Dar Reading, Mwanza Cookin'

We are all back together after our jaunting about! Amisadai came home extremely inspired and excited about her trip to Nairobi for the MUN event! She can tell you all about that on her blog! Tim has been about numerous different villages with farmers and beekeepers which will be the next post!  And I am back from my trip to Dar es Salaam last week! It was fantastic to be back with everyone at Under the Same Sun! I was also able to go to a couple of meetings with the VCC church. And in one short flight home (at an insane time in the early hours), managed to lose my luggage which ended up on an island off Madagascar. Air Tanzania did manage to return it once they found it, although I would have quite enjoyed recovering it myself!

The Dar Mamas were delighted and excited to receive their first sales money! The group made their first 100,000TSh, which is hugely encouraging! They have been making some lovely necklaces and earrings, and the stitched cards are improving all the time! And now they have all started learning the basics of making beeswax products! We made our first lip balms and Neem Creams last week.

Varnished beads drying while we make lip balms

A satisfying sight! 

It is such a privilege to be able to come alongside this group of women in a small way. And great to be something of a connector between them and the Mwanza Mamas - they share a name and more significantly, a story and I hope one day they can all meet! Our Bible studies this visit were much better with the gift of Bibles from Tadley Community Church! Each woman was offered a Bible either for reading during our time together, or to take home at a very low cost if they chose to. Everyone took one and took great delight in reading it for themselves! I pray that this Word would truly be a light to show their way and in it they would find true joy. Some were struggling to read the print, and it was a fantastic moment when I passed along some basic reading glasses! There were loud shrieks of amazement that letters could actually be so clear and visible! I wish I had caught the moment on camera!

Brand new reading glasses (labels intact!) and Bibles

All engrossed!

Thrilled to read!

Let's Get Cookin'

The great news here is that the Mwanza mamas finally have their oven! Four of us went shopping on Wednesday... which is another crazy story in itself, really! It entailed much too-ing and fro-ing, hunting through hospitals, waiting in banks, trekking through town - all simply for a stove! We have been long-anticipating this day. It is nothing big and fancy, but all are so excited to share in this and now learn how to bake! I find myself suddenly rather less excited and seriously daunted about the next step forward. Suddenly realising that I am supposed to be teaching these women as well as the girls at the safe house how to bake, I threw myself into garlic sticks, cinnamon twists, bread and rolls at home to practice! I am certainly no baking expert and felt rather apprehensive about definitive recipes!

We were supposed to start cooking today, but today was another one of those kinda crazy Tanzanian days when things don't go according to plan. Trying to get the connector for the gas to stove proved challenging. This started at 8am with a trip to town only to find that all the stores were shut to get everyone sweeping for Clean Streets. No one was sweeping but we had to go back at 11am. Which meant getting rather tied up in traffic as we looped around the crazy market area with Zuena continually hopping out while I created traffic jams. Trying to get all the Mamas to arrive on time in time to get the bread rising proved challenging. Yes, it has crossed my mind numerous times that bakers arrive at work VERY early. This will take a minor miracle with these Tanzanian mamas.

But never one to be phased by a challenge ... we rise to it. Let's get cookin'!

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.
I have suffered much; preserve my life, Lord, according to your word.
Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.
Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.
The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.
Your statutes are my heritage for ever; they are the joy of my heart.

My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.

Psalm 119:105-112