Christmas

 

Caleb

 

We have definitely moved into the slightly older realm of childrens toys and DVDs. Caleb had ordered his transfomers suit well in advance.

Christmas

 

Fortunately our short trip to the UK in October allowed us to buy a few Christmas presents. You can't buy anything nice for children in Dodoma so it all has to come from Europe.

Happy Christmas

 

As usual it was raining on Christmas day. One of the first really rainy days we have had since the last rainy season. It makes it nice, because it is dark in the morning so the children sleep in a bit and a bit cooler so it feels like Christmas. We went to the Christmas service at the Anglican church because Daniel was playing piano. This was much enlivened by the appearance of a cockerel half way through the service which Caleb proceeded to chase round the church. Afterwards we went to the ice cream parlour for an ice cream. It's nice to break with tradition sometimes. We had a Christmas meal in the evening with friends, before which Caleb and the youngest son of our friends both jumped in the swimming pool fully clothed. They were supposed to be playing with boats in the small splash pool as it was wet and a little cool to swim. Obviously they just couldn't resist the pull of the water. The weather was much better on
boxing day so we went for a family swim and ended up having the pool all to ourselves.

Dancing in the rain!

 

Rainy season

 

The rainy season has started and with it the annual sport of playing in the mud. This has to be one of the the most popular games for children here. As soon as it starts raining everyone puts on their swimming stuff and goes out to play.Not so popular with the mums!! There are only so many times a day I want to mop the floor!

Snake and frog part 2

 

Here you can see the frog that was inside. Incredible that a snake this size can swallow the frog whole! Of course Caleb loved this!

Snake and the frog

 

This snake was killed on friday morning. It was sliced open with a razor and you can see it's stomach contents hanging out.

Dodoma from Lion rock

 

This week

This week, just to give you idea of some of the things we get up to.

Monday: Sorry, I complete blank for this day, nothing memorable!!

Tuesday: Our neighbours at the far end of the compound are off to New Zealand for 4 months, so we had them for dinner along with another lady who has been helping Daniel for the last few months and is now returning to the UK. In the evening was the monthly staff meeting.

Wednesday: This was a bank holiday, Independence and republic day. Daniel worked in the morning and I spent the time preparing the house next door for our new neighbours. Americans working for SIL (Wycliffe bible translators). We spent the afternoon at the pool playing a riotous game of water polo, very fast and violent, not sure who enjoys it most, the adults or the kids. Robert Slocombe (Deputy Ops director) and his family climbed lion rock and were mugged by 3 Tanzanians. In the evening Daniel went and had a sauna at the pool in honour of the Finnish pilot from Mongolia who is flying for us for the next 6 months. In the event the pilot ended up spending the night in Dar so it went ahead without him.

Thursday: I climbed lion rock with Joshua’s class. I hired two MAF guys to go with us to protect us from would be muggers. My bible reading the night before said, “If you are on an uphill climb.. remember this, God climbs with you”. I took that as confirmation that we were good to go. In the end the climb was uneventful and we didn’t lose any children over the top. In the evening we had our new neighbours for dinner. My children are pleased to have more children to play with on the compound again, pray this continues peacefully.

Friday: Jonathan next door was diagnosed with malaria, fortunately he doesn’t seem too sick. Daniel got a summons from the high court over some court case, there always seems to be someone who is suing us!! In the evening he went to a rehearsal for the Carol service which is on Sunday.

Saturday: a quiet day at home and swimming in the afternoon. There was also a infestation of moths and when you went outside you had to walk through swarms of them, gross.

Sunday: Daniel went to church with Joshua and lit the advent candles. We had a special celebration of Swedish cookies and cakes with our neighbours. The 13th is a special Christmas day in Sweden. Afternoon pool again and then Daniel was playing at the carol service which included an extract from the Messiah.

Short hair

 

Bethany