Language School week- 6

Six weeks into our Swahili studies and 2 weeks to go. The pace really slowed down this week, as we went from 1-on-1 lessons to 3 of us sharing a class together, with less opportunity for conversation. However, we have had opportunity to practise the language this week.
On Sunday, we went to a Swahili-speaking church in town. We were an hour late, as we had not been sure of the service time, but we arrived during the singing and before the sermon had started! The sermon was translated into English sentence by sentence, which was very helpful- otherwise we would have been very lost! It was encouraging to recognise a lot of words, even if we struggle to keep up in general conversation.
Then on Monday, we took Esther to see an eye doctor at the diocese "Bartimaus Optical Centre". Her conjunctivitis has been ongoing for 2 months and on Monday her eyes became swollen. The very nice doctor- or maybe he was an optician, as I wasn't too sure of the Swahili on the sign (!!)- was very helpful and the drops and ointment he prescribed have worked wonders. He tolerated my poor Swahili, which made me very happy, although we also had to use English at times! We returned to see him on Friday and then went to the Diocese office of the archbishop, where we met with his friendly secretary, Martha, who I knew from my time in Iringa in 2002. It was lovely to see her again. Then on to the office of Jackson, the General Secretary of the Diocese, who was pleased to meet Andrew, after being put in contact with us by our friend Michael Bennett in London. Jackson promptly invited us to his nearby home, where we were pleased to meet his wife and family and share a cup of "chai" with them. Esther was particularly taken with their baby grand-daughter, Janet, while Ben was very excited by the cows and pig in the garden!

However, the highlight of our week was Wednesday- Esther's 4th birthday! Our little girl got up bright and early, to open her gifts. She played nicely in the morning with nanny Emma and Ben and the other children, despite some tears when Mum had to go to lessons. She enjoyed her enormous cake at the evening meal, shared between the 23 of us here this week. She also shared her birthday with another student, the Norwegian lady here with her husband and their family of 3 boys, with baby number 4 due in June!
The best part for Esther though is the realisation that her birthday is not quite over, as she has more gifts awaiting her in the container... and we heard on Thurday that our container is not just in Tanzania, but has actually reached the MAF compound in Dodoma! What a great surprise!