Exciting news about 2015!

In my last blog I mentioned something about making sure I take a proper break next year, so I guess I should begin this blog by explaining myself a little! The exciting news is that after going home for about a month in December I shall return to Tanzania in January 2015 to work another year with Rehema. I do not know when I consciously made this decision but I think deep down I always felt this would not just be a year commitment and more recently, as this year is coming to an end, I feel I have so much more to give and I just cannot imagine going home for Christmas and not coming back out. I absolutely love what I do here and the women I work with. Working at Rehema has been great fun and very rewarding in many ways but it also has been very challenging at times and these challenges I believe have actually been good in developing me as a person. It is exciting to see all that has happened at Rehema over this past year and how much potential to grow that it has and I really want to continue to be a part of that. I have also learnt so much more about God and I love being able to serve Him in this way. It has been tough at times when I’m surrounded by suffering and people constantly asking for help and it can seem a helpless situation. In these times the faith of the Tanzanians is truly inspiring.

 Many people tell me that I should be thinking about the future, going to university, working to save money and start a pension! These are all fair points but they are the world views rather than actually trusting and relying completely on God. There will be times in life when we want to make our own plans and follow our own path especially when that is the easier option but listening to God and following His plan for our lives will lead to far greater things than we can ever imagine. For those of you who know me well you will know that a couple of years ago the thought of me living in Tanzania would just have been laughed at and actually up until then the idea of living here never even occurred to me. God works in ways we would never imagine! 

Life is pretty good here at the moment. At Rehema we are busy preparing for Christmas and starting to plan a Christmas fair which is exciting! I have also been able to spend a bit of time with Go Mad which I love. There is a team of three out here at the moment and I get on really well with them. There is also a girl staying with the Vink family who I also get on well with so we have all been getting together for meals, crazy games of articulate and just hanging out together.  I feel so blessed to be able to meet so many new people and being able to make really good friendships with them.  Last week we went to the Market Garden which is a Go Mad project that I was involved with on my trip and it was amazing to see how much progress has been made and how well it is doing. It looked completely different to when I last saw it. Today we started a water tank and then went up to Kyamajoje. I had been wanting to go up there for some time as I kept hearing about what the teams were building and wanted to see it all! It was just incredible to see how much has been achieved. The health centre is looking amazing and the doctor’s houses, toilets and a big water tank are all underway.

The other exciting news is that we have a puppy! On Tuesday our little German shepherd puppy, Sarabi, arrived! She is so adorable! It’s good to have a dog in the house again. For some of you it may be more shocking to hear me say I have a dog than it is to hear I am going to live in Africa for another year! 

My trip to Nairobi

I’m writing this sat on my porch whilst holding an adorable baby. TIA! A woman who is helping fill up Go MADs tank brought her baby to work with her. Yesterday we saw the baby lying in the Go Mad house just chilling in blankets on the floor and today as the mum walked past our porch she handed the baby to us to look after whilst she goes back and forth fetching water!

The most exciting thing to happen recently has been my trip to Nairobi. Rehema had been shut for two weeks but i really felt i hadn’t had a break. I was just exhausted and so had lost any motivation to work. When you are exhausted that is when the wobbly moments happen and i just had a wobbly moment of if this was what God really wanted me to be doing now. I also started worrying about the future and what i was going to do rather than trusting that God knows and will reveal the plan in his own perfect timing. So when the opportunity came up to go to Nairobi for a week, i went! It was a really good time away to just to have some space to think and pray things through and also just to switch off! The place i stayed in was beautiful and the perfect place to relax and being able to walk barefoot through lush green grass was such a good feeling! I did venture out to a shopping centre which was an interesting experience. It was great to go to Planet Yogurt, Subway and KFC (very food orientated!)but i just felt so out of place among all the shops and city life. It felt more normal seeing the security guards walking around with huge guns than it did shopping! There was a massive supermarket that had everything from Clarks shoe shop to beds, bbqs, a bakery and whole aisles of food, toiletries, toys, tools...everything! I normally go crazy in a shop like this in the UK but in Nairobi it totally freaked me out! I did buy a couple of treats to do me for the next few months but i couldn’t wait to leave! Even going in a lift and using nice toilets and hand dryers felt weird. I think it won’t be as big a culture shock returning home as it was going to Nairobi as in the UK you expect it, but in Africa that was just crazy. It was a fab time away and i have come back ready to put my all into the rest of this year. Living here can be so emotionally and physically draining and i just hadn’t realised the importance of taking a proper break. I am definitely planning one in for next year!

It has been buzzing at Rehema recently. We have had some amazing people take Rehema items home to sell and so far we have had amazing support and encouragement from the UK. It is exciting to be able to go in to work and tell the women that are products are being well received in the UK. We have also just started preparing for Christmas! I never understood why adults got so stressed out about getting ready for Christmas but now i think i do! I am stressed in a good way though! It is exciting seeing all the work needing to be done and knowing the women will be getting a lot of work. It is also a good excuse to make lists! I love lists! I know it is only just September but i have a feeling that these next few months will speed past and Christmas will soon be here!

Another TIA moment to end on. We were very excited to see work being done on the track to our house. It is a bumpy ride down the track (when we are fortunate enough not to be walking!) so we thought it was very exciting. We walked a bit further on and saw all the water pipes dug up and destroyed and realised it wasn’t such a great thing! We only have the water that is left in our tank and so we are using it carefully. That means washing up less often! Yay! Hopefully it will be sorted soon but that is doubtful so at the weekend we will find someone to fetch water and fill up the tank! Living in Tanzania definitely has its fun moments!

I had to give the baby back half way through writing this as she wouldn’t stop crying. It definitely wasn’t my singing that started her off!