At the Dentist: Fire while Filling!

Tooth saga is almost over! Tim has returned from his third trip to the dentist in Dar es Salaam, clear of infection! We are all glad that these 3-day round trips to the dentist are over! (He does still have to go for some final X-rays and get the proper filling done, but he can do this when we all go to Dar next month to pick up his parents). His finale at the dentist was rather dramatic. Lying back in his chair with the dentist hovering over, the quiet was suddenly disturbed as a man ran in, shouting. Everyone ran out, leaving Tim still lying in the dentist chair wondering what was going on! FIRE! The mosque over the road was on fire and it was all hands on deck. The dentist was gone, dentist fire extinguishers were taken ... The fire brigade arrived after a while and normality resumed in the dentist surgery. All in a day's work; if it's not power-out's mid-drill, it's a fire in the mosque...

We are very thankful that Louisa didn't have to go back this time to visit the neurologist. She hasn't had a recurrence of the strange eye problem since Easter, so we trust that is the end of that.

Other adventures and activities of the past week have included trips out to three villages, a birthday party, a dog-induced rabbit disappearance, a fun rainforest-at-home day and a pig slaughter and butchering but I think that some of these adventures will be for another post!

First the villages. We all went to Kimande and Magozi together and despite, rather predictably, things not going according to plan, we had a good time with people there. We went first to what will be our house when we move there. We had arranged for a labourer to be there at 8am to talk about costs of things like a floor, walls, doors and windows. He wasn't there when we arrived at 10am, so after some chai and mandazis with the pastor and his wife, we went with the pastor to meet the Village Executive Officer. The girls opted to stay with Mama and some school kids who had come for a break. It was a long walk through the village to the office and we realized just how much bigger this village is than Magozi! We discovered it has a population of about 2500. On the way, we passed the village police officer (something Magozi doesn't have) and even a village jail! We were warmly welcomed by the police officer who asked us to offer English lessons. He isn't the first to ask and with a nearby school full of secondary students struggling to learn in unfamiliar English, we think this will be a good idea! We were also warmly welcomed by the Village Officer who is pleased about the stoves project coming to Kimande. When we finally got back to the house, our man still hadn't arrived (although he had been "almost there" all morning!) but we had an appointment with the head teacher of the secondary school in Magozi, so we had to leave with instructions for him to talk to the Pastor about work on the house.

We drove back to Magozi, where Mendriad and Ezekiel insisted we ate with them before going to the school. But then at the school, we discovered that the Head was in Iringa all day, so we couldn't meet with him after all! But we were able to check out the food preparation area and get the measurements we needed as we plan to build a large fuel-efficient institutional stove for the school, with money raised from the Aldermaston Primary School and Aldermaston Brownies. The school is really excited about it, and we are hoping work can begin soon.

Serving lunch at the school

Tim visited other villages with Andrew and Andy last week to talk about doing stoves projects alongside water projects we are doing. He met with village leaders and some potters in both Ikuka and Ikengeza, and when they have given us some clay to test, we'll see what happens!

On Saturday, my butchery services were requested. I didn't expect to put my UK butchery observational learning to the test quite so soon ... but early Saturday morning found myself once again with my hand pushing bung gut down the backside of a pig! But this story will have to wait for the next post!

Meanwhile, check out the girls' blog to see what they've been up to with rainforests, rubber and keyhole gardens!