Hellos and Goodbyes

Dear Friends,

Sorry for the long break from the blog but hopefully you have received our link letter in the meantime. Dodoma is now very dry again. Many parts of the country have had a very good harvest this year, though as usual Dodoma region has suffered due to lack of rain. At least there should be plenty of food around from surrounding areas this year.

Christine’s small loans project is continuing to go well in the diocese of Kiteto. Thank you to everyone who has made contributions on my just giving page or to me personally and please pray that this avenue continues to be effective. We recently carried out training of 8 youth groups and have distributed loans to them. This work would have been impossible without your contributions and more is still needed. The pictures show the training event. The groups will be carrying out a range of projects including vegetable gardening, carpentry, pig and chicken keeping, small shops and others.

In June Revival Choir (the Swahili choir with which Christine sings) held a big event to launch our CD which we recorded late last year. It was a great event. A well known Christian singer from Kenya, Solomon Mkubwa, joined us. He is pictured here performing, and the group shows Revival choir with him and others.

Paul is starting to hand various responsibilities over to others at the university as we get ready for our furlough. He has promised to see the new timetable in and so we’ll be leaving shortly after the university opens in November and not long after our first graduation for which frantic preparations are ongoing and for which your prayers are welcome. In the mean time there will still be the usual tasks to keep Paul busy: marking, exam mark collation, teaching practice observation, timetable creation along with this year a little bit of teaching A-level Physics on a pre-university entry course. The university year has just come to an end and we were very sad to say goodbye to graduating students who have been with us in the English choir for the last 3 years. A few weeks ago we had a lovely farewell party with them. This picture shows the members who will be leaving us singing at the party.

We have just had a visit from Christine’s mum. This picture shows us picnicing with her and some friends beside our favourite lake in Dodoma. We also had a few days holiday in Bagamoyo. Here the boys are catching crabs with daddy and playing in the sea with Grandma.

















We have had a couple of trips to Kilimatinde recently. Here Isaac is helping our friend Ema to wash the car with water from the lake in the village.

We are busy making preparations to come back to the UK on Furlough in November this year for 6 months. Thanks for your prayers for the practical side of things. We have just confirmed a house to rent in St. Austell and CMS will be lending us a vehicle, so things are coming together now. We are in the process of arranging dates to visit all our link churches and generally planning our busy schedule. Please pray for God’s hand over the whole process both in terms of our time back in the UK and the situations we leave behind.

Though the house is well equipped there are a few things we will be looking to borrow if any of our friends in St. Austell are able to help out. If anyone has a spare oil fired or electric radiator which we could use in a bedroom we would be very grateful. We would also be grateful for the loan of a few toys and especially kids bikes (for a proficient 7 year old, and a 4 year old needing stabilizers)

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

Videos and justgiving page

Please take a look at my just giving page www.justgiving.com/Tanzania-Youth

We are trying to raise funds for the youth small loans project which Christine is working on. CMS are supporting us in this and will channel all donations made through this page to my project. You can read more about the project on the page itself and see some pictures of the work so far. Any help you are able to be give would be hugely appreciated. Thanks.x

Here are a couple of videos to give you some idea of our everyday life in Dodoma. The first is of our general life and work, and the second of the boys school and some of their activities. As usual they are low quality because of problems with uploading.

Isaac's Birthday

Dear all,


We have had a good couple of months. Isaac turned 4 at the end of March. Here he is with his veggietales birthday cake. He had a great party with around 30 friends - a very sociable boy!




We were treated to another great show at school at Easter and spent Easter day in Msalato village with Rev. Sambayi, the ex vicar of our church, and his family in their new parish. Christine and the boys had their usual few days retreat to Kilimatinde during the Easter holidays. These pictures show Isaac and some friends enjoying looking at some pigs belonging to our friend Baraka, and the boys singing with Amani on the rock in Kilimatinde.


We also enjoyed a few days visit from our friends Grace and Mark from St. Austell passing through on their way up to Musoma where Grace will be working for a while.

Christine has now started some of the preparatory training work for the small loans project in the diocese of Kiteto and is trying to find funding to continue with this. She is also busy planning and looking for funding for other projects such as the development of a recording studio for youth choirs in dodoma, and various training programmes for young people. This picture shows some of the young people during the initial seminar. Please pray for theis project and for all of Christine's work.

Our English choir CD "Light of the World" has now been produced and is on sale so we are busy promoting it. Next week we will be going to lead a service at the cathedral in town and promoting it there. Please pray for the choir as we will lose many of our members this year as they are final year students in the university. Pray that we are able to find some new members to continue the good work that the group has started in the English congregation.

After a hectic inter-semester break we're now into the swing of a slightly easier paced second semester here at the University. The picture shows some first years working away at one of the electronics practicals. First year and second year labs are going well and Paul is now working on practical tests and datalogging workshops (new for this year as we've recently received the sensors and interfaces from labaid). The Dodoma Physics Teachers Network is at a critical phase. Poor attendance from members so far suggest that it simply is not fulfilling a need and so not worth continuing however Paul has decided to try again one more time, setting a meeting for next month - please pray that if this is part of Gods will for Paul's work here in Dodoma then it may be revealed in new interest (or however God decides to do it).

Many thanks for all your support financially and prayerfully.
Much love
Paul, Christine, Daniel & Isaac

Travels and treehouses

Dear Friends,

It is now raining again, so much so that in some parts of the country there has been flooding, though in other parts there has been drought. In the Dodoma area the harvest, though not brilliant, promises to be quite good this year relative to recent years. This picture shows the maize crop of one of our neighbours on the university campus.

Christine has recently been travelling to the dioceses of Mpwapwa and Kiteto to talk to diocesan and youth leaders to determine if one of these dioceses is suitable to start the next stage of our loans and savings scheme. Though we have not yet managed to find a grant to continue the project we have a little money which we can use to at least begin the project in one diocese. Please pray that more funds will come through for this project. The picture shows Christine and Beatrice with the Bishop and various youth leaders in Mpwapwa.

Paul, whilst taking a break from writing timetables and collating student results over the short break between semesters, has been very busy building a tree house in the garden which the boys and their friends love. Daniel loves reading and writing these days and now enjoys taking his books up in the tree house to read to himself or to Isaac. This is the house under construction and the boys in the not-quite-finished product. The long awaited Physics Teachers Network has at last met for the first time with a number of interested members from local schools. Please pray that the Network grows and becomes effective in improving the quality of Physics Teaching in Dodoma and that Paul gets the timetable ready in time for the new semester

We have several new mission partners at the university, including the Heaneys, a crosslinks family with a little boy called Sam, who is already Isaac’s best friend. They go to school together. It is lovely to have another family around.

We are beginning to think about our time of furlough which will begin in November this year for 6 months. We plan to be based in St. Austell but although we have a house there, we now have very good tenants who we do not want to lose. So, if they plan to stay we would need to find alternative accommodation. If any of our Cornwall friends have any ideas of somewhere we could stay for that time please let us know. Perhaps someone has a friend with a holiday let which would be quiet over the winter months and we could rent at low cost? Hopefully the boys will be going to Bishop Bronscombe School for a few months. We may also be looking to borrow a car, either for the whole time or just for some of our weekend link church visits, if anyone has any ideas?

This picture shows some of the girls from Revival choir who were cooking in our garden when we had some choir guests last weekend.

Below ore 3 videos - the first is a video of Daniel's birthday back in September. Second, you should find a video of our Christmas break, and finally a video of our English choir when we went to record an album in January. All have been reduced in size (and quality) to be uploadable.

New Year 2010

Dear friends,

Happy New Year! The special Christmas blog turned into a special Christmas email – hope you all got that, and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Over Christmas we took a short holiday at Bagamoyo with some neighbours. The boys were particularly excited about having Christmas on the beach and it made a nice relaxing break for us all.

Whilst we were away the rain here in Dodoma was very heavy and this continued into January, though it now hasn’t rained for over a week and if it doesn’t start again soon crops will be badly affected so please pray that it returns soon. The picture shows the usually very dry river which runs through the middle of the university campus, at full flow.

On new year’s eve we celebrated with Christmas crackers and Christmas pudding with our neighbours. This is our neighbour Elspeth and Paul thoroughly enjoying themselves. Christine then went to see the new year in at church at a big celebration with hours of singing and dancing led by revival choir and various university choirs. (unfortunately I forgot to take the camera to this one!) Then on new years day we headed off to Kilimatinde to greet our friends there and for the baptism service of our new God-daughter, Janeth, daughter of our good friends Ema and Beatrice.

The boys are just finishing their long Christmas holiday and are back to school on Monday. Please pray for them as they settle back into the routine of school again. They have enjoyed the break and are now much happier to be left at home with Lidia when Christine goes to work.

Last week we did yet another recording, this time with the English choir. The photos show the whole choir in our new uniforms and the tenors rehearsing in our garden. It was hard work but good fun and hopefully we should produce a good CD.

Today Paul was granted an audience with the Heads of all the Secondary Schools in Dodoma Muunicipality to seek their support as we plan to launch the Dodoma Physics Teacher’s Network. He and the idea of the network were warmly welcomed and the date has been set or the first meeting in February. After what has been a relatively stress free semester, as it draws to its close, Paul is bracing himself for one of the busiest times of the year. He has the task of assessment coordinator for the faculty which requires many hours of slaving over databases and spreadsheets for the next couple of months and also needs to have the second semester timetable ready after what will be just a short break. These big jobs come on top of other tasks such as preparing new teaching courses and practicals and keeping up with the marking but Paul is trying to relax and trust in God’s provision day by day and is determined not to let himself become overstressed as he did last year.

The final picture shows our friend Yohana and his son Joshua (other God-children) having a relaxing sunday afternoon in our garden!


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

Dear friends,

Happy New Year! The special Christmas blog turned into a special Christmas email – hope you all got that, and hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Over Christmas we took a short holiday at Bagamoyo with some neighbours. The boys were particularly excited about having Christmas on the beach and it made a nice relaxing break for us all.

Whilst we were away the rain here in Dodoma was very heavy and this continued into January, though it now hasn’t rained for over a week and if it doesn’t start again soon crops will be badly affected so please pray that it returns soon. The picture shows the usually very dry river which runs through the middle of the university campus, at full flow.

On new year’s eve we celebrated with Christmas crackers and Christmas pudding with our neighbours. This is our neighbour Elspeth and Paul thoroughly enjoying themselves. Christine then went to see the new year in at church at a big celebration with hours of singing and dancing led by revival choir and various university choirs. (unfortunately I forgot to take the camera to this one!) Then on new years day we headed off to Kilimatinde to greet our friends there and for the baptism service of our new God-daughter, Janeth, daughter of our good friends Ema and Beatrice.

The boys are just finishing their long Christmas holiday and are back to school on Monday. Please pray for them as they settle back into the routine of school again. They have enjoyed the break and are now much happier to be left at home with Lidia when Christine goes to work.

Last week we did yet another recording, this time with the English choir. The photos show the whole choir in our new uniforms and the tenors rehearsing in our garden. It was hard work but good fun and hopefully we should produce a good CD.

Today Paul was granted an audience with the Heads of all the Secondary Schools in Dodoma Muunicipality to seek their support as we plan to launch the Dodoma Physics Teacher’s Network. He and the idea of the network were warmly welcomed and the date has been set or the first meeting in February. After what has been a relatively stress free semester, as it draws to its close, Paul is bracing himself for one of the busiest times of the year. He has the task of assessment coordinator for the faculty which requires many hours of slaving over databases and spreadsheets for the next couple of months and also needs to have the second semester timetable ready after what will be just a short break. These big jobs come on top of other tasks such as preparing new teaching courses and practicals and keeping up with the marking but Paul is trying to relax and trust in God’s provision day by day and is determined not to let himself become overstressed as he did last year.

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

Rain and Recording

Dear all,

A few weeks ago the rain started. We thought it had come early and it looked very promising. The boys went straight out to play in their wellies! However, after a week or so of heavy rain, we have had a couple of weeks now with none at all and people are concerned it was a false alarm and are not sure whether or not to start planting. In the mean time it’s all very hot and very sticky. Please pray that the rains will start properly soon and last long enough to produce a good harvest this year.

At the end of October we enjoyed a visit from our friends from Kettering, the Aylings, who are thinking of coming to Tanzania as mission partners. We had a lovely few days with them, though sadly too short! Please pray for them as they make plans for the future, and thank God that their children loved their time here after being very apprehensive. The picture shows Stewart and Michelle with their children Jack, Harry and Robyn, together with the head and deputy head at a local primary school.

We also welcomed home from Nairobi our friends, the Garrets, with their new baby Christiana Danielle, shown here with Wendy her mum.








At the beginning of November we attended a CMS “Partners in Mission” conference at a lovely Catholic Retreat centre in Veyula just outside Dodoma. We got together with all the CMS UK mission partners in Tanzania, Tim and Steve from the UK office and Sarah from the CMS Africa office in Nairobi, for a wonderful time of sharing, encouraging and praying for one another. This picture shows nearly everyone who attended.

Last week Christine went to Dar-es-Salaam to record a CD with Revival choir after 2 hard weeks of rehearsing every day. We had a good trip and the CD is excellent though was very hard work especially due to lack of air conditioning in a small sealed studio in the hot season in Dar-es-Salaam! These pictures shows Venace recording the keyboard in the studio and Mama Glory relaxing outside the studio.

Christine’s workload has become much easier now. We are now mainly trying to find ways to fundraise for the various projects we have in the pipeline. Please pray that some of these projects and ideas will be successful and especially that we find a way to fund Beatrice’s salary as we only have a few months of money left.

Despite the heavy number of contact hours this semester Paul is fairly chipper, enjoying the teaching and finding time to devote to work issues, helping others out, the masters course and of course home and family commitments. The pergola at the back of the house has been the latest weekend project – all we need to do now is wait for the vines and passion plants, currently about 10cm tall, to grow up and over it to get some shade – may be some time.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Unfortunately we missed the deadline to get a link letter out before Christmas but watch this space for a special Christmas blog!

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

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