The rainy season has come early this year to Tanzania. My guidebook says the typical season starts
in March, peaks in April, and ends sometime in May. Storms here can blow in with nearly no
warning sending everyone scrambling for cover or to collect their half dry
laundry from the lines. Our rain buckets
and barrels are constantly full, any water we use to wash our clothes or hair
is replenished in no time. The hospital laundry is washed by hand. Women here
soak and scrub the linens then hang them out to dry. I don’t know when they are finding time
lately to finish all their work with the wet weather. When everything is suitably dry the women take
them down from the lines an iron all the sheets then fold them precisely into
impossibly small bundles. I’m sure the local
farmers are happy with each new shower but so are the mosquitoes. Their numbers seem to be on the rise
lately. It can be hard to treat patients
with malaria and mosquito borne viruses without a little paranoia creeping in.
The conference is now over and we are looking forward to an upcoming
Safari at Ruaha National Park. Stay
tuned to this blog and your Facebook feed for the flood of pictures that are on
the way as surely as more rain.
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