This week I am thankfully feeling fully recovered and back to my normal self after my second bout of malaria. Things have been really positive this week – following the meeting held last week a lot of encouraging actions have been taken by the relevant people at NIT. I am very hopeful the meeting has sparked the fire that was needed to improve reporting at NIT. This week I have been working closely with the transport safety and environmental studies department completing the actions from the meetings by the deadlines set. Additional to my day to day work at NIT, I was delighted to be included in a steering group call with senior management at Transaid and various representatives from NIT and the driver training school in Zambia. The steering group discussed progress made both at NIT and in Zambia over the last three months and all the relevant projects that Transaid have been working on that influence the training that is undertaken at both institutions. It was a fantastic opportunity to share the work I have been doing with everyone and hear about all the other projects that are currently taking place. Outside of work I have had a very relaxed week, which led me to bite the bullet and join a gym. The local hotel which is around a fifteen minute walk from NIT and has a gym and rooftop swimming pool. After making some enquiries I walked down on Thursday evening to sign up, unfortunately when I arrived the lift was not working and since the gym is on the 13th floor the staff asked me to return on Friday to view the gym. When I arrived on Friday evening the main lift was still not working, however the alternative lift to the 9th floor was working, so I visited the gym via this route. The gym is quite basic but serves a purpose, the pool that is located on the roof is quite small and won’t really be an effective place to do any swimming for exercise, but it will definitely serve as a nice place to relax after a work out. A huge advantage of the gym is the amazing views - especially from the roof of the building. The hotel has thirteen floors and when on the roof by the pool you can see the whole of Dar, with views of the sea in the distance. The power supply has been an issue again this week. The electricity developed a new trend - while I spent Monday delighted that we had a full day with power I was less than impressed when it went off at 8pm and did not return until 3am the next morning. The power was off every evening until the weekend, it was a very unwanted reality check on my reliance of air conditioning to provide a pleasant night sleep. In November my family have booked to come to Tanzania for a holiday, the trip is going to include a safari followed by a stay in Zanzibar. Through some research I discovered that the ferry company offer a ‘Royal Class’ on the ferries from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam for a very reasonable price. Through my research I discovered that to obtain these tickets the booking had to be made in person at the ferry booking office. On Saturday therefore, I made a journey to the ferry terminal to book tickets for my family and I for our return journey from Zanzibar – we are flying from our safari to Zanzibar. After a very straightforward booking process I decided to spend the afternoon at Seacliff. I did a little shopping and had a delicious late lunch at the Seacliff hotel enjoying the views of the Indian Ocean. On Sunday I was fully prepared for my much anticipated return to underwater hockey. Unfortunately I received an email at lunchtime from the organiser to say that it was cancelled due to fumigation taking place at the school. I was very disappointed about the cancellation but I made the most of my unexpected free day by relaxing and reading my book. |