It’s been 5 week since we’ve had Saturday morning tea in bed – 5 weeks! This will in some way help to explain why we’ve been so quiet blog-wise for the last month (for some reason I often get inspiration, and time to think, at this time of the week!). This long lack of Saturdays at home however has been due to lots of fun so there are no complaints from us here!
Back at the end of July my (Matt’s) family (parents, two sisters and one sister’s fiancé) arrived in Tanzania. I met them in Dar and we travelled back to Mbeya together. It was wonderful to see each other again and for us to get a chance to show them all the things we’ve talked about for so long! We spent a week together at home, showing them around the area and introducing them to the culture, doing some short trips to local areas as well. The second week was spent on Safari! We all travelled up to Ruaha National Park near Iringa where we had a few days animal spotting and getting very hot and dusty in a Landrover! At the end of the week we all travelled to Dar to spend a few days before we all went our separate ways again.
It was lovely to have this time together and we are very thankful for the resources we’ve been given (monetary by supporters, and time by work here) that allowed us to have this time together. Working and living out here can at times be very lonely and our family are one of our largest ‘misses’. It was a real blessing to have this family time together now and for the future. It is so much easier to talk about things over the phone or internet when both people know the context in which you are discussing. On that note some of my family have agreed, as was once done before, to write up some of their thoughts post-trip and have them put up here. We always love to hear what people thought about their experiences with us and we are sure it helps give those who haven’t been here (YET!) a better idea of what life is like!
Having waved goodbye to family we immediately welcomed our good friends Pete and Rachel (literally – they got off the plane my sisters were boarding to return to the UK!). We flew with them to Zanzibar and spent a few days sightseeing and exploring this interesting island. Although it is part of Tanzania (since independence and union in the 1960s) and so certain elements made us feel at home, it is still in many ways very different from the mainland. On return from there we readied ourselves for the bus journey back to Mbeya together however on the morning of departure that Rachel had been sick all night and could not travel. Liz and I, feeling fine and needing to get back for work, left as planned only for Liz to start being sick halfway through the 13hour journey! We all survived (and got better!) and eventually made it back to Mbeya. The first half of our first week back was spent on a literacy trip (see Liz’s new blog here), while the second has been showing Pete and Rachel some of Mbeya whilst settling back into the office and work. We still have 2 days left with our friends before they head back to the UK via Mikumi National Park and Dar and we plan to make the most of this time together!
Again it’s been a real privilege to have time together here in our ‘new’ home with friends who we’ve known for some time. We’ve loved being able to share our lives with our family, friends and supporters and to be able to show a bit more of the vision and purpose of our lives and work out here. If you are interested in visiting and/or knowing more about what we do please please please do write us an email… we LOVE hearing from you!
0 comments:
Post a Comment