Tim's Classes, Metal Molds and Little Trees

We've been Iringa-based these past few weeks as our Magozi friends are all busy, focused on getting their harvest in. But Magozi came to us and it was nice to be able to have Ezekiel stay with us when he came into town to buy some large sacks for his rice. He came back a week later for a less happy reason with his wife, Bora to bring their baby girl, Lightness, who was sick, to the clinic here.
 

Lightness playing with Louisa's doll

The new molds and cut-outs for the "door"

We are waiting to hear how the recent firing of the stoves went last night. We hope firstly, that it actually happened, and we hope that the new Magozi clay has come out tops! Tim has taken a few trips out to a metal workshop run by the Catholic Fathers to order and collect eight new molds for the stoves. The Magozi group wanted three more and five are for the new projects. While Ezekiel was with us, he helped us out by making a test stove out of the new clay from Ikuka. This seems excellent clay which is very promising for a potential Ikuka group! Unfortunately the clay we got from Itunundu was not even good enough to attempt a stove! But we will go back to find better clay from a different spot ... we keep looking!

Ten tree seedlings

The other good news is that we have found and bought our first seedlings! Just ten little trees  that we have learned are ideal for growing in hot, dry places like Pawaga and in time will good for firewood. We will grow them up a little bit at home in Iringa and in a few weeks take them to Magozi and find opportunities to talk about the importance of replanting trees. We will work with the kitchen garden families to plant them and make sure they are able to care for them. This is just a very small beginning of something that we would like to grow into something bigger. As well as "kuni" (firewood) trees, it would be lovely to sit under trees for shade and eat fruit from trees growing in the village in eight to ten years time!

Tim has been teaching this week at Bethel Bible College in Mafinga (about 80km from Iringa). He enjoyed starting the six-week Swahili course on "Introduction to Mission," with keen and attentive students. Due to the cancellation of the first class last week, he stayed overnight and taught the second week's class the following day. It gave him the opportunity to spend time with the College Principal, visit a new church plant and experience what cold means in Tanzania. Fortunately, they brought a charcoal stove in the house just for his benefit!

He has also spent some time, along with Andrew, at a week's conference in Iringa hosted by the Anglican Church aimed at equipping leaders for holistic transformation of society. The content was great, although a little hard to follow in Swahili, but he was grateful for a participants workbook in English!

I have run out of steam a bit this week, busy with various things, tired of nightly planning and teaching with lots of distractions and a little fed up with the water (or lack of!) situation! But the water is back on now and we have had some fun with friends and yesterday enjoyed chocolate brownies out as a school reward treat! The girls especially have enjoyed some time to play with friends which hasn't happened so much recently! We had an Iringa Community Day last Sunday which was a day for expats to talk through issues of safety and security and other "community" things. So we learnt all about snakes and what to do in other emergencies of various kinds, be it on the road, medical or break-ins. It is good to be aware of the potential dangers and be prepared best we can and know who we can contact in case of an incident. The girls enjoyed playing with all the kids while the adults met together.

And now we are looking forward to having Phil and Helen Norris with us this week! They have arrived in Dar-es-Salaam and had a good time with Victory Christian Centre this morning. They arrive on the bus tomorrow evening!

Two silly girls!