Hi all,

First of all many thanks for all your loving messages through our website, facebook and mobile phone!

After one week we had to move out of our beach house as some rich expatriate offered the landlady more than we can pay. We are now put in another beach house in the same garden, however this one is shared. We now have a one-size-fits-all bed/living/lounge/study/dining room with a small bathroom. We bought an iron and a watercooker (for native English speakers: kettle), borrowed a cooker from a friend, and we manage very well to live a cosy life here. It took us a week before we got a second chair in our room, so we don't have to sit on the floor anymore. Now the only things still lacking are a cupboard so that we can finally unpack, and a good quality mattress. We have to admit that we enjoy what we have now. Meanwhile, we continue our house hunt. It turned out that the housing market in Mtwara is quite tough. That is, in areas where it is safe enough to live for foreigners, prices are skyrocketing due to gas companies settling in Mtwara. To be continued...

Last Saturday we went to the bank to open a bank account. One week earlier, Tim had visited the NMB Bank where they told him to bring, amongst others, passport size photos with a blue background and an introductory letter of our employer with a copy of our passports and a passport size photo with blue background attached, with a stamp that covers letter, copy and photo. Hence, we went to see a photographer where we had to sit before a blue curtain for this professional to take with his digital camera (made in China) and make our passport size photos which were overexposed and on which we look very pale and sweaty, but which were confirmed to be exactly what authorities like banks require.

Someone recommended the Exim Bank to us and we thought to give it a try although still expecting the same hassle as we would have at the NMB Bank. At least we had our passport size photos with blue background ready. But it turned out to be a success story: after 1,5 hour we got our account number. After having introduced ourselves at the first counter, we weretold that it was not possible to open a joined account, because nowadays they only have ATM cards that can be used by one person. Hamna shida (no problem). Then we were guided to the next room, where Tim had to fill in some forms and sign in a box smaller then 1x2 cm, which was so difficult that he needed 7 attempts after the first 6 having been rejected. After having obtained our bank account number we had to go to another counter to write a note with the amount you want to put on your account, then back to the very first counter where somebody wrote this amount in a book, and finally we queued to hand this money over to the cashier. Then, surprisingly, we were ready and can come back in 3 weeks to receive the ATM card. Easy.

Next week we will go to the Tanzanian Revenue Authority to ask for a Tax ID Number, which will enable us to get a Tanzanian driving licence and to register your own car (yes, we want to buy a 4x4).

In these first months, Marije will be introduced to all wards and medical activities in the hospital. Every two weeks, she is accompanying another doctor in another ward. After this period, she will make her analysis about where she can add value to the hospital. These two weeks, Marije is spending her time at paediatric ward (after two weeks in maternity ward). VSO's motto is to share knowledge and skills, so until last week I persisted on working together with a colleague rather than taking over their work. But this week some doctors were travelling causing a real shortage of them, and I was persuaded to do some ward rounds myself. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a pleasure since the paediatric nurse spoke English, used guidelines and was very willing to counsel mothers about everything I suggested. Most children are admitted with malaria, which is very common and favourite because it is one of the few diseases we can diagnose and treat. Fever and B/S:NPS (blood slide that shows: no parasites seen), is challenging. Pragmatic treatment is: cotrimoxazol in mild cases, ceftriaxon in severe cases. A 6 month old neonate with deep jaundice: very frustrating because we can't check bilirubine, we don't have phototherapy and internet is so slow that studying the subject is impossible. Next week a German paediatrician from Masasi will visit us for a training, hopefully I can consult him. I'm very happy with all the books I brought here, WHO paediatric pocket book and IMCI charts, NTC notes, Kings surgery, Oxford tropical medicine and my own notes from internships (especially from Ghana where I learned more than I realised). But when ‘simple' things like Hb-reagent, X-ray films and metronidazol and urinecatheters are frequently out of stock,things gets really difficult.

Next Tim more news about mister Tim's daily business.

During the weekends there is plenty of choice to enjoy ourselves: village Mikindani with swimming pool, Italian restaurant in Lindi (100km north) with real Italian pizza and lasagna with parmesan cheese (we left our phone number, they'll give us a call when they have tiramisu!), and weekly live performances of Bongo flava in nearby Makonde beach club. See pictures :)