Hi and welcome to our new blog. Firstly apologies as it has
been a while since our last update, the reason being we took a short personal
break to go home to the UK to visit family and friends. This was much needed
after a year of settling in to our new surroundings, language learning and
working in our new roles. We had a fantastic 3 weeks and returned refreshed and
recharged, ready to start working full time at the hospital.
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| Our new one storey home |
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| Kitchen Cupboard awaiting repair |
We have now moved into our new home, within the hospital
grounds, which although habitable is not yet completely finished so we are
currently living in 1 room surrounded by our suitcases, being used as bedside tables.
Outstanding work on the kitchen, windows and bathroom will hopefully be
completed within the next few weeks. Whilst away we had some furniture made by
a local carpenter so have wooden chairs to sit on, plus we have been given a
dining table and chairs from a friend who is returning to the UK, so can now eat our meals properly
rather than on our laps. We await delivery of shelving for storage space and a
desk plus we now need to kit out our new home with crockery, cooking utensils
etc. as obviously we arrived here with nothing but our clothes. We look forward
to the day when we can finish work and come home to relax and be able to find
things without the need to search through suitcases and finally unpack
properly.
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| Living Room |
Living at the hospital has its challenges but one advantage
is that we no longer have to drive to and from town on a regular basis at the
end of a long day, particularly as the rains have now started. Frequent trips
into town are however still needed, to buy provisions and to provide a welcome respite
from the hospital. Our house is the closest to the hospital buildings, less
than 100 meters away, next to the water tower and generator building. Getting
to and from work is a mere 2 minute walk, but does mean we seem to be
permanently at work. Even sitting out the back of the house on the veranda in
the evening or weekends, we are disturbed by visitors or patients seeking
medical help.
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| View from kitchen |
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| View of water tower |
The hospital complex fortunately does have its own water
supply, via a bore hole, which is pumped via a generator into a holding tank on
a tower, as we have no mains electricity. This single tank supplies both the
hospital and the houses so runs out frequently. The first pump of water
generally starts at 6 in the morning and is repeated frequently throughout the
day except on operating days when the generator is running constantly to supply
power. We are fortunate to have now completed installing solar power within all
existing buildings at the hospital, but it does need to be managed carefully.
Although
each building has its own panels and batteries which are charged daily by the
sun, they can only hold a limited capacity. An example being the hospital wards
which can only have light for 4 hours each evening, on cloudy or rainy days
this is reduced further. Trying to educate people to conserve energy is
challenging in a culture where they are used to using what is available now,
and not worrying about tomorrow.
Another challenge we have to get used to as there is no
mains electricity is having a Gas fridge. A solar solution is too expensive and
needs many batteries to run. However a fridge is an essential luxury here to
try and keep water cool in these extreme temperatures plus we rely on a small freezer
compartment to keep meat fresh. Unfortunately gas fridges are not very
efficient so our water is generally warm as the fridge never gets very cold but
the freezer does seem to work OK, most of the time. The numerous issues include
no warning of the gas running out, the constant smell of gas plus the expense
as gas bottles only typically last 2 weeks. They are also very messy as they create
a lot of carbon, which needs to be cleaned out frequently. Waking in the
morning to find no gas to the fridge, no water in the taps, the starting of the
generator and the dawn call to prayer are all new experiences and challenges we
need to adapt to in our new home.
Our formal full time French tuition was completed in May
with the final exams, which Sue managed to pass but Malc unfortunately didn't ,
therefore although now working full time at the hospital we have decided to
continue our studies with a tutor at the school once a week.
Daily life here is challenging but we have lots to be
thankful for, in particular continued good health and we are sustained in the
knowledge that the work of the hospital is so desperately needed here.
Love Malc & Sue