Moving on and growing up..

Things are changing around here - time and age I guess!

* Caleb has recently started being (in the language of the house) a 'pants boy': This is in anticipation of him going to nursery when he turns three in February. We're not much more keen on this than we were with the other two - but at least we don't have carpets; anything he deposits dries up pretty quickly, and he can spend most of the day outside

* Joshua recently encountered the tooth fairy: and successfully converted his first tooth into 500 shillings. He is now a tooth short of a headful.

* Daniel learnt 'flexibility': this was as a result of the staff conference which I helped to organise. It was a considerable education to me, to have to bite my tongue when sessions over-ran (which they all did), and to relax enough to accept that it didn't matter. This is Tanzania after all :)

That's about it for changes - Bethany is still being a bit of a nightmare, a teenager already. We are a bit at our wits end. And Libby is still struggling with the monotony of child and house care. Please pray that she would find something fulfilling in what she does, or find something that is more fulfilling that she can fit in at the same time.


And apropos of not much (except my brothers' recent post) here are a few Graceland lyrics that love:

"Joseph's face was as, black as the night
And the pale yellow moon shone in his eyes.
His path was marked by the stars in the Southern hemisphere,
And he walked the length of his days under African skies.

This is the story of how we begin to remember,
This is the powerful pulsing of love in the veins,
And after the dream of falling and calling your name out
These are the roots of rhythm and the roots of rhythm remain".

Street Boys-update and other ramblings (Libby)

It's so exciting, I have had more than enough offers to support the three new street boys. On average we have taken on 1 child per month in the last four months, and that's without even looking for them. I am very excited about the future. I just wrote in an e-mail to someone, that we can't change the world but we can change the world for one child. It sounds like a cliche but it's true. It's lovely to see the delight in the children's eyes when they realise the opportunity they are being given. Their lives are still hard, their living conditions leave a lot to be desired and their food is very basic, but they have the hope that their future can be better. In addition they have the opportunity to have a bit of a childhood and don't have to spend the days wandering the streets begging. For now at least the burden of caring for this family is being shared.

We (well not personally) have started to build an extra room onto Sarah's house to make room for her ever increasing family. The 3 new boys don't sleep there but are spending more and more time there, including the afternoons when a teacher comes from the school to give them extra tuition to help them catch up.

I went to visit them last week and was able to give everyone new clothes thanks to a very generous friend. They all dressed up in their new outfits for photos.

In a parallel universe, Joshua has a wobbly tooth which he is very excited about, the weather is hotting up (sorry for all of you who now have cooler weather), Caleb cut his head on the coffee table and Bethany is planning her fifth birthday party.

We had the MAF staff conference last weekend. Daniel rediscovered his piano playing. He enjoyed the fact that a)we now have a piano we got off a German family that was leaving and b)that we have a car big enough to put the piano in the back. We took the piano and brought it back each day, because security wasn't very good at the hall.

Other news is that we had the big trees from outside our house cut down. The big heavy leaves were dangerous for little people when they fell down. Caleb had a near miss the other day, which made me decide that they needed to be cut down.

I don't write much about the work of MAF, but please pray for the Masai people in the north of the country. There is a volcano erupting, Oldonyio lengai and all the men have left with their cattle leaving the women and children behind starving. The women do not want to leave because they are afraid to lose their land. However, they don't have enough food and they are suffering from the effects of the smoke. MAF is trying to fly in food for the women and take a doctor to treat the children.

Enough ramblings for now... Sorry the photos aren't next to the relevant text, but I always have trouble loading them and they come out in a different order than I planned. By then I am too fed up to rearrange them, but I'm sure you can work it out!!!

Simkins Family on Safari

Because Daniel's mum and dad are here we decided to do the safari thing. Well really, you can't come all the way here and not say you've seen an elephant!! We decided to go to Ruaha National Park because we haven't been there before. After thinking about the 9 hour drive on a dirt road to get there we decided to take the Cessena 208 and got there in 40 minutes. You can't beat flying for getting places quickly. It just seemed ridiculous that such a long journey by road could be over so quickly. However, even flying over Tanzania it's amazing to see how vast it is. It goes on for ever, huge tracts of dry land, dry river beds and dry lakes, punctuated by dry dusty tracks.

It was probably the best safari we've been on, helped by the fact that we didn't drive ourselves around and the guide knew where he was going. Ruaha is about the size of Belgium, so it's good not to get lost. We saw everything, elephants, giraffe, crocodiles, Zebras, hippos, lions etc.. In fact it was a whole pride of lions. I couldn't believe we were able to get so close without them being bothered. Saying that I was also quite relieved when we drove off!!! (See if you can spot the lions next to Joshua's head in the picture). The kids had a great fun sitting up front with the guide. No one bothers about health and safety so much here. Caleb fell asleep on the guide's lap. Well he's seen it or before, it's his third safari and he's only 2. How spoilt can you be!! The highlight for the kids was playing hide and seek in the safari camp which is very impressive and built around a huge rocky outcrop. Who cares about lions when there's another 5 year old boy to play with!

Guest blog #2: Grandma (Viv Simkins)

We are having a good time here after some intial tiredness, mostly due to the rather gruelling drive from Dar which seems to go on for ever. We are considering going back on the bus, although folks keep regaling us with tales of bus horror -- crashes, breakdowns etc.

We are settled into a bit of a routine. We wake up in our own house about 7am after a night which may be good or may be interrupted by loud music, the iman blaring, or the cockrels crowing rather too early.

We have breakfast in a little conservatory/lean to in the house, then are picked up by D or L, or today we walked to the other compound through much dusty ground and buildings in various stages of suspended development. There's a 'clothes tree' too, where clothes on hangers are suspended on the branches to attract customers. By that time Joshua and Bethany havre gone to school and the house ladies have arrived to clean the house and make food.

Today we went to Saba Saba market which sells suitcases, clothes and shoes. It's a warren of alleyways that cyclists use as a throughway. After that we went to the ice cream parlour to buy postcards and have ice creams. All the choices are based on Aladdin, eg Jasmine's Jewels made with M&M's.


After lunch we went to Sarah's house (one of the house ladies)and took her share of the clothes we brought with us. The house is swarming with people, it was hard to keep track of who was who. Earlier in the week, Sarah had to go home from work because her niece who was visiting (visits can last months here) couldn't be woken and was cold. We were rather alarmed, but she was taken to hospital and turned out to have low blood pressure. She looks as thin as a rake. Sarah says she always looks like that but you can't help wondering when you know her mother died of Aids. Grandmother has an enormous growth on her neck, which the doctors have said is inoperable because of her age. A teacher came to the house to give extra tuition to four of the boys.

It is now after dinner and the children are in bed after the usual tussles and tantrums. Sometime later we will go 'home' and have a peaceful sit before bed. The MAF houses are all similar shape and construction with red cement floors and furniture made in the workshop here. At first I thought it was all rather basic, but now I like it and see that it is appropriate to have houses that are no more 'luxurious' than necessary. Inside running water and flush toilets are a luxury unimaginable to most Tanzanians.