Muheza, Tanzania

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Bodily fluids.....

Inevitably the time has come for the onslaught of one of the worst bits of parenting - clearing up vomit & worse. Poor girls...B felt poorly over the weekend, but no explosions; R incapable of enjoying the pool on Sunday & vomited in the car on the way back to Muheza...made it to school yesterday but fluctuating temps & nausea....L spent all night vomiting etc. The only saving grace being they managed to alternate use of the toilet & bowl...although on that schedule I didn't get much sleep. Today has been a write off with us all lying exhausted on our beds. Slight improvement this evening...so wish me luck for the night ahead.

Hard to recall the other things I wanted to record now I'm in a haze of exhaustion. But yesterday gave me another satisfying outing for visits in the villages. Long drive this week up into the foothills of the Usambara mountains. We passed lots of cocoa trees, with many houses drying sheets of cocoa pods out the front. Lots of pretty 'gardens' amongst the villages and several streams for us to cross, which I imagine may be far more torrents in the wet season. My medical knowledge overstretched this time...need to swot up on a lot of topics. Plenty of things I'm sure I'll never see again in my career.....severe toxoplasmosis infection amongst others. One of the homes insisted on serving us 'lunch'....I am wondering if I am yet to pay the price of this - but as the palliative care nurse and student pharmacist tuck in I felt too rude not to. Firstly they bring a bowl & jug of water to wash our hands. Then we were treated to freshly boiled milk in elegant teacups & a large pile of chapatis. Almost too much for me sitting in a shower of my own sweat as the sun cooked us slowly through the tin roof, and the overwhelming smell of cow from the shed next door.
Out on visits



                                                Cocoa beans drying in the sun

Made it back just in time to see the end of prize day at school - R got a prize for her 3 legged race. Sister G ran out of prizes so the remainder will be handed out on the last day of term - which she has brought forward to tomorrow. Sadly I don't think the girls will be up to it yet tomorrow - they shall miss wishing Merry Christmas to their classmates. Thankfully we managed to squeeze in a class photo with L's class, but R's class we'll have to do after the holidays. I need to decide re B over the holidays, but she really hasn't settled at all at school so we may end up doing more of a combination  home schooling after Christmas. They are now off until 9th January so we are busy planning safaris etc
Prize giving

L's class


R's teacher Sister I & her Xmas decorations

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