By the way: Our Competition Winner!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Andrew's mum, Annabel, who was the first to correctly work out the Swahili words and has won a box of Tanzanian tea! It is on it's way back to the UK with Tim, who left us today for the bus ride to Dar-es-Salaam and flies to London tomorrow...
Answers: skirt, shirt, T-shirt, coat, jacket, sweater, socks, boots, dress, swimming costume.

Happy Christmas!!

Yesterday was our first Tanzanian Chistmas. And it poured and poured with rain!!

Tim was visiting us from England and was the only one with an umbrella- sensible man!

Dressed in raincoats, we hurried out to the cathedral for their English-speaking Christmas service, after checking that Santa had been to fill Esther and Ben's stockings ( horray- he had been all the way to Tanzania!!).

Although a little late, we arrived before the service had started and there was chaos at the cathedral, as the congregation from the earlier Kiswahili service were trying to exit the cathedral carpark in the teeming rain, dodging the ever-deepening puddles, while cars and people for the next service tried to enter the carpark: quite a traffic jam!

When the service did start, Esther and Ben were a little restless, so we decided to leave, discreetly, a little before the end of the service. We chose a nice, quiet prayer time to sneak out without disturbing anyone... Unfortunately, we hadn't anticipated that Benjamin would encounter a large, black hen in the aisle as he exited his pew! Little Ben screamed in terror as the hen, half his height, came clucking towards him! Ben took off towards the altar with great shrieks of horror, closely pursued by the confused black hen and followed by Uncle Tim, who came to Ben's rescue - and the peace of Christmas morning was shattered in Dodoma cathedral!!

Once the drama was over and our laughter subsided, we enjoyed Christmas lunch at the home of a kind MAF couple, from Germany, who invited us to join them. Lunch this year included Tanzanian savoury bananas, a large ham, salad, German-style vegetables and a Christmas pudding all the way from Morrison's supermarket in Ormskirk, which travelled out here with me in my suitcase.

Esther and Ben thoroughly enjoyed their day and were very spoilt with kind gifts- a large proportion of these also came in our suitcases in November! So it's been a Happy Christmas out here for us. We hope you enjoyed your day too.

Photo Update

Here are a few photos to give you an update from the last month in Iringa:

1. Esther and Ben boarding the MAF plane for the short flight to Iringa

2. View over Iringa's outskirts -arriving in Iringa for Swahili classes

3. Diligent Students in our campsite classroom, with teacher Joyce

4. Emma - the young Tanzanian Nanny for Esther and Ben

5. Ben's excitement when he sees his wonderful birthday cake for his 2nd birthday- big enough to feed all 16 of us at the campsite for our dessert that evening! Note his birthday crown- made out of a plastic margarine tub!!

6. Andrew at the wheel of the MAF vehicle which will be ours to use while we are here. It was a long -but safe- ride home last week- a 9 hour car journey through Tanzania! We saw 5 elephants on our way home - and plenty of baboons as well.

Language school- week 4

On-line Competition!

Yesterday we had a fun lesson and an easy subject matter. Our teacher taught us the vocab for clothing. We thought you might like to have a go at translating the following. The 1st person to email us with all 10 correct answers will be sent a packet of Tanzanian tea! ( but no cheating- for those of you who have lived in Tanzania and speak Swahili, I'm afraid you can't enter!!). Here's a clue: try reading them out loud and listen to how they sound... Have fun!

1. sketi
2. shati
3. T-sheti
4. koti
5. jacketi
6. sweta
7. soksi
8. buti
9. gauni
10. and just one to make it a bit harder: nguo za kuogelea

Tomorrow, we set off early to drive back to Dodoma for our 2 week break. Andrew's brother, Tim, will be joining us on Sunday for 6 days over Christmas. Hopefully we will get a chance over the next couple of weeks to practise our fledgling Swahili, before resuming in January for the next 4 weeks.

Getting a Glimpse of Christmas

It does not feel like Christmas here. It is hot and we are on a campsite in the middle of the bush, where there are no decorations, no sounds of Christmas Carols, no mince pies or Christmas trees with pretty fairy-lights.
However, tonight we have been treated to the most beautiful Christmas lights I have ever seen, and they are 100% natural! Esther and Ben found a host of sparkling, twinkling fireflies, lighting up the darkness of the African night with a wonderful, flashing show. When we eventually dragged ourselves away and wandered back up the hill and through the trees to our wooden banda for bedtime, the stars provided another welcome sight; the night air is crystal clear and the glittering stars stand out against the blackness of the night sky. It was better than the Christmas lights on London's Oxford Street!
As for Andrew, he feels as though Christmas has come early, since our new-to-us car arrived last night from Dar-es-Salaam and we now have our own transport! Early this morning, we piled into our Tanzanian car and Andrew drove us into town. After 3 weeks on the campsite, except for one trip out last Saturday, it was an exciting excursion! The track out of the campsite is dusty, bumpy and hilly- but nothing Andrew couldn't handle! Andrew enjoyed putting the car through its paces and experimenting with all the new gadgets- 4 wheel drive, ABS breaks, windscreen wipers (on a hot, dry day!) etc etc! The best Christmas present Andrew could wish for!
The arrival of the car is perfect timing, as we can now drive home when we leave for Dodoma at the end of next week. When we arrived in Iringa over 3 weeks ago, we were hugely thankful to be able to join a MAF flight that just happened to be coming to Iringa from Dodoma at 1pm and just happened to have spare seats for us! The fight took an incredible 35 minutes, rather than the 8 hour road trip! The other option would have been an 8+ hour bus trip. What an amazing difference!! But that was a one-off, and so we are very happy that we now have our own transport and can do the road trip on our own timetable, stopping where we need to, rather than on a long, crowded bus journey. Definitely an early Christmas gift for all 4 of us!
(photos to follow when we can get a good enough internet connection!)

Language School- week 3

This week, we discovered that Swahili has no fewer than 9 noun classes- which basically means at least 24 ways of saying that/these/this or these, depending on which noun you are using in your sentence, and whether the noun is plural or singular, and 9 different ways to say which or who in a sentence, also according to the noun being used. Confused? So are we!! There is a LOT to learn!!
On the plus side, we did manage to write a short (very short!!) speech in Swahili, which I read out at the informal graduation ceremony for the SIL students, who finished their 4 month Swahili course this week and have now left for their new posts in Tanzania. It was fun to be part of the brief graduation ceremony in the dining banda.
Wednesday was a very exciting day. Benjamin turned 2!! He had a very happy birthday. He wore a crown of honour, made out of an old margarine tub, at the evening meal, where he also had a magnificent birthday cake, baked by the Tanzanian chef on the campsite. We'll have to post a photo at a later date, as the internet connection here is too slow to add pictures today. But we can vouch for the fact that Wednesday was a fun day for Ben and that his excitement about his cake was unmatched! All the guests here sang "Happy Birthday" to him before we all shared his cake.
Wednesday was also a day of celebration for Tanzanians, as it was the National Day of Independence- a public holiday; but not for us, nor our teachers! We found oursleves buckling down to studying Swahili noun classes, as the uplifting sounds of singing drifted across the river from the fields, where locals were celebrating their special day.
One more week of study lies ahead for us, then we'll return to Dodoma for Christmas, before taking up our notepads and pens for the next 4 weeks of language learning in January...

Language School- week 2

The Visitor

A much better week! Esther is finally better and her sparkle is returning. Benjamin has decided that Emma is not too bad after all. It's been fantastic to see him going to play without tears (with a small packet of "Smarties" clenched firmly in his hot little hand to soften the blow of parting from Mum!!) and returning for tea break + lunch break with a smile. Emma seems happier to be with the children and all round, everyone has been more jolly! Lots of prayers have been said for the children by many friends and it's been great to see how they've been answered :-)
Kiswahili lessons continue. Before coming here, we were told repeatedly that Swahili is an "easy" language- but we seem to be more confused each day! There appear to be about 1000 tenses(!!) and it's tricky getting used to a language where the words all get joined together, rather than each word standing individually. eg. "I did not watch you" becomes "Sikukuangalia". After 9 days of Swahili lessons, we were really struggling to unpick the words we actually recognise in our conversation class this morning. Each word is like a jigsaw puzzle with lots of other words inside! My mum, a great fan of jigsaws, would probably enjoy studying with us!
As for encounters with nature, we met a small black snake on the path one morning. Thinking it was just a worm, I pointed it out to Esther, Ben and their 2 little Swiss friends -and we all had a merry time bending down to look at it closely, as the children poked at it with their sandal-clad feet. It was only later that I discovered my error. I was so horrified by my mistake that I later dreamt about saving children from snakes all night!
The other visitor, pictured, popped in to our banda yesterday, after lunch. Esther's sharp eyes spotted him first. Needless to say, he also went the way of Mr. Snake of last week's frightening meeting!

Riverside Campsite, Iringa

Just a couple of our "neighbours" here at Riverside campsite. Tame compared to some other neighbours...

There are two things that I am very afraid of. One of them is snakes. The other one is rats. Since we got to Iringa, I have had every reason to be afraid. On the very first morning here, we decided to go for a stroll along the river in the campsite, being assured by other guests that this would be very pleasant. So we set off, and I led the way past the dining banda, around the corner- and straight into the path of a long, grey snake! With great fear, I leapt back, grabbed my children and screamed, "Snake!!" The Tanzanian staff nearby were quick to repsond -and let's just say that Mr. Snake is no longer around to tell his side of the story! Apparently, the snake was either a spitting cobra or a mamba- both very dangerous.
Thankfully, I have not yet encountered rats so closely, but I found it very hard to relax in our stone banda last week when we learnt that previous guests had regular rat visitors: but they just killed them themselves. I can't imagine having to do so gruesome a task myself! I was very relieved on Saturday when we changed bandas! We are now in a very pleasant wooden banda where rats have not been known to disturb residents.
We came by the banda thanks to a kind American family who have been on the campiste since the end of July, studying Swahili before working for SIL (Wycliffe translators). They are out on "homestay" this week, where they go and live in a Tanzanian home to improve their Swahili, with their 2 small children. What an experience! They come back here for a few days to complete their course and then depart for Dodoma. They very kindly arranged for us to swap bandas with them, so I am feeling much better in our new "home".
The campsite itself is in lovely surroundings, on the bank of a river. Our little thatch classroom is right next to the river, so we are soothed by the sound of flowing water as we attempt to conjugate our Swahili verbs! Meals are provided and eaten in a large dining thatched banda together with all the guests, both language students and private guests. The food is great and we are meeting lots of nationalities here.
I must stop now. It is time to go and revise Swahili, before our early start tomorrow. Here's hoping that Ben will be happier and Esther healthier in the week to come!

Week 1 at Language School

jifunza, angalia, hitaji, ongelea... our heads are buzzing with Kiswahili verbs and our minds are muddled from trying to make sense of how to read a clock in "Swahili time"- a very confusing challenge for me, although Andrew copes well with this more mathematical task! The weekend provides us with a chance to take a breath before we start lessons again at a bright 8am on Monday. Our teachers are enthusiastic, with quite a gleam in their eyes as they present us with verb tenses, sentence structure, negatives, question words etc etc!!
The first week has been a challenging one. It has been a difficult one for Esther, who has been unwell and still has a bit of a fever, and for Ben, who hates the separation from Mum during lessons and has not bonded with our young Tanzanian nanny, Emma. Esther has had a mystery illness, which the doctors in Dodoma could not explain on the day we left for Iringa. She came up suddenly in spots all over her chest and face, a fever, conjunctivitus, sore throat and has been listless. Not at all like her usual sunny self.
Ben has been most indignant about Mum and Dad disappearing into a their small thatch banda for lessons from 8am until 1pm. He has cried so much this week, and gets upset at the mere mention of "Emma". The crying has even continued into the night and most nights have been disturbed, by Ben's tears or Esther having nightmares- which could be a result of the larium anti-malarial pills. We are therefore changing the anti-malarials we use, which should really help little Esther.
Hopefully, next week will be a little more settled- we will keep you posted from our campsite where we are staying and where the lessons take place...

Unasema Kiswahili?

We woke up early this morning and after the immediate tasks - changing Ben's nappy (a nasty one!!) and cleaning Esther's eye (poor little poppet has conjunctivitis)- it was time to reach for our Swahili phrase book.

The milk-lad came at 07:45 with our milk (still warm from the cow) and we needed to explain to him that we are going away tomorrow, for 4 weeks, as we go to language school in Iringa. We had a hotch-potch conversation and we think he understood, but if he turns up with milk tomorrow morning, we'll know we failed!

Then it was time to chat to Jane. Jane is a lovely Tanzanian lady who is coming to help me twice a week at home ( horray!! it's great to have an extra pair of hands!) with the bread-making, hand-washing, ironing and cleaning. I needed to explain how long we'd be away and plans for coming in while we're away, holiday leave, Christmas arrangements, wages etc. Swahili phrase book in hand, and pencil and paper at the ready to write the words I can't pronounce, we muddled through and all was arranged, with much laughter and patience! My Irish neighbour came in later to translate everything, as she's fantastically fluent in Swahili, but it appears all has been understood! The Lonely Planet phrasebook works well!

Next, it was off to the local duka (shop), a small wooden shed-like building opposite the MAF compound. I needed tomatoes ("nyanya") and all went smoothly, but the drama started at the next duka when I tried to buy margarine and tea. The young shopkeeper was very friendly, but you can't go into the shop. You have to ask for things through a metal grill: so we can't just wander in, select what we want from the shelf and pay. That would be cheating. No, we have to use our Swahili! My attempts to get the correct margarine and the right tea caused much hilarity to the shop-keeper, the other customers leaning against the side of the shop and to me, as I kept getting it all wrong!! Working out the money took a while as well and by then, it was a community affair, with many interested onlookers and lots of smiling and commenting!

Anyway, our Swahili lessons start on Monday. Hopefully, after 4 weeks of language school, we may be able to do our shopping with a little less drama and have easier conversations with our milk-lad and Jane...

Introducing you to Jane