Sea, singing and Certificates

Dear all,

Whoops it’s been a very long time since our last update and some have been asking what’s happened to us. Well to make up for the long silence and to clear the backlog of news to tell you all, this one should be a big one.

We are now at a slightly quiet phase in our working lives as Christine has just finished one of her big projects (more later) and Paul is in the middle of the university break. Over the last few months God has been good to us, keeping us in good health and occupied in enjoyable service. As the end of the academic year approached Paul was involved in the annual Physics IT workshop – another chance to help our students to appreciate the use of Technology within the laboratory by performing a series of hands on data-logging experiments. He also found time, aside from his usual teaching tasks, to try his hand at software development by working alongside his friend and colleague Dr John Ham in making improvements to the university database system, with more developments possibly in the pipeline.

At the end of the semester we went through our, now annual, bitter-sweet experience of saying goodbye to half of the English Choir. Having had such a great year, working closely together during the recording, it was a sad moment to both congratulate but also say goodbye to our graduating members. The photo shows the leavers with their certificates and presents.

The end of the school year brings the talent show “CAMS got talent” at the boys school (CAMS = Canon Andrea Mwaka School). Daniel played the keyboard at the show and did very well. This is him and some friends with their certificates.  Isaac was a little too shy to enter this year – maybe next time! Isaac is definitely more outgoing than Daniel in general but Daniel is a confident performer! They are both now enjoying their new year at school in standard 5 and 3 and are so far very happy with their new teachers.

We had a wonderful holiday during the school break at “Kipepeo” (butterfly) beach in Dar-es-Salaam. Daniel discovered a love of the waves and we almost had to drag him out of the sea (destined to be a surfer when we head back to Cornwall!) Isaac is happier on the beach hunting for crabs! In this picture he is trying to dig one out of its hole!

In June Christine and Kikuyu Gospel Singers organised a mission in the local community of Kikuyu, with our friend Evangelist Musa Njagamba as our preacher. It was a wonderful event which reached lots of people. Many people gave their lives to Christ and others were healed. These pictures show Musa leading a time of prayer, and Kikuyu Gospel Singers and friends singing.

Also in June Christine’s good friend and ex-colleague from the youth department, Justine, was married to Salome at the Cathedral in Dodoma. It was a wonderful and very joyful occasion.

At the end of the school holidays we spent a few days in Kilimatinde and got to know Zephania (Grace and Festo’s baby) a little better. These pictures show us on a walk to the rock in Kilimatinde with Zephania

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine has just finished a month long music and worship school for church musicians from all over Tanzania. It took place at St. John’s during the university holidays. It was a wonderful event and the 35 students who attended were very blessed by it. We taught practical music and music theory as well as music ministry and worship.  We also taught song writing techniques and gave the students the challenge of writing a song based on a passage from Song of Songs in groups. We even managed to record some of these songs. The video below shows one of the songs which was very different to the usual Tanzanian style. These pictures show the whole class and a group learning the keyboard. I will soon put more pictures and details on my work blog too. (see link above)

With a few weeks to go now before the students return once more, Paul is occupying himself with the timetable and other ‘holiday jobs’ and enjoying the lull before the coming storm as he’ll be back to a busy teaching load this coming semester. In his spare time Paul has also been tinkering in his shed and has completed version 1.lots of his rowing machine. It was designed for Paul to keep fit and worked to a degree in that it was exhausting to build and tweak but now it’s complete it has turned out to be more popular with the boys as it’s not quite tuned for adult use yet. Daniel can be seen using it ont he video below. Perhaps version 2 may appear during the next university holidays.

With love and blessings,

Paul Christine, Daniel and Isaac.xxx