Hot Hot Hot

It is with some reluctance we boarded the bus back to Muheza after our break in Arusha & Moshi, not least because it is significantly cooler up there! We had got used to cooler evenings and even needing a light jumper in the mornings. Stepping off the aircon bus in Muheza the heat hit us hard, but greeting our new batch of medical students, who are wilting, made us realise how we have rapidly adapted to the climate.
I have never been a great sun worshipper, nor particularly good in the summer heat waves but now we just go about daily life with temperatures heading towards the 40s. We're coming to the end of the dry season and the water supply is feeling it too. The house tank didn't fill on either of the Mondays we were away so we have come back to an empty tank and relying on the the hospital driver to bring us barrels of water. To be honest it's barely phased us other than reminding the girls not to flush unless absolutely necessary!

So back to work and back to school of both the Tanzanian & home variety. We are predicatably starting on some mountain and volcano projects as well as the human boday, to answer all those questions about the effects of altitude on the body.
Lots of lovely packages waiting for us at the post office.....thank you lovely friends and family.....brightened the post Kili blues. Excitingly for R was a huge bundle of letters from her English classmates whom she has set up as penpals with  her class here in Tanzania. We had sent the first batch from Holy Family School back to the UK before Christmas and have eagerly been awaiting replies. I went in with her to share the post out this morning in class to lots of thrilled recipients.

A bunch of patients needing doctor review awaited me at the hospice this week. A stark return to reality of life for the every day Tanzanian. One lady whom I'm hoping can afford a procedure for her to examined under anaesthetic. She has a history of cervical cancer but now keeps hosing blood which I didn't quite believe until I tried examining her myself. I fear her cancer has eroded into a blood vessel.
Another lady distraught at being unable to pay either for tests or for antibiotic treatment for rapidly spreading sores on her head. Her family has abandoned her at the hospital so she is relying on the generosity of other patients for food at mealtimes. I'm not quite sure what happens about the payment for her actually staying in the hospital. How privileged we are in the UK to know that if we are unwell we will be treated regardless of whether we can afford it or not.
Sad news too of the lady I mentioned last month with the possible liver cancer. I met her brother in law as we passed in the street today and he asked me if I remembered her. Of course I did. Her children are the same ages as mine. She died on Sunday. At least her pain was kept under control until the end.