Arrival in Tanzania

We have arrived safely in Tanzania and have now completed our first week of language training! I am writing to you from our 'banda' or log cabin at the Rivervalley campsite, a few miles down the Ruaha River from Iringa. We will be staying here for the next five weeks while we get to grips with Kiswahili, which all the Tanzanians say is 'rahisi'. We are currently working our way through the eight noun classes and picking up about twenty five new words a day so we feel it is more 'gumu' than they keep making out.

Our classroom!

The campsite we are staying at is beautiful and our banda is perched on the side of a hill overlooking the river. The height we are at (1600m) means the climate here is so much better than when we spent a night in Dar es Salaam recently. It gets to about 25 degrees during the day and drops to around 12 degrees at night - I actually saw my breath this morning! As we are slightly more out in the sticks we do have to contend with a wide variety of 'wadudu' or insects, a large one of which we met yesterday... This also means there are some amazing birds and butterflies to be seen too. Last night we saw a Verreaux's Eagle Owl.


On Wednesday we visited the new Neema Crafts centre in Iringa for the first time and met with the staff. Susie introduced us as the new bosses which was a strange experience for both us and the staff! It was great to see again the range of different crafts they were busily working on and to see some familiar faces once more. Susie was in the midst of a last minute effort to make enough stock for two exhibitions this weekend, one that she is running in Dar and another we ran yesterday at the International School in Iringa.
It was amazing to see the many aspects of the new building and to see volunteers from St Mark's Harrogate painting and decorating the new guest house rooms. These need to be finished in time for our first guests in June so please pray that they are. A particular problem is finding enough wood in Iringa to make the ten doors needed!

I was also shown a sizeable upstairs room at the back of the centre where I will be setting up a carpentry workshop. It was exciting to see our workplace for the next few years and Katy and I are eager to get started once our language training is over.


There is a reasonably large ex-pat community here who have been very friendly to us since we have arrived and it was good to meet a number at the English speaking church service last week. The
family who run the campsite we are staying at have been particularly welcoming.


This morning Katy and I went to a local Lutheran church (as it was near the campsite) and we savoured hearing our first Swahili Gospel choir since arriving. In fact both of us were struggling to hold back the tears. After about an hour there was a short break in the service which was followed by another hour of just singing from various choirs and individuals. Of course, Katy and I as the only Wazungu there were asked to share a song. It was difficult to sing 'Lord I lift your Name on High' with no accompaniment but being able to do the actions helped!


Please praise God for:

* Our safe arrival – although we did see a number of overturned vehicles along the way
* A friendly local community
* Great language teachers
* God's provision for all our needs





Please pray for:

* Tanzania as it is about to undergo nationwide powercuts over the next ten days affecting businesses and homes alike
* Our take up of Kiswahili – that it would be quick and we would have plenty of opportunities to practise.
* That we would be able to get our air freight through clearing easily


With every blessing,

Benja na Katy X