Boat trip

I have learnt how to make fish fillets! I used my recently learnt phrase on the lady called Adela, who we employ- mainly for our laundry. It was successful, fun and tasty. However I didn’t do the descaling or gutting because she did that when she arrived when I was leaving for the kindergarten. Next time I will be able to do it myself I’m sure. It was more similar to cutting the pork than I imagined.

Yesterday I arrived back from a 2 night trip to a village on a nearby island called about 1 hour by boat. I experienced a new kind of toilet and a new kind of shower, neither bad, just new, I managed just fine with them. The toilet was a hole in the ground and the shower a bucket one.

Bucket shower: A large bucket of water with a small container which you use to pour the water over you!

It was a trip I went on with a nurse (Arne and I live next door but one) she runs the clinics on different islands and makes trips out to them once a month. One day it was the mums and babies, they come and are weighed and see the nurse for any necessary vaccinations etc. I helped by writing down the wrights of the babies, on their cards (has a chart on also to see how well the baby is doing for its age). The next day it was the pregnant ladies, not a lot for me to do there, so I went on a walk with 2 of the guys from the clinic with my English/Swahili dictionary and a notepad, learnt some new words including cow and sick person (things we came across on our trip). The day before I played football with a load of primary school children, not all primary aged though! Left one of the footballs there.

Sunday we are heading to AIM conference in Dar Es Salam – I reckon it’s going to be a trip and a half. Bus to Mwanza, a 2 hour car journey, one time it took the nurse 12 hours. Then we spend the night in Mwanza and then take another bus down to Dar in the morning (I think it’s a 15hour ride). I have heard a load of stories about people’s different experiences of bus trips. One included the bus driver doing a hill start backwards at night on a road that has only similarities with a mountain road pass – I didn’t know that was even possible. And several times the men needing to get out and push. So I could be in for an adventurous trip.