St Michaels Day

This is dedicated to all those who have attended an open day at a school either as a pupil or as a parent, so really most of you!

Every morning in term time we are greeted by well dressed young children walking to the private English medium pre primary school, St Michaels. ‘Good morning, how are you mother/father?’ ‘I am well ,thank you, and how are you?’ It is run by the nuns and they had their first open day on St Michaels day. Everyone was invited but many parents did not come (?knowing that it was to be a fund raising day). Those that did were of course dressed in their best clothes. The guest of honour was the local Member of Parliament, an elegant young woman.
Perched on chairs for children we had a delicious lunch eaten mainly in silence. The proceedings then began. On the top table were the Mother Superior of the convent Sr Adrophina, Matron Sr TheopistaJohn, Senior doctor Sr Pascasia, The MP, Administrator of the hospital Mr Josue, the Parish Priest and the Chairman of the Board of Governors, a man with an ample girth. Facing them were the children with the parents and staff scattered behind.

After preliminary speeches of welcome we got down to business – the raffle. As usual ordinary things like pineapples went for 3x the market rate. There were unusual offerings, like a chicken (live, gently clucking) and a huge bunch of bananas.

Bids were slow to start with but as the show went on the top table became more animated. The sisters combined to compete against the MP, egged on by Josue, for 6 pine saplings (6 inches high) usually sold for about Tsh 1000 each. Bidding went to 15,000, no to 20,000, no to 25,000 and eventually the MP bid about 35,000 (finally sum lost in the uproar and cheers from all assembled), added 10,000 and gave them to the school.

Then followed speeches and requests to the MP for support. She responded by offering 10,000 bricks for a new classroom. Seems she pays for this herself (is her brother a builder?) out of their extremely high salary something like £5000 per month. There are elections next year so this is a good time to invite MPs who show great largesse.

Then came the children’s singing. Of course there was one girl who shone above the rest, the only one with beads and a plastic flower in her hair, the one who greeted us outside with a direct gaze and cheeky smile, the one who was miffed when another girl got a bit of the limelight. Oh well, rivalry is alive and well in TZ.

Presentaion of cake was made to the top table (curious how the little boys are so inept and have to be shown what to do by their female classmates). Then came the finale dance with one mother not being able to resist making an exhibition of herself dancing with her son. Lambert, however , seems to have his eyes elsewhere.

We thought we would just pop in for an hour or so! We staggered out at 6 pm with full tummies, our pineapples and the school £100 richer.

James and Gill

Following closely on from Thoms visit, we had Gill and James Allenby come out to see us at 10 days notice. It was a wonderful surprise and we had a great time with them here. They flew in via Nairobi, the final leg in a little 12 seater single prop plane, Mwanza-Bukoba. (Gill in the copilots seat)

We stayed in Bukoba, dining and breakfasting on the beach, (here is the sunrise they did not see!) and visiting the market, bank and airline office etc (all of which took 2-3 hours, most of it standing in a queue at the ATM) before setting off for home.

They slotted in to our way of life easily and well, bathing with a bucket, keeping the water filter full, and sitting in on clinics in the Hospital and outreach clinics, where they were put to work and where Daktari Jamsie was asked for advice….(Gill’s name was more of a problem for the Tanzanians. She ended up being called Gilla or Juliana!)
We visited the local sights, the Museum, an ancient Bahayan Chiefs House (Mushonge) hosted by the fulsome Mutashobya, also Kamachumu market for fabrics and Ndolage waterfall and escarpment. We went on a longish drive and picnic up to Lake Ikimba, returning via a small ferry over the swamp. We watched the sunset across the valley from “our rock” and they ventured to the dukas of Kagondo to buy tomatoes and eggs.

They were brave enough to venture into Bukoba, and back, on a daladala (24 in a minibus, and James is a tall man!) to shop and try the local food and drink. They were most appreciative of our small home, tolerant when my stove blew up and the car broke down (water pump). They ate my offerings from the kerosene stove and experienced a tow lift to Bukoba, Tanzanian style. (Our Rav4 attached to the Hospital Toyota by means of a home made rigid tow bar constructed from a piece of scaffolding and some reinforcing wire….visions of Rupert and Justus, the driver, disappearing back down the steep hills!).

We said farewell to them after a fantastic week of lots of news, talk, laughter and fun. We left them at the quayside on Friday night as they boarded the MV Victoria ferry for Mwanza, which was loaded with bananas, on their way to Zanzibar for a few days.
Next best thing to seeing them was their generous present of chocolate and delicious South African wine they brought with them! Bliss…

Tom's visit

Having finished University (and picked up a first on the way – congratulations!) Tom decided to visit his family. He flew via New York to meet Nicola in Costa Rica and had a grand time in tropical rainforests, on Pacific beaches and viewing volcanoes. Then off to LA and via 5 days in Fiji, he met up with Alice in Darwin. They camped in swagbags under the stars and meandered round the gorges, rivers and hills of Northern Territories ending up at Uluru Rock and Alice Springs. Then off he set to see the parents!
We met up in Entebbe after another visit to the lovely botanical Gardens. Then off to Fort Portal at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains and next day to the Queen Elizabeth National Park. We had the usual but entrancing encounter with elephants, hippos, Ugandan kob, buffaloes and waterbuck.

We even caught up with the young lions we had seen in January and April.
We had a close encounter with a couple of chimpanzees in a gorge and watched them feed on the fruit of high trees.

A visit down south to see the tree-climbing lions was fruitless but we did have an entertaining tour with a female ranger and looked across the river to the Congo disturbing some hippos along the way.


In the Mweyma camp (QENP) there was a BBC film crew who have been following some mongeese for 6 months and should be putting out their programme ‘A Band of Brothers’ in October. It was interesting seeing the filming in action and hearing their story.

We then headed back to Bukoba, a night in the beach hotel and a wander round the town. We all went to a commemoration in memory of our friends’ mother in the Hindu Temple that evening, where we met up with other friends and experienced some aspects of her culture. We made a trip to Ndolage waterfall and saw the usual sights. Tom came to an outreach clinic with us and helped with the registration and weighing of the babies. His curly hair fascinated them.

After a week with us we put him on a plane for Zanzibar and then back to England. He arrived safely in UK 3 months after leaving…..'its cold here!’