Bagamoyo was a good place to go! I only had two days there, but it took away all the tension that has been building up inside me especially about building! I don't like building houses, I've decided. Lots of people are helping in lots of ways, making life a lot easier, and eventually it'll get done. Meanwhile keep up those prayers, and here are a couple of pictures of the seaside just for fun.

After two or three weeks of painting walls and getting ceiling boards up, in between teaching and marking exams, I'm finished! But I like the result, with cafe olee and ivory in the sitting room and light olive in the corridor. I mixed the paints, and made up the names as I went along, so now just need a rest from it! I am going to Bagamoyo for a relaxing three days on the beach. Sun and sand here I come!

The cooker arrived but wouldn't go through the door, (better than getting stuck in it like a great hippopotomus, I guess) so it will have to go in an outside kitchen. That floor needs concreting first and plaster put on the walls, so yet another delay... that's life here. Full of delays and disappointments, but the end result, if you survive, is very satisfying.

Elizabeth came back from South Africa happy and relaxed, but glad to be back. Her son Will received the 'all-clear' on his cancer, so he and Amanda can relax until the next check up in six months' time.

...and the river... is up like a raging torrent after the rains started, so my swims have had to be curtailed, hence the attraction of Bagamoyo. Bye bye for now

Exam prep

This week the secondary students are doing exams, whereas the Bible school are doing revision, with exams next week. I've helped them all I can, and prayed for them in the class - something appreciated, as there is a lot of apprehension. No one likes examz! (oops) Pictured is the shortest student in the school winning the prize for being best in his class during graduation, a while ago. Bishop Donald is giving it to him, with Headmaster Mgeni in the foreground.

I am hoping to be able to go to Dar es Salaam sometime during the break over Christmas, as it is the first opportunity I've had to get away since arriving in March. I need to get a tooth repaired and feel like a shopping spree! Look out shops... Today again I went for some exercise in the Little Ruaha river. Its quite cold, so unlikely to get dangerous animals, though we have seen hippo poo on the bank. Never seen the animal himself/herself.

My weekend swim

This is the famous river, and though I look as if it's going to wash me away, I'm securely sitting on a rock. My good friends who live near the river welcomed me again, and today we went there for a bit of fun and a swim. I feel so much better for it, and able to face the weekly travel and teaching in Kilolo! I am very blessed with so many good friends around. Elizabeth, who I usually stay with has gone with her son Will and his wife Amanda to South Africa to get a check-up on his leg. He had a partial amputation after being diagnosed with cancer. He still walks around and sometimes kicks it off by mistake!

House preparations

On Friday I ordered a cooker for the house I'll live in in Kilolo. It is an enclosed wood burner with a cast iron plate for cooking, and an oven. Like an Aga I suppose, but more elementary! I am looking forward to getting it installed in around three weeks when it is ready. I just have to get ceiling boards up, wiring done and the plumbing, then I should be ready to move. Not putting any dates on it because it may take ages still, as everything does here.

I've had another wonderful weekend on Kibebe Farm. Elizabeth had her daughter and husband staying with her from the UK, so I was with her son Richard and Victoria and their family, just next door. They have made me feel part of their family, and it is such a good experience.

Weekend

This weekend has been like a good holiday. There's a lot going on at the secondary school, and it is good to have a break from it. The headmaster is helping teachers and students work together to get through the worst of it. I am still on the sidelines to some extent. If i start explaining there'll be no end, so please be content with these snippets of information, and keep us in your prayers.

Meanwhile I have been staying with some friends who live near the river, so I have been able to have a daily dip, as well as some fun on a picnic by the river, floating down the stream on inflated motor tyres. They had constructed a clay oven and then baked pizza in it, and I thought to myself 'I don't deserve this life'. God has been very good to me!

'O' level exams

This is the first year St Michael's school has done 'O' levels! The science teacher, Diane had pneumonia just before she was meant to get all the practicals set up, and there is no technician to help in the laboratory.

Guess what! I had a flashback to one of my previous lives, the one where I worked as a medical lab technician in NW Tanzania, and had some fun making and marking various coloured fluids and bugs. Thankfully there were no complaints, and I'm just going to have to resist the temptation to get more involved. Have to keep the bible school as my top priority...

Recovery

Last Friday I decided to go to the police station and ask for my old laptop back! Normally stolen items are kept until the case is finished, so they can be used as evidence, but they agreed I could sign them out until needed. That was a great relief, but I'm still unable to do internet because my old laptop seems to be lacking. Maybe I can get it fixed.

Meanwhile I went to a camping retreat last weekend run by the Iringa Christian Fellowship (ICF) and feel quite refreshed and restored. This last week's teaching has been fun, and I am beginning to get a feel for each class in the secondary school. The Bible school has just started again, with 10 students, and I am finding it easier to memorise names now. Not everything is new!

Hope and Anna arrived in Ngara (the opposite side of Tanzania from here) on that Sunday (28th) after a three day journey, and the family had waited for them for the funeral. That is unusual, but Hope is now the senior member of the family. They came back to Iringa yesterday (Friday) after a dramatic journey. Just as they were nearing Dodoma on Thursday the front wheel of the bus came off and it lurched to a halt, just missing a ditch. If it had rolled it might have been a different story, but as it was no one was injured. It happened mid afternoon, and as the darkness came the police took all the women and children to Dodoma for safety, leaving men and luggage with the bus (Brave men!). Fortunately later that evening mechanics managed to get the bus back on the road, so the journey continued. My two friends changed buses in Morogoro and came on to Iringa.

We had an electric storm in Iringa yesterday, and I was in the middle of an email when everything went dead, and I had to abandon it. Now at a generous friend's house updating this blogsite.

Graduation

Yesterday the fourth year students of St Michael's Secondary school graduated. They are the first intake who started in 2005 and I was there when that happened, so it was a special day for me and for them, and for Bishop Donald who came from Iringa as the Guest of Honour. This has been his dream for a long time.

Actually the students haven't done their final exams yet, but in all schools here they graduate first because after exams are completed they are free from School rules, so more difficult to control! Reminds me of Redcliffe where my MA is just about to be put to the exam board, but I graduated last year with my year group before we all went to the four corners of the globe... (try to picture a 4-cornered globe). I think we must be more difficult to contol now too.

I have some sad news as well: On Thursday Hope's father died. He'd been unwell for some time, and she had spoken to him the day before, but she and her sister Anna (Mama Kiri) are still travelling now (Sat) and will hopefully arrive tomorrow. The school staff met and asked me to accompany Hope to Iringa as they didn't want her to have to travel alone (She's secretary to the headmaster). Then I asked Bishop Donald for a lift back for the graduation ceremony.

Tz detective story

Well, what do you know? Most of my stuff has been recovered! Last Thursday one of the detectives assigned to the case found a 14 year old boy selling a laptop in the marketplace of Iringa town. There were two people involved, and both were taken to the police station. I was contacted next day by the Administrator of the school for deaf kids (SfD) where I was living, and we both went to the police station, where I identified it as my laptop. Then we all (2 detectives, 2 culprits, 2 victims) went together to my old house where the boy described how his small friend had climbed through the window to take the stuff! Then he took us to a house next to the SfD where we recovered some things (my speakers and a DVD with my name on it) .

The boy had an older brother who we then collected from school, and after a bit of reluctance, he took us back to the same house and dug out three bulging sacks from the garden. We made a circle of chairs and tipped out the contents to find the rest of my CD's and DVD's (including one with my picture on the front, made by my Redcliffe College friends, David and Grea) and lots more things, plus some sheets and curtains belonging to the SfD, taken after I moved out. The detectives listed everything, and now it's all at the police station, so I am no better off just yet, but at least there is a miracle of those kids being stopped in their tracks.

I hope that whatever happens, they have a change of life-style for the better. Thanks for your encouragement Vaiva and Susie!

struggling

Hey it's good to be back online again after a break - not because I wanted it but because I literally had a break-in around three weeks ago. The signs are (according to detective agent Lapage) that an adult taught a child how to get through a very small hole in the door where a pane of glass was broken. The hole was big enough to pass a laptop and a lot of what goes with it; speakers, headphones, DVD's. Very sad, as it's difficult now to do emails and blogs, but what makes me even sadder is that (if my theory is correct) the child now knows what to do and came in last Friday and again on Saturday, taking pens, notebooks, my store of cashewnuts and bombay mix! Aaaagh... how will I survive? But I'm more upset that the child is learning a way of life which might grow into something bigger later on.

On Saturday I left the house at 11am and cycled the half hour into town, left my bags with my friends' driver and cycled back to find the third break-in before 12.30. Unfortunately I fell off my bike while in town (silly me) and the bruise began to swell on the way back, making a mighty big bump. My friends were expecting me to come and stay, so I tied it up with a rope to stop the swelling and arrived in a heap and all tied up. They intied me and set me free, administered ibuprofen, icepack and bandages, lots of rest and good food; since then I have been feeling much better. I am staying on a local dairyfarm with Elizabeth Phillips who's husband died three weeks ago, peacefully in his sleep. I think she is glad of a companion now. It's half term break at the secondary school, and the bible school has a month out, so I am resting and recouperating. Wow, do I need it! I've moved my stuff there until we can sort out something more permanent.

School debate

Pictured is a debate for all the secondary students under the gums trees, in the afternoon sunshine!

The language is English, as it is for all lessons except the ones I teach, ie Religious education. A bit ironic, as most other teachers are Tanzanians. I think it's because RE deals with issues close to the heart, so it helps if it is in a 'heart language'. The syllabus is written in Kiswahili, and is very helpful.

In the background you can see the classrooms, a cylindrical rainwater harvesting tank, and the corners of a new classroom being built by a visiting team from a UK school in partnership with St Michael's, Kilolo.

Secondary Students

Here's class 1B of the Secondary School. I teach them for the second double period on a Wednesday morning, after 1A for the first two periods. When tea break is over I go to 2A and then 2B, all double periods. On Thursdays its the same for forms three and four, both with A and B streams. I thought it was going to be much harder then I am finding it so far - maybe I'm still in the honeymoon period. The classes enjoy reading passages from the Old Tesament like Moses and the burning bush, and sometimes I act it out to liven things up. Together with lots of laughter, I hope the amazing message of God's love and mercy is communicating itself.

Bible school students

This is me in full teaching mode - Riziki is standing next to me and she is head of the Bible School. I asked the students to write their names out in the same order as in the photo so I could try to learn them. I've been teaching them Old Testament, Theology and English - the last is not my favourite, but we muddle through.

I'm still doing my weekly commute to Kilolo for the teaching at both schools - two days at the Secondary, and a day at the BS. The rest of my time is spent travelling, lesson prep and having fun with friends!

Doors and windows

This is the latest view of the house in Kilolo. It has doors and windows, but no ceiling yet, or washing facilities. The Academic Dean is on the right in the picture, and another teacher has the keys in his hand. They will be my neighbours when I move into the new house. It may be a month or two yet.

I am happy where I am living outside Iringa. It means I can visit old friends more easily, and I also have electricity, access to the internet and other luxuries which won't be available so easily in Kilolo.

back on my bike again

I've been silent for a while because I had malaria or something! Was laid flat for a few days, so went to stay with my good friends David and Elizabeth Phillips on a nearby farm. They looked after me and got me back into working order. I managed to get to Kilolo to teach in the Bible School as usual, and met up with a visiting building team from Tearfund. They were fun to spend time with. Now they've gone, but more teams are on their way. I'm off to Kilolo today on the bus, but when I'm in town it's the bike I like...

getting to the other side

This morning I woke up in a beautiful campsite after a fun evening with the people learning language there. I had to get to town early, and that involved a 20 minute walk along the river to a pulley crossing (you can see the rope and the seat - above my head in the picture - it's quite safe, just a bit scary to look at)...then a climb up the hill on the other side to my friends' house where a car goes in to town to take the kids to school. It was an early start, so I had to have a rest when I got back to my house! Then I cycled back in to town, and now I'm relaxing again...

The secondary school has exams, so I am teaching at the bible school only for a month. Nice to have time to catch my tail. Why do I keep going round in circles? (only joking.)

fresh corn!

The season for roasted corn has arrived, so after a long day of teaching, I enjoyed this amazing refresher from Hope's garden (shamba). It helps keep the hunger away until the evening meal!

Hey, my house in Kilolo is coming on - the people there were putting in the floor when I visited them last week! This is my teaching gear...

Still going three days a week and staying with Hope who lives in the village in a rented house. Very kind of her. I'm finding the teaching great - didn't expect to enjoy it so much, but I guess I have a God who knows and loves me more than ever.

The mango season is over, but I'm eating mulberries given to me by Elizabeth and David, grown on their farm, where I go at weekends for a break.

Hey I visited the new house last week and this is what I saw... No worries, as I have a very comfortable house just outside Iringa at the school for deaf children run by the Diocese. I am teaching two days a week at the moment, so go and stay with friends each week. Hope is Secretary to the headmaster of St Michael's school, and Riziki is head of the Bible School, so I take it in turns with each of them.

I'm loving it, and at last getting used to the altitude - felt quite tired at first.

Arrived

Hey folks, This is my family here in Iringa - Hope is in the middle with Lydia to the left (I'm behind them - boo!) Kenny on the far left and Anna far right, with Chrisophena and Baraka. Behind all of us they are drying some chicken feed in the sun (when it doesn't rain) and beans harvested recently, and the maize crop is growing very well. Hope is working in Kilolo as secretary to the Headmaster, just visiting for the Easter break... so when I get there I'll have a friend :^) Anna her sister is doing lots of small income generating projects, and looking after the kids. It's great to be back!

all the greats

Ella is the best and most perfect great niece that anyone could have. I saw her for the first time last week, and it may be a long time before I see her again. Oooo. She has made my brother-in-law into a grandad, and my own dad into a great!

I am off to Tanzania on Saturday - if my residence permit comes through! Keep up those prayers!

Valentine's day

Yesterday was the best ever! We had a pudding party here at college and I was surrounded by friends who prayed for the future. It's all good, and love is in the air!

My last essay is done and dusted, and in. Now there are just a few more weeks left until I fly to Tanzania on 15th March. Most of that time I'll spend in Devon, staying in the house of a friend, and being part of my church family. God is good.

still at redcliffe

January has come and I'm still here, still expecting to go soon! I'm enjoying the extra time in College, and have made some more good friends. They seem to get better and better! I am living in the family's house and sharing the kids.

The weekends are all taken up with visiting churches to raise support, and that is why I've been delayed. But I am finding it quite inspiring to go round and talk the walk. Lots of stories to tell! I expect to leave Gloucester in mid February and leave UK for Tanzania in mid March.