Good News

It's funny what can cheer me up in Dodoma! A few months ago, I was a little upset when Dodoma's supply of margarine ran out, leaving us with the ever-present "Blue Band" as our only choice of spread. Blue Band does not taste too dreadful, but its ingredients are somewhat suspicious: 70% palm oils, preservatives, "artificial creamy flavours", "colourants" and "more than 3% salt"... And it has a distinctly plastic feel about it once it is spread on my bread, plus an anti-melting agent which is great for storage purposes but not so great on my toast- disappointingly solid rather than melting like butter! Eating Blue Band is rather like eating a bad take-away meal on a long journey: you know it's bad for you, but you eat it anyway as there's not much choice.

It was happy news for me when margarine finally arrived back in Dodoma 2 weeks ago, after the margarine-famine of several months! The bit I like best about "Nawar" margarine is the lovely line, "no cholesterol". I do not spy any such claim on Blue Band's bright yellow + blue exterior! So it's good news for me to be able to have access to something a little healthier! Horray for Nawar!

Other good points over the past couple of weeks have been enjoying Esther's class assembly one Friday:

..and Ben in action as Zacchaeus (climbing up a tree) in his class assembly the following Friday:

I enjoyed the great acting from both of them as well as their class-mates!

It's also good news to have Joel back to full health after a nasty bout of croup left him listless and miserable for a week. What an awful cough he had, but how wonderful to have him back to his smiling, talkative little self.

Yesterday, the children came rushing inside to share their own good news: they had found a chameleon! I'm not so sure that it was such good news for the chameleon, especially as he had been placed on the head of a very excited Esther!

Esther was rushing around giving him a lift and showing him off to our lunch guests who had come for a BBQ yesterday. He was soon lifted to the safety of our hedge and the 5 children in our garden were able to enjoy him without endangering him! We had a lovely afternoon with the new MAF family who are now living on Compound B and with 4 of the teachers from Esther and Ben's school. Great company and fun to sit outdoors and enjoy the garden on a slightly overcast day!

This morning, the children were VERY excited with the good news that it had rained all night! Esther and Ben stomped off to the school bus in their wellies, but Joel escaped before I could kit him out in his wellies- and this is where I found him, having a wonderful time and making the most of the marvellous mud!