On my cooker...

...I've been making bread and heating water for a hot wash! It also cooks my dinner and heats water for the neighbours. Not a bad addition to the house, methinks. The doors are going on to the outside kitchen next week, and someone is working on the garden, making it look less like a building site. Last week I managed to get a new little laptop set up so it can do internet in Kilolo, and next week I am hoping to collect my new car from Dar es Salaam. What a lot of changes coming together; I won't know myself in a few weeks' time!

On a more challenging note Elizabeth has broken a bone in her hip through a fall, and will have to go to Dar to get it fixed. Meanwhile she is in a lot of pain, so keep praying for her healing. Thanks.

...and thorn trees

I decided to show you a picture of one of my favorite types of trees. This one is near the farm, near where I swim, when the river is down. At the moment the water is too high, and I'm not cycling either, so I do need to work out some other form of exercise. Someone suggested skipping; I will be a skipping phenomenon before long. Watch this space.

At the Bible school we have six students for three months, mostly mature, and it does make teaching easier. We cover more ground, and the questions they ask are very interesting, leading to some good discussions. At the Secondary School I have started to teach 'O' level Bible Knowledge in English as well as Religious Education in Kiswahili. It takes a bit of getting used to. At last we found some past exam papers, but I still don't have a syllabus... I do have some idea of the Bible passages to be covered, and the students are keen. As they say: "With God's help we will succede."

cats

...are more intelligent than bats. Before I'd put the screen up in my window I was awoken at around 2am by a cat jumping off the chair beside my bed! I just caught sight of the shadow running into the sitting room and round the wall by the light of my torch, but quick as lightening it was back in my bedroom and out through the open window again, leaving a muddy footprint or two on my wall. Then I noticed a human footpring just beside the window as well. mmm interesting. Hope it got there when the men were putting up the ceiling boards. (Don't worry, the bars on the window are too close together for anyone to get through, and anyway Kilolo is much safer than Iringa.)

Back at the farm I found Elizabeth had had another fall, and is now dependent on others for almost every need. I am helping her at night when I am here, and her son Richard comes accross from his house when I am in Kilolo. Not an easy situation.

Teaching is a bit stessfull as well, as I have been asked to start teaching 'O' level Bible Knowledge as well as Religious Education... A big vote of confidence but hard work.

Bats

For the last two weeks I've become an amateur carpenter, making a wire netting cupboard for food and putting up fly-screens in the windows. I was pleased with the result, but the local bat population were not so happy. One evening I had a batty visitor flying around, and then again at 1am, because my bedroom windows aren't screened yet, and I like fresh air; one flew in and did close shaves on my face...

When it flew through to the sitting room I got up quickly to open the front door, because it kept batting itself against the wire netting in the open window there. Even when I stood in front of the window and shone a torch in its eyes it didn't seem to take any notice ('blind', I said to myself, 'blind as a bat'). So I tried scraping my shoes on the floor. That did the trick. The bat didn't like the sound, and flew away. Next week I'll do the screens on the bedroom windows.

Back at the farm now for a rest over the weekend, I found Elizabeth had had a fall. It just caused bruising, but was a shock to everyone. She is feeling much better now, but will have to be more careful in future. This is a picture from last November at Victoria's birthday party. From the right; Margaret, mother of Joyce who is a near neighbour, Elizabeth, mother of Richard who runs the farm, and myself on the left.

Here's the famous cooker being carried towards my house. It is now in the outside kitchen covered in cement 'droppings', but will soon be clean and in its place, I hope. The day of the big Move was Saturday, and it went more smoothly than I anticipated. I was afraid things might get stolen or broken on the way, because the road from Iringa to Kilolo is very rough and there was an overnight after loading, before setting off. However in the event it was like the disciples must have felt when they saw Jesus walking towards them on the water; 'Why are you afraid, O you of little faith' and then 'Peace, be still' And so I was, on Sunday, the day after the move. And now I'm in!

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