We spent this weekend exploring Arusha. We started at the colourful local markets packed full of second hand clothes and fruit and veg. We stood out a mile being the only white faces in the crowds. We then went to a really interesting sheltered workshop called Shanga. The people working there are deaf or blind and are trained in weaving cloth, glass blowing and jewellery making using recycled glass bottles and cans. Their stuff is beautiful. The money from the sales goes to a school for deaf and blind children and most of the workers are past students. It was really inspiring. It reminds us of a similiar project in Ghana. Most of the ground was covered in broken glass offcasts of all colours and shapes. A much prettier backyard option than boring old gravel! Zoe and Zac thought it was a treasure trove and came home with pockets full of pieces of all colours and shapes (thankfully not sharp!).
Work at the hospital and Plaster House is still really rewarding. I did my first Tanzanian home visit yesterday to look at adapting a home for a patient who has just become a paraplegic. Poor thing. Shes just a bit younger than me with 2 little children and a husband who is only home 1 day a week. All her family live in Kenya. So difficult. Now the challenge is to try an get her some equipment! Adam has run 5 of 10 of his teacher training workshops and they are going very well with lots of enthusiasm from the staff. He starts semester 2 of his masters this week after a lovely 4 week break so that will be a shock to the system for us all. Our landlord is having a bore drilled in our yard which has resulted in a team of workers camping on the lawn and drilling day and night. They have set up tents to sleep in and everything. Apart from now feeling like we cant let the kids play outside for safety reasons, the worst thing is the exhaust fumes from the machinery are blowing right into the house and making us all feel sick. (sigh) What is it with our rentals and back yards??? Keep reasssuring myself that many people live in highly polluted places so hopefully a few weeks of carbon monoxide will not do any permanent damage to us all. At least all the workers seems very friendly. The landlord has promised to slaughter a goat on our lawn to celebrate if they hit water!!! (Not sure this is quite the compensation we were hoping for!)