New Term

Dear all,

The new term has started this week at the university so the place is buzzing again after the peace and quiet of the last few months – it was beginning to get a little boring!

With the ink not quite dry on the timetable, Paul’s efforts are now being directed at registration of new students, sorting out seminar groups, oh and teaching 3 different courses (1 st year Physics labs, 2nd year Physics labs and a new third year education course “Educational Media and Technology”). Its all a bit hectic with study for the masters in full swing too but God is good and Paul is quite upbeat, trusting God to see him from one day to the next.

We are also extremely busy in the choir shop now all the students have come back and even more than last year. We are frantically trying to stock up to cope with the demand this week. Today I came home from town with over 500 bottles of water in the car!

Christine’s trips to Masasi and Manyoni for the small loans project evaluation went well. It was wonderful to see some of the projects the groups have developed and how much they have helped them in raising money for their groups as well as income for individuals and their churches and even helping their local communities in many ways, and all made possible with a loan of just a few hundred pounds. The first picture shows our discussions with members of youth groups in Masasi and the second shows a successful market gardening project which one of the groups set up. Please pray for funding so that we can continue this project in other dioceses.

The only down-side of the trip was the journey – it is a long way to Masasi – at least 12 hours drive, and we had an accident on the way being hit by a bus. We praise God that we were able to avoid what looked like a certain head-on collision, no-one was hurt, and though the car took quite a bashing it was still running perfectly and we were able to continue with the journey. Repair work is still on-going!

The boys have just gone back to school after a 2 week break. The climax of last term was sports day which was great fun, and a very colourful occasion as you can see on the pictures. During the holiday Christine and the boys spent a few days relaxing in Kilimatinde whilst Paul was busy registering students. We had a lovely time with our friends there. The picture shows our friends Amani and Faraja with their week old baby Nehemiah Daniel, and the boys with their friends Gift, Tumaini and Given.

Now the university term has started again we are re-starting the English service at the chapel and welcoming back our English choir who we have missed. This will be much better for the boys who find the Swahili service a struggle. We are planning to make a recording of the English choir this term, and also next month Christine will be recording with Revival choir. Please pray for both of these projects.

Lots of love and blessings to you all,
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac. xxx

cousins, cake and conference

Dear all,

Greetings from the Salamans who are currently enjoying a relaxing bank-holiday weekend at home, recovering from a busy “summer break”.

Our second group of visitors over the break was Paul’s sister Mary and her family (husband David and girls Rebecca, Harriet and Rachel). They were with us for a total of just over two weeks and managed to take in all manner of vistas on Tanzanian life from visiting schools and villages to enjoying a safari park and the beach. the first picture shows the girls at a school in Dodoma, and the second shows everyone on safari on the roofrack! It was lovely to spend time with them and show them a bit of our lives here. The boys had a whale of a time with all the attention from their big cousins and really miss them now they’ve gone back.

Paul has been travelling here and there observing the university students during their block teaching practice whilst at the same time trying to organise the release of the student results for the last semester. After a manic few days things are complete and the dust has now settled leaving him free to work on preparation for the forthcoming semester, including the timetable, at a more leisurely pace. Please pray that everything will be ready for the start of the new semester in 4 weeks time.















Last week was Daniel’s 6th birthday and he had a lovely day. The pictures are of his party with some of his school friends which we had at the new Italian restaurant, and was a great success. The boys are continuing to do well at school. They just have a couple of weeks until the end of term one and then have a 2 week break. Please continue to pray for them as they develop in their school life and relationships.

Christine has had a very busy time recently preparing for and running the national youth conference which took place last weekend. It was a great success with 18 of the 23 dioceses of the Anglican church represented, with 14 choir groups, and a number of other young people and youth leaders. The weekend consisted of a great deal of singing (which is what the youth do best in Tanzania!) together with biblical teaching, practical teaching and sports. Amongst some wonderful preachers and speakers from Tanzania, we were privileged to have with us Billy Birungi, an evangelist from Uganda who heads up a very large annual youth conference there and was able to come and share the Word of God with us. We had some problems with catering but otherwise the event was enjoyed by all. Many thanks to all those who were able to support the conference in prayer and financially. God is good and we were able to raise just enough to run the conference. Now after selling some T shirts at the event we have even managed to make a slight profit. The pictures show one of the choirs performing, and Christine with her colleague Beatrice and youth leaders from all the dioceses. After a short time to recover Christine and Beatrice are now planning a trip to Masasi, a day’s drive away in the South East of the country, and Manyoni, not too far from Dodoma. Our small loans project is coming to an end and we will be visiting various youth groups in these dioceses to evaluate the success of the project. Please pray for us as we travel and for Paul and the boys back home. Please also pray that God will provide funding to continue with this project and others which we are planning.

Lots of love and Blessings,
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.xxx

Camels and encounters

Dear all,

Just to make us feel at home, today we went to Dodoma’s version of the Royal Cornwall show! Today is the “nane nane” public holiday (literally meaning 8th of the 8th!) to celebrate farmers day. Dodoma has over the last few years developed its own agricultural show which is very good, demonstrating modern techniques in arable and livestock farming. There is also an amazing display of wild animals including a very noisy, hungry lion, and the livestock section included a camel! We had a lovely morning there with our good friends John and Mama Prince, and their little boy, Prince, all with the boys in this picture.

The boys have been on holiday from school during July and had a very happy time. We were concerned that it would be difficult to leave them whilst we were at work but it worked out that one of us could be around for them most of the time and they were happy to be left with some friends on occasions. Praise God for that. They are now back at school and enjoying it as usual. Daniel now has a longer day at school so gets quite tired but is very happy.

A friend of ours, Noeli, who is a theology student at the university, was married in July to Eveline. Christine was part of the “wedding committee” who traditionally organise the wedding and party on behalf of the groom’s family. It was hard work but a lovely day. Unfortunately the batteries ran out on the camera that day so we haven’t any pictures for you! Please pray for Noeli and Eveline as they start their new life together.

At the end of July we hosted a CMS “encounter group”. A group of 9, young people and their leaders, from Brighton came to Dodoma for a week. They were a great group and we had a wonderful time with them. Each morning they ran a holiday club at the boys’ school (pictured here) which around 70 children attended and thoroughly enjoyed. In the afternoons they met up with Revival choir to sing together and teach each other songs, preparing for an event on the Sunday to launch Revival Choir’s “compassionate fund”. This fund is to help choir members when they are bereaved, ill or in difficulty, and will also be used as a loan fund for members who want to set up small enterprises etc. We raised a good amount of money at the event to kick-start the fund, and now choir members will continue to pay into it each month. On the final evening the encounter group and Revival choir had a football match which was great fun. This picture shows the 2 groups together after the match. It was lovely to see the way the two groups built up a relationship over the week. The group have now moved on to Moshi where they are helping in an orphanage. Thank God for them and all they have done in Tanzania and pray for them as they travel home next week.

Paul has been occupied with marking and collating student results for the past few weeks – a never ending process as now the provisional results are out there will be appeals, re-marks and then supplementary exams before results are finalised. He has also just come back from a trip to Dar to get his leg checked out at a posh hospital after a week of hobbling around due to some unknown condition. After a lot of prodding and poking, numerous different drug regimes and a Doppler ultrasound scan we are still none the wiser as to what the root problem is but it seems to be fairly harmless and getting better anyway. This week will see Paul off again to Singida to try to get as many teaching practice observations covered as possible before he has to come back through Dodoma and off to Dar to pick his sister (Mary) and family up who will be visiting for a week or two. The boys are all looking forward to playing with their cousins who they haven’t seen for 2 years.

Christine has been busy at work preparing for our big national youth conference in September. The plans are coming together very well though the fundraising is still an issue. Please pray that God will provide for this event. We have also just been invited by an organisation in Dar-es-Salaam to submit a proposal for funding for our recording studio project. We aim to build a recording studio in Dodoma where the youth choirs can record their music, which will build up and encourage the choirs, and will also generate a sustainable income to help the TAYO office, which is really struggling financially. Please pray that this proposal is well received and we are able to get the funding for the project. We are also selling CDs to raise extra money for this project. The CD includes 10 youth choirs (including Revival) from the Dodoma area who got together specifically to record in order to raise money for this purpose. It is a great CD. If you would like one, or are able to sell some please email me and I will arrange for some to be sent to you. They are priced at £10 each.

One great answer to prayer is that we have tenants in our house in St. Austell. They have been there nearly 2 months now and seem to be happy. Please pray that they will be happy in the house and will stay for a good length of time.

Lots of love and blessings,
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.xxx

some fun videos

Hope you enjoy this video - just the boys having fun - flying kites on the football ground by our house, Daniel when he first learned to cycle properly, Easter hat parade at school and water play with our good friends the Garretts.

...And this is Isaac's 3rd birthday, 30th March 2009

... And this is Christine's birthday, May 2009, featuring singing by Revival Choir, the University English Choir, and Amani

Golf, Grandma and Gifts

Dear all,

Sorry its been so long since we updated this but hopefully you have received link letters in the meantime!

Christine’s work is going well and Beatrice has now started working at the office. It’s good to have the company and someone to share ideas with and she is great fun and a hard worker. Her baby boy, Brilliant, was born safely and is doing well. Please pray for them, and please pray for our work. We are continuing with our small loans project which is going really well in one of the 2 dioceses but not so well in the other, as the groups are not returning their loans as required. We are also planning a big youth conference in September, bringing together Anglican youth groups from every diocese across Tanzania, but at present are struggling to raise funds and have not had sufficient response from the dioceses. We need to make a decision at the end of this month whether to go ahead in September or postpone. Either way, please pray that the funds come in and the conference will be a success. As Christine is now doing more work for TAYO she has had to give up her work helping at the nursery school at Ipagala. She was given 2 lovely leaving parties. This picture shows Christine receiving a gift from one of the children, and Julianne, a good friend of ours who is the matron of the nursery.

Christine’s mum came to visit in May and we were able to have a lovely holiday at the beach and Mikumi Wildlife park as well as a good time together in Dodoma, and a trip to Kilimatinde. The boys were very happy to have some time with Grandma.

A very exciting new development in Dodoma is the opening of a new Italian restaurant complete with crazy golf course – a new favourite place for the boys, who love the crazy golf!

Isaac has now started at nursery and loves it and Daniel is continuing to do well and enjoy school too. They have a month’s holiday during July and then Daniel will be moving up to standard 1 in the main part of the school. Isaac will be in the nursery class for another year. They recently had a nursery and reception fun sports day which was great. The picture shows Paul helping out with the relay race.

Paul has finished his teaching for this semester (and all the dreaded coursework marking) and the students are now in the middle of exams. The picture below shows the now common sight around campus of students huddling together in small groups in the shade of a tree quizzing each other on the finer points of biochemistry, educational theory or maybe just the latest gossip. Paul is now looking forward (once the exam marking is finished) to the long break where work will continue but at a more gentle pace with the opportunity to do a little travelling and receive visitors. Projects on the go include: writing the timetable for next year – think of a huge, three dimensional sudoku that never stops changing, observing students during their teaching practice – both near and far, planning new courses for next year, collating this years results and finally getting around to starting the Physics Teachers Network that’s been on the backburner for far too long. Hopefully he’ll also have time to complete a few half finished projects at home such as the rainwater catchment system and the bikeshed/carport and maybe start a new one like the roundabout he promised Daniel when we first got here nearly 2 years ago.

At the end of July we will be hosting a CMS encounter group – a group of young people from the UK. They will run a holiday club at the school which the boys will attend and will also meet with Revival choir each afternoon. Please pray for this group as they prepare for their trip and pray for God’s blessing on all they do here in Dodoma and later in Moshi.

Please also continue to pray for our friend Amani who did not do well in his A level resits but is awaiting the results of a re-mark, and looking for what possible future paths God may have for him, now that it looks like his plans to study for a degree may not be possible.

With love and blessings,
Paul, Christine, Daniel and Isaac. xxx

Isaac's Birthday

Dear all,

Isaac turned 3 at the end of March and had a lovely day. This is him opening presents in the morning, and enjoying his elephant cake with his friends at his party. Now he is 3 he is able to start the nursery class at Daniel’s school. They have just broken up for a 2 week Easter break but after that he will go each morning from 9 until 12. He is very excited and looking forward to it. Unfortunately this means 2 morning school runs for Christine as Daniel’s school day starts at 7.45. However, it also means Christine will be able to increase her work days and plans to work every morning from 9 til 12, which will give her much more time to get into the work. Work is going well and the loans project is progressing nicely. We are also trying to plan a big youth event later this year which will be held here at the university. Please pray that everything comes together for this event and especially that we are able to raise the funds that we need for it. Praise God that we have found a new staff member for the office, though she hasn’t started yet as she is having a baby very shortly. We decided to delay her start date until after the baby is born rather than employing her and have her leave immediately for 3 months maternity leave. Her name is Beatrice and coincidentally she is married to a member of staff here at the university. Please pray for her and her family as the baby is born and she prepares to start work, and pray that Christine and Beatrice will work well together and develop a good friendship.

Daniel has had a good term at school and came home with a certificate for getting “the most smiley face stickers for good behaviour” over the term which we were all very pleased with. His teacher says he has done really well this term and developed well both academically and socially, so thank you all for your prayers for him. At the end of term we had 2 big events – firstly the Reception class “Easter hat parade” and Easter egg hunt and then the school Easter show. The show was very impressive and had a very powerful Christian message which was wonderful to see considering around half the students acting it out were muslim, and their parents were all there watching too. Christian staff and students at the school are a wonderful witness to the rest of their community. Please pray for them.

Paul is recovering from a rough couple of weeks but is thankful to God for seeing him through it unscathed. The beginning of semester was manic to say the least with timetables to sort out, new courses to plan and last semester’s exam results still to be finalised. A few too many short deadlines meant that Paul overstretched and overstressed himself and succumbed to some sort of virus which kept him off work for a week (the longest he’s been off work in many years). Once nearly recovered Paul decided to go for a walk with the Boys and our friend Brandon at a local mountain however in a remote area we were robbed of everything we had on us by a group of youths in a fairly unpleasant experience that shook us all up for a while. Fortunately the Boys don’t seem to be affected much by the incident and Paul is now back to full health and feeling a lot more at peace such that he’s starting to take on more teaching (special relativity and teaching methods) and found some time to work on his shed whilst at the same time taking great care not to over do it again. Please pray for peace and perspective in Paul’s work and that he manages to find time to prepare all practicals for this semester’s Physics lab.

During March Revival choir visited a different church each Sunday, mostly in villages around Dodoma, which was exhausting but a great experience and wonderful to be able to share in fellowship with village churches and be a blessing to them. One of these trips was a weekend visit to Kilimatinde. We were very well received there and had a wonderful time. It’s great to see a real friendship building up between Revival and Masada choirs. This picture shows some of Revival choir at “the point” in Kilimatinde. Isaac came with us on this weekend too and Paul and Daniel had a nice boys’ weekend at home.

For a few months now Christine and a group of other missionary ladies in Dodoma have been meeting regularly for bible study, to pray for each other and especially to pray for the many muslims we know in Dodoma. A few weeks ago our friend Amani (see earlier blogs) came to speak to the group about his conversion to Christianity. It was a wonderful evening and a real blessing both to the group and to Amani. Following this some of the teachers from CAMS (Daniel’s school) who were at the meeting invited him to sing in the school assembly and to tell his story in several classes, which was very well received. Last week we held a fun night with the group and invited a muslim family from Dodoma to come and join us. Two ladies, Rose and Anna, and 3 girls came and we had a wonderful evening together. Please join us in praying for this family and our other Muslim friends, and for Amani and his family, many of whom are Muslim.

Lots of love,
Christine, Paul, Daniel and Isaac.

Babies and bananas

Dear all,

The University is relatively empty at present with students enjoying an inter-semester break along with many staff. Paul is still active though, having spent time off around Christmas, and is now working on exam results, timetables, course outlines and Physics practicals. He is still finding space to work on his masters course and the workshop/shed he is building is near completion.

In January we became God-parents to twins Joshua and Jospehine, pictured here with their parents. Their dad is an electrician here at the university. The second picture shows Josephine feeding cake to Isaac, a Tanzanian tradition! Please pray for them as they grow and develop.

Christine has now started work with TAYO (Tanzania Anglican Youth Organisation) at the head office of the Anglican Church, though the start has been rather more of a challenge than expected. The plan was that she would be assisting a Tanzanian project officer who has been in post for a few months before Christmas, having had all the work of TAYO handed over to him by a USPG mission partner who has now returned to the UK. However, this project officer did not return to work after Christmas so Christine has been on her own trying to keep the office running with little knowledge of what needs to be done, and little support. However, she is now getting to grips with the work and is excited about some of the projects she will be involved with. Initially, alongside the general running of the department and its activities, the main project is a small loans project for youth choirs in 2 dioceses to help them with income generation projects to develop their groups. We do need to employ a new youth co-ordinator for TAYO. Please pray that we find a good and reliable person to fill this role and who Christine can work alongside easily. Please pray for Christine as she gets used to the work and that her work permit will be processed quickly.

We had a long gap in the rains after an encouraging start and people were worried that there would not be enough for the crops. However, the last few weeks we have seen good, continuous rains, and though the crops will not be as good as they might have been had the gap not occurred, they should be sufficient. Our garden is flourishing, and our banana tree is doing very well.

Daniel is now back at school and loving it and Isaac gets on very well with our new house help Rosie while Lidia is on maternity leave. Each week they go to “Childrens Church” run by Michaela a 9 year old friend who plans all sorts of activities for the kids and occasional adult who come along. Michaela and her brothers Schuyler and Zachary are children of Jeff and Wendy an american pentecostal missionary couple here in Dodoma who are great friends of ours (and the boys).

Sadly the Alpha course has not taken off. We have arranged to start it on a couple of occasions and people have not turned up. We are not sure why but need to think of a better way to approach it. Please pray for guidance on this and for the plans to start an English language alpha for students.

Tragically, Leon, the youngest son (2 years) of our parish vicar died a couple of weeks ago after falling in a hand dug well outside their house after heavy rains. It has been a very sad and difficult time for the family and the church. We were both able to attend the funeral and other services which were very moving occasions. Please pray for the family including their other two children.

Last week we had a weekend break in Kilimatinde together with our American neighbour, Brandon. We had a lovely weekend just meeting up with friends. This shows us at the Kilimatinde guest house with our good friend Daniel and his wife Teresia, and another friend of theirs. We may look a bit tired as we had just had a very energetic walk down to the valley where Daniel lives and back up again. The road we used to drive on regularly to the valley is now impassable in most vehicles.

This picture is taken from Radio Hill overlooking Dodoma. The hill lies above the dam where we often go for picnics, which you may have seen in several photos before. The views there are wonderful and it is a lovely spot for a quiet Sunday afternoon walk.

Revival Choir’s shop is doing very well. We have a new shop-keeper, one of our choir members, who is honest and reliable and we have started to make a good profit (though the last couple of weeks have been poor as the students have not been around). In March we have a month of visits to different churches around Dodoma each Sunday, and one weekend in Kilimatinde. Please pray that these visits will be a success and that we are able to share in fellowship with and encourage the churches we visit as well as reaching people with God’s word.

With love

Paul, Christine, Daniel & Isaac