1st Video Blog!

Hi, I can't quite believe we've managed to upload such a big file from out here, but if you click on the link you'll see our first short video blog. Sorry the sound quality isn't great at times...

July News Letter

Mmmm... lunch

This was the week I killed my first chicken. I won’t go into too many details, but the Tanzanian way allows the bird a slower death than we would normally go for. According to our instructor it ‘allows the spirits to return to the earth’. On our last day of Kiswahili training at the campsite, Katy, I and the other students were treated to Tanzanian cookery course hence the need for a sacrificial chicken or two. During this we learnt to use a special device to scrape out coconut shells for making coconut rice, how to make mandazi - a traditional ball shaped donut, and how to cook pillau - a spicy rice dish that is usually reserved for special occasions. Oh and we did also have to pluck and gut the chickens.

Katy plucking the chicken

We have now sadly bid farewell to the RiverValley campsite and the other trainee missionaries we befriended there including three SIL students - Michael and Bev Harrah from the US and Danielle from Canada. We will really miss our little cabin perched on the hill and enjoying friendly banter over delicious meals that we didn’t have to cook ourselves!

The Lord has blessed us with some lovely accommodation for the next stage of our journey towards taking over from Andy and Susie Hart at Neema. The first six weeks we will be living with Andy and Angela a couple serving with Emmanuel International out here, Andy is a water engineer and Angela teaches English. They are both from London so the regional accents are making me feel right at home. After this we will be house sitting for another EI couple Andy and Miriam while they travel back to have their third child back in England. They have a five bedroom house - so we will have plenty of space for guests! In fact we are already expecting at least five visitors to join  us there between August and September.

My first chapati

Last week we had the fantastic news that our air freight had arrived safely and all in one piece in Iringa - Bwana Asifewe! It did take us five weeks and many hours of phone calls and favours from friends in Dar es Salaam; but we still couldn't quite believe it when we saw our ten boxes stacked up in a corridor at Neema. I don't think we'd try it again though.

This morning we visited the Iringa Cathedral for the first time and we were pleasantly surprised by how much of the sermon we were able to understand with our newly learnt Kiswahili. It was a particularly encouraging message for us as it was taken from Psalm 121 ’I lift my eyes up to the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth’  The best part of the service however, had to be the beautifully harmonious choir, who’s master had the most incredible voice. We are not yet sure which church we will become established in, but the cathedral may be a good choice as it is right next door to Neema.

Tomorrow we have our very first day at the Neema Centre where we will start to work our way around each of the various workshops, finding out how each process works and carrying out a mental SWOT analysis on each area so we can start to assemble our plans for the future.

Please pray for:
> Good observations skills and that we would be able to pick up as much knowledge of the project as we can before Andy and Susie leave
> That we would establish good relationships with the staff
> That our Kiswahili continues to improve as we move to just two hours  a day
> That we would find learning sign language straightforward
> That the Neema guest house is ready for its grand opening in two weeks time!


Praise God for:
- Our new home with Angela and Andrew
- The welcome Andy and Susie Hart have given us
- Having our airfreight - including an incredibly luxurious latte maker - bought by our friends Amy & Pete
- The opportunity of working for such a brilliant, God ordained project.

With much love,

Ben and Katy XXX