Settling in Bukoba

Sorry for the long wait but as you will see, we have been VERY busy and with some uncontrollable obstacles, like electricity being out in the whole town and no the café not being open on Sundays, couldn't get a blog out till now. Sorry again!

Hello from Tanzania! It's been a week already, and we are finally getting a schedule down. All of us went to the hospital this week and split up into several different wards. The experience is by far different from an American hospital but we are still learning the ways of African medicine. Some people even got to witness live births in the maternity ward, others watched doctors and nurses diagnose patients. It will be very interesting to get all the views of each ward.

Food here is quite amazing! Everything is fresh from the market including tomatoes, garlic, peppers, beans, pineapple, and bananas. So good! We are learning how to cook for 11 people with mostly market food. So far Jenna and Kate made a quite spicy spaghetti with peppers we bought at the market (did not realize just how hot they were!). Probably the best spaghetti I've had- thanks girls. We have found that a hearty meal of beans and chili sauce suffices our hunger long enough to work on our projects. Everyone is getting addicted to the tea here, really good with some sugar added. Our favorite stable food is still ordering chips mayai (potatoes and eggs), which we have at least every other day! Yesterday we went out to the Lake Victoria beach and had a special meal of chips and fish caught right from the lake. I think everyone is in agreement that it was the best meat we have had here so far.

The water project is finally progressing and turning out awesome. William (our host/tour guide) told us at the beginning when we got off the ferry to be flexible in Africa and we sure have practiced it. The water project we planned totally changed with accordance to local expertise, but without many hitches its looking very good. We have help from a fundi, which is a local handyman that guides the way and makes sure everything done is done correctly. By the end of the week we finished the foundation (which is stones and cement) and then next week we plan to put up the gutter system along with laying the tank down. The girls at the school are very helpful translators and a lot of fun to talk to.

Wednesday was Peter's birthday and we celebrated African style with the girls singing Happy Birthday to Peter at the school and having some of our friends over at William's bar for drinks. We all had a good time getting to know each other more and eating our favorite meal of chips mayai and the best Fanta in the world.

Friday afternoon we went to a families home that had a whole wall missing from a flood caused by a heavy rain. All 11 of us went to work to repair the wall by stacking mud and rocks through bamboo rods across the wall. We got very dirty! All the neighborhood children sat and watches us from a little hill and helped us pick up some stones for the house.

Saturday was also our soccer game with the orphan children. Even at 4:30 pm, the sun was blazing so we got pretty worn out while the children had a lot of fun passing around us. There was a crowd of locals that loved watching our lack of skill, each time we missed the ball or made a bad shot we would get roars of laughter. It was a very fun experienced and we hope we can do something like that again while we are here.

A run through of a day here includes getting up fairly early at 6:30- 7:00, eating a quick breakfast of bread or oatmeal. The rooster gets us up every morning, mostly way earlier than we want. After breakfast we usually split up into two groups, one goes to the hospital the other works on the water project for the morning. We meet up around lunch, eat, and start some more work on projects. Dinner brings us all back together for a great meal before we all go to bed after exhausting days.

Thanks for reading!
Michelle