Little Bloggers and Car Boot Bargains!

As you may have noticed, I have now set up a blog that will be for Amisadai and Louisa to write on and put photos up for all their friends! The blog address is http://mongergirls.blogspot.com/ We hope our children and yours will all enjoy being able to stay in touch and share stories! Please let us know if your children are following along!

This Saturday, (for those of you in the Tadley area!) we will have a table at the Car Boot Sale at Tadley Community Centre! This is our second round of selling off our belongings! The first was our big Garage Sale in April, which was a great start and raised over £400 for the Tanzania fund!

Also for sale (some preferably in mid-August!), contact us if you are interested ...

White Ikea chest of (3) drawers

Dining room table and 4 chairs

Sideboard

Single Wardrobe and matching bedside tables

Two more bedside tables

Table and Standing Lamps

Sony flatscreen TV and digibox, DVD player

And that's it for now for blogs and bargains!

Piano, football and "life" in occasions!

Today it was so good to have most of my piano students together for a final recital at the Newbury Hilton Hotel Piano Bar. I am really going to miss all of them! We had to compete for space and sound with the England match, which was a new and rather interesting experience! But I can say that all the pianists performed far better than the footballers! Well done everyone! And thank you to all of you who came! As well as enjoying the piano playing and great company over drinks and cake, with the music sale and raffle we raised about £90 for the Tanzania fund! So thank you very much to all of you! And also thanks to Tadley Instruments and Dawson's Music, Sainsbury's and Tesco, for their kind donations!

It is a very strange time at the moment. It has been very busy - since last weekend we have had just about every occasion marked! A graduation banquet, birthday parties (x2), baby dedication, a funeral, a wedding, a farewell concert, and an ordination tea! And in the midst of all this "life" in Tadley, we are so aware of all that is changing as we pack things up, get the house ready for someone else to live in (potential renters viewing this week!) and bag things up for a car boot sale at Tadley Community Centre next Saturday!

And on a final packing note, I can tell you (should you ever need to know!) that 2 single duvets, 5 pillows, 1 double sheet,  8 single sheets, 4 pillowcases, 4 facecloths, 1 bathmat and 1 blanket all fits vacuum-packed in one bag but all together weighs 26 kg .... which is 3kg over the limit of one bag ... bother!

4 bedroom semi-detached house to rent in Woodlands Road, Baughurst, RG26, RG26

Our house is now up and available for renting! So if you know of anyone who is looking to rent, please pass on this link .... Jon Coombs (LetCom) is managing it for us!

4 bedroom semi-detached house to rent in Woodlands Road, Baughurst, RG26, RG26

Asante sana and Furahieni chakula chunu!

Asante sana (thank you very much) to everyone who has bought a Recipe Book! This week we have sold over 60 books with more ordered! So let me know quickly if you would still like to get one before they are all gone! I have some left or you can find them in various places around Aldermaston or in the Tadley Community Centre! Tim and I were at the Aldermaston school assembly on Friday, talking about what we are doing in Tanzania and congratulating Sophie Messer with a prize for her recipe book cover page artwork! So to all you cooks .... Furahieni chakula chunu! (bon apetite!)

And as we get closer now to going, we would like to say a big asante sana to all those of you who are supporting us! We so appreciate the donations and the monthly support. Your involvement in what we are doing and your generosity is humbling and overwhelming in the most positive way! Thank you!

It was wonderful today to visit with Pastor Charles Mkumbo from Mwanza in Tanzania. Tim picked him up from Redcliffe College in Gloucester, where he is studying for a month, and we had a meal with him at Tim's parents! It was my first time to meet him (Tim has been with him in Tanzania) and next time I see him we will be in Tanzania! We hope to be able to work with him and Pastor Zakayo in Mwanza at some point! We saw photos of the work that has been done in Mama Minga's orphanage in Mwanza since Tim and the team from Tadley went last year. It is good! They have built four latrines for the children now!

As you might guess, as I throw in a few Swahili words in this blog, I have been thinking about the language! I had such great intentions for learning some Swahili before we went, but .... I have not done very well! And have now resigned myself to the fact that in the time that is left, I will get no further! Si kitu (no matter), I will just have to work very hard to keep up with Tim at language school when we arrive! And with that kwa heri (goodbye)!

Fridges, dogs and washing machines

It's a dog! Yes, many of you who know us will have a good laugh! None of you would ever believe that we would ever get a dog. Neither Tim or I (or our parents and grandparents before us!) have ever had or wanted a dog! But Amisadai did pray for one and it seems her prayers are answered! We have just heard from Andrew and Miriam Wingfield (who head up the Emmanuel International work in Tanzania) that a dog in need of a loving family is waiting for us! We have no idea what kind of dog, or what name he/she has, but have been told it looks much like a lion ... but assuredly isn't! More on this in future blogs! Less interesting, but none the less very good news is that Andrew this week found us a fridge and a washing machine in Dar-es-Salaam! I wasn't expecting to get a washing machine, so this is quite exciting! We are really looking forward to living near this wonderful family who are doing so much to help us even before we arrive!

Andrew and Miriam with Ben and Sam

This weekend we have had my aunts, Alison and Philippa and my Grandpa staying with us! It has been great to have them to visit! Auntie Philly has kindly offered to store a lot of our things for us ... so I have now emptied three cupboards of glassware, china and plates/platters and boxed it up and sent it with her! While it feels like I've now made a start, the packing up process does seem very daunting now!

Now this evening the four of us are looking forward to going to TASTE, to get together with lots of Tadley young people and tell them a bit about what we are going to be doing in Tanzania and encourage them to look for what adventures God has for them!

Imaginings

I am doing some imagining! I have been reading news from Andy and Angela Sharpe in Tanzania. We will be working with these lovely people in Iringa. They moved from Sussex in February and now give us news of settling in to African life! It has me imagining what life will be like for us in 3 months time!

The dry season has now started and they are not expecting to see rain again until November. Everything will be so dry when we get there in September! And hot ... it is stretching my imagination to feel hot at the moment!

And now as I write my shopping list for Tesco tomorrow, I am imagining my shopping in Iringa! Angela writes that some new shops have just opened - grandly called "trolley shops" as they actually have shopping trolleys (carts)! She thinks this is slightly over the top as the shop is no bigger than their bedroom! She usually gets word from a friend that a pig or some chickens are being slaughtered and is asked if she would like some. A big chunk then arrives in a plastic bag. I can imagine this as long as I'm not responsible for beheading chickens ... But now thinking about pigs and pork, I'm thinking that maybe our homeschooling novel study on Charlotte's Web isn't such a great idea! Milk comes from a cow a few houses away. I can imagine our metal milk churn arriving with milk ready to be boiled and cooled ready for our morning cornflakes! Or maybe we get our own cow?

It's all very hard to imagine really!

Here's a photo of Iringa ... now you have about as much to go on as I do in your own imaginings!

Recipe Books Arrived!

Today, (finally!) one hundred Recipe Books arrived at our door! And they have turned out wonderfully! For those of you wondering ... as part of our fundraising for Tanzania, we have been collecting recipes from people in the Aldermaston Primary School community and put together a great compilation of all the favourite, well-tested, family-loved recipes! It's full of great recipes, even from The Hind's Head pub! It also includes some sketches from the students .. find out next week who won the competition for the design of the cover page! So, it's on sale now! Get your orders in now - it makes a great gift! Books are just £6 or £15 for 3!

I have been adding a few things to our blog, including a page on how you can support us - Emmanuel International is able to recieve donations for us through JustGiving. Also up now is a page on The Projects if you would like to know more about what we'll be working on in Tanzania! We have also started a group on Facebook!