Dust, Dirt & Disease in Africa

I feel like my feet have been dirty since I arrived. I’m sure they’ve been dirty before but this is a new level of dirt. And it seems like no matter how much I shower and scrub them, they’re dirty again. I wear thongs most of the time (that’s flipflops for those in the Northern Hemisphere) so that probably doesn’t help but in this climate, it’s really the most practical thing. It’s just so sandy and dry that it’s almost impossible to be outside without getting dirty.

The washing of hands is one of the things that’s emphasized most – not because of the dirt and sand but because of the spread of germs. What with malaria around (not that it can be transmitted by dirty hands) and other stuff like stomach bugs and other nasty diseases, it’s really important to wash your hands before and after eating, the toilet and anything else you can think of. I don’t think I’ve ever washed my hands as often in my life, which seems kind of ironic since we’re in a drought and we should be water saving, but if we don’t well… it won’t be pleasant. So it’s a bit of a trade off really.

The whole Malaria thing is weird because I’ve no idea who to believe. I dutifully took three months worth of my tablets with me (the daily ones cos the weekly ones made me psycho…) but since I got here, I’ve been told that long-term use of them can cause liver aamage, and that you really only need to take them when you’re in a malaria infested area. We’re very high up, by Tanzanian standards (around 1200 metres I think) so they really aren’t that bad here. Having said that, I’m swatting one every couple of minutes tonight so it’s relative really! Apparently these particular mozzies don’t carry malaria much but then I’ve met quite a few people in the school who have had it. Another guy told me that the malaria mozzies only come out at night which his why we sleep under mozzie nets. Then again another person told me that Malaria really isn’t that bad and that there are different degrees and strains of it, and that the one we get here isn’t that bad and it isn’t the one you have for a lifetime. If this is true, you get a blood test when you think you have it, and if so take very strong antibiotics and then take another blood test afterward to confirm it’s gone! So I’m not sure what to do really as I don’t want to take these anti-malaria tablets for a year as it can’t be good but I just haven’t heard a convincing argument to persuade me otherwise yet.


Once of the sad things about living here is the appalling water situation. Last week Tanzania was declared to be in drought. I suspect the announcement came well after the fact. The school receives water from Mount Meru (second highest mountain after Kilimanjaro) though one pipe which supplies the entire village. During the day, we don’t get an awful lot because it’s dispersed to all the other parts of the village and we are fairly far down the line. Last year as numbers in the school grew (between visitors and students), the water became more of a problem, so they started to pump it from the very lowest point in order to get maximum catchment. It then gets sent to a variety of tanks which supply the school. It’s a lot more complicated than that but you get the drift. The problem now is that there just isn’t enough water in the country, so we’re all going to have to be more careful and frugal with our water.

To that end, I made signs today for the toilets with the old “If it’s yellow, let it mellow…” and you know the rest. Now we just have to all start to take shorter showers! I think a lot of the vollies here still think like Westerns. It’s very easy to forget you’re in an Africa of extremes and shortages when you’re just living in a cocoon like ours. But now that it’s been declared a drought zone, it’s time to take it seriously.