A Final Farewell

One of the fantastic things about our life with MAF is that we get to make friends and meet people from all over the world who cross paths with us here in Dodoma. We are blessed to have some wonderful friends and neighbours from far flung corners of the globe. Friendships are easily forged as we have a common basis of going through similar challenges- living in a different culture, learning new languages, understanding what it is like to pack up your life into suitcases and move across the world with little ones in tow... It is a great support to have such friends; they often become like extended family as they live alongside us, work alongside us and also make up part of our social circle.
However, there is a down side to our way of life. Many of us are working on contracts that come to an end and then it is time to move on- or for our friends to move on, leaving a gap in our tight-knit MAF community. The house next door is suddenly empty and silence replaces the eager chatter and happy laughter where our children's friends once played. It is strange getting used to the transience that makes up part of our lives. No matter how many goodbyes we have to say, whether it be to family and friends in the UK or neighbours here in Tanzania, the frequency does not make it any easier to say "Goodbye".
Despite that fact, it is still good to get together and give people a friendly send-off. Here are a few photos from the final farewell for our Irish neighbours, the Cousley family, before they left on Wednesday for their new home with MAF in Uganda- just to give you a flavour of our Dodoma get-togethers:

The Swahili Cake: "God Bless You"

above: Joel and Dad join in, but Joel's 3 other little friends sit with their mums on a nearby bench!
below: Esther finds different ways to amuse herself with her friends- it seems that making "sand angels" on the dusty, sandy Dodoma ground is much more fun than listening to grown-up chatter!

The boys prefer to spend their time racing bikes up and down the MAF compound, once they've had enough cake and Ben is delighted to join in with the "big boys" now that he can ride his bike like them!