Hello from Pangani!

Hello from Pangani!

We’re at Peponi again for a bit of r’n’r! It doesn’t seem like a month since we were last here and all the staff have been really friendly and pleased to see us. ‘Dr Swimming Pool’ the lifeguard even made us a fire to sit around on the beach last night. We sat chatting all evening with some of the other guests and I drank a whole bottle of wine… can’t believe I didn’t get too drunk considering I’ve hardly drunk anything out here. Feel a tad rough this morning, more fool me!

I must apologise for any dodgy emails/ letters sent last time I was in Lushoto. I sent two letters to the wrong addresses! I know I can be dizzy at times but I do have an excuse this time. I was feeling a bit muddled and fuzzy headed for a few days, followed by headaches, an upset stomach, sore throat and achy joints. Malaria! It was particularly the inability to think straight that made me realize I had it. Luckily I was able to go to the pharmacy in Lushoto and bought some Arinate which works pretty quickly and very effectively. I think I probably had Malaria for about 2 weeks before I realized but as I’m on Doxycyclin the effects aren’t too bad. I certainly wouldn’t want to experience it without being on anti-malarials though. I went to the doctor yesterday for a Malaria blood test and it was negative so I’m fine now. It’s not the type to come back so no need to worry and hopefully I’ll avoid getting it again while I’m here!

Apart from the excitement of several of us having Malaria, not much has happened since I last wrote. The rains seem to be finally giving way to the scorching sun. For a while it was raining every day, sometimes all day and all night (so called ‘short rains’?). The farmers are extremely grateful for this and the maize is growing incredibly fast, but the rain has also been very troublesome and damaging in places. We have had several delays on our trips due to flooding including being unable to pass cars stuck in the mud, trees falling and taking half the road with them, and burst rivers creating huge dips and grooves in the road. Most of the roads are made of mud so it doesn’t take much to cause a hold up in the rain! On the way back from Yamba last weekend the river had burst and was running down the road. The driver thought he could go through it but we ended up getting really stuck as the water was quite deep and the mud was so soft. All the locals soon came along with their hoes and spades, created a dam to change the flow of the river and dug us out in a couple of hours! Unfortunately after poor Caroline had dropped us off in Milingano she got stuck again on the way back making it a 5 hour round trip instead of 1 hour.

We have just found out that an essential bridge for our trip from Tanga to Mombasa next week has broken due to flooding in Kenya. Apparently 12 people have died and 60000 have been displaced. We are hoping the bridge will be fixed soon or we’ll have to either walk across or find another way out of Tanzania before our visas expire on 4^th Dec!

I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to people next week. Bex, James, Sarah, Kirstie and Roy will all be off to continue their adventures elsewhere so its going to be a sad time for us and the villagers. As we are the first volunteers they have become very attached to us and were really excited the other day to hear that Tuba, Jo and I are coming back in January. They are holding a party for us to say goodbye on the 21^st November which will be an experience I’m sure! I can’t wait to see the children’s faces when Mark and I turn up 3 weeks later to stay for a couple of days. Even when we go away for the weekend it is like coming home to a huge happy family when we get back.

Well that’s about it from me for now. I’m sure I’ll be on the internet loads after I leave Mili so send me some gossip from home! I’ll get them eventually if you send them to the Village Africa address but probably not until the end of January! Maybe I can get the address of the hotel I’m staying at in Zanzibar. Email me if you want it! I’m afraid Christmas cards are going to be a bit tricky for me this year so you’ll have to make do with an online greeting. Hope everyone is well!