Bits and bobs (Libby)

It sounds like the FA cup outside our house at the moment. The waste land next to compound B is used as a football pitch and we are having matches every night at the moment. It’s strange hearing the English football chants coming across the dust. I’m glad we’ve managed to import something of such value!

Talking of chants, Caleb seems to have picked up the Tanzanian national anthem and when he thinks I’m not listening I can hear him quietly singing it. He actually managed to sleep through the night last night (long may it continue) and has transformed into a colouring fiend. Even Joshua is impressed with Caleb’s colouring. He colours at every opportunity, even in the car and always colours within the lines. I guess I’m biased but I think he’s pretty good for a two year old!

I went to the high school this week to sort out secondary education for some of the children we sponsor. I saw the sign for Jubilee high school but all I could see was a lot of dust and a few cows. I drove down what Sarah assured me was a road ( I think because many Tanzanians don’t drive, if they think it’s a road they don’t see why I have a problem driving it.) Anyway bumpty bumpty, 1st gear all the way ( I haven’t quite got the hang of four wheel drive yet, although I know it’s bad for the car if you use it when you don’t need it) we arrived at the ‘High school’ . It seems like a nice school. The headteacher is a Christian and actually won the Commonwealth games for long jump in the 1970’s. If you remember the attacks that happened a few weeks ago. Well a few weeks before, this school was broken into and the guards killed. It was found out subsequently that the same people carried out both attacks. The police caught them red handed breaking into somewhere else, followed them home and found evidence linking them to the other crimes. I think it’s really an answer to prayer to have the case solved.


What else has happened? Last Friday morning a lady came to see me asking for a job. Her ‘witch doctor’ husband had left her and she had no job, no food and no money- the usual story! After talking for a while I took her into town and bought her a train ticket to Kigoma. That’s where she comes from and where the rest of her family is and hopefully once she is back home her family can help her. To be honest with a witch doctor husband lurking around I was pretty happy to pack her off to Kigoma, a 24 hour train ride away. Maybe I should have thought of it as an evangelistic opportunity!!

After the station I proceeded to pick up two street boys and their blind grandmother. I brought them back to my house for chai and to talk to them. The boys basically spend their days on the street with their blind grandmother in tow (for the sympathy vote) begging for money. The rest of the family (to my knowledge) consists of a younger brother and a blind mother. So yet again I have involved myself with another family and feel a responsibility to help them. Every time I do this I say I’m not going to do it again because it’s agonisingly difficult trying to work out the best way forward. For the last few days I have been buying them food whilst I try and work it out. If anyone would like to sponsor three boys please let me know. (there is also a younger brother) I really would like to help them. The best thing I think would be to send them to the Christian school where Sarah’s children go. However I have no guarantee that they would not drift back to their life on the streets. I still feel everybody deserves a chance and sometimes a new start can make the difference. If anyone is interested the fees are roughly £100 per child per year + uniform. That’s less than £10 a month in charity speak!!!