The blog that Daniel should have written.

Last Thursday was Joshua's 7th Birthday. His third birthday in Tanzania. He didn't want a party this year, but spent the night in a tent with Caleb and we hired the data projector from the office so we could have our own home cinema.

Daniel arrived safely home from Nairobi with goodies. Coffee and chocolate, what could be more important. In some ways it is more exciting to live somewhere you can't get everything, so luxury items really are luxury items and it's exciting to get them.

Two weeks ago ( I forgot to blog it) our day guard Focus and his wife had a baby boy called Francis. (see photo)

I ran over a green snake on my bike on my way home from town one day last week. I think it was dead but it is the first snake I've seen here. Just in case you think we are overrun by snakes, they are quite rare. The same day I was driving back into town in the school bus and got caught in a dust devil. It's a bit like a dust tornado. It just comes at you swirling and swirling round and round, very bizarre. I just stopped and put the handbrake on until it had passed. When you are in the middle of it, you can't see anything.

Very exciting too and an answer to prayer, we now have a list of medical personnel we can call on in an emergency. We even have a paramedic who is here for a year who is on call for emergencies. Hopefully we won't have to call on them, but it is nice to know they are there.In the summer I wrote a list of prayer requests and started praying. It is amazing how they are slowly being answered one by one.

Just one other thing I thought I would share with you. I read it in my daily readings and it is quite pertinent in a place where you work and live so closely with people. Always remember that the people you relate to are part of God's purpose for your life. God wants to make us like Jesus, and one of the ways he goes about this is by using the people who cross our paths as tools to shape and make us more like Christ. The people in your life are hand-picked by the Lord to expose your temper, pride, stubbornness-whatever your struggles and difficulties might be. And running away from them is no answer. It's not worth it because God has many more such people to replace them. Relationships do not so much as cause problems as reveal problems. We need to look out for the lessons God is trying to teach us through the people, especially those that annoy us, he allows into our lives.