Getting Ready to Let Go

Yesterday saw the start of a process to say "Goodbye" to our friends and neighbours at MAF Dodoma, as the Cousley family prepare for their move to MAF Uganda later this month. JulieAnne, Glenn and their children Joshua, Benjamin and Esther (such great names!!) will be sadly missed by those of us remaining in Dodoma. After 6 years here, there are several farewell events planned for them, which began yesterday with an official MAF staff farewell in the hangar.

JulieAnne had gone out to a village with a team of doctors and evangelist church workers yesterday and as we all gathered in the afternoon for the Farewell, we first had to await her return from the village, on board Andrew's flight. There was great excitement when Andrew flew in to land at Dodoma and taxied over to the MAF hangar...Our Esther and Ben were first to break away from the waiting crowd of MAF families and workers, to greet their Dad as he cut the engines and disembarked from the plane, closely followed by JulieAnne's Benjamin as he rushed to meet his mum: Ben was keen to help his pilot Dad carry his bags, while JulieAnne headed to join us at the hangar:

The other passengers were also being greeted, including this chicken who had flown back from the village in Andrew's plane! (a gift for JJ, who works in our ISD office at MAF)

Some of the children had fun trying out the passenger seats on the now-empty plane :
Then it was time for the first of our "Goodbye" ceremonies to begin, as the Cousleys gathered together and prepared to cut their amazing home-made cakes, featuring the flags of Tanzania, Uganda and a map of Africa (made by a gifted friend on our Compound yesterday morning).
Speeches and gifts followed as we all enjoyed our cake and bottles of fizzy drinks:
There will be other occasions to wish our friends well before they leave, but this first event is helping to break us in as we prepare to mourn the loss of great friends from our tight-knit MAF Dodoma community.