Love, Laughter and Happiness

Hey everyone!

Last Sunday Josie (the wonderful lady I live with) and I went to visit Baba Grace who is one of the guards for our compound. He has just had his 8^th child and we were very excited to visit. We didn’t know exactly where he lived except it was near the church. I had never been to that church so was relying on Josie! It was quite fun going along and not actually knowing exactly where we were going. We had a lovely visit just sitting in their living room and cuddling this adorable tiny baby! I’ve held a fair few babies since coming here but it never loses its excitement and the wonder that surrounds a new life coming into the world.

The only hard thing about the visit was making conversation! I asked the standard questions about the family, children’s names and ages etc and then worried what else we would talk about! I kept thinking of things to say but then the trouble was I didn’t know it in Swahili! I ended up just asking random questions and filling the silence...even managed to make a few jokes and get some laughs!

Joise and I were then asked my Baba Esther to visit his house after church yesterday. Josie knows him from when she was out here before and I buy lettuce from him! He is such a lovely guy and was so excited that we would go to his house! I was too until I realised it meant getting to the cathedral for 8 am! Leaving the house at just gone 7 on a Sunday morning is just wrong! We had to allow so much time because we got a dalla dalla and sometimes you can spend a lot of time stationary or going backwards, especially on a Sunday when it is harder to get customers.  It was just typical that today the dalla dalla was quite fast and we were 20 minutes early! The choirs were just fantastic  and one in particular sent shivers down me. Usually they use speakers and it is ridiculously loud but one group of school boys started singing softly as they went up the front and it was beautiful. It was so natural and sounded absolutely incredible. After the service we hopped on another dalla dalla and then had a bit of a walk in the midday heat to Baba Esther’s house. When we arrived his wife had prepared chai and there was a pot of potatoes waiting for us. It’s always a bit of a worry what we will end up eating when visiting someone so i was quite happy to see just plain potatoes and not some unidentifiable meat! Although they do like to keep refilling your plate here and I lost count of how many potatoes I got through! They were ok to start with but after a while i just wanted some ketchup or something to dip them in! We had the standard conversation about their children and a few other things and then looked through a huge pile of photos that they wanted to show us! Baba Esther walked us back to the road and waited until we were on a dalla dalla. On the walk to the road we passed a rather large and nice looking house in comparison to the ones around it. I made a comment about it being nice and Baba Esther said 'yes it is bigger and does look nicer than mine but in my house we do have LOVE and LAUGHTER and HAPPINESS. A big nice house without love, laughter and happiness is not a good house.' It was incredible to hear him say this. He is blessed to know and appreciate the value of family and happiness. Baba Esther and his whole family were so happy to have us in their home and I was so glad that my worrying about what we would eat, how long we would be there and what we would talk about hadn’t stopped me from having a really lovely time.  It made me think that in the UK we can sometimes put off having people around as we worry what they will think of our house or our cooking or we worry that we will be stuck for conversation. I’m not saying we should serve our guests a plate full of potatoes and sit in silence but maybe the Tanzanians can teach us a thing or two.

It is less than a month now until my return to the UK. Time is flying by!  

A fab week with the parents!

Hey everyone!

In the last blog I wrote, mum and dad were on their way and now sadly after a fab time together they are back in the UK. I had hoped for a stress free trip for them both but as I stood waiting outside arrivals with no sign of them and the doors being shut and then receiving a call from dad to say their luggage had not made it to Mwanza but was still sat in Nairobi I knew this wasn’t going to be stress free! After lots of phone calls that night trying to get the cases on the next flight in the morning, lots more phone calls trying to get the cases put on a bus to Musoma the next day and then a late night adventure chasing down buses, the suitcases arrived safely! It was great fun unpacking and seeing what treats had been brought out! I am pleased to say that the luggage problem was the only problem we had! We had a very busy few days to begin with, as I took them round the different markets and went material shopping so mum could get some clothes made at Rehema. I did allow them a bit of time to relax at Tembo beach where dad was especially happy to be able to use the wifi!

It was great to just be able to show mum and dad my life here in Tanzania. Now when I talk to them about places and people they are able to picture it. We had a lovely drive out to Kyamajoje on Saturday afternoon where we spent time with Mtani. He loved testing mum on her Swahili and she did very well, when she remembered the word for congratulations she surprised us all! We then moved on to the church that I helped build on my first Go MAD team in Jan 2013 and it was amazing to be stood there with them which I would never have imagined would happen! Flora, the woman at Rehema who manages the workshop with me, invited us to her house for lunch. She also wanted to learn how to knit so mum took along her needles and sat teaching Flora to knit! It was so special to watch mum and Flora sit together knitting! Of course we went to Rehema a few times! It was amazing for me that my parents could meet the incredible women I work with and the women were very happy to meet them! The children’s home was another place I loved showing mum. The children loved playing with her and dad. It is another place that they have heard so much about and for us to actually be there together was just unreal! We had lots of fun having dinner and games night with the Vink kids (if you know my dad, ask him where the Great Wall of China is...the pressure of playing games got to him and he seems to think it is in Australia!), Thursday night darts at the Vink’s house and dinner at Eagle Lodge with the 25 Go Madders! The hospitality shown by everyone was amazing and mum and dad felt truly welcome. Sarabi was a little less welcoming at first but after a few days mum and dad saw the lovely dog that is hidden beneath all her craziness!

Experiencing my everyday life together was very special but we also had an incredible time when we went on a day safari. This was my third safari but it was just as amazing the third time as it was the first! We saw loads of animals and had a great day. My four highlights from the day were...

We went to the bit where there are always lots of hippos. For me it was a standard bit we had to do although I find that after a while of staring at hippos not doing much it can get boring but i thought it would be good for mum to see them. There was nothing boring about the hippos that day! We saw a dead hippo in the water and one behind it, possibly it’s baby, nudging it with its head. This was sad (but also really cool!). After a little bit we saw a crocodile come up behind it and try and get close. The other hippo managed to scare it off and it went up on the shore. It was fantastic to see a croc out of the water. After gathering its courage the croc reenterd the water and headed back to the dead hippo. A second croc then joined it! They took turns trying to bite the hippo. For some reason they were going for its foot and not having much success but it was still quite sad to see them one end of the hippo and the other sad hippo at the other end. It was definitely unexpected and quite fascinating to witness! It wasn’t quite so exciting when our driver was trying to get us at a better angle as we weren’t convinced our brakes were working properly!

Almost as amazing as looking at animals was watching mum when she saw her first animal, a giraffe! It is hard to explain how incredible a safari is to someone and I am not sure mum knew what to expect, and so to see her amazement when a giraffe was stood just a few metres away was something very special.

Everyone wants to see lions when they go on safari and we were not disappointed! 3 lionesses were chilling out in a tree! We drove right under the tree and it was amazing to see them so close up! We were quite happy being so close while they looked like they were sleeping but as soon as one opened his eyes and started moving we thought we should move away a little. The only problem was that the truck was slightly dodgy at starting as well as stopping so it took a little longer to get moving than we were comfortable with!

After our picnic lunch we went out in search of more animals. We saw a few zebra but not much else and it was getting close to the time when we needed to be heading out the park. It then started raining so we had to put the roof down. It seemed a sad way to end the day. But then the sun came out and we saw a family of elephants and a super cute baby elephant! The best way to end the day!

The time with mum and dad here went super fast. Last days are always hard but we had a lovely lunch together at the beach and watched the sunset up eagle rock. Packing the suitcases was sad and made even harder by the fact that I started packing up some things from my room to send home with mum and dad.  It was a sad ride to Mwanza and saying goodbye but visiting the bakery, supermarket and pizza place with Josie helped me not feel so sad!

I now have about 8 weeks left here in Tanzania. This is a really sad and scary thought so I would really value your prayers during these next few weeks. Please pray that I won’t be so sad and focused on leaving that I don’t make good use of these last couple of months and also pray that when I come to leave I will feel ready to go and to move on to what God has planned for me during my time at All Nations.

Watch out Musoma...Mum is on her way!

Hi everyone!

My mum and dad arrive tomorrow! This is very exciting news! Dad has been out before but mum has never been to Africa and so this is a very big first for her. I am sure there will be lots of stories to share with you after their visit here but for now this is a short hello to you all!

It has been a very busy few days. On Friday evening Rehema had its first evening event with ‘Sara under the stars’. Sara is a member of the Go MAD team and is an incredibly talented singer and guitarist. She very kindly played and sang for us all evening whilst missionaries came together for a rare night out (there isn’t much to do in Musoma!) and enjoyed yummy desserts by candlelight. Rehema looked incredible all lit up with fairy lights and candles and it was such a fun evening.  The workshop was turned into a cinema so the kids could also have a great night out! We hope this will be the start of something new for Rehema! We then thought Saturday would be a relatively quiet day and as we were all pretty tired this seemed appealing! However we had a large group of visitors come for lunch! This was fantastic and we love our customers but serving a group this large was made slightly harder with the lack of electricity today! T.I.A! It was such an encouragement to hear that they had found us and seen great ratings on trip advisor!  The final TIA moment of today was when I was coming home on the dalla dalla and a goat was loaded into the back! I was sat on the back seat and was worried this goat might just jump over from behind. I forgot he could also get under! I felt something nudge against my foot and Josie had it licking her leg! Makes a journey home a bit more interesting! 

Highlights from April!

I had the best intentions of writing blog posts more regularly but once again I must apologise for failing to do this! Quite a lot has happened so here are a few highlights!

Rehema had an exciting and busy month in April. We had to postpone our Easter fair by a week due to heavy rain that flooded the paths at Rehema! The rain had started the evening before and showed no signs of stopping! The fair took place the week after and was definitely worth the wait! We had such a good day with so many customers coming to enjoy the great food and fun games. It seemed like everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves and there was such a fantastic atmosphere all day. The Go MAD team were an amazing help and were excellent models in the fashion show!

I celebrated my 21^st birthday in April. My third birthday spent in Africa! I had such an incredible day, starting at breakfast when I was taken out onto the porch to find that the whole Go MAD team had come over for a birthday breakfast! I was later collected and taken to a surprise destination which turned out to be the spa at Rehema! I had a lovely afternoon being pampered with Deb, Claire and Nat. In the evening I heard the sound of the Go MAD girls walking over to my house singing High School Musical and we had a girly evening watching it!

As some of you may already know, I had an interview in April to attend All Nations Christian College. The exciting news is that they have offered me a place to study there on a 2 year course starting at the end of September! It will be so hard to leave Tanzania but I am excited to start at All Nations and for all I will learn there.

I had the most amazing day climbing a HUGE hill in Bunda, a place an hour away from Musoma. I had wanted to climb it for a while and was determined to do it before leaving Tanzania. The perfect opportunity arose when five of the families here were getting together to go up. I joined them and had so much fun! The walk was tough and we were all very hot but there were incredible views from the top. It was great to see all the children (about 22 or so!) having a great time together and nearly running up like mountain goats! On the way down we stopped at a water hole that a couple of the families had created and all enjoyed running in and splashing around. I wasn’t too keen on the water scorpions in there with us but was assured they wouldn’t hurt me! I had a truly fantastic day and am now even more determined to make the most of every opportunity in the rest of my time here.

Now this definitely isn’t a highlight...in April Nat finished at Rehema and returned to the UK. We came out to Tanzania and muddled our way through life together trying to adjust to living in Africa and had much fun along the way! I was very sad to see her leave and life has been very different without her here. 

An interesting afternoon at the beach

God clearly tells us that we are to share our faith with other people. I have always found this a very challenging thing to do and admit that I have often shied away from doing this despite God commanding us to. Yesterday I was challenged in this and drawn out of my comfort zone to share about my beliefs and I just want to share my experience yesterday with you.

On Sunday afternoons it is great to go to Tembo Beach with the Go MAD team and relax. I was happy in my own little world reading my ‘Bible in a year’ (trying to catch up as I am a few days behind!) when a Tanzanian guy came and sat with me and asked me to teach him English. As a young white girl I am automatically suspicious of any guys! I wanted him to leave and told him I could not teach him English. He then asked what book I was reading. I told him it was the Bible and from there followed a very intense and challenging conversation about Christianity, God and the Bible with racial segregation and globalisation thrown in as side topics! This guy had some really great questions and I felt so inadequate to answer some of them but just really wanted him to know the most important thing, that God loves him. God loves each of us so much that he sent his one and only son to die on the cross for our sins (John 3.16) I felt so overwhelmed when this guy told me he didn’t really know how to pray. He believed that you can only pray in Church on a Sunday and that it is better to pray in English as God will hear you better. It was also very hard for him to understand that God is never too busy with listening to other people to listen to us and he never forgets about us.  It is hard trying to explain to someone (especially someone who has English as a second language!) that God is beyond our comprehension, that although it seems impossible to us, God is all powerful, He sees everything and He knows everything. God knows and loves each of us and we are all precious to him, he even knows how many hairs are on our heads (Matthew 10:30).

I encouraged this guy to read the Bible as it is full of truths. The conversation then took a different turn when this guy asked me for money. He said he wanted to buy a bible. I told him I would not give him money.  This may come across to some of you as very unchristian and honestly it was ridiculously tough telling him I wouldn’t give him money but the culture here is very much a give me money culture (that is a blog for another time!). Once this guy finally realised I wouldn’t give him money he then started asking for my phone number which I also refused to give. He couldn’t understand that I don’t just give my number to people I do not know! His friend who had joined us and had sat without saying anything then pipes up and tells me he has heard what I had been saying and he believed it was important but he wanted my number so that we could discuss it further. I knew I shouldn’t give my number and felt that these guys’ motives were not entirely genuine but I was torn as what if this time I was meant to give money and what if God really did want me to meet these guys again. I felt no clear direction from God to do so and in the end I just wanted to leave so took the guys number and left.

This time chatting to them really stirred up something inside me. I do not know whether they were at all genuine in wanting to learn about God or not or if they took anything from that conversation. I pray that they did and that they will come to know God and his love for them.

Some of the guy’s comments stuck with me and I realised how much I take for granted all the resources available to us to delve into a deeper understanding of God’s word. We have so many different types of bibles, study bibles, guides, daily notes, Pastors with sound training, small group studies and the internet. When we have questions we have so many places we can go to for answers and even though God is ultimately the one we should turn to some people don’t even know they can come to him whenever and wherever.  Some people are not able to afford a bible and others do not even know how to read even if they did have access to one. Some believe they can go to Church on a Sunday and what they hear there is enough. But it isn’t. We need to truly believe in God and have a personal relationship with him, not just on a Sunday.

I have heard it said that the African Church is a mile wide and an inch deep. This means that there is a massive numerical growth but very little spiritual growth within the church. An increasing number of people are calling themselves Christians but they do not have any depth or substance to their faith. Most of what they learn comes from what they hear in Church. However, there is a problem with Pastors that have not been properly trained or educated as they are more open to being led into false teaching. For those people who do not have access to a bible or cannot read they often take what the Pastor says as being truth without questioning it. This means that people are not becoming rooted in their faith and although it seems like many people are becoming Christians they are not actually rooted in God and do not have a firm foundation for their faith. Their faith needs to be deepened so that they can mature and become more Christ like.

This seems such a huge challenge for the Church and I believe that only through prayer will this situation be changed. The power of prayer is an incredible thing and God really does work in ways that are far beyond anything we can imagine. Please pray for Pastors of churches, that they receive proper training and remember what they are taught and can provide sound biblical teaching that will enable the Church to truly grow. Pray that people do not just rely on what they hear in Church but that they continually seek God and become rooted in the knowledge of his Word. I thank God for the opportunity yesterday to talk to those guys and for the words that God gave me to say and that as a result of the conversation my eyes have been opened to a problem facing the church that I had previously never given much thought too. It is such a complex problem with no really easy answer. We just have to trust that if we bring this to God in prayer and place it in His hands He can change this situation. Please pray for the guys I spoke too yesterday, that they will turn to God and accept him as their Lord and Saviour and that if it is God’s will for me to meet them again then he will make that really clear to me.

This is a slightly different blog from my usual ramblings but it is something that is on my heart at the moment and I felt led to share it with you.  

Travelling in a Tuk Tuk!

Highlight of the week...travelling in a tuk tuk! Most mornings we would usually travel into work on a dalla dalla but they are hot and smelly, full of people and very slow! They stop often to pick up passengers and it is not surprising when we start reversing down the road to pick up a passenger! There is a lot of competition between the dalla dallas for customers and so as soon as they see you they run to you and are determined that you will get on their dalla dalla!  Compared to that travelling in a tuk tuk is luxury! I feel like a princess in a chariot! It doesn’t go very fast at all but we get there a lot quicker and it is a lot less stressful!

A fantastic start to the new year

Hello everyone!

I have been back in Tanzania for a month now and it is scary how fast the weeks are going.  I absolutely love being back here and am now settled back into life here. It is very hot here at the moment and several missionaries are saying they can only remember one or two times that it has been hotter than this! It is also great to be back using Swahili! I absolutely love learning this language and get excited every time I learn a new word and find a sentence to use it in! Learning the grammar side of it is less fun but despite that, my Swahili lessons with Deb each week are a time I look forward to.

Rehema is doing well at the moment and there is a buzz of activity which is exciting! The workshop just feels so alive! Morning devotions with the Rehema women have started up again and reading the bible, praying together and singing is such incredible way to start the day.  Rehema has a new project manager, Mary, who is doing an incredible job and made such a difference already. It is such a blessing to have her at Rehema. Natalie, Mary and I also live together now so I would really appreciate your prayers that we can live and work together well and approach any challenges with patience and love for each other.

It was great to come back and see Sarabi. I never knew I would miss my dog as much as I did and I was excited to see her, until I actually saw her! It was dark when we got back and I went out to see her and she was jumping around completely hyper and so much bigger than I left her! I had a moment of panic that I was going to be scared of my own dog! Fortunately the next morning she looked slightly less scary and we are getting along very well together!

There is an awesome Go MAD team here for 6 months. They are a really friendly team and I have loved hanging out with them and really look forward to getting to know them better. 

It was such an encouragement when I was home over Christmas to hear that people actually read these blogs so I promise now to try and update you all more regularly!