I have now been in Tabora for just over 3 days and absolutely loving it.It is hot and dusty and hard and dirty in places but the people are kind, friendly and funny, shouting greetings, waving and making jokes about us.

The house we are living in is basic but comfy, clean and I already consider it as home.We have a maid Mama Isiah who cleans, does the washing and cooks some basic food.There is also Saidi the night guard who comes at nine every evening and stays until 8 the following morning.There is no running water in the house but a stand pipe outside from which we collect water when it is on.We heat water for bucket showers in the sun or on the gas stove.Electricity is a bit intermittentbut generally works OK.

At present I am sharing with David who is a doctor and Lindsay a midwife.We have a 'pet' medical student, James who is just staying at our house for a few more days before returning to the UK.There are other westerners here from the US working on community projects in the villages.In all there is quite a collection of odd foreigners who are inclined to meet up a weekends for meals, drinks and dancing at the 'Orion' hotel a slightly crumbling colonial style place.

The food so far has been great .A mixture of rice and beans with a strong influence from Asia with chapattis, samosas and curry.The fruit is excellent in season at present are pineapples, papayas, avocadoes etc etc.

First day at work today.Visited the hospital and shadowed my midwife colleague for the morning.Quite an eye opener with generally 2 mothers and 2 babies in the post natal beds, open labour ward with no curtains, privacy or pain relief and staff who didn't really seem to have a clue about some basic hygiene and good practice.I observed a caesarean which was quite alarming as the baby came out blue and flaccid and there was no equipment to deal with this.I really believe that without the intervention of my colleague that baby would have died.But luckily this story does have a happy ending and she rallied.

I did briefly visit the psychiatric ward which was pretty bleak; bare walls, beds and outside yard, modelled very much like a prison with wards around a courtyard area.The person who runs this section was not there so I am planning to visit him later in the week to see if I can be of any use.

We are going to visit some of the village dispensaries tomorrow which should be really interesting.So far I am loving it and have just had so many experiences already.Will try to keep you informed but the internet is a bit haphazard so don't hold your breath.