Greasy hair, smelly toilets and spitting cobras

I am sitting here in the dark squeezing the last juice from this computer battery! We have also been squeezing the last drops of water as we have now had three days without running water. We are getting very good at recycling water from first use to third use! Greasy hair, dirty clothes, smelly toilets! Tanzania is having a period of increased powercuts at the moment. Some say it has run out of money to buy power from whatever country it buys from. Others report fixing parts… Our phone line is also dead, so with no phone or internet, no water, no power and to top it off, a spitting cobra in our garden, we are feeling like we are in Africa or something! The spitting cobra was spotted on Friday and Amisadai braved the first attempt with Spedito to poison him in his hole. It failed. On Saturday, Spedito came across him hissing by our washing line and quietly followed him back to a second hole he had made. Spedito said he was too big (aggh!) to try and lure out for a kill, so tried a second attempt to poison him and covered the hole with rocks. Now two days later we hope he is dead in his hole, but are not totally sure…

A Christmas parcel! Thank you, Esther and Maria!

Hopefully despite the obstacles (and also without the invaluable help of Mama Lucy who has sadly been sick since last Wednesday) we will be ready to board our bus early on Thursday, clean clothes or no clean clothes! We are off to Dar-es-Salaam to pick up Tim’s parents who arrive on Friday morning. We are then flying out on Monday to Mwanza (on Lake Victoria) where Tim and his Dad are speaking at a Pastors’ Conference organized by two churches with whom we have a great relationship (led by Pastor Zakayo and Pastor Charles). We think there are over 120 pastors coming from all over the Mwanza area, more than twice as many as came to the first conference 18 months ago when Tim and his Dad were visiting! We will have a week in Mwanza, staying with Mama Minja (and visiting the orphanage she has set up), visiting the various projects that the church is involved in, and Tim and his Dad will be preaching in the two churches on the Sunday. We will then fly back to Dar and catch the bus the following day back to Iringa… with Grandma and Grandad! Lots of fun!