Defending the civil engineer

Just wanted to add my defence to the last sentance on the previous entry.

The day of heavy rain came when we had an important visit from the German Embassy in Dar es Salaam to see how we had spent the funding that they had given us. Everything was looking good and clean the computer lab which they had funded was all ready as can be seen from the recent picture below.

The rain started mid morning when our important visit had already taken place but the civil engineer who couldn't go home and sit out the rain had lots of work to do....

It can be seen below that the engineer, here caught on camera, was the one who was in the rain wading through the waters insatalling emergency drainage systems and pumping out the lake of which our island of a school was a temporary resident.

Flood!

After two days or so of continuous, heavy rain, the water spilled over from the flooded road and into our school. These photo's were taken a couple of hours after the sun had come up to dry the land, but you can still get an idea of what the school had looked like during the downpour.

This picture is taken from the road and shows how the water entered the school. Apparently a couple of hours earlier the entire central courtyard area was under water coming in from both behind the school and the road in front. All the pits that have been dug or are being dug for different purposes are now all under water and completely invisible. Hopefully this afternoon the workers will put fences up around these hidden dangers.

The water also made it into the classrooms. Apparently the computer lab was safe from the water, but this classroom which is next to it was almost entirely under water.

These boxes were retrieved from the classroom and are currently drying out in the sun.

Seems to me like we need a civil engineer to come up with some sort of drainage system...

Some reasons why we love our little island.

1. We love our team! They have become our family here and we miss them so much when they are not here! Don't they all look lovely?!

2. Watching the sunset over the sea here is just so incredibly beautiful. (We just have the odd one or two pictures of the sun setting...)

3. Going to Forodhani gardens, an outdoor foodmarket here. The food is great and you can drink sugar cane juice with tangawizi (ginger) and lime. Yummy!

4. The colour and clarity of the sea.

5. EVERYONE is happy to take time to talk here. Particularly when they realise you know their language, they want to know why in the world a mzungu has bothered to learn it.

6. The colours here are so bright and vivid. The sky is so much bluer and the trees are greener; when it comes to clothing or painting a house - anything goes!

7. (This is one for Rich) The lack of health and safety procedures!

8. Learning to kite surf!! Great times:) We have yet to get in the water but even flying the kite is amazing! We had a lesson on a 9 metre kite and now are going to get a bit of practice on our own 12 metre kite (MASSIVE!).

Some reasons why we love England!!

Having had a wonderful couple of weeks back in october, we were reminded of some of the many reasons why we love England!

1. We had great fun visiting family and friends. My one regret is not taking more photo's than I did. In fact this is one of the only ones we have of any of our family. This is Rich with his best friend and nephew Tim and niece Kerenza.



2. The English seaside! We had many walks along the beach in Eastbourne, in all kinds of weather. It is just exhilarating and so beautiful. We also saw filming at the pier which was a little bit of excitement!!

3. Eating chips at the seaside with LOTS of vinegar!!

4. The English countryside, always so beautiful, in Autumn with the leaves changing colour.

5. Wrapping up warmly and going for long walks.

6. Being able to get a decent cup of tea:)

7. Knowing the rules of the road and that (in general) most people do what they are supposed to. (If you disagree, come and visit us and see what you think afterwards!)

8. Sleeping in a cosy duvet, all snuggled up.

9. HOT, POWERFUL showers.

10. Lots of lovely food!!

11. Being able to praise our Lord with LOTS of other people and to spend time with our brothers and sisters in Him.

These are just some of the many reasons why we love to call England HOME!!

A very happy day!

As many of you know, we were recently back in the UK for the wedding of our friends Mike and Mel. We had a brilliant time back in beautiful England and will put some general photo's up in a day or two. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the wedding.


The groom with his boys outside his house before leaving for the church.


Waiting for his bride with only Rich to entertain him in the meantime - you have to feel sorry for the guy! It was nice to be at a wedding ceremony where both the groom and bride get to be present and participate! The last few weddings we have been to, the bride had to wait for it all to happen without her before she was collected by the man who is now her husband!

Afterwards the VERY happy Mike with his beautiful bride Mel and his best man (who remembered the rings and got everyone to church on time!)

Rich enjoyed practising his arty shots on the classic cars.

A well deserved Peroni after the speeches:)

Building Update

I thought it was about time to post an update on how the building work at the school is progressing. The last couple of months have been very exciting as we have seen the roofing nearly completed, walls plastered and painted, floors laid, toilets being installed, wiring being put in... Here are a few recent-ish photo's of how the school is looking these days.

The big red square to the left of the centre, is the gate at the front of the school. To the right are the offices and classrooms and to the left is the workshop area.

Inside our computer lab - This is our most finished classroom as we had to have it finished in order to qualify for the grant for the equipment.

Here Jason is installing all the new computers in the lab. It's so exciting to see how it's all progressing!

Wazazi wa Richardi (Rich's parents)

Just over a month ago Rich's parents arrived on our little island to see just what it is really like here. They were with us for a very busy two weeks as we showed them our home, our work, introduced them to our friends and did most of the touristy things it is possible to do here. The following photo's are a few, selected from many, highlights of our time with Mr and Mrs O Sr.

As you may have already realised from previous blog entries, all guests are put straigt to work on arrival! Here Val is helping Rich to install an African style toilet in the mens bathroom.

Steve next to the installed toilets.

On their first day here we dragged them around town, showing them the warren of little alleyways that makes up Stone Town.

We also felt that they needed to see, smell and just generally experience the meat and fish markets!

We did allow them a short time to relax over lunch at one of our favourite restaurants here - they serve the most amazing fish and passion fruit juice.

A tourist must - the spice tour! You may remember a similar photo not too long ago on this blog. For some reason the tour guides insist on making you wear silly garments made from Banana plant leaves.

Another must is the outdoor food market - Forodhani gardens. here Val and Steve are trying the sugar cane juice. It's actually quite tasty and they usually add ginger and lime to the juice.

The last couple of days of Steve and Val's visit we headed to the mainland for a safari. This also doubled up as a birthday treat for Rich who turned 27 on our first night at the safari lodge. This photo is taken at one of our favourite restaurants in Dar es Salaam. It is an Ethiopian restaurant and the food and the atmosphere are brilliant. You can see that all the food is served on a communal dish and you eat with your (right) hand.

Our acommodation at the safari lodge. It is basically a tent on a platform, but is actually quite luxurious.

Karibu! Our tent

We arrived at this hippo pool just in time to see these elephants turn up and start playing around in the water. We were the only people there and it really was quite amazing to watch.

The last morning of our safari we were told by another driver that there were two lionesses sitting just by the road, having very recently killed a deer or some other unfortunate animal (it was quite difficult to tell). It really was awesome - they were literally less than 5 meters away from the car and just sat there watching us taking photo's of them! I have to confess to being just a little nervous!