Home, for a while!

We have returned home (again!) after another trip and this time we’re here to stay (for a short time at least!). In the last month and a bit we have visited Unyiha, Undali, Umalila, Usangu, Uvwanji, Ukinga, Ubena, Unyakyusa and Ubena again - that’s a lot of places. We are understandably a little worn out and glad to be in Mbeya, our home away from home, for 3 long weeks. For the rest of the year we just go to Dar for a week (fun big city activities…plus work too, of course!) and then to Dodoma at Christmas time (more friends, yay!). Sadly, I (Liz) have celebrated this homecoming with being rather unwell. This is a new experience for me as, so far, I have been fairly healthy with only a few colds and tummy upsets (I know some people will be saying ‘touch wood’ at this point!). This time I had a flu type thing and tummy bug at the same time and it fairly knocked me out. Dunno if it was malaria as both tests didn’t work but I’m taking a few days to rest and the medicine just in case. Very frustrating not to be able to do anything after finally getting back! Especially seeing as today is the Day of Prayer for the Wycliffe world. At the office they will be participating in creative ways to pray together about issues around the globe, cakes at chai time and lunch out, plus an early finish - trust me to miss a ‘non-work’ day!

Well, onto more positive things…our trip to Njombe in Ubena was a good one. On Friday we headed out in the trusty Landrover and reached Njombe just after lunch, which was a hasty picnic on the edge of the Kibena tea estates (see our recently uploaded pictures). We then headed out to a town called Kidugala on a bumpy road to meet our trained transition literacy teachers. Unfortunately only two were able to make it but our conversations proceeded well, even without another member of our department to prompt us or translate for us! They were enthusiastic and forward-looking, which seems to be a characteristic of many Wabena!

At this point it seems sensible to just quickly explain one aspect of Swahili that you may well have noticed. In a way much more simple than English, if you want to refer to the place of a specific people group you just put a ‘u’ before the group’s name. If you want to talk about the language itself you just put ‘ki’ before it. And if you want to talk about the people you put a ‘wa’. So, for example, if talking about England…
Uingereza = England the place
Kingereza = The English language
Waingereza = The English people
Easy…!

Saturday was the Sunday School Teacher Training Workshop, led by Katherine (from the Scripture Use department) with the Wisbeys in supporting roles. Nearly forty came, which was very encouraging as this was the first of its kind to be run. I (Liz) was very excited about being able to input indirectly into children’s lives and their experience of church despite not being able to interact with any children directly. Matt taught the games expertly (we tried to give them ideas for games, memory verse activities, ways to tell the story and how to make it relevant etc etc so they could take these back and apply them to their specific groups) and my teaching went well - it was the most we’d taught in Swahili for a while. Hopefully, Sunday School can become something that children look forward to and where they can grow in their faith. It certainly is a challenge here with lack of resources of all kinds, huge groups, lack of teachers and the fact that ‘child-friendly’ is rather an unknown concept.

On Sunday Matt was able to practice his Swahili improvisational skills in a skit at a local church where Katherine had been asked to teach. Unfortunately by this point I was ill in bed so didn’t catch it on camera - sorry everyone!