Guest blog #3 Wendy

It’s funny how seeing photos of a place and hearing stories about life there, doesn’t necessarily conjure up an accurate idea of what life is really like. I thought I had a good picture of where Libby and family lived and what life was like in Dodoma until I got here! Not just the idea of what the kids’ school would be like and how far it was from the house, but also in ways that Dodoma is so different from any place I have ever been to. I have been to cities where the very poor and the rich exist side by side, not somewhere where any evidence of wealth is nearly non-existent.

My first impressions were wrong too. I had a lovely lunch and went to the pool with the sun beating down on me and I thought ‘who says it is difficult to live here?!!’ Since then however, I have seen houses that are more basic than any house I have ever seen with absolutely no electricity, no cooker- without things that I thought were basic necessities.

Along with such poverty come the constant dilemmas about what to do when you see such needs all around- who to help, what to get involved with. All of this requires a strength and wisdom that only God can provide. In our own environments we can know what to do, drawing on past experiences and lessons learnt as we grew up, but for Libby and Daniel, apart from asking people who have lived here longer and learnt more, they have to so depend on God whose knowledge surpasses all cultures.

I’ll enjoy the mangoes, safari, getting to see a new culture but I am also appreciating more than ever before the sacrifices my big sis and family have made by coming here. There is also a sense of purpose in them that I didn’t witness while they were in England. Africa is definitely good for them!!