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.