Weekend of 9-12th

Friday

Well Friday came again and clinic was so busy. I saw quite a variety of pathology and felt I could help some people. However clinic finished very late and we were having 16 people over to our house again for a potluck. Although we told everyone 6.00pm this time we were hoping they would turn up at 7.00pm ( which they did). This friday it was a fairly sad occasion as the surgeon who everyone liked was leaving to work in Nairobi. There was so much food and cake. It was a great evening of fun and chatter even though we ran out of time to play games.

Saturday

Saturday morning we met up with Eric, Ric’s electrician friend who was taking us out for the day. First we went to a tea factory which was so interesting. The machines seemed so basic and the tea smell overpowering but facsinating to see. The main crop around is tea (and Mira which is an amphetamine like substance). Eric’s mom has a tea plantation. The ladies who pick the tea carry a 20lb basket on their backs and get paid about a dollar a day ( if they work fast). The farmers make about that much again. They are not the ones profiting from the tea plantation. They would not open the gates for us to leave until we bought some tea ( so we did)

After the tea plantation, we went to see where the water comes from for the hospital and the waterfall behind it. It was up a very steep and bumpy road. The area where we stopped we saw some people washing a motor bike and clothes in the stream ( glad we sourced the water higher up.) We walked past a little shack where an older gentleman lived and came to the pipe which supplied water from the hospital.

The waterfall was beautiful, surrounded by banana trees ( and apparently monkeys but we didn’t see any . On the way down people cooking outside their house and saw tea growing in their field. The road was very rocky with sharp stones and unfortunately we got a puncture – there was a sharp hissing sound. This fascinated the local kids who just wanted to help

After fixing the puncture Eric wanted to take us to Africa Moja Dream Hotel for lunch. It was rather a long drive ( right next to the Meru National Park). There were 4 rooms and we had an interesting lunch! Chicken didn’t have any meat on it. After lunch we came home and played skipbo!.

Sunday

We were thinking of going to the Swahili service this morning but decided on the English one instead. There were a new group of students from UTMB who are lab PHD students. The compound is very busy and we find chairs, plates, tea towels are disappearing from our flat ( We have lots of room so it doesn’t really matter) There is also a gentleman from Leeds UK who has cerebral palsy. He used to be a missionary here and set up a disability programme so has come to help it out.

In the evening …..surprise surprise ….we played games (after our run)