It’s chilly out

My sterotype of Africa before I came was that it’s basically the Sahara desert, savannah grasslands and heat continent wide, despite knowing from geography lessons past that there’s rainforest (green) too.

Well I was wrong. There are places where it’s cold and Kijabe is one of them, I also presume that the top of Kilimanjaro is pretty cold too as there’s white stuff on the top.

Place of the wind is the translation for Kijabe – the name of the town where RVA is. Logically I guess that means that the windchill factor is high especially at the altitude it’s at. So it wasn’t a smart move leaving my coat and hoodie in another bag in Nairobi, clothes I didn’t have to use very often in Kahunda! I'm sniffing and typing this with a blocked nose...I think I've got a cold, the first for a long time.

Masanga means someone who brings people together (meaning given from the guy who gave me the name).

RVA – Rift Valley Academy

Little America

An unofficial name for RVA, as far as I’m aware it’s used because the school is American therefore American teaching, food and language despite no American football pitch. It’s this way so that the students will be able to adjust easily back into school or ‘college’ (uni) in America. But there are two full size Rugby pitches at RVA, Rugby alongside ‘soccer’ (football) and basketball are the biggest sports here. This year there hasn’t been an opportunity for the titchies (grades 1-6) to learn and play Rugby. My total time here will be about three weeks with a few training sessions a week for these young guys.

RVA – Rift Valley Academy

So long & farewell

The last day was a weird feeling, half knowing that I’m not returning anytime soon and the other half looking forward to a break from Kahunda and a change of scenery. The night before I left Kahunda I went and said goodbye to a couple of the families I’d been close with. And took some pictures in the dark, it’s hard to know where to point the camera if you can’t see anything through the viewfinder.

Goodbye Party

Giving a short talk on Luke 21:34-36

On the 21^st May Arne and I had a farewell ‘party’(Tanzanian version, a very formal occasion) at the secondary school. Arne and I both gave talks mine slightly briefer than Arne’s. We gave out tracts to the students including a Johns Gospel each. There was singing from the Ukwata Choir – Tanzania Youth Christian Fellowship Organisation. And speeches from the headmaster and deputy plus a few other guys that we had invited. We understood a little bit, as they spoke in Kiswahili. There was food afterwards, and on the whole the event went well despite sitting through some rain.

Arne and I - near the end as we have just eaten

Scurrying Salamanders

A live Salamander

So it was a standard evening, Regan and Dan were over (two of our secondary school sfriends), cooking rice. They then went outside for a second and told us to come out as they had a surprise for us. Arne and I went out and they had dragged onto our doorstep a dead salamander, it had been killed up at the school, and they bought it down for us...lovely. It made us jump out of our skin when we saw it! This episode came after we watched a live salamander hide out in one of its holes below our kitchen window.

Salamanders (in unscientific language) are like huge lizards, huge as in about 4ft in length.

A dead salamander... I just happened to be brushing my teeth.

Biking cats

The other day I went with Andy to one of the islands just a catamaran sail away from Kahunda. The first stop, giving a cat to a leprous old man who can’t feel his fingers; this means he doesn’t feel the mice which nibble on his fingers during the night. The cat which had already been given away – but found its way back twice is now separated by a long stretch of water, we are definitely not expecting to see it in Kahunda again. The second and final stop dropping off a brand new bike for an evangelist a few bays over on the island. He leads one of the Churches on the island which again is a couple of bays over from his home. The push bike will definitely make his commute easier – it’s a flat journey and he will now be able to make it minutes rather than an hour or so. The bike is a model from Shanghai which is almost the only kind of bike around so getting it repaired and spare parts won’t be an issue. On the way back we had to use the engine as it was pretty calm, but when this ran out of petrol we resulted to paddling. However this gradually got easier because the wind picked up and carried us home. It certainly made me more grateful for the little breeze which makes the boat move in an entirely effortless way.

I have been given a new name, Masanga (pronounced Masanja). This name was given to me by my language helper Mr Ngokolo a teacher at Kahunda Secondary school.

Arne and I are having a leaving do on Saturday up at the school. I hope it’s not as long as some of the ‘parties’ I’ve been to while in Kahunda.

Funeral

One of the pastors who work on the islands here has died. I met him once when I went on an island trip for 2 nights, I know some of his kids (my age and older) who live close by. The whole occasion is very communal, when news gets out people start turning up at the house. So Tuesday afternoon I went and sat there for a couple of hours and returned after doing sports at school at 7pm. Later on in the evening a few boats full of guys come over from a couple of the islands where he had been a pastor. I knew a few from my visit. The body and a load of fellow pastors arrived and everyone who was there (between 120 and 200 people) went to greet them as they arrived. At the house the men and women stay separate, the women sleep with the body in the house and the men stay outside, so I stayed out. There was some singing and a devotion and a big open fire. The church choir finished at 2am and at 3 some ladies came and gave us chai (tea). Then all the guys thought it was going to rain so we went to find some shelter, there was almost enough room but not quite. So I and a couple of others returned to the fire and there was no rain.

From 6-7am so I got a little bit of shut eye. But then it was morning and it did rain. I found my house key which I lost during the night. When it stopped raining the men went up to the church and dug the grave (I only watched on). It wasn’t just a couple of guys, everyone pitched in. One guy would use a jembe (hoe) and break up a load of soil then someone else would jump in and use a spade to get the dirt out, but they were swapping these guys all the time. Back to the house where the ladies (who do all the cooking and washing) had made sweet potatoes and chai. Then everyone went up to the church. Every funeral I have been to here has been open casket and so was this one. There was also 17 pastors there. When the service finished I went back over to the house where I helped get some more firewood and start get the fire going (a job for the young men). There was a devotion and a late lunch. At about 8pm I went home where I slept.

Land of the Datooga

So last week Arne and I went on a home stay to Reagan’s house. But for 3 nights and two days we went to visit some other friends. They are a family working with the Datooga (one of the 100 or so tribes in TZ). They are on the south side of Lake Eyasi (just south of the Ngorongolo crater). The environment was fairly green as it is wet season but for 9 months of the year it’s dessert like.

We were able to visit some of the Datooga homes where I helped shepherd some goats with my fimbo (stick) that every Datooga man carries. We also helped stretch out a skin of a cow (covered with cow excretion) cutting little slits and then hammering with a rock little stakes to stretch it out, it wasn’t a clean job but it was something I’d never done and I enjoyed that. The women when they are married are presented with a leather skirt, which shows that they are married. They don’t take it off for years apparently they have a pungent smell especially when in a enclosed space with someone wearing one for instance a car. When we went into a house I was given a challenge by our host to find 10 non organic items apart from their clothes and jewellery, I saw a cooking pot, plastic bags, plastic cups, packets of animal medicine, and one or two other things but that was it, and not 10. By non organic I mean things that they hadn’t made themselves or sourced naturally like the grinding stones or the wooden stools.

One of the homes we visited was one of the richest guys around, he has hundreds of cows and hundreds of goats. He is also a witch doctor, we didn’t meet him, but going into his home we saw and were told about the pointed sticks in the house under the roof pointing out the door. The number sticks represents how powerful a witch doctor you are 1 being low and the highest being around 6 and this guy had 6. You could see that one stick was pretty recent as it wasn’t too black from the soot (cooking). In his thorn enclosure there were 5 houses one for each of his wives.

We went to the school in the village although you couldn’t tell it was a village because the centre consists of about 3 buildings: a café, house and a stable or roofed enclosure. To say you’d blink and miss would be a severe understatement. The houses are in thorn enclosures over 500m apart so it’s not what you’d picture when you think of a village. In the school Arne and I taught them the “God is so good” song in Swahili and spoke to them a little and a story resembling the Gospel.

It really gave some meaning to the saying ‘in the sticks’ the separating of the sheep from the goats and a picture like that of the Old Testament.

Whistling Drums

So recently at KSS (Kahunda secondary school) there was an inter dorm sports competition and more recently a regional interschool competition. The main sport is football and as far as I’ve seen exclusively for boys, though I’ve seen a couple of girls doing more kick ups than I can do by far.

When a goal is scored the avid drumbeating fans (other students) run onto the pitch to congratulate and celebrate with their scoring team. The sideline is not objective but subjective – it’s debateable. For the interschool competition they marked out a sideline but before that it was where the ref decided it was the watching students or where the players determine.

Most students don’t have a pair of shoes to play football in (it’s not a necessity). But you’d see a few pairs of shoes on the pitch. Often one student would have one shoe and another the other of the pair.

The referee’s cards can only be seen by the ref and anyone who has really good eyesight because they are about the size of your small fingernail. The ref would often have his discussions with a player by blasting on the whistle in quick succession almost like he was talking through it like Morse code.

In the way of first aid, there is none. If someone can’t get off the pitch themselves a handful of students come on and pick the injured player by his limbs and then walk him off the pitch.

Shopping and Cooking: Things Jonny didn’t tell you Part 3

1.6    Dad's Blog Post no.7

Another thing Jonny hasn't really come clean on is his improving skills in the kitchen. We recently had a fabulous curry, made from steak bought in the village, with potato wedges. Then rice pudding, made slowly on the cooker, not microwaved from a tin! Then soup made from freshly chopped marrow-thing (but as tough as a swede to cut). Then tea made with fresh lemon grass from the market.

On Friday Jonny in no time baked a couple of cakes ('tea loaves') in the solar oven then, after lunch, knocked up a couple of pizzas enough to feed the regular group meeting at the Andersens!

Preparing the meat is, in itself, a time-consuming job. Not ready-chopped chunks prepacked from Tesco but a big slab hacked off a cow by the merchant. It needs cutting up and the fat removing. And the knives aren't too sharp either.

Then there was the marrow-thing: it made a great soup, but took the best part of an hour to cut up.

It would be easy to live off packet meals, bought from Mwanza city on a shopping trip, but how much more inventive to use local produce and learn some great life skills!

Tonight we have BBQ chicken…take a look ('before and after') at the pictures!

Thanks Mama Esther - next time it's Jonny's turn!

This is how they do it in Tanzania!

"What happened next?!"

Sunday lunch: Jonny with Arne, Regan(17), Dan(18) and Darwen(19). The boys love to visit to cook, eat and chat. Pray for them, as young Christians.

This is what 'Bau' looks like (see post on 8th March). Jonny here with his language teacher - also a Maths teacher at the High School.

... and some big furnaces!

Cooking for 300 takes a lot of firewood

Ugali and beans: time for eating! (Note the skillful use of the hands, making a scoop with the Ugali then dipping it in the beans)

Ugali and beans: in the kitchen!

Bible Study on a Saturday afternoon at the High School - in Swahili!

Jonny and Arne's Washing Machine: Mamma Esther!

Preparing a meal takes time - and energy!

"How much is that one, please?" (In Swahili!)

After PE, a cup of porridge, with a vitamin too!

"Green team, over there!" (In Swahili!)

Teaching children how to kick a ball - in Swahili!

The Danger of making Judgments

1.5    Dad's Blog Post no.6

It's so easy to make judgments about things – and then be found to have made a big misjudgment.

For example:

"They have no electricity, these poor people". Yes, but going down to the lake to wash (body and clothes) means a community activity that we, with a washing machine in every house, do not have. Or, making a fire on which to cook, can be done for several families together and means a community activity which we, with a cooker in every house, miss out on.

"The men seem to spend their time standing around chatting". Yes, but they've probably been working with the crops since the early hours, while the day was still cool, to ensure they have enough food to live on.

How ironic that we, in the 'advanced West' have gained much in material luxuries but have lost so much in other, valuable aspects of life.

Home Comforts: Things Jonny didn’t tell you Part 2!

1.4    Dad's Blog Post no.5

He's got a toilet that flushes in the house! I had thought that he went to a spot, like the locals, in the bushes. I was quite relieved that we had this luxury.

They've also got a cooker that runs off a large gas container and a freezer that is cooled by a small gas flame working on a heat exchanger (I think!). Unfortunately it's not very effective so it's usually like a fridge rather than a freezer.

There's a shower too – just cold water, but it's so warm here that's hardly a problem.

The 'running water' comes from a tank that draws water from a well. Each week one of the jobs is to run a diesel motor, to power a generator that generates electricity for a pump which pumps the water into a tank some 10 feet off the ground. This then supplies the toilet and the taps in the sinks. When it first comes out of the ground, as you'd expect, it's BROWN. Obviously it needs filtering before you can drink it!

Jonny and Arne's house has a small solar panel that provides electricity to power up to five small fluorescent lights. Luxury, since most people in the village rely on candles!

A neighbouring house – until recently also used by short-termers – also has some solar panels, and these charge up a couple of car-type batteries, which is enough to provide electricity for lights, or a laptop, or battery charger for a phone etc. Quite a luxury….. At the school, for example, the lack of electricity means that the cooks have to prepare meals for ~300 kids with wood fires: you should see the kitchen!

Language Learning: Things Jonny didn’t tell you Part 1!

1.3    Dad's Blog Post no.4

Although Jonny has been in Tanzania for about six months, he's only had Swahili language lessons for about four of them, so I didn't really expect him to show any fluency – just a few greetings and pleasantries. What I got was a shock!

He can really enter into conversation with a wide variety of people in different situations.

At the kindergarten Jonny and Arne lead three groups of children in PE for an hour. This requires command of numerous instructions in Swahili, leading the children in some responsive singing, and interacting with them. It's great to see how enthusiastically the children respond.

In the Kahunda village (approx 13,000 inhabitants) most people walk everywhere and no one has a car. This means that people know and talk to one another! When you're passing someone, there is usually an exchange of greeting – and frequently people want to stop Jonny and ask how he is – and who this other white man is. Since he's involved with some of the children in the village, and he's one of a handful of white people, it seems that a large proportion of the people know him. And most of those that know him are delighted that he can engage with them in their own language!

One of the real highlights was to see Jonny run a Bible Study at the high school for teenagers. Although only a couple of them spoke English with any fluency, Jonny had done a lot of preparation on relevant passages – dealing with the subject of "The Truth" - and they really seemed to embrace what was being presented to them.

[On the other hand, there is a real cultural desire to please – which can sometimes even mean being economical with the truth, if a friendship is thereby preserved.]

Go to Church on a boat!

1.2 Dad’s Blog Post no.3

Andy and Margaret Andersen have been working to plant churches, on some of the many islands of Lake Victoria (by the way it’s over a hundred miles wide and three times larger than Wales!) for more than 15 years. Many churches have been started, and Andy seeks to pastor and encourage the pastors. Sunday was a regular visit to see how one of the congregations was doing.

Andy has two boats and is a highly competent sailor. This Sunday we used his catamaran (I think that means it has two hulls?), a motor when the lake was calm and sails when there was a breeze.

When we arrived, after a journey of more than an hour, we had a short walk up into the village. We arrived unannounced but were made so welcome it was quite overwhelming. Especially given the obvious material poverty in which the people lived. I say “material” because these dear people had a warmth and a genuine hospitality that is rare in our own society. It reminded me of the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians.

After the church service we were invited to a meal that had been prepared since we arrived. It was obvious that they had used their best rice and fish and we were expected to take what we wanted whilst they would have what was left over.

Margaret had brought some Swahili Christian booklets and these were received and read with obvious eagerness. What a joy to see real spiritual hunger for God’s Word!

Please pray for the preacher. He walks for an hour each way – from another part of the island – to lead their services, but a bicycle would make the journey so much easier for him. And he could get a good one for a mere £50.

Arrival 1.1

So we were dropped off in a village and looked for a "pikki-pikki" (motorbike taxi) to give us a lift for the remaining few miles.

I got one but Jonny got a 'croggie' on the back of a push bike first (and paid a tip of course!). Riding on the back of a moped, no crash helmets, at 30-40mph along a pothole-ridden dust track, in the dark, with all the other people and animals sharing the road, was quite hairy! My moped ran out of fuel so we stopped in another village, asked around, and a man brought a can of fuel out from the back of his house – which was probably actually a fuel station! There were quite a few people out in the village, staring & wondering what this white man was doing!

We finally made it to Kahunda…and had a warm welcome and meal from the Anderson family (long-term missionaries) who live next door to Jonny and Arne.

Heathrow to Kahunda in 22 hours! I wonder how long it took Livingston to get to Lake Victoria?!

 

 

Arrival 1.0

So my Dad is in Kahunda and would very much like to do a blog post so here it is:

Thanks Jonny for letting me have a go on your blog! I'd like to describe the journey from Mwanza….

I arrived on a (Gulfstream?) jet seating 50-100 people. Very fast & comfortable. Sat next to a Somali lady from Oslo! Her family (mother & sisters) had fled the country during the civil war 20 years ago and, with hundreds of thousands of other Somalis, settled in Norway. She was on holiday to visit her father, who had decided to stay in Africa rather than live in cold Europe.

In Mwanza (large town some 60 miles from Kahunda) I met Jonny and we immediately got onto a dala dala (minibus with 10-12 other people) and headed for the lakeside to catch a ferry.

This 'dala dala' stopped frequently by the side of the road to pick up and drop off and somehow they knew when to stop and who wanted a ride (the man operating the sliding doors put the fares in his pocket – no tickets – and liked to ride with the door open!).

At the lakeside there were several hundred people waiting for the ferry: some makeshift BBQ's, numerous people wandering around trying to sell jewellery, or peanuts, or mobile phones. As soon as they realised we were looking to get to Kahunda people started offering lifts – on motorbikes or in a truck – and seeing how much money they could charge. Difficult to know who to trust and who was trying to rip you off. Litter everywhere – no-one notices it.

After the ferry we paid a small sum to a man with something like an Toyota Landcruiser. 60 miles on a dirt track, often at 50-60 mph! Barely wide enough for two cars to pass; people also using the road as a path, sometimes herding a few cattle along; small kids on man-sized bicycles, wobbling dangerously; women balancing huge water-containers or bundles of sticks for firewood.

We passed through about 20 villages – all with homes looking more like shacks. Dogs roaming around, people chatting, toddlers playing by the side of the road, people trying to sell stuff from what was no more than a hut. And clouds of dust every time a vehicle went past. That was how we knew when something big was coming towards us!

When the lift finished – because the driver realised his lights weren't working – we were still 10 miles from Kahunda and it was nearly dark!

Bao

I’m getting a couple of the students to teach me how to play a game called Bao. It’s a game where a piece of wood is carved out 8 ‘holes’ by 4 – all the same size. It’s a two player game with a fair few people who watch on. You each have a turn to move a load of the little balls (they are called kete in this game) around, with a few extra bits such as changing direction and taking the other players balls. It’s pretty much a mathematical game.

The first friend we made here Manasi, has just arrived back from his school on a month break. We picked up him, his dad and a lady who is staying in Kahunda for a while. We picked them up about a 20 min drive from Kahunda because their bus fell over/half of a flip, it appears as though the bus driver had been drinking. Praise the Lord that nobody was injured. Their first bus that they had left Mwanza on had broken down which resulted in a 4 hour wait then they either got back on that bus or it was a replacement with which they had the accident after the accident there was another wait for the car to come and get them, not the best way to arrive home from school or on your first trip to Kahunda.

Time

It’s February half term (midterm) here for LVCA, but the secondary school doesn’t have one. No time at the Kindergarten this week apart from the free English lessons that Arne and I do on a Wed and Fri afternoon. It varies from having 7 people to 2 and their English speaking levels of all of the people who have turned up are different.

Cultural values: Time vs event, as ‘westerners’ we are time orientated, for example most of us are punctual and we like to schedule our time or have our time scheduled for us. Whereas Africans are event orientated, a ‘come what may’ and not really tied up to a schedule. If I haven’t told you already, they say ‘you have the watches but we have the time’. My example: I turn up for my first Kiswahili lesson this week, turns out it’s the annual school meeting, everyone has to be there including my language teacher, then to my third lesson and he’s not around at all, I head into the centre and I bump into him on the way. When I first got here that was hard to get used to, and now it’s one of the reasons I go to him for my lessons, so I don’t wait for him to come to me. However now though I know that’s the way this culture works and I’d like to think I can cope and live with that.

On Sunday afternoons at about 2pm a passenger ferry comes to Kahunda, it has an amazingly loud horn. Well I was there when it ‘docked’ (pulls up to the bank). There were a fair few secondary students watching on which was why I was there in the first place. One student had a camera with him (the one with the film and something else you have to do manually before each photo). Inevitably I got asked to be in a picture which turned into fair amount of pictures or (picha – that’s how they pronounce it and said lightening quick). They were really eager to be in a photo with a muzungu.

Corn on the cob

After my hour of Language learning the other day I was making my way to the pitch to do some touch rugby, which didn't come to fruition on that day. I walked past a teachers house and there were a load of students there, so because of my sheer nosiness I went to investigate. Turns out they were there for punishment for not turning up to the morning jog. The punishment was to scrape the uncooked corn off the cob, the corn is then ground into flour to make ugali (see a previous post for ugali description). I thought, I'll give that a go and I did one in the time it took another student to do four, so either I was really slow or he was super quick, it was the latter. After this I stopped, then some student said something so I thought 'I'll show him'. Well pride certainly does come before a fall. I stayed and did about 15-20 cobs, my hands felt a little sore after (not the fall). Later on as I was throwing the rugby ball around with a couple of students and I looked down at my hands and saw that I had a nice couple of blisters on my thumb, ouch! (that's my fall)

The next day I'm there and a student just rips a branch off a tree, nothing unusual about that but I tried my Swahili and asked what he was doing. He started walking towards the pitch and said 'snake'. Ok, I followed closely behind; they were still playing football until they saw him trying to pick it up with a stick. He couldn't quite pick it up so I gave it a go (with the stick) and carried it off the pitch. By the way it was a tiny, tiny thing probably 40cm long but not even 1cm wide. As I was carrying it off a student said 'alive' or something to that effect, and sure enough it was moving a little. Once off the pitch I picked up a brick and threw it at its head once to kill it twice to be sure and a 3^rd time as a safety measure. That's my first kill of a snake, as I wasn't the one who killed the black mamba on Christmas day. Snake related the students were telling me how they don't like walking through the forest as there are a lot of snakes in there in particular, cobras. Oh ok thanks for letting me know and absolutely petrifying me. I'm thinking about getting a walking stick encase one literally crosses my path. The idea of standing stone still till it has gone doesn't sound even slightly attractive.

I don't like talking about snakes, it makes my imagination go wild. I'm trying to not let it get running by believing myself that there could be a snake at my feet and that little itch isn't just an itch, I'm just going to stop right there and go and do something else!

Two till Four

School Debate : 2-4pm on a Saturday afternoon at Kahunda Secondary School. (it’s in English)

The motion: To fail education does not mean to fail life.

I did get involved which was fun, I was asked by a student to explain business and something about Europe which I didn’t get. Naturally this is where my knowledge from studying business studies for four years should come in. But I found it amazing how quickly you can forget things you’ve learnt. I couldn’t think of the definition off the top of my head so I blabbered on about being self employed and the private / public sectors until there was the sound of a wooden spoon hitting a desk = time is over (for whoever is talking). Then there is a chance for someone to ask a question or to raise another point. It Ended with the proposers 20 points to 15.

Following debate I did my Bible study in a baking hot classroom, we looked at sin. I was so grateful to our student friend Regan, who interpreted for the couple of form 1 students who came because they can’t yet speak English.

2 + 1 = 7 … Try again

Well I've been through 5 months of 10 already and they say time flies; it must be in a rocket.

The secondary students loved it when I came and ate with them (they had a good chuckle at the muzungu eating ugali); they have 'stiff porridge' called ugali, with 1 cup of beans for lunch and again for dinner. The ugali comes in blocks - looks just like a white brick, literally. You break a bit off and mould / ply it in your hands and then scoop up a couple of beans. It's not awful but twice a day every day bar one or two meals when they have rice (instead of ugali) it's very… well repetitious.

Have I already mentioned that we now have a working freezer in our house! It takes a fair amount of time to freeze and runs on Kerosene, but it's really nice to be able to have a cold drink, really nice. Also I have learnt how to cook fish Tanzanian style as well as beans; they're both staples in this area. You have to cook the beans for about 3 hours not 'fast food' you should appreciate that can of baked beans a little more next time you have beans on toast.

So I have taught a couple of maths lessons to the LVCA (Lake Victoria Christian Academy) 1st graders, the new teacher has been ill and not very consistent so I've taken a couple of their maths lessons after the PE. You know the deal 2 + 1 = and 3 + 1 = . I'm glad God gave me fingers it certainly makes demonstrating the sums easy, even across a language barrier.

I have been meeting regularly with my language helper. Catch and throw have been useful phrases to learn for PE, as well as 'remind me of your name' especially for the couple of hundred secondary school students.

Oh I forgot to tell you on Christmas day we killed a 6 ft black mamba.

‘Typical’

If there is such a thing as a typical day this is how it goes...

Wake up from the monkeys running across the shade roof, put the kettle on the stove and if it's my day on the laptop put the battery on charge over at next door. Have a mug or two of coffee, pasteurize the milk again (or get out of the freezer) the milk. Weetabix, porridge, toast, fruit or leftovers are normally on the breakfast menu. Sometimes I write up yesterday's day in my dairy, if I hadn't done it the night before.

May get to go on the laptop before I head up to LVCA (Lake Victoria Christian Academy) at about quarter to 9. When I arrive I set up the activity that the first class will be doing and then Arne and I teach the PE one class after the other (there are 3 classes) 20 min each from 9-10. Sometimes we will stay and have a cup of ugi (maize flour porridge) with the last class (1^st grade, the eldest). Or help with one of the classes.

Back home between 1110 and 1130. Usually I will head into the centre and do some 'shopping' tomatoes, onions, bananas, pineapple, cucumber, rice etc. I will spend some time talking to the people I regularly see and talk to and practice some of my Swahili, to their great amusement. Everybody you walk past you greet with a Shikamo if they are older than you or a Marahaba in response to a Shikamo. Other times I will spend some time on the laptop which is daily rotated between Arne and I. Later on I'll think about cooking lunch, then actually cook it. We make most of our own bread too so that's fairly often.

I have my quiet time either in the early afternoon or in the evening. At 1500 I usually meet with my language helper for an hour. Friday lunchtime I will be at the secondary school for their youth church meeting type of thing. From 1600-1800 is sport time at the secondary school, weekdays. On Thursdays there is a church 'youth meeting' at around 1500/1600 so I'll catch most of that and go later to the sport time. Now we have just started free English classes on Wed and Fri at 1500 – 1600 so language learning on those days is after PE at LVCA, now I'll catch Chai time (tea break) in the staff room at the secondary school. Saturdays I'll go and spend time playing cards or talking to the students, I have just done my first Bible study with them on a sat afternoon. Sunday Church is at 8-11ish or a trip to an island getting back as late as 2ish.

Most evenings I will take an empty milk container back to Mama Dominos house (where we get out milk from) and spend some time there trying to talk with them or learn something in swahili. Thurs, Fri and Sun evenings we meet at the Andersens house and whoever else is around, Thursday is Bible study night, Friday is Pizza night (with a game or film) and Sunday evenings we usually listen to a sermon in English.

There are jobs that come up throughout the week that I am responsible for: pumping the water for our house, topping up the freezer with kerosene (inc. buying the kerosene) and ensuring our water filters have water in.

Turns out this is more like what my week looks like! Rereading through this it doesn't sound like an exciting blog but hopefully you get an idea of what a 'typical day' looks like.

Overnight

Arne and I only had 11 days in Kahunda between coming back from the TZ Men's retreat, and heading up to Mombasa for Christmas (the short term retreat). We arrived back in Kahunda to no cat, our house help had been feeding our cat and another we were looking after. But this cat ate our cat's food and so our cat left, maybe it's time for a dog!

I was at the AIM Short Term Retreat over Christmas, nice location 5 minutes from a white sandy beach, just south of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. Of course it was the people I got to spend it with that made it enjoyable and different to a 'normal' Christmas. We had various fresh seafood for Christmas dinner. But as we talked, I said how it didn't feel like Christmas. We came up with a few reasons: because it's so different from what I'm used to, there isn't the usual full on commercial build up to Christmas like there is in the west, not spending it with any of my blood relations, the climate being hot instead of cold, being so far from what's happening at home and finding it hard to imagine or relate to what is actually happening at home.

Losing my passport/leaving it on a bus on the way up to Nairobi wasn't the smartest idea! It was going to be 6 weeks wait in Nairobi for the new passport. But instead I have received a temporary passport which will get me back into Tanzania.

I have had the privilege of being able to stay with the Short term coordinators and their family, which has been great fun and helpful. Today 5^th Jan I am heading back down to Mwanza on an overnight bus. Probably around a 13/14 hour ride.