Brief reappearance of the Finance Manager

Not much happening here at the moment as you can tell from the lack of blogs. The children are still on Christmas vacation until the end of January, so we are spending most days on the compound except for the occasional trip into town. The weather is still quite humid and we have had very little rain except for a a few brief afternoon downpours this week.

Everything else is pretty much on hold as it is more difficult to be out and about with three children in tow.

I am having a bit of trouble with street children for now because one of the ladies does not want her son to go to school because he helps her beginning in town. He was the boy who was sick at the end of last term. He is now quite sad because he was unable to start school with the other boys. I don’t think there is much I can do if the mother says no, but when I have time I will go and talk to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Libby wrote this a little while ago, but never got round to posting it. She has pointed out that it’s my turn to write a blog – sorry!

For Libby not much is happening because of the school holidays, but for me the opposite is true. It was out financial year end in December, and then I found out last week that the auditors were coming from the UK next week – so I’ve been busy! Unfortunately, what I’ve been busy with doesn’t make such interesting blog-reading.

So I’ll talk about Libby instead. She’s been having a tough couple of weeks recently. The combination of the kids all being at home all the time, plus the tedium of daily life in a place where daily chores take up twice as much time as in the UK and when they’re done there’s (considerably less than) half as much else to do when they’re done is taking it’s toll. We also think the devil is doing his best to undermine what we’re here to do by attacking Libby every-which way he can. Last week she even found a flea for the first time since we moved into this house. That might not sound like much, but it’s a pretty low blow considering how she was affected by the infestation we had soon after we arrived in Tanzania. To her credit she held it together remarkably well after that particular incident – with lots of praying going on!

In addition the incident she mentioned above with Joseph has disheartened her considerably. Although it's (almost) understandable that his mother wants him to keep bringing in the money, it is gutting that she cannot see that, unless she lets him go to school, begging is all he will ever be capable of doing.

It's bad enough that there are people who are so badly off they need our help, but when they can't see it (or don't want it) it really hurts. Wow, powerful parable of how God feels I guess.

So, if you need something to pray about, Libby is it!

On the work front (someone might be interested!) the government has recently introduced some fairly unhelpful (read between the lines) minimum wage legislation, which is causing us a headache. We are still trying to establish exactly what it means for MAF Tanzania, but it could have a fairly significant impact on what we’re trying to do here. Or at least how we do it.

As Libby said, there isn’t a week goes by when something doesn’t happen that makes us feel like the whole Programme could have to shut up shop. It has been said that this means we must be doing something right – but it is a fairly stressful way to live. On that note, our residence permit is up for renewal in a couple of weeks, and our application should be going in on Monday. This is another fairly serious note for prayer – that it would be reissued without any difficulties. Other MAF staff here have had difficulty getting renewals (although so far no one has had to leave) and in some senses we feel like we have less right to a permit than others with more specialist skills. But I guess as long as God wants us here – we’ll be here.

Belated guest blog #4

Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy or Christmas in Dodoma

We had to work at Christmas in Dodoma, as it’s not natural for us Brits to have Christmas when it’s so hot. We’re more used to “In the bleak midwinter” scenarios and we had to keep reminding ourselves what time of year it was, in the bright sunshine. Driving round the town wasn’t much help either, as there weren’t any Christmas decorations. We saw the odd tinsel seller and the odd artificial tree for sale, but most people don’t have the money for such things. Having no electricity in their homes and no televisions, they aren’t constantly bombarded by adverts for things they don’t know they need, nor do they have fridges and freezers in which to store all the food bought over the Christmas season in the UK, as if all the shops were closing for a month.



The Grinch discovered that Christmas comes anyway, even if you remove all the add-ons we’ve come to associate with the festival, because the real significance of the birth of Christ, the salvation He brings and the restored relationship with God the Father, offered to mankind, is no longer smothered and obscured by these things. In many ways it was a relief to escape all the hype.



However three small people new Christmas was coming even though it was hot and sunny and could hardly contain their excitement. It’s always a wonder to watch their little faces light up, when they open their presents.



Libby and Daniel had invited a number of people to join them for a “bring and share” Christmas dinner at their house, but in the end it happened at another house, which was bigger, as there were 19 people in all. Libby provided the turkey and we’d brought stuffing, cranberry sauce and bread sauce with us, to go with it. Others provided roast pork and ham, various vegetables etc. Daniel made brandy butter to go with the Christmas puddings, or there was a choice of other desserts. It was a veritable feast and because we’d had heavy rain during the night, causing the temperature to drop, we were hungry enough to be able to do it justice. We all appreciated the opportunity to share Christmas with each other, as an extended “family”.



On Christmas Eve, during the day, Joshua’s second baby tooth had wobbled and come out and was duly placed under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy. Christmas Day dawned, but the Tooth Fairy, who was also covering for Father Christmas and been distracted by those other duties, had completely forgotten about the tooth-oops! Ah but maybe Joshua, with the excitement of opening his stocking, might not have remembered either, not a bit of it. By bedtime he’d lost the tooth anyway, which was a bit of a worry to a small boy. All was well though, when he and Mummy discovered some money INSIDE his pillowcase; the Tooth Fairy must have taken his tooth after all. What a relief!