Kilombero Valley

Bible Readings in IfakaraIdilic View in Kidodi

Carl, the boy racer in his Ford in Kidodi

Well we've arrived at the last leg of our safari, phew. Kilombero valley, comprising the ecclesias of Ifakara, Kidaoni, Kidodi, Mang'ula, Kilosa and Kimamba. We are planning to spend about 10 days with each ecclesia.

In Ifakara, Fiona was still with us. We had initially difficulties as no one met us at the bus stand. We spent a day and a half looking for anyone (to no avail). Jonathon arrived back with us in the nick of time and combined with waking bro Michael Owen up (in UK - pole sana kaka) at 5am for a tel number we managed to meet the bre and sis for an excellent week together. We mainly had the day to ourselves which was welcome and came together at 6pm every evening to do the readings together. Bre Stafford, Kimimino, Pelegrin, Kirua, Carl and sis Fiona are represented in the picture.

Ifakara was really eventful. Fiona gained two admirers, one misc (at dinner) and one being a Immigration officer (called Victor) who thought she was cute. We had a good explore of Ifakara, took in the sights (market) and attempted to get a authentic tanzanian puffy sleaves dress made for us both (to no avail).

Just before leaving Ifakara I took Fiona back to Dar es Salaam to catch the plane home. Whilst there we spent the Sunday morning with the Sinza ecclesia. As normal Dar was stinking hot, humid and both the water and power had decided to stop on the Sunday afternoon at YWCA. Fiona feeling hot, generous and wealthy decided that the only solution was to move to another hotel. The criteria was AC, water, AC and more AC. What a lovely sister! We had quality chilly (brrr brrr) time at the Holiday Inn, including the first apple pie in over 10 months (room service) - what bliss. After Fiona flew back to Perth I went back to YWCA, its an old friend and very cheap after all.

So after Fiona's departure it was back to Ifakara and then on to Kidodi. We found the only guest house in this small village was also a bar/music area. Argggggh. Well our tolerance for 3am finishes is about 2-3 days. After 7 days we were feeling tired and cranky. We found out that our day of rest was combinned with a marathon musicfest. So I made an executive decision and we shifted for two nights to Kidatu where we found quiet rooms with AC and had a rest. A rest for Carl is bible marking, Joanthon is bible study (preferrably Daniel or Revelation) and me well it was inputting personal data collected from bre and sis.

During our time in Kidodi we were able to facilitate ecclesial elections, explain the rolls of the elders, have a business meeting and do some bible group work around the book of James.

So at the moment we are alternating between Mang'ula and Morogoro. We have only found one bro so far in Mang'ula and hope more will surface this weekend from their shamba's.

Mwandeo, Kenya

Yippie, we were back in Kenya again to visit the Mutunga's and the Mwandeo ecclesia.

We travelled from Dar through to the Kenyan border by Scandinava bus and where met by bro William. From there a matatu journey to Sammy and Christine's house accompanied by William, Zachayo and Theresa Mutunga.

A very happy couple of days were spent here in Kenya. Instead of the planned Youth Camp, there was a bible weekend instead. Carl spoke about Christian living to a full hall for two days. It was nice to meet again everyone we had met in June last year. The hospitality and love shown to us was awesome, A+++!!!

Zanzibar Life

Zanzibar Scene

Beach View

An example of a Zanzibar Door

Zanzibar (doors, chests, AC & spice)

Well we were all looking forward to our short holiday in Zanzibar. Well its a lovely place but they all want dollars US and lots of them. From the time we booked the ferry to the accomodation and shops, $$$$$ (che ching). Well its a good thing Floss (aka Fiona) had brought bucket loads of US dollars with her.

We found a nice Guest House (Florida!) with a room with three beds, bathroom, TV (news and football) and AC/fan (the only thing that made us relent in regards to the staggering price). Boy we all really enjoyed the chill provided by the poor AC which ran non stop during our stay.

We explored a little of Zanzibar, soon (15mins in fact) getting tired of looking in wood carving shops (all clones). It did seem at the time that all in fact we ended up doing was eating lunch and dinner again and again (yummy). Not quite true however. We also popped into one or two Zanzibar chest shops, walked past the Old Fort, admired lots of Zanzibar doors, wandered aimlessly through the maze that is Stone Town and bought a bag (plaited from Palm fronds) and a back scratcher ;o). Us girls had a pampering (facial, pedicure and henna) and spent quality time in a shop selling lovely silver jewlery (these two stops curtesy of Dad's little pressie). The boys were slightly bored at this point, with Jonathon falling asleep whilst waiting the soon to be beautiful maidens (not).

We managed to get out of Stone Town on our last day and had a Spice Tour. Firstly at a Spice Shamba, via Sultan's baths, to lunch at a very expensive resort (eeeek) followed by a dip in their pool (v nice) and a snooze on a bed on the beach under one of those straw thatched umbrella things (those you see in expensive brochures - v nice too). If only they werent so much money...

Fiona Arrives and We Explore Dar

Well it was a wonderful encouragement to us when my sister Fiona flew in from Perth, Western Australia. She arrived via Johannesburg where she had a night stop-over. Surprisingly (to me any way) she was also met by bre William Swai and Alley Mwasimba (Mbagala ecclesia). William talks via Skype to a brother Axel in Perth.

We had a few days together in Dar before having our 3 day holiday (first in 9 months) in Zanzibar. We explored Dar whilst sweating profusely. Firstly the city centre, with Fiona (with Carl) having her hair braided whilst Jonathon and I went looking for the Cancer Hospital. Then we had a nice day out at the "Mud Hut Museum" in Mwenge suburb. We saw inside and out many of the traditional housing of the different tribes in Tanzania, including that of the Muha (Jonathon's tribe). The Muha hut looks like alot like a Indian teepee although it is made of grasses. They are all surprisingly roomy but very, very gloomy! It was a very intersting time that we rapped up with an untraditional lunch of burger and chips (mmmmm).

Looking forward to Kenya again

By God's grace early last year we were able to visit Kenya and Zakayo and Sammy Matunga's families (see pictures). We plan again God Willing to visit Sammy's family and ecclesia in the middle of February for a few days.

The ecclesia there are planning to have a youth camp while we will be with them so we will need to prepair some lessons. This we pray will be a refreshing and uplifting time.

We will not be able to go any other place because the roads were destroyed by the rains. However the roads from Dar has been repaired. Sis Fiona Harrison (Perth, Australia) and bro Jonathon Nkombe (Mbeya) will be with us which will be fantastic.

Sis Christines (Sammy's wife) operation would now be done on the 16th Jan. We pray for her hope the operation went well.

Back to the Rift Valley (Mbamba Bay)

We had arranged to revist the Rift Valley ecclesias in order to collect data, do an audit and distribute the ecclesial fund items for 2007.

We decided to travel to Mbamba Bay (the central point) from Itungi Port (near Kyela) which is near the top of Lake Nyasa. This was late Dec 06 and we knew that the roads would be bad. However it wasnt just the roads, but also the port had problems (full of silt). So we and a lot of others made the short detour to just outside the port to board the MV Songea. The road to the lake was very bad as it is now raining practically every day. We and others managed to get most of the way, but had to travel on foot for about 1.5km as the cars/trucks were getting stuck.

The journey took about 8hrs longer than normal when the rope got stuck in the propeller (not a wise thing to happen) at our second port of call. So instead of arriving Mbamba Bay on friday morning it was instead evening.

We were due to spend two weeks in the Rift Valley visiting all the ecclesias individually for the first time. Firstly we visited Lipingo (20+) and Chinula (6) ecclesias for a 1.5 days each. Lipingo meets in a building owned by one of the brothers and Chinala in brother's house. It was really great to be able to put names to faces to ecclesias. There is daily bus services from Liuli to Mbamba Bay and then onwards to Mbinga, the journey costing between 1,000 to 2,000 TSH each. The day after we returned from Chinula, the bus had an accident (tipped over) and a few people were injured.

I had another one of my famous (not) toilet experiences. We were staying at a brothers house which was very comfortable and roomy (inherited from his father). Anyway I was feeling good about "the facilities" as they are always the first thing I check out. We things were going well until night fell and I needed to respond. With lamp in hand I prepared to undertake my business. Well it was a good thing Im cautious as after removing the lid and positioning the lamp about 12 bats decided to decamp and flew out in dribs and drabs. Not fun I can asure you!

We then visited Malini (15), Kwambe (12) and Ng'ombo (20+) ecclesias in turn. We managed to get a car to the village where Malini ecclesia meet (mot Malini village). Then due to the rain we hired some bikes for the luggage and me and Carl and Jonathon walked to Kwambe (1 hour). Again due to rain we walked (luggage cycled) to Ng'ombo (which took 2 hours). Then it was back to Mbamba Bay and the ecclesia there. God looked after us and provided us with a kind 4wd owner who took us for 10,000 TSH from Ng'ombo to our Guest House in Mbamba Bay. We were thinking that we would have to walk as the transport stops when there is too much rain.

Due to the MV Songea haing major engine trouble we now had to travel back to Mbeya via Mbinga and Songea. The roads are interesting at the best of times, but in the rainy season very bad! The portion from Mbamba Bay to Mbinga was, well heart stopping. There was one patch where we didnt know whether anyone could get through the mud. We had been given good seats at the front of the 4wd (5,000 TSH each). I was next to the door which decided to fly open randomly. I had thought for the first few minutes that this would be a prolem, but soon decided that it was my safety - jump out quick if we crash door.

At Mbinga (coated in mud) we met our bro and sister Hyera. We thanked our heavenly father for his care and sent a few hours discussing the daily readings with our bro and sis. The next day after opening 4 PO Boxes we spend along to Songea where we spent the night. The next day we were fortunate to get last minute seats on the Scandinavia Bus to the Mbeya road junction from where we caught a daladala to Mbeya.