Africa Cup qualifying Match on Saturday. Tanzania vs. Sudan (how does Sudan have a team?) 3-1 for the home team in a very comfortable half-filled (capacity 60,000) Chinese built new stadium. In our celebratory mood we were led into a funnel of crushing people, scaring Simon and me and then I was pickpocketed but realized at the last moment and was able to scare the perp so he dropped my wallet. Sadly we discovered hours later when buying our return ticket to Muheza that Griff was successfully pick-pocketed from a front zippered pocket in his shorts for money and a mobile phone. He was devastated and I was saddened ( and maddened)that we needed this rude awakening.
We were in the Indo-African part of town and found some great eats and fortunately for Leah and did not bring any barfi back for her (her year in India put her off barfi for life)
During Leah’s time away I did have roasted cassava (good),ugali ( not bad)and jack fruit ( OK).
So we have a 4 day w/e for Leah to settle in (Muslim holiday and a national holiday coincide) the house will be clean she can get used to hot temperatures and humidity again and I will make sure the toilet seat is down again (3 boys can slip into old habits quite quickly)

So we hear of constitutional/political turmoil in that backwoods hamlet called Canada ( not making CNN international news) and that the canucks are doing well at hockey
Snail mail is arriving but I have saved it for leah’s return
Christmas in Zanzibar is the next excitement and teaching right up until then. Tutaonana, baade.