Arriving at Nyangao

Well It’s been a couple of weeks since I last updated the blog……Where to begin?  Maybe at the beginning?

So I arrive at Mtwara airport after a short 1 hour flight from Dar es Salaam, and what a spectacular flight with views of the Tanzanian coastline, the Indian ocean and Mafia Island.  Remember when Hurn airport was just a shed in a field with a bit of tarmac.. well that’s Mtwara airport. After being ushered off the plane and into “terminal one” (there is only one!) , a couple of blokes unloaded the luggage from the plane onto a glorified wheelbarrow and pushed it into the building, and unloaded the bags onto a table in the room where myself and the other  passengers where waiting.  Then everyone went home – only one flight a day it seems!  

Thankfully I was met at the airport by the Hospital driver – a chap named Eric.  That’s all I got from him as I can’t speak Swahili and he can’t speak English!  Instead of going straight to the hospital we went to the MSD (medical stores department) in Mtwara apparently to pick up some items for the hospital.  So we waited, and waited and waited.  I tried to find out what was going on in my (very) basic Swahili, and think I got told that we were waiting.  By this time I gathered that we were waiting, so waited some more.  After waiting for two hours, we waited some more.  Then a truck came and unloaded some boxes.. that was exciting, and after that we waited….I think we waited for a bit more, and finally after 3 hours of waiting we apparently got what we came for – 2 small boxes of something!  So off we went!  (I’ve since learnt that pone of my jobs will be going to MSD to pick up supplies for the lab.. note to self: take a book)

The drive from Mtwara to Nyangao takes around 2 ½ hours  on the only tarmac road in the region!  The road passes through plantations of coconut, mango, rice, banana and tomatoes and oranges, and  cuts through many small villages consisting of a few mud huts, some street vendors selling tomatoes and oranges.   I was admiring the sun setting over the hills in the distance as we drove through another village when we suddenly turned off the tarmac onto a dirt track for a few hundred metres and passed a sign saying NYANGAO HOSPITAL.   I had arrived!   When VSO said I was in a rural location, they were not bloody joking

In at the deep end

After arriving at my new house and meeting my housemate – Evelyn – a VSO volunteer from Kenya who has been at Nyangao for about 6 months we went to the bar in the village (the only bar).. when I say Bar, what I mean is a shack with some patio tables and chairs and a roof made from coconut palm fronds – but it does sell beer (and is called Old Trafford)!- to meet Ronnie – the hospital administrator, from Uganda, and a previous VSO volunteer.   A quick cola and a chipsi-mayai later* I was in bed spending my first night in my new house and ready to start work the next day.

The next morning at 7.30 I was thrust into the daily clinical meeting with all of the doctors at the hospital, met the chief doctor and chief surgeon then was shown around the hospital meeting every single one of the 300ish staff…  I’m now called Mr Jamesi – and everyone knows my name even if I have no idea about theirs! 

                                      (Photo taken from Google Images)

* chipsi-mayai  (chips and eggs) is probably Tanzania's second national dish (after ugali).. and is basically a Chip Omlette !  Cooked in a pan over a charcol burner and sold on every street corner and every tiny village it is greasy, tasty and generally cheap and contains none of your 5 a day! It is usually eaten using a cocktail stick -  Good nosh - try it! 

chipsi mayai ..   just needs lashings of chili sauce