Many delightful happenings...

The last couple of weeks have been very enjoyable... here are a few highlights! After finishing the Storybook Workshop tired and in need of a break (all that thinking in Swahili really is hard work!) we had a couple of days to take stock before setting off travelling. Matt and I both decided to take our ‘prayer day’ that we are allotted each month to get a bit of space. We had a lovely time on our own, plied by much real Mbeya coffee, writing our journals, listening to music and sermons from home. I decided to take a walk in the afternoon and ended up at the library in Mbeya city centre. Imagine my excitement to be greeted by a good collection of English fiction, including the complete Harry Potter series and the Lord of the Rings trilogy! They were covered in dust (shows how many people are able to read that kind of thing in English, or have the time to do so, here!) but I will be very happy to change that. I was worried that a certain literacy worker might be very quickly running out of reading material but this discovery made my day!

On Thursday(4th Sept) Matt, Ruth, Katherine and I started our journey to near Songea before first light. This was not a pleasant experience (8hours in cramped conditions), as anyone who has travelled on a Tanzanian bus will know, but we were very pleased to reach our destination in the heat of the afternoon. We arrived in Peramiho (a very vibrant Catholic mission) to discover a small piece of Germany in the far south of Tanzania! The scenery and architecture was stunning and everything just ‘worked’! It goes without saying that the showers (solar powered) were fantastic - pressure and heat at the same time! We were shown around by Brother Silvester (a rather trendy monk, who wore trainers and jeans under his robes!) and finished with a tour of the Printing Press, the reason for our visit. This printing press is responsible for printing our calendars each year, featuring mother tongue Bible verses and pictures, in the 9 languages that our project currently works with. The printing press has been running like clockwork since 1936 - all the machines were shipped from Germany! It was exciting for me to see how this intricate process is carried out.

The joys of Peramiho were not only work related, however. We sampled fresh bread from the onsite bakery and were given a gift of 8 mandazi (Tanzanian plain doughnuts – these were the best we’ve had, soft and tasty and great eaten with jam!). We also procured 5 salami sausages from the brothers’ farm to take on our journey. This really was quite some place!

Whilst at Peramiho, Matt and I discovered that the wheels had been set in motion for another Tyler wedding (Liz’s brother, Andy, and his fiancée Susie). Woohoo! We were both over the moon to hear this and can’t wait to hear how the plans unfold. We are hoping to make a guest appearance! Watch this space...!

Things did not all go according to plan though as we were expecting to take the ferry up Lake Nyasa and meet colleagues in Matema but received dubious information regarding the departure day of the ferry (we later found out that we would have missed it). We decided to take the bus back instead, meet our colleagues a few days early in Mbeya then drive to Matema. The only thing that’s certain in Africa is that plans will change!

We had a fantastic time in Matema, on the shore of Lake Nyasa, for 3 nights. The beach is one of my favourite places to be, especially when the sun is warm and the water is clear and refreshing. We were treated to much good food by Gitti and Thomas (our Literacy supervisor and her husband) and also enjoyed locally caught fish and chips – not quite the same as the British delicacy but certainly tasty. Much reading and swimming was done by all!

We rounded off our trip by driving through the beautiful Nyakyusa landscape (one of the language areas we work with) and meeting some of our lovely Literacy workers hard at work in their regional office in Kyela. We were greeted with soda and news of their progress since the workshop. We were able to pass on to them first drafts of the storybooks they wrote for the next stage of community testing which made them very happy.

One of the most delightful things was to return to our peaceful home-sweet-home. I still think one of the most enjoyable parts of travelling is coming home!

To see some more pictures of our trip please click here.