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

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