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[the Simkins are in the UK until the last week of July - get your next blog fix then!]

How to not Do It Yourself

One of the advantages (possibly) of living on a MAF Compound House is that the cost of the housing includes the use of the MAF Facilities Team. This means that at the drop of a hat/e-mail/phone call* they will be round to fix all your maintenance problems. For a highly un-practical person like me, you can imagine how useful this is.

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Two examples:

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A) Sometime in the last couple of weeks, we noticed that the flow from the hot tap on our kitchen sink had reduced to a trickle. After a while of getting annoyed at this, I called in Jeremiah (than deputy main facilities guy) to investigate.

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I am never here for their visits as I'm at work, but Libby tells me that after looking at tap for a while, Jeremiah pointed out that if you apply additional pressure at the point which we thought was 'fully on', you could actually turn the tap another full turn - leading to a veritable waterfall of hot water.

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Helpful DIY tip #1: if the water won't come out of you tap, trying turning it on.

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B) Approximately two days after this, I noticed of an evening that our fridge had no lights and no 'cold'. Applying all my practical skills, I switched it off on the wall and back on again. This not working, I was stumped, so called in the team. Libby reports that it took Jeremiah about 30 seconds to realise that, in the lip above the top of the door (hidden, in my defense) there is an 'on/off' switch.

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Helpful DIY tip #2: if your fridge is not working, trying switching it on.

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Which just goes to show....

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I'm not sure what really. But at least we didn't have to pay a call out charge :)

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I was actually planning to do this post about half an hour ago. but I discovered that a coloby of ants (or maybe termites) has made a nest inside our printer. I have managed to spray them all to death, but now have the tricky technical problem of extracting all the little carcases from inside the scanner.

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I shall no doubt end up taking it to Kees, our Chief Engineer, who revels in these little tasks.

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You can see why I'm the Finance Manager can't you :)

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PS. sorry for the lateness of this post. I think both Libby and I thought that the other had it in hand.

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Anyway, back to the ants...

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(* actually, for some reason they don't respond all that quickly to the hat thing)

Something to write about!

Two good things happened this week, the second more meaningful than the first. Firstly, one shop in Dodoma is now selling Beef again -hurray. Spaghetti bolognese here we come!

Secondly, I became involved with a little Tanzanian girl. Kudra is 11 and before Thursday was living on the streets in Dodoma. She came to me asking for money to buy shoes. I told her to meet me the following day and I would go with her to the market to buy some. In a very un-Tanzanian like way she met us exactly at 9:30am and we went and bought some shoes and clothes. I've never seen anyone so excited with a £1 pair of flip flops!

I asked her about her family. It took a while to get to the truth, but it turns out she does have a mother who is an alcoholic, and a grandmother. I said I wanted to talk to them, so she directed me to her house. It's probably one of the most horrible houses I've been in here. It's not really accurate to call it a house, rather a mud hut - so dark and disgusting inside that the RSPCA probably would say it wasn't even suitable for animals. Anyway this is where her mother lives and her grandmother and a number of other siblings.

According to the mother, her husband and 4 of her children have died. I asked her mother about school. She said Kudra didn't go because she's on the street. She threw the school uniform on the floor and said that I could have her and do what I wanted with her!!
Sarah (my house lady) was with me and between us we decided that Kudra would move in with Sarah and I would pay for her upkeep, education etc.. It just shows you Sarah's heart: she has nothing and already supports her elderly mother, her own two children, 4 of her sister's children and another little girl on £30 a month. It's easy for me to give out of my abundance but she really gives out of her poverty, it's very humbling. Kudra left her home with only what I had bought her that morning and has been living with Sarah ever since. She shares a bed with Sarah's daughter and it turns out that she already knows Sarah's nephews from their time on the street.

Only God knows whether Kudra will stay but we will do our best. We want to maintain contact with her family as much as possible and help them too. Maybe when she is more reliable and goes to school regularly she can go back to live with them, especially if we can improve their circumstances. I think as far as possible it is best for children to live with their own mother's even if they do live in a shack. The other exciting thing is that Kudra's family is Muslim and so we have a real opportunity to show them God's love in action and hopefully share the gospel with them.

Isn't God amazing. I have always wanted to work with street children and he has brought me all the way to Africa and put me with a house lady who has a heart for street children too. We are now planning to extend Sarah's house to take in more children and maybe later we will build something bigger. Sarah's nephews will also be able to help - having lived on the street themselves they understand what it is like in a way that I could never do. Please pray for Kudra and her family and for Sarah and me as we seek God's will for the direction this project should take.

[Sorry for the lack of photos, but the camera seems to have packed up.]