Tadley comes to Tanzania

 I haven't blogged in a while, but I have a good excuse! We are enjoying having Greg, Hugh and Lyn from Tadley here with us for two weeks! It is so lovely to have them here with us, but the time just seems to be flying by. Tim, myself and the girls took the bus to Dar last Tuesday, and took the opportunity to find a dentist. Amisadai's mouth is getting rather too full of teeth and we wanted to get them checked. Amisadai flinched and faltered visibly as we walked through the hot corridor to the examination room - seeing bare metal hospital beds and ominous-looking medical instruments brought back bad memories!  But with the assurance of no needles this time, both girls seemed pretty impressed with the green dentist chair that looked like something from the 60's! The room was nothing like the sterile, white dentist rooms we are used to, but the dentist was very friendly and the girls even got a balloon afterwards which was a great surprise!




Happy Birthday, Hugh!

 The Tadley three arrived early on Friday morning and it was so exciting to go and pick them up from the airport. We had a fairly quiet two days there before the Sunday when Tim, Greg and Hugh were all preaching at Victory Christian Centre on Sunday. It was good to spend time again with Pastor Huruma and his lovely family too. On Monday we all boarded our Sumry bus for the long journey to Iringa. We left early, having breakfast at 5am before leaving the guest house at 5:15, and finally made it to our house at about 4:15pm having had an hour on the roadside after driving into a minibus in front. We were just thankful that was all it was.



Happy Birthday, Greg!



We had a slow day on Tuesday to recover from the journey, but enjoyed a visit to Neema Crafts to see the amazing things that they are doing there... and have a delicious lunch! On Wednesday we were bumping our way off to Magozi, where we all stayed overnight. It was so fantastic to take visitors! They all did really well, adjusting to the heat and a completely different way of life (and even snakes and cockroaches!) We ate uji and ugali and rice and beans. But best of all was being with the people there. The stoves group was so encouraged by their visit and so incredibly grateful for the gift of Bibles from Tadley Community Church. Thank you so much to all of you who gave for these Bibles - you cannot imagine how much it means to them! Now every member of the stoves group has one and we can all study the Bible together. In a few weeks we are going to start some training for some of the women to learn how to read, so that they can read their own Bible! It is so moving and exciting. In the morning, Hugh led a Bible study with the new Bibles, and Greg did some business teaching. Then the stoves group demonstrated the process of making a jiko. In the afternoon, we invited children to come to the church building and Lyn had organised a story and activities for them. They loved it! For some of the kids it was the first time to hold a crayon and colour a picture. They squealed with laughter as Greg made animals out of balloons and they have a big banner of Noah's Ark to put up on the wall on Sunday.

New Bibles!

Kids Afternoon

 

The girls love having Lyn here!



Now we are back in Iringa, making sure we tick all the boxes of things to do... just had samosas from Hasty Tasty... check! This afternoon the conference at the Pentecostal church begins. Greg preaches this evening, Hugh tomorrow and Greg again on Sunday. Now to make some fruit salad ... mango, papaya, banana, pineapple ... yum!