A Different World

Our time in England already feels like a far-off dream as we now immerse ourselves back into life here in Africa.
Dodoma is so very different from England. Here are a few of the differences that we enjoyed during our UK Home Assignment...

Being close to family
Time with our extended family was a real highlight. It was especially great for the children to enjoy time with their grandparents. During the 8 weeks in England, we shared many family celebrations, including 6 family birthdays and of course Christmas!

Christmas Day itself we celebrated with my parents and brother- with a traditional English Christmas dinner, complete with a fat turkey!

Over the New Year we had a wonderful week with Andrew's parents:

Esther, Ben and Joel loved seeing their cousins in England! The 5 cousins enjoyed the times they had to play together. The boys looked super-smart in their a specially-made Tanzanian shirts which we brought back with us from Dodoma:

Transport
It was fun for all of us to enjoy travelling on trains that were fast, efficient, actually ran on time and which were more frequent than once a week! We had lots of travel to do during the 8 weeks, for various engagements, so it was great to be able to get around by train -a real novelty for the children in particular.

Tube travel in London was also different. The children have used the London tube before but now that they are a bit older, Esther and Ben had many more questions. They were really interested in how the tube works, how the tunnels were built, who travels on them, how fast they go, why we don't have a tube system in Tanzania and why isn't there a buffet carriage on the tube to buy a cup of tea, like on the Virgin Trains??

Escalators are also a novelty when you live in Dodoma!

Time with friends
Time with friends and family is precious when you know you don't get to see each other often. We so appreciated the opportunities we had to see and spend time with many our friends during this trip!

We even got the chance to make new friends... (!!)

 ...which leads me on to another big difference:

The weather!
From the heat and dry of Dodoma to the freezing cold of snowy England! What great timing to be there when snow arrived and to experience England's Winter Wonderland! Although I have to say, Joel was most UNimpressed by the cold, wet stuff that made him so uncomfortable! He just could not believe his eyes- nor the pain in his frozen toes!

Things To Do, Places to Go
We made the most of opportunities to take the children out. There is so much available in England for children and families to visit and to do! A stark contrast to Dodoma, where the culture, the obvious lack of funds, dry and arid location and a different outlook mean that there are no museums, parks, safari parks, water-parks etc. etc.

It was fun to visit some London museums. We met dinosaurs...

...Canadian bears ("watch out, Joel"!!)...

...and the mighty Blue Whale at real-life scale- who made the huge animals we have seen in Tanzania look like midget creatures!

There was also plenty to learn at the Science Museum:

Back up north, the children and I had a great day out with Nana +Grandad at the Museum of Liverpool:

Ben and Joel were big fans of the interactive displays at the museum; it was hard to drag them away!

Cold, wet weather outside meant that Esther, Ben and Joel became big fans of indoor play centres. Southport's "Play Town" was a favourite venue and within walking distance of the lovely flat where we were based for 6 weeks- which brings me to another difference between our UK and Tanzania experiences...

Homes

In Dodoma, we feel very much at home in our single-storey MAF house, where it is nice and cool in a hot climate. Our lounge leads through an archway to the bedrooms and the children rarely need to negotiate stairs. Our windows are all placed high up in the walls to prevent the glaring sun from shining in, which would make the house unbearably hot. This means the children are not tall enough to to see out of our windows, so if they want to know what's going on around outside, they pop outside through our fly-screen door. 

In Southport, where a very kind friend from our church let us stay in her lovely, warm, comfortable and wonderful flat, "home" for 6 weeks looked quite different from home in Africa. Imagine the delight of Esther and Ben when we told them that we would be staying in a flat on the 8th floor and would take a lift to get to the front door! We rarely encounter stairs here, never mind a lift! We had to establish an informal rota so that the children could take turns pressing the buttons to go up or down!

Wow! A lift!

When we got up to the flat, floor-to-ceiling windows meant incredible views across Southport and up along Lord Street:

 
As far as Ben and Joel (and Andrew!!) were concerned, the icing on the cake was the fact that these windows faced a very busy building site with all manner of mighty machines to watch:

And that's not all! Right next to this was the local Fire Station, where fabulous fire engines came and went and practised their weekly drill!! What better view could there be?

It was a boy's paradise, right up in the clouds of the 8th storey! Although the children missed their Dodoma  freedom, where they can run outside whenever they choose and play in the African sunshine on the safety of the MAF compound, they also enjoyed the novelty of staying in a place that was so much fun by virtue of being so very different.

Finally, our 8 weeks in England also meant lots of speaking engagements, meetings and MAF events: a very different type of work from our normal family life in Dodoma. Of course, we made plenty of time for cake at those MAF events- including these amazing cakes created by a very talented friend in Burscough! 

Now it's back to the nitty-gritty of daily work and school in Africa. It is good to be back home again, to see friends here, to no longer be living out of suitcases and to get back into routine, but it's also good to have fantastic, happy memories to look back on of our 8 very different weeks in England.