Look Ma, I'm an artist!

Yesterday afternoon, Emily and I went to learn how to create a Batik. It is a style of art that I think was originally from Indonesia and it uses wax and dye to create the images. So at 1o'clock we set off to meet Filex (or 'The Big F' as he prefers it) who was given the task of turning us into artists.

We met him at a local club, mainly because I think there is no way we would have found his 'studio' but also because I think if we had of found his studio, we would have been scared and run away. He led us through a dark, airless restaurant, past a bunch of concrete rooms where people were cooking over open fire on the ground, around a guy using a foot-peddle powered singer sewing machine to make suits, down some rocky makeshift stairs, through rubbish piles filled with corn-husks and bird claws (they looked too big to be chicken's feet), around a guy bringing printers from the 90s back to life, past his bone-marrow sucking, sour-faced sister and finally into his little shared studio where wax boiled over coals and his brother played draughts with bottle caps.

But there was no need to worry. These guys were all super friendly and we had a great time creating our artworks, getting high on toxic fumes and being schooled about Gospel music.

I won't lie, Filex did a lot of the work but my hands were dirty enough at the end of it to claim a bit of the credit.

It started with a sketch.

Did I mention he had some of the coolest tyres/thongs on his feet - of his own creation of course.

Then the first coating of wax. He is helping me here with the details which took a bit of extra skill.

Then, after the first colours went on it was out to the line to dry.

Then more colour and more drying. It doesn't seem to matter about lighting fires in a room full of paints??

Lots more steps which I have already forgotten... and then we had to get the wax off. The ol' hand washing technique came in handy here. (Emily and I have been asked several times if we are twins...I can see why here!)

The it needs to be ironed - but you have to get the coals hot enough first! Nothing is easy in Africa.

And the finished product. Ta-Da!

Till next time x


Filex on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq4xCmsQPrU

The Race

This is Emmanuel. You might have already seen him in a few of the photos so far - he does love the camera. He is part of my everyday life here so I wanted to take this chance to tell you all a little bit about him. A few facts:

He is 37
He is from a Maasai tribe
He works for 'Work the World' (the company I am here with)
He loves and helps support his mum
He wants to help his orphaned nephew through secondary school
He makes less in a month than most people in Australia would earn in a day
He wants to do a computer course and an English course
His job consists of walking us to the bus stop (takes about 25mins), waiting there in 'his office' all day long, and then walking us home when we return
He is single
He is looking for a mzungu wife (that's his 'flavour')
He likes kitties


Sunday/Christmas day was his birthday. We made him a birthday cake but as I mentioned before - it looked a lot better than it tasted. He was so happy and grateful though. You couldn't wipe the smile of his face.

In his attempts to woo a mzungu girl, he has been lavishing Claire with lots of attention. The fact that she has a boyfriend back in the UK doesn't seem to be a deterrent. So in a final attempt to win her affections, it was decided that Emmanuel should race Kieran in a 100m sprint to prove how much he 'loved' Claire. 

You must remember that Emmanuel is practically a Maasai warrior and Kieran is a skinny med student from Perth, we all thought Emmanuel had it in the bag. And then he came out in his 'running gear'...

I'm not sure where the pink shorts came from but they didn't do much to add to his warrior status. Anyway, the boys paced out the race course and then they were off.

Kieran won by quite a considerable distance. Claire was let off the hook and wasn't too shy about showing her relief. And Emmanuel is now biding his time, waiting for his next perfect lady to come along.

Kieran also has the bragging rights now...I raced a Maasai warrior and won!

As a point of interest, we were going through some of the old notes that previous students had left in the house, and one of the girls had found a very effective way of deterring unwanted attention from the local men.

It went something like:
African man: Hey Mzungu, you want a boyfriend?
Mzungu girl: No I already have a boyfriend.
African man: That doesn't matter, what you need is an African boyfriend!
Mzungu girl: My boyfriend is black and in the [insert country here] military
African man: silence


For her this was a true statement but she said that this was the fastest thing any of the girls had come up with to be left alone. Worth remembering!

Till next time x

Everyday Hard Work

I thought I'd give you a glimpse today into everyday life here. Pretty much everything is done by hand - there are no fancy machines to do the hard work here! I had my first experience of hand washing on the weekend. While I've soaked the odd delicate or two, I've never had to hand scrub an entire load before. I certainly worked up a sweat. And for someone who is usually quite particular about the way washing is done, this process was actually quite satisfying! I won't be throwing out the washing machine any time soon though.

Cutting the grass is also quite a laborious process. Emmanuel seems to do it with quite a bit of flair but there is a lot of technique to it as well.

Back in hospital today, things went much better. Seeing wound washouts and cutdowns on the ward without anaesthesia is quite confronting but the big guys seem to be quite proud of themselves if they can get through it without crying out. What broke my heart though was the little girl from yesterday, the one who had affected me so much, came up to me on the ward to give me a cuddle. She was so sweet and her little face will stay with me for a long time.

Till next time x

Back into it

I hope everyone's Christmas was fun. Above is our little Christmas crew getting all merry in the garden (I assure you that that dubiously placed hand is not actually touching me!). And below is our fabulous breaky spread - complete with homemade festive hats.

So yesterday, being a public holiday we did not go in to the hospital. Instead we set off with Witness, the house cook, to go to the local market for weekly supplies. It is not really the place for tourists so we were lucky she let us tag along. It was very overwhelming - strange sights and smells everywhere. Mostly people just stared at us as we tried to avoid slipping over on all the rotting food on the ground. 

These pictures are a little disappointing and don't really capture much of the atmosphere. I was just sneaking out my little hand-held and quickly snapping away. After Kieran's camera was snatched right out of his hand while we were in a moving taxi we have all been quite careful about flashing our toys around.

This lady was a stall owner and a friend of Witness. She was quite delighted to see us there in the market. Witness also had some other male 'market brothers' who were obviously just as delighted to see us because they insisted on buying us a round of cokes. We felt terrible letting them pay. The drinks here are 500TSH (Tanzanian Shillings) which is the equivalent to about 35cents. That is nothing for us but its a much more significant amount to them. They were so proud to buy them for us though - we really couldn't refuse.

In the end I'm pretty sure I brought most of the market home on my feet.

Today I went back to the hospital. I am quite disappointed with myself though. Embarrased and ashamed even. I don't know what was different about today but it all became a bit too much. The heat was suffocating in theatre, the smell of rotting flesh seemed to penetrate my insides a little deeper and the eyes of the kids I was holding down while they cried out in pain/fear were too human. I only lasted two cases before the room started to spin and I had to leave the room in tears. I felt so bad because what they are going through is so much worse than what I am. They are so strong and today I felt incredibly weak. I guess its all part of the experience though - I just wish it wasn't an everyday occurance here. For their sakes.

I will do better tomorrow.

Till then x

Christmas

What a strange day this has been.

This must be one of the first Christmases where I haven't woken up super early to see what was under the tree. Because there were no presents. What we have had today though is lots of laughs, fun, food and generally a lot of lazing about in the heat with drinks in hand. All in all it's been a fantastic day. We made a big breakfast spread this morning, moved the Christmas tree out into the yard and basically set up camp in the cabana for the rest of the day. The girls then moved to the kitchen to make a cake for emmanuel's birthday which is also today. After ruining the package cake mix with a rotten egg we had to start from scratch with no recipe and only basic ingredients. It wasn't the worst cake in the world but that's about all the praise I can give it. It did look good though. Pimms and lemonade and a BBQ finished of the afternoon and now it's beers and scrabble as the afternoon cools off and the sun starts to set on Xmas 2011.

I asked everyone what was the best Xmas gift they had ever received. Funnily enough no one could really come up with one (except kieran's toy snow plough that had once gotten him very excited). I think what really makes a great Xmas is the people you spend it with and the experiences you share. While I am certainly sad that I am not with family today this had certainly been a unique Christmas and one I am not likely to forget in a hurry.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Paradiso Orphanage

 

I may have given you the impression yesterday that it was all doom and gloom here. Let me assure you that that is definitely not the case. There may be some sad stories but I have laughed till my stomach ached on more than one occasion this week and encountered so many smiles and friendly faces that you can forget about the struggles most of these people go through.

On Thursday we went to the Paradiso Orphanage in a slum area of Arusha. The kids were bright eyed, hospitable and full of fun. It was such a fantastic experience, I think we will definitely go back again. The boys brought a football to play with and us girls were promptly sat down in little chairs for the girls to work their magic on our hair...I think Emily is still finding knots!

Anyway, I won't say too much more. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I haven't had a chance to do any editing on these but suffice it to say I am VERY happy with how my new camera has performed. I can't wait to take it on safari!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Till next time x

Christmas is NOT in the air

I cannot think of a year when I have felt less Christmas spirit than this year. Despite the guys selling tinsel on the street it just doesn't feel christmassy without family and parties and mad last minute trips to the shopping centre.

The patient's stories as well make it hard to feel all merry and joyful. A lady this week presented to the ED with severe slash wounds to both hands, wrists, cheek and head. Here hands were left barely attached and the wounds were deep. The story was that she had been working and her husband had not and, sick of handing all her money over to him everyday, she set up her own little bank account to save some money. When the husband found out about this he must have been displeased because he went at her with a machete.

The doctors in my department have been tying to send as many people home as possible in readiness for the expected influx of stab wounds in the next coming days. As my consultants put it, 'Christmas is great, everyone gets together for church and celebrations and alcohol and then they all stab each other.' The ED doctor sees this as a learning opportunity and has encouraged us to spend new years eve in the casualty department for what her described as a 'historic moment' in our careers, where we would 'walk on floors covered in blood' to mark the occasion. We'll have to see about that one.

I had many photos to share with you today but technology has failed me. Hopefully I will get them up tomorrow. I finally got a chance to test out the DSLR Neil got me for Xmas and it was fantastic. Hope all the last minute Christmas preps are going well. Just take some time out though to appreciate how truly lucky we are in Australia. It's amazing what goes on in this world.

Merry Christmas x

Here are a few quick shots of the hospital where I will be spending most of my time. It is a refferal hospital for the region but is still quite basic and seemingly haphazard....I know I would definitely not want to be a patient here.

Below is the entrance to the hospital. It is always quite crowded like this so I am quite flabergasted as to how they got the picture of it that went on our website as it was completely deserted. Its a gauntlet of 'Mambos', 'Jambos' and 'Taxi?' as everone tries to talk to the mzungus as we walk in. Our swahili is definitely getting better but I'm sure noone is fooled. We are still tourists to them.

I am spending these first two weeks in surgery. We had a 3 and a half hour ward round yesterday that was just a parade of horrors. The worst of which was a 5month old who had been bitten on his genitals by a rabbid dog. It was not a pretty sight to see what would have been his prize possesion when he was older, withered and dead and definitely beyond repair.

But in all, the surgeons here do do a great job with what they have. I helped clean and dress many burn wounds on lots of poor little kids today and it was nice to see the doctors still showing compassion and empathy even though this is a daily occurence for them. They have such a hard job.

Till next time x