Happy Birthday, Tim! Karibuni Phil and Helen!

We have had a lovely flying visit from Phil and Helen all the way from Basingstoke! They arrived on the infamous bus on Monday night, toured Iringa on Tuesday, Phil went with Tim to the Bible College in Mafinga on Wednesday, we all went to Magozi on Thursday, came home on Friday to celebrate Tim's birthday before driving with Tim back to Dar early on Saturday morning! It was lovely to see them and show them around, and so very exciting unpacking their bags! Thank you SO much to all those of you who sent things for us with them. We were overwhelmed by your generosity and the girls are SO excited about having all these new clothes! THANK YOU!!!! We just can't wait to see you all now.

Helen has a go at weaving mats

It was great taking them to Magozi, and they managed to be the first visitors not to see any snakes, bats, scorpions, rats ... for which Helen was, I think, most grateful! It was also the coldest there that we have ever had it, which also blessed Helen (although I would have liked it a little warmer at night!) They were able to meet with the stoves group, do some threshing, lead the Bible study evening group and also visit Itunundu, the village where we are planning to work next. We were looking for more clay, but that wasn't so successful!

More threshing!

We celebrated Tim's birthday on Friday evening after getting back from Magozi. We were all very thankful to have the water back on! We had a fruitcake (big treat here!!) with dried fruit I had saved since Christmas after the Tadley team brought some over! I am relaxing the rationing now! It was great to see Andy and Angela, back after their three months in the UK. They felt right back at home arriving to have no water, limited electricity and no internet! After tea and cake we went on for another treat at Sai Villa Restaurant!

Happy Birthday, Tim!

Now Tim and Phil and Helen are in Dar es Salaam (where I hear it is pleasantly cool and breezy, although Phil and Helen may beg to differ!). Tim will be picking up his Auntie Ann and cousin, Rachel on Friday and we are looking forward to some time with them in the next few weeks. Until then, the girls and I are back to school for a bit! And if you want to know more about what that means, check out the girls' first magazine article! They recently wrote for the EI Down to Earth Magazine on their experience of school in Tanzania! Yesterday we enjoyed celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with friends, but watching the celebrations in London, felt very thankful for our warm, dry weather! Check out the girls blog for more on that!