Hello from my new house!

A big hello from Tanzania!

Amazingly i have got the internet to work in my house so communicating this year will be much easier than i thought! I also have a beautiful new laptop which works...MASSIVE thank you to my wonderful Uncle Andrew who helped me buy it and set it all up for me after mine decided to die the Friday night before i left on the Monday!

When January 20^th came round it still didn't seem real that i was going to live in Africa. I am absolutely loving it though! The journey was straightforward and the looooonng bus journey wasn't actually that bad. We arrived at the compound in the evening and it was lovely to have our neighbours (The vink’s) and their children come round with torches and help us with our bags. Nat and I went crazy that evening unpacking and showing each other what we had brought for the house. Instead of being sensible and going to bed after a full day travelling we stayed up late making the living/dining room look pretty and feel like home. It has been really fun unpacking and setting up my room with photos and bunting.

No major disasters have happened yet but we are having a lot of fun with our new house. Woke up to no water on the first morning and then that evening we had no power. Still not sure what was wrong with the water (fixed now) but the problem with the power was that the switch had tripped and all we had to do was turn a dial- which that morning i had glanced at and thought i must find out about that! Fortunately we have kind neighbours! It has been fun and games though with geckos dropping from ceilings and hanging out in our toilet! We have also adopted a baby tortoise which we have named Eugine and as i write this we are letting roam free on the floor for a bit and Nat has just accidentally kicked him...he is still alive! It is also cool that the Vink’s have a calf who was born only last week and they also have an adorable puppy! We were over there this afternoon and i looked around wondering what was more crazy, me living in Africa or me being in a garden with 3 dogs, (one of them  massive!) a puppy and a cow and feeling comfortable with it!

These past few days Nat and I have been finding out what our roles include. It is a long list but i can’t wait to properly get stuck in next week. We went in to Rehema and it was great to see the women again, especially when Gracie clambered over Isabella who was sat down so she could hug us! The kitchen was full of laughter and smiles and it was brilliant!

Nat and I had our first dalla dalla ride with just the two of us today and we survived with no problems! We also had a successful trip to the market to stock up on some essentials and some heavy items as we were kindly offered a lift in one of Go MAD trucks! It feels so normal being here now and coming back to our house in the evenings and feeling so comfortable here. I am sure that there will be many difficulties that we come up against, both at work and in having a house but i am confident that this is where i am meant to be and nothing will be too big to deal with with God by our side.