L

Strange though it may seem, although Caleb is fairly fluent in his speech, until last Thursday, he had never been able to say 'l'. It has always come out as 'y' or 'd' (as in 'Cayeb' or 'dunch').

But suddenly, for no particular reason, he started saying his l's. His first L-word was (wait for it) 'melon'. He still uses the full reach of his tongue, and it travels most of the way round his teeth, but the sound is definitely there!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joshua has a new trick - I will attempt to post photos, rather than try and describe it. Suffice it to say that 'any door will do'!






~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had to 'nip' to Dar last week to attend the public hearings of the meeting of the Air Service License Board (and yes it was that exciting). It was a formality, but we had to be there to represent MAF - as far as we know we had our license renewed, but time will tell.

When I say nip, I was fortunate enough to get a lift down in one of the aircraft belonging to a safari company (we maintain their aircraft), and to catch a MAF plane back. I left around 2.00pm on Wednesday, and got back around 10.00 in Friday morning. Not bad to lose only one and a half days work, when the journey would usually take a day each way - I guess that's why we're here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We will coming back to the UK on Home Assignment in less than a month now. We are working on our preparations. We will be having three open days, in the last week of June/first week of July. We will be e-mailing/posting flyers with the details, so if you don't get one shortly drop us a line and we can send you one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You could pray for Libby. She is suffering from various minor ailments which are causing her much mental anguish. She is also struggling with some of the aspects of living and working in close proximity to our neighbours, and also coping with the children who are being 'hard work' (that wonderful old euphemism). She would value your prayers.

BBQ

I bought a chicken this week, a live one to eat . However, I realise I still have not been here long enough to want to eat it, so have given it to my house lady. I need more distance between myself and my food and don’t really want to hear it clucking outside the back door at lunch time and on my plate at dinner time. Still my house lady was very happy with it!! If you don’t have a freezer it’s the best thing to have it clucking around until you are ready to eat it.

We had 210 children in the Sunday school last week. Even for here that is quite a lot. The average is around 80 which is quite a challenge, but 200!! We had to abandon any colouring, there were just too many children.

One of Elizabeti’s neighbours died yesterday, so that is another funeral she has to go to. There is at least one a week here. For the average Tanzanian it is rather expensive in terms of time and money with all the funerals they have to attend.

This afternoon we drove up in the hills behind Dodoma for a bush BBQ. Of course typical wzungu (white person) BBQ complete with plastic chairs and all sorts of gear. It’s always a race to get back before it gets dark. African darkness falls quite quickly and on unlit very bumpy roads it is easier driving in the daylight. Driving through town on the way back I noticed all the shops are guarded by men with very large rifles, I guess it is one form of security system.

The photos show our very nice Swedish neighbours Martin and Mirjam Eckholm and the darkness taken from behind a rather dirty window.