Asta og Erik in Africa

Due to many request (well, at least one from you, Monica) we will try to keep you updated on this site.
Asta and I will be staying at Haydom Lutheran Hospital i Tanzania until April 2012. Haydom is about 300 km west of Arusha, about 1700 m above sealevel (not so many bugs or malaria, and the temperature is agreeable, and fairly dry air) . If you want to read more about Haydom, there is a norwegian website with english translation http://www.haydom.no.
We came to Tanzania on the 11th of January. We spend to days in Arusha trying to acclimatize to the heat, the noise, the dust and the thinner air. Africa is different from Norway in so many ways. The weather, the people, the food, the coffea, the roads, the language (they don´t understand Norwegian even when I speak as slowly and clearly as I can...). My guitar got lost somewhere between Amsterdam and Kilimanjaro Airport, but luckily for me it surfaced in the office of Precision Air late in the afternoon the next day. Everything was closed due to public holiday, men we still managed to get it out due to a serviceminded employee.
The trip out to Haydom was in a rented landcruiser. We didn´t dare to take the public landcruiser which would have saved us a fortune. In a public landcruiser there are 12 seats and possibly 18 passengeres, including an occational goat or hen. And we had a lot of luggage...The roads are under construction. Or should have been. Or where constructed many years ago. Anyway, a lot of scenic views, Masais with spears, small villages with houses made of mud, herds of goats looked after by small boys. After driving for 5 hours we reached the big city of Haydom with 20000 inhabitants. So they say. The center of town is small, and we don´t know where they all live.
So
Asta is working in the outreach team. I am working in the hospital as a consultant. More about that in later blogs. Now I am in for a jog around Mt Haydom, about 8 km.
Pictures? For now you can view them at http://skogestad.blogspot.com.