One of those days

Friday was just one of those days when everything seems to go wrong! First was the shock of some difficult changes that might have to take place at work in the year ahead – it’s always difficult in our work with a constant flow of people coming and going and change is inevitable. Then there was a sad farewell lunch as we said goodbye to a friend and colleague who will be sorely missed (we were also celebrating being settled in our new offices)! Then I broke my tooth – or at least, broke the cap off my tooth that I originally broke when I was a child. Then there was the milk – I left it just for a few seconds and it boiled over (as all our milk is fresh and has to be boiled before use). Well, as they say, "There’s no point in crying over spilt milk" – but by this point it was getting hard to keep control of the emotions. Then the icing on the cake, which was really a very small thing but after everything else it just tipped me over the edge, was finding out I didn’t have enough eggs to both make the pancakes I’d planned for tea and do an eggy filling for them that my friends like.

And now it’s Saturday…the good news is that I was able to get my tooth fixed**… however, otherwise it seems to be another ‘one of those days’! I got less than 5 hours sleep (just couldn’t get to sleep – maybe it was the coffee), I have an upset tummy and the milk seems to have a vendetta against me as the little milk jug I had put a the last of the old milk in fell over in the fridge and got milk all over the vegetables.

**Things can go wonderfully smoothly when you know the right people here! Getting my tooth fixed… My landlady just happens to be a dentist. Yesterday she phoned a colleague in the hospital 5 minutes up the road and today I was able to go and get it fixed! Looks like he’s done a really good job, and he had good English so I didn’t have to cope with medical vocabulary in Swahili!

A typical rainy day - looking out the back of my house

More Travels

Last week I was busy with travels of a very different kind. The Wisbeys and I travelled around three of the language areas where we work, to meet with Tanzanian colleagues. There were many things to frustrate us on the trip – such as holding a meeting for pastors at which only five turned up (the last one arriving four hours late, just in time for lunch) or finding there are serious team relationship issues in one of the language offices that is hindering the work, or just being confronted with constant issues of money (or lack of)! It was also very cold most of the time and often raining. However, there were also things to make us smile – like tiny frogs, beautiful surroundings, fun together and the generosity of one of the coordinators in giving us a sack of potatoes (grown on their own little farm). We also became connoisseurs of chipsi mayai (chip omelette) and rice, beans, meat stew and green veg. Tasty as this food can be, we were rather sick of it by the end of the trip!

Roadworks!

Pastors arrive at the meeting...Liz waits for things to get started

Matt busy at work with one of our colleagues...Liz and I in beautiful Kinga language area

The bright lights of the big city

Last week I went to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. After being in Mbeya, this visit to the city felt like returning to the UK, with large shopping centres, supermarkets, coffee shops, wide roads, street lights and many other features that are not to be found where I live. I made the most of it! However, I wasn’t there for retail therapy or a coffee fix, I was there to attend a ‘Scripture Use / Translation Consultation’ together with others representing a range of African countries.
Being a ‘consultation’ I expected the majority of the sessions to be discussions, but this proved not to be the case. There were some such helpful times, but there were also a lot of presentations on varying topics. As seems to be common at conferences, the times I found most valuable were chatting to others over break times. It was also interesting (and humbling) to hear of what is being done in so many parts of Africa by the faithful men and women who were there (many of whom have been working for SIL for many years). Can you spot me?
While the consultation might not have been all I had hoped for, I enjoyed the break from the normal course of work and catching up with some friends in Nairobi. I even got to enjoy a bit of culture by attending a concert by the Nairobi orchestra!
There were some other highlights to the trip…I got to fly on a MAF plane! I’ve always been a big fan of the work that MAF does in aiding missionaries and supporting remote medical stations, so I was thrilled to finally have a chance to use one of their planes for a journey that I needed to make (and I was sitting right behind the pilot so I got to see everything).
The MAF plane we flew on
The other main highlight was a day in Dar with the Wisbeys – this special day felt like a week’s holiday rolled into one! We went to a nearby hotel overlooking the ocean where we swam, relaxed in the sun and enjoyed a delicious lunch – my choice being a seafood salad that was nearly all seafood with just a bit of lettuce (I think in England it would be the other way around – nearly all lettuce, with just a bit of seafood!) Good food in a beautiful place
Then we headed to a shopping centre to stock up on breakfast cereal and a few other items and where I was suddenly reminded that Christmas is coming as they had a Christmas tree up and several other decorations around. We don’t see anything like that here in Mbeya! Next it was off to Slipway - a touristy shopping centre where we had a good look around the various stalls selling African handy-work. Finally we headed to Seacliff – another shopping centre where we had a good browse round a book shop, and then entered its main attraction – a delicious restaurant called ‘Spurs’. While Matt worked his way through a rack or two of perfectly cooked spare ribs, Liz enjoyed fajitas and I indulged in burritos. Delicious! It was the most ‘western’ style restaurant (originating in South Africa) that I have ever been to in Tanzania (which the prices reflected). There was a supermarket there too which was a weird experience as it caters to the many ex-pats in the city by selling imported products from the UK and America – I couldn’t believe that they had KP peanuts, when you can buy delicious Tanzanian peanuts cheap from roadside kiosks, and cereal boxes saying, “Buy 2 for £1.99” (they were, of course, being sold for a lot more than the equivalent of this in Tanzanian shillings).
Sadly, this lovely day came to an end and the next morning we were up at 5am and endured a 13 hour bus trip back home.