‘Happy 2nd Anniversary, Us!’

…Our first of many in Africa, we hope! It seems strange to think back to our wedding – this day two years ago. Feels so long ago and far away – we were in a different continent for a start! Watching our wedding DVD brings it back though – thank you Sam! We couldn’t have imagined then that 2 years later we would be wishing each other ‘Happy Anniversary’ in Tanzania…crazy times! May 6th has really snuck up on us and our first celebration doesn’t feel that long ago – the past year has been a blur of moving, studying, living in cramped conditions, making lots of new friends and adjusting to new cultures. We are also very ‘disorientated’ because May in England is when it’s just (hopefully!) starting to get warmer and people are starting to think about summer. Now in Tanzania it’s starting to get much colder in the mornings and evenings while being warm and dry in the daytime! We don’t feel like we had a ‘proper’ spring! We’ve realized since being here how the seasons, as we know them, aid us to feel adjusted to the time of year and how you can feel totally lost without them! This is especially evident when we come to special days that we have for long (often subconsciously) associated with a specific type of weather. We have the event but the climate just doesn’t fit well in our heads! I guess this is what Christmas will feel like – will wait and see! Though we’ll try not to use it as an excuse for missing birthdays!

We have just returned from another trip to Mbeya – for a long weekend this time. We are starting to feel like we don’t want to leave every time we go (much as we like Iringa!). We are glad that next time we arrive it’ll be for good! We are still in the process of finding a house (not an easy process at all, it seems!) but when we do I’m sure we’ll feel even more settled. We had a relaxing yet busy weekend – we went to see the main market in Mbeya (strangely outside the town centre) and were able to get a feel of what we could get there. We spent a lot of time with new friends – exploring, eating and chatting. We were also able to visit the office again and start to think about what our work will entail. We know these last 8 weeks of language school will fly by and we’ll be there before we know it – this being both exciting and scary as we’ll then have to start putting all we’ve learnt into practice!

In Mbeya we were also able to collect some post and packages from you lovely people. Thank you sooo much to everyone who has sent us something – we felt very spoilt with magazines, sweets, cards and letters. The perfect accompaniment to a long weekend! We are very blessed!