A New EI Member and other things!

Another week has passed already! The most exciting news of the week was to hear that Andrew and Miriam Wingfield had a baby girl, named Bethany on Monday night! They are all doing well, and we are looking forward to meeting Bethany when they all get back to Tanzania in February!



Ben and Sam meet Bethany

For us here, after all the excitement of having our three visitors, this week has seemed rather more uneventful and uninteresting! The girls and I have been busy with school again, which has been a lot of time and work for me getting organized for new topics and remembering what we were supposed to be doing.  We are very grateful for the books and things that arrived with the team.

"Shadows" in Art 

Tim and Stout were in Magozi for two very hot days this week. They got there and back without any problems which is always something to be thankful for! Our car has several times this week decided not to run and also managed to get two punctures. Thanks to Andy jiggling the wires, it seems ok at the moment! On the road to Magozi, Tim and Stout did encounter an amusing incident … they stopped to let a herd of cows cross the road, and to their surprise, one cow ploughed right into the car! They were laughing at the crazy thing, when the herdsman appeared with apologies, saying that the poor cow was blind! This week marks the end of Stout’s six-month contract with us, and while in Magozi, he was able to say goodbye to the group, and they were able to express their thanks to him for all he has done during his time working there. It has been great having Stout working with us these past months, he has done so much helping with to make the initial stoves, translation work, and living and working with us in Magozi. We had a farewell for him in the office yesterday; we gave him a jiko and shared tea and cake in appreciation for his work with us.

While in Magozi it was encouraging to see the stoves group coming for the Bible study with their new Bibles; while reading aloud, it was clear that one woman in particular was really struggling with her eyesight. With the donated money left over from the Bibles, we are going to be able to bring her back to Iringa next week to get some glasses. They were also able to meet baby Ilumbo (Kigogo for “thanks”) for the first time. He is the first child of one of the guys that meets each week with Tim.

Baby Ilumbo

We continue to be frustrated with the water situation. Most days now we are without running water, although we are grateful that it usually comes on at night, so we can fill buckets and flush the toilet! But we have had several days and nights without water and been wary about filling another bucket from the bottom of our rainwater tank. We are grateful to have the water we do get, as others outside the centre of town are faring far worse and walking with buckets to get it. There are big problems with the Iringa water works; we have heard that the water pressure has been increased but the system can’t cope with this. We really hope they can fix all the problems that keep springing up! We will be glad to have showers and washing machines running again and feel free to use the water for the less-critical cleaning - it’s all prioritized! And we’ll be glad for the rains which could come in the next month or so!