Grumpy day

Definitely grumpy this evening. WARNING - this blog is a bit of a whinge. Feel free to go offline now. Lots of little niggles and the general tiredness from coping with so many aspects of everyday life being new and, if not actually challenging, at least different enough to need thinking about.

No car and having to haggle over price every time I jump in a taxi.
Not knowing what I can get at the shop and finding they don't have something on my 'crucial' list, such as a brand of bottled water without several times the recommended amount of flouride (damages the kids teeth and bones).
And something that is not even a product of being in Tanzania but just unneccessarily annoying - fitted sheets that probably fit a bed somewhere but definitely not ours, and which persist in pinging off the mattress corners with monotonous regularity.

I know, I know, really really minor things. I think it's just that the novelty and initial adrenaline have worn off and we still have no house, car or anything else we need and people keep telling me that I need to learn swahilli. I KNOW! I'm trying! But I'm also trying to get to grips with finding food and safe water and cooking over one gas ring by candlelight when the power goes off and taking care of the kids when they only have a couple of books and toys each.

But today I met a lady who has had no water in the taps for the last fortnight, and I know that not too far away people are not eating because they have no food, and I know that my own trials are absolutely insignificant in the face of those of so many others.

And, a lady I have never met emailed today (in response to my message on the local email list saying that we needed a house, car, toys etc) to welcome me here, invite me and the kids to her house to play with her kids, offer me a car seat and give me valuable information on house hunting etc.

And someone has just emailed details of a Landrover that could be fine for Mr B's fieldwork.

And they do have Cadburys here, albeit slightly different.

So things are indeed okay and will probably keep getting better.