College news

Weekly bible study

My work in college has been exceptionally busy lately, and combined with Alastair's heavy schedule and us both being unwell it has made the last month probably our toughest yet. However we seem to have gathered strength again and we can now look forward to our visit home (June 30th - August 5th).

Cooking lessons

My current teaching includes the life of St Paul, Counselling skills, how to preach (which I need to teach in Swahili), various English lessons, cake-making with the women...  I'm really pleased to have recently introduced weekly Bible study groups for the students for which I write the study questions and then get help to translate them into Swahili. In 2 weeks the students will sit their end of year exams, and it's my responsibility to get the exams prepared, organised, marked etc.
However a lot of my work is my informal pastoral role. There's usually a queue outside my office of students and their wives who need : paracetamol, blood tests for malaria, more knitting wool, advice about the sick baby, extensions for assignments, extra English lessons, money for the bus fare home, to borrow the sellotape, or a listening ear about almost anything.

"Just putting on the immersion heater"

Greetings from Alastair

‘Just putting on the immersion, dear’.  If the water pressure is low, then advanced bucket management may be needed – on this occasion filling the header tank for our hot water system. I have also enjoyed stacking months worth of firewood from trees that have been felled in the garden and cut to size by a local man with a sharp axe and tireless arms.

I had four hospitals to visit  regularly last month since the doctor at Matyazo Hospital had some work to do in Germany. She is back and things are a bit less hectic. A usual week will include a selection of : prostatectomies, thyroidectomies, assorted easy and not-at-all-so-easy orthopaedic procedures, skin grafts, emergency Caesarian sections (though usually the local doctors are able to do these), acute abdominal problems, including those caused by typhoid.....

It is near the end of the wet season and the roads are now very poor. When I go to Shunga Hospital, particularly at night, I usually wonder if I will get there and back, or if I will get stuck in some unfriendly ditch. The roads will dry out soon but now there are lots of ruts and holes to shake the suspension of the car so I have been replacing suspension parts on the car (the mechanic didn’t put them on tight enough and they were rattling). The car is a vital piece of equipment, and so far is holding together. 

And we are too!

Literacy

 Sorry for blog delay - bad African tummy event for a week or more! - I'm getting better now.

Ester is one of our students' wives who has come for the six week course.  She is in her 30's and has 8 children. Unfortunately Ester never had the opportunity to attend school when she was a child and she is completely illiterate. Once we had realised this - and her consequent reluctance to attend any of the classes or mix with the other women - we have started to help her. We have found a private tutor for her, a retired primary school teacher, and today she had her first lesson in reading and writing. She is so excited and could barely wait for her first lesson. The word for flower in Swahli is "ua" - a good first word to learn!!
The literacy rate for women in Tanzania is still only around 65% although more children these days are having the opportunity to attend school.
For me, it has been my first time to be so directly aware of the huge problem that illiteracy causes - and the fear and alienation from so much of life. For Ester it would cause great difficulty in her life as the wife of a pastor. It's one tiny drop in the ocean of adult literacy - but an enormous step for Ester and her family. I'll let you know how she's doing at the end of the month!

Fifteen students wives - and their children!

Welcoming the wives to college

Jessica - child care for 15!

This week we were delighted to welcome the wives of our final year students here in the Bible College. I realise that one of first posts when we arrived last year was of this course, perhaps with similar pictures. My Swahili is so much better now, and the course concequently more efficiently organised!!
They all seem delighted to be here, and thank you again to friends in UK who have generously sponsored the course. The women also enjoy the opportunity to leave their children with Jessicca (pictured above) while they spend the morning in the class room with their new exercise books and pens! They learn a variety of subjects that will help and encourage them as the wives of church leaders. The role here is very traditional as you may imagine, but if they have the skills and confidence it can be rewarding.
Jessica is wonderful - but the first morning when I went to see how she was getting on with the children I found them ALL crying!! I tried to help but my strange white face made it worse and they cried even louder. Here she is with two of the little ones - the face of the one at the front says it all!
As well as generally co-ordinating the course, and the different teachers, I teach Health - we did 'healthy food' this week; and also one English class a week - with lots of laughter -  so that they can at least say Good morning to white visitors!

new specs!

It was a real joy today to give one lady a pair of Primark reading specs  - thanks to my sister-in-law who recently bought all the specs in Primark in Glasgow and brought them to us. For years she hasn't been able to read her Bible - it was like a New Testament miracle to give her a pair of 2.5's!

Alastair has had a crazy week, with 4 long, 12 hour days at different hospitals. The rains have been very heavy and the roads increasingly difficult - the end of the day in theatre is only the beginning of his problems as he then needs to get home in the dark and mud.

Music, worship, and a Canon!

Sunday lunch time on our verandah, and back from a 6 hour stint in church, of 3 consecutive services. I have been involved in helping start a new - first - English service in the Cathedral. Today was the second week and I was preaching.  This is the first English worship in the Diocese and people seem excited about it. We have had a congregation of 70 or so (and a few old ladies who have got the time of the Swahili service wrong and look very confused!). The picture is of Alastair practising on Saturday with the beginnings of a music group  - bringing back many memories of Beacon and St Barnabas. Music groups the world over seem very similar, with lots of discussion of rhythm, keys etc and eventually a very good sound!
Today was special too as I have been appointed as a member of the College of Canons of Gloucester, an unexpected and very honouring appointment by Bishop Michael. The official announcement was made  here today - to coincide with that in Gloucester and I celebrated communion : again a first for me to do so in Swahili in the Cathedral. I will be installed in Gloucester Cathedral on July 10th (to which all are welcome) - but today I was presented with a live chicken as my congratulations from the congregation!!
Time now for an afternoon snooze, then a walk over the hills, and to get ready for a busy coming week with college students returning and 4 hospitals to visit for Alastair.

Sun and seasons

more prepositions : Alastair and Helen are in the dinghy, on Lake Tanganyika, in the the sunshine, on holiday! (you may need to click on the picture to enlarge it for proof of this!).
 After Easter we have had a  lovely 4 days break at our favourtie beach spot on the Lake, together with Alastair's brother Douglas and his wife Elisabeth. While enjoying sun, sand, palm trees, and beautiful warm, clear water for swimming and snorkling, we spared a thought or two for all of you poor, cold people in Britain - and hope that spring will soon come.
The lack of seasons that we are so used to  can be a problem for Europeans when living near the Equator. The weather is of course beautiful, but one misses the variation and anticipation of the seasons at home, where the first signs of spring bring a great feeling of hope, and the darker evenings of Autumn, with the "seasons of mist and mellow fruifulness" bring that cosy feeling of approaching winter. My mother, who lived for several years in Nigeria after the war, saw the lack of seasonal variation as a major cause of the depression evident in many expatriate workers. I can understand it - although it's easy to get up each day in the same cool blouse and skirt,  I have missed a season of boots and gloves; and amidst the abundance of hibiscus, bourganvillias and frangipanis I miss the arrival of the snowdrops and  then the daffodils.

A very happy Easter

Wishing all our friends a very Happy Easter. It's a bit cold and rainy here but the sun will come up later. The first photo is of the "Way of the Cross" which we followed on Good Friday to the top of a nearby hill - together with 500 or so other Christians. A very moving experience. And the Easter egg is the only one in Kasulu I'm sure. Thanks to Becky who sent us a "kit" I have managed, with considerable effort, to make  an Easter egg. However it was far too hot for the chocolate, and every time I got it out of the fridge it melted in my hand and fell to bits. I just "caught" this photo before the icing ran!

Easter Chicken!

We have been to the Cathedral this morning, being 'lazy' and only going to one service of 4 hours. This poor chicken spent the service hiding behnd a pot plant, especially while the choirs were singing, and in this picture is being auctioned at the end of the service. Whoever bought it will be having a special Easter lunch.
Yesu amefufuka (Jesus is risen) - the reply is Amefufuka kweli kweli.