Rainy season

The rainy season seems to have started. We've been having dark glowering skies for days, but suddenly on Friday night there was a torrential downpour that continued all night. By the morning the ground was completely sodden and 6 of our neighbour's ducklings had died of cold. The temperatures are still 30 degrees plus, but the rain just takes the edge of the heat. Yesterday we drove through a huge cloud of flying termites. Apparently they all come out when the rain starts.

The power has been quite erratic this week. We've had the usual every other day 12 hour power cuts, but they also added a few extra hours this week. Sometimes they print a schedule of power cuts but they never seem to stick to it. It feels like there is some man switching it on and off just for fun. It is just such a pleasure to switch on a light switch when the power is back on. Caleb goes round the house saying "power, power, power"!

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I was challenged recently by reading a piece about micro loans. It kind of ties in with thinking about how to help people here in Tanzania, especially my house ladies. I quote "Simplicity. How much is enough? ...People deserve to have basic economic needs met. Starvation is not God's will. Watching your babies die is not good for any women. And beyond basic needs, people deserve beauty and festivity, but how much is enough?"

It says in Proverbs 30: 8-9 "Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain".

In Phillipians 4 v 12, Paul writes "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation".

The challenging bit for me is this: I know we shouldn't encourage an acquisitive spirit in those we are trying to help, but at the same time how acquisitive am I? How can I live more simply? It is possible to live happily with less? How is it possible to live simply as a christian in a western culture based on aquisition. What do we need, what do we have a right to and what do we just want? Not what to we need, what do we have a right to according to western societies' standards, but what do we need/have a right to as a Christian?

What would happen if everyone who could, gave 10% of their yearly home improvement fund to helping people in developing countries set up small businesses or helped them in some other way.

We can't do everything, but we can (and should) do something.

Money does matter.

A request

It’s been a pretty quiet week really. Lots of the MAF kids have been sick with malaria, croup and tonsillitis, high temperatures etc, but my kids have been fine. Thank you to everybody who prays for them, I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that they are so healthy. Please keep praying. Without God, health here is a bit like running the gauntlet. There are so many things to die from. Not so much for us but for the average Tanzanian. The life expectancy here is only 45 and many don’t even make that! We are so thankful to a God who protects us and for the privilege of having access to medicine and medical knowledge.
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We went to a meeting at the children’s school on Thursday to discuss the 5-year development plan. They are desperate for teachers and teaching assistants, particularly those who would like to stay for at least two years. If you know anyone whose interested please let us know.
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I have a request from my house lady Elizabeti. Her husband is a driver, but is struggling to get even part time work in Dodoma. He spent a few months working in Dar, but even there he couldn’t get much work. He has returned with a plan to buy a small 'shamba' or farm near Mikumi, which is about 5 hours from here. The idea is to farm about 4 hectares of land and grow things to sell in Dodoma. There is no point farming here because it hardly ever rains and it would be like farming in the desert. To do this they need about £250. We have enough money from our financial support to help them, we just wondered if anyone who already supports us financially would like to designate their money to this cause. I would just like to know whether people would like their money used for this before I go ahead and give them the money. Elizabeti earns about £35 a month, so £250 is a lot of money to them. Of course there is no guarantee that this business venture will be successful, but I think it’s worth a try. Please let me know what you think.
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I spent this afternoon at a German friend's house. We are organising social events to reach out to Muslim women. It was a very interesting afternoon. Only one lady came, but that was more than we were expecting. In the event it was nice that there were only three of us because the lady really opened up and shared with us about her life. It's very humbling to listen to stories of death, and broken relationships and poverty. It made me realise just how blessed I am in my relationships, my children, my health, having a roof over my head and enough food to eat. These are things we take for granted, but for so many people in the world life is such a struggle.

I know that people in the West have difficult lives too and I don't mean to take away from that, but for my neighbours here compared to my neighbours in Watford, the demands and worries of the day are so different. Life here is so basic. The most important question of the day is do I have enough to eat and sometimes the answer will be no. Even if they do have enough to eat, that something is usually Ugali (thick porridge/wall paper paste type stuff) 2-3 times a day and some vegetables. Rice, pasta, meat, cheese, eggs are all luxuries they have quite rarely. I have terrible moral dilemmas when I ask my house lady to cook a meat dish and know she is going home to Ugali again. My major problem with food is not whether I have enough but thinking of a different dish to cook every night! I am continually struggling with living a life of luxury (not by Western standards but by Tanzanian standards) whilst so many people live in such poverty.

Everyday I meet people who are just so poor; kids that sleep in the street; mother that can't afford to feed their children; handicapped people who have no wheelchairs and shuffle along the ground with their hands in a pair of flip flops; old people who look like they never wash and look like they are rotting in situ.

And I sometimes wonder if God loves me.........!

Currently...

I really liked this blog format when I did it before because it updates you with everything we're up to.

Currently enjoying
* the fact that oue front door is never shut (except at night) and the kids, including Caleb, can have the freedom to come and go as they please, spending hours in the garden messing around on bikes, playing make-believe games and digging in the dust.
*the fact that it's November, but the temperature never falls below 30 degrees celcius.
*not owning a house, and being able to call the facilities manager to fix things.
*the fact there are never any traffic jams in Dodoma and the roads near our house are quiet enough for Josh to cycle on.
*the beautiful flowers that stand out so radiantly against the dusty landscape (see picture from our back garden)*driving in crazy places that look impossible
*a three-minute commute (by bike)

Currently not enjoying
*creeping, jumping, flying things of all kinds, shapes and sizes, especially blood sucking ones
*power cuts
*the fact that everyone around us lives in poverty
*being the one with the money and therefore the power to decide who and how much to help
*living between worlds and between currencies
*constantly being unable to finish things that need finishing, becuase people won't give me the information I need (Grrrr) [at work, that is]

Currently reading
*The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, novels based on the rapture of the church and the tribulation. For those literary types, you might not think it' the best literature ever, but it's still a great read.
*Authentic Christianity

Currently listening to
*Recordings of Rora summer conference we download from the Internet. Recommend one by Michael Ross Watson on 'the love of God,' summer 2006.
*The Race - 'Be Your ALibi'
*Morning Runner - 'The Great Escape' (esp 'What Expectations' & 'Gather Up')

Currently watching
*Seasame Street in Dutch. (Our neighbours are Dutch and the kids are beginning to pick up Dutch words).
*Not that much really, because we're mostly so tired we go to bed early (and we don't have TV, which helps).
*'Lost' series 2 (currently suspended until we get the rest of it)

Currently preferred food
*Paprika pork
*Creamy curry pork (well we were enjoying until we ran out of pork. However, I have now tracked down another pig whose days are numbered, so we'll soon be back in business!)
*Samosas
*Fresh pineapple, coconut, mango, passion fruit etc..
*Chocolate cake
*Cold water

Currently working on projects
*Trying to sort out all the Christmas presents
*Thinking about writing another newsletter
*October management accounts (exciting, hey?)
*Trying to gather ideas for the registration for the new plane we are getting in the next couple of weeks [PS if you want to join in, it has to be '5H-xxx', where the x's are letters. The best so far is 5H-ELP. We already have 5H-OPE].

Currently praying about
*which church to go to

Currently wishing for
*good shoe shops
*Next
*libraries
*the news on radio/TV
*more time in the day to get all the work done that I need to do
*

Birthday girl

I know it's not my turn, but I thought I'd post a few pictures of Bethany's birthday which we celebrated on Monday because of Daniel's trip. We had a really nice time and most of the Tanzanian girls from school came which was nice for Bethany. We did water balloons which the kids loved, the advantages of having +30 degrees celcius weather in November and lots of space outside to play. Bethany wanted a princess castle cake with ice cream cone turrets. Unfortunately, the ice cream cones that I was sent in the post were smashed to smithereens. Fortunately I discovered someone had a heart cake tin, which she was very happy with. Pink icing and a few flowers and sparkly sprinkles, what more can a girl want?

The perils of life in Africa: Spiders and policemen

Hello folks. Been a while since I've 'done the blog', so I think it's probably my turn!

I have spent the most of this week in Dar (Es Salaam) visiting the office there. It has been an opportunity to put in place some new systems, and to try and tidy up a few loose ends. Amazingly, I think I got done just about everything I wanted to. I also got to 'ride up front' on the flight back, which was fun!

In other news...

I had a rather unfortunate brush with a spiderish type beasty on Monday. I'm not sure whether it was a spider or not, but it had lots of legs! It was about two inches long, and got inside my T-shirt. Those of you who know how much I like spiders will be able to imagine how much I enjoyed the experience. It was sufficiently juicy that when I took it outside and put it out of it's misery, I got splatted all over my trousers. I did take a photo, but it didn't come out very well.

(Here it is anyway:)








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Libby had an unfortunate brush with a policeman yesterday, which has left her a bit shook up. She was parked at the side of the road, and was accused of 'driving on the wrong side'. The guy said he would have to fine her. She understood, and said so, but he just repeated himself about 5 times. In the end, as she wouldn't suggest how much would be an appropriate 'fine', he told her not to do it again, and let her go. 'Law and order' is kind of a different concept here!

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For your assistance: there should now be a little box, somewhere to the right of here, that says "Tell me when this blog is updated". If you put your e-mail address in the tiny space provided, you will get an automatic e-mail whenever we add a new post. Useful, huh?! (Thanks to Gary for this one!)