With Love from Bath

As Winnie the Pooh said, "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

We arrived, rather uncomfortably fully masked and shielded, and rather unfortunately minus some kilos of overweight baggage, in the UK on Friday. We have since been catching up on much missed sleep and rest as we begin our 14 day quarantine near Bath! Now trying to take time to reflect (as someone said, "bend backwards," to see things through a different lens) to appreciate just how privileged and blessed we have been over these last ten years in Tanzania, which made saying goodbye so hard. And taking time to reflect on the particularly crazy last month which I will try to sum up on the blog over the next little while! So much happened with the mamas and the beekeepers (even in the middle of the night before we left, I rather enjoyed taking beeswax from the solar extractor!) and now there's a new EI branch starting up ... all so exciting and good ... and yet makes saying goodbye so much harder!

Masked and shielded through Doha Airport

If you have been journeying with us through our time in Tanzania, you will know Elisha, our EI agricultural and entrepreneurship colleague! And I will start this blog post with some photos from his wedding! He and Sauda were married a couple of weeks ago, and it was wonderful to share in their special day! Peter, Bhatendi and Emmanuel were all very involved helping on the wedding planning committee. And it was also lovely to have the Upendo wa Mama group there... Elisha has been a huge help in getting The Hive going and also working with some of the women one-on-one as they think through entrepreneurial ventures they can begin with their profit from the group. We are all thrilled for Elisha and his new wife! 

I love the dancing gift-giving!

The girls enjoyed sitting next to Laura! 

Upendo wa Mama group all dressed up for the occasion!

A great Tanzanian feast! 

We were able to get some lovely "lasts" in over this past month as well as the bittersweet goodbyes. To name a few... we had a family picnic lunch up in our treehouse, we had smoothies and mishkaki at Umbrella, tangawezi sodas at the top of Gold Crest, lunch with friends at Malaika, and the girls ticked off a photoshoot, singing at the vomiting fish keepi-lefti for a bit of a laugh! 

Picnic in the top of the treehouse!

And  I have to include here some photos of various goodbyes for the blog record... some of the very special people who have blessed us and made it so hard to say goodbye! We love and will miss them all!

Saying goodbye to our amazing household staff!

Lunch with the Guild family

Pastor Tito and his wife came from Nyamililo for chai to say goodbye

A farewell from this wonderful community of expat friends! 

These special women!

Awesome bunch of kids!

Beautiful girlfriends!

A farewell feast with Pastors Mbuke, Zakayo and Charles and their families!

A farewell from our special EI Team

A special but very emotional farewell with the mamas group

 Final fun with Tabitha and Reuben on our last night in Mwanza!

And this was farewell to our Saanen milking goats,
 who went with Peter to start an EI livestock project!

Farewell to Mwanza as we began the journey to a new home in the UK 

And so for now we are making the most of quarantine! We are so incredibly well looked after by my wonderful Auntie Marian and Uncle Ian and enjoying a beautiful place to rest and amazing food to eat! We are thankful for the this time to reflect ... before we put our Big Boots on and go for our next Adventure!

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure 

that an Adventure is going to happen.” A.A Milne