How to cook rice on your head

This week, school for all of us included some fieldtrips! Our language studies have been going well, Tim racing ahead of me now going every day! I go a few afternoons a week when I have finished teaching the girls, but now that I have planned ahead more of the girls lessons, I am hoping to study the Swahili a bit more on my own. I made the mistake last week when someone asked me how I was, I said I was a banana! Our evenings are busy doing homework, study and lesson prep! This week we enjoyed the opportunity to visit some of the villages we are looking forward to working in ...


Visiting the Primary School at Uhambingeto

On Tuesday afternoon we all went with Andy to Uhambingeto. We visited a Secondary School where they are currently working to finish all seven rainwater harvesting tanks before the rains come in November. We also visited the Primary School, where the tanks have been completed. The children were very excited to see Amisadai and Louisa, who were rather overwhelmed at the excited mob of boys and girls who followed us around! We also saw the church that has fairly recently been built and met the pastor and his family. We finished the day at Elekana's house (who sends his greetings to Matt Dixon who trained him). Louisa was delighted to share his ugali (maize-meal)! It was really good to see all the work that is being done in this village to help the schools; before the tanks were built, the closest water was 10km away - a long way to walk or bike with a heavy load of water. They have also built and are still building latrine blocks with a tap for washing. And as part of this are teaching good hygiene practices to the children.


A rain-water tank nearing completion!

Ugali with Elekana!

 Tim and the girls also went to another village, Mafinga, on Wednesday (I had to stay home to go to language school!) They went with Andrew and Miriam who teach at Bethal Bible College, run by the Pentecostal Holiness Mission. They teach a practical unit on basic health and nutrition. The girls have been studying the basic food groups in Science and it was a great opportunity for them to share what they were learning with all the older students! (We had been doing a little energetic action routine to remember the food categories and they performed that!) Andrew and Miriam also demonstrated how to fuel-efficiently cook rice ... in pot of boiled water in a basket insulated with well-packed dry grass. Left for 45 minutes, the rice is cooked all on its own! If a person is caring for a relative in hospital, the prepared basket can be carried on her head, and will be cooked by the time she reaches the hospital!

Andrew demonstrating the rice cooking.

Also this week, we had the privilege of meeting the new Bishop of the Diocese of Ruaha and his wife, Lillian and their children. We shared a meal with them and Andy and Angela at the Wingfields' home last night. It was very good to meet them; we will be working closely with him with the projects we get involved in.  

Finally, thank you to all of you who have sent messages to us! We love to hear from you!

An Empty House and Christmas Pudding!

For the first time my stomach has turned with pangs of nervous apprehension! What have we done?! The house is now eerily empty. We are all sitting and sleeping on the floor and eating off old picnic plates! Everything ready to go to Tanzania is in Louisa's bedroom, so the next job is to pack it all up with the odds and ends in the kitchen and garage as well as whatever shoes and clothes we can fit in! The big question ... how many bags and how much will it weigh? Despite the nervous moment, it is very exciting to realise that we are actually moving to Africa very soon.

The bonus of eating our way through our cupboards and freezer, turned out on Wednesday to be the excitement of a Christmas pudding! We savoured every mouthful to make up for this Christmas when for I think the very first year, we may not get one! How festive for August!

You may have noticed that our "Growing Support" is really growing! Thank you so much to everyone who is supporting us in the work we are going to do! It is so incredible to be going to serve in Tanzania through the support of so many friends! It is amazing to see how God is providing what we need, and even the special extras like a piano! I realised today as I played my piano for the last time, how much harder it would have been to lose it had I not had one to look forward to in Tanzania!

In the midst of all the packing up (thanks Ben, Martin and Geoff!) we are enjoying special times with family before we go! We went out with Tim's brother Chris and his family on Sunday - all the cousins enjoyed bowling and going out for pizza! On Monday, the girls and I had a wonderful day visiting my grandparents in Hove.

The girls came home today from a sleepover at Tim's parents with their cousins, Imogen and Elle. A lot of fun and not much sleep! And tomorrow we go to my aunt and uncle's with all my mom's side of the family! Good times!

Chickens, pianos and lemon trees

We just had the most amazing news! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our houses - here in Tadley and there in Tanzania! We haven't yet found tenants for our house here and were having hiccups with getting a house in Tanzania. Well, Andrew and Miriam skyped us this evening and told us about the house they have just found for us .... First, it comes with chickens! So we actually now, already, have chickens, complete with henhouse and everything! Wow! Second wow ... we can have it fully furnished, which includes a piano!!! Can you believe it?! Third wow ... it has a lovely, very established garden with all kinds of things including papaya trees, orange trees, and LEMON trees! Lemon bars, lemon cake, lemon meringue pie (with huge meringue - thanks, chickens!).... oooh! And now we don't just have one dog (we sadly have to say goodbye to Treeva!) as we have THREE dogs! And rabbits too! About 20! But we don't think we'll keep all of them on! It has three bedrooms and lots of land including a wooded area which Miriam says the girls will love for making forts and things! We are so thrilled - we can move in as soon as we arrive and it is just a five-minute walk from the Wingfields and Sharpes, and the landlords (a family who are moving to the UK for two years) are giving us an amazing deal on the rent! We are so incredibly thankful!

We have had a wonderful weekend, staying with the Lloyds in Birmingham - it was really good to see Debs, Jess, Rachel and Steve as well! We were at Darren and Rachel's wedding on Saturday which was a fun and happy celebration! And we enjoyed being with the Birmingham Community Church International on Sunday and met with lots of Tanzanian friends! Our sincere thanks to the Birmingham church for your support and love to us! Thank you.

A Garden Party and the road to Isanga!

We have enjoyed a lovely day at the E.I. Garden Party! The Bendells were our lovely hosts and we met with many people who have worked with Emmanuel International over the past 25 years! We enjoyed a chance to chat with Andrew Wingfield's parents who were in Iringa in March!

We enjoyed reading Andrew and Miriam's newsletter last night! It is exciting to read about all that we will soon be involved in! They recently went to the church in the Isanga village up in the mountains. This is the site of a proposed water project that will bring clean piped water to the community. Here is a photo of the Wingfields on the 3 and a half hour journey to church!

There is a lot going on in Uhambingeto ... they have been working on the rainwater harvesting tanks at the primary school and are still working on improving the latrine facilities and the education programme. They have been teaching on the importance of water, how to care for water sources and how to avoid disease from unsafe water. The plan is also to teach on sanitation and household hygiene.

Teaching about water at Uhamingeto Primary School

Thank you for reading! We've no idea who is following this blog, but we hope you enjoy it! And please, if you haven't already, don't forget to let us know if you would like to receive our emailed newsletter when we are in Tanzania!

Fridges, dogs and washing machines

It's a dog! Yes, many of you who know us will have a good laugh! None of you would ever believe that we would ever get a dog. Neither Tim or I (or our parents and grandparents before us!) have ever had or wanted a dog! But Amisadai did pray for one and it seems her prayers are answered! We have just heard from Andrew and Miriam Wingfield (who head up the Emmanuel International work in Tanzania) that a dog in need of a loving family is waiting for us! We have no idea what kind of dog, or what name he/she has, but have been told it looks much like a lion ... but assuredly isn't! More on this in future blogs! Less interesting, but none the less very good news is that Andrew this week found us a fridge and a washing machine in Dar-es-Salaam! I wasn't expecting to get a washing machine, so this is quite exciting! We are really looking forward to living near this wonderful family who are doing so much to help us even before we arrive!

Andrew and Miriam with Ben and Sam

This weekend we have had my aunts, Alison and Philippa and my Grandpa staying with us! It has been great to have them to visit! Auntie Philly has kindly offered to store a lot of our things for us ... so I have now emptied three cupboards of glassware, china and plates/platters and boxed it up and sent it with her! While it feels like I've now made a start, the packing up process does seem very daunting now!

Now this evening the four of us are looking forward to going to TASTE, to get together with lots of Tadley young people and tell them a bit about what we are going to be doing in Tanzania and encourage them to look for what adventures God has for them!

Imaginings

I am doing some imagining! I have been reading news from Andy and Angela Sharpe in Tanzania. We will be working with these lovely people in Iringa. They moved from Sussex in February and now give us news of settling in to African life! It has me imagining what life will be like for us in 3 months time!

The dry season has now started and they are not expecting to see rain again until November. Everything will be so dry when we get there in September! And hot ... it is stretching my imagination to feel hot at the moment!

And now as I write my shopping list for Tesco tomorrow, I am imagining my shopping in Iringa! Angela writes that some new shops have just opened - grandly called "trolley shops" as they actually have shopping trolleys (carts)! She thinks this is slightly over the top as the shop is no bigger than their bedroom! She usually gets word from a friend that a pig or some chickens are being slaughtered and is asked if she would like some. A big chunk then arrives in a plastic bag. I can imagine this as long as I'm not responsible for beheading chickens ... But now thinking about pigs and pork, I'm thinking that maybe our homeschooling novel study on Charlotte's Web isn't such a great idea! Milk comes from a cow a few houses away. I can imagine our metal milk churn arriving with milk ready to be boiled and cooled ready for our morning cornflakes! Or maybe we get our own cow?

It's all very hard to imagine really!

Here's a photo of Iringa ... now you have about as much to go on as I do in your own imaginings!

Countdown to Take-off!

With 101 days to go until we fly from London to Dar-es-Salaam, I thought now would be a good time to start a blog! Watch this space!
We have just said goodbye to our Canadian friends after a wonderful visit with family and a good time with friends at the King's Community Church in Langley, British Columbia! And now we're home in the UK to enjoy summer months with more friends and family! Meawhile, we are prioritizing our packing (we've now got 11 bags to fill!), raising funds and support, learning Swahili ...