Esther's 1st Birthday

Hello!

It was Esther first birthday on the 20 February, and we've attached some photos of the day. The three of us went to the beach in the afternoon, and then we had cake with the Helsbys and the Millers. There's a couple of video clips of Esther opening her presents and cutting the cake.

Esther had a good day, but I don't think she knew what was going on!

Love from Hitesh, Lucy and Esther


Esther on the beach






Esther opening cards


Esther's cake (Lucy made it!)


Esther cutting cake


Esther eating


Opening presents






Esther just chilling out on our doorstep (not on birthday)



Videos of opening presents and cutting cake

Our new home

Hi! Below are some photos and video clips of our new home. It's pretty basic, but it's nice to have our own space, and as you'll see, it's probably the best house in this part of the village. We have solar power electricity, a tap with running water (some from the Lake, plus collected rainwater), an outside "squat" loo, a shower that consists of a bucket and cup, and one plug socket. But we're enjoying it, and it's our home for the next two months.

Front of the house


Kitchen sink


Our food supplies


Our bedroom



Our walk in closet (the spare room!)


Living room / dining room


Back door of the house





View from the back door




Video clips of the house, toilet and surrounding area

Tiles and tribulations

It has been an interesting week! This week I’ve been tiling for a couple of days, diverting and connecting the water main at various points, and placing various sewage pipes in and out of the new septic tank. Yes I have been standing in the septic tank, but it’s new and has thankfully hasn’t been in operation yet! It was a bit hot and sweaty, but nothing more unpleasant than that!

I say it has been an interesting week, as each activity has had its own particular challenges. Firstly the tiling. I was tiling the worktop to the kitchen. Rather than using specially bought tiling adhesive, I was to use basic sand and cement as the tiling adhesive is expensive. In theory that’s not a problem as the tiles were being fixed to a concrete surface. Anyway, I thought I could get plenty done in the morning as I already had the tile saw set up over the weekend, the tiles were close by, and the cement was in the container which was also close by. I had been told the “sand” wasn’t far away either. So off I pootle with my wheel barrow and go to get the “sand” so I can mix some adhesive. I arrive at the “sand” pile and am concerned with what I see. The majority of African “sand” is the sand as we know it, but here it comes with added free stuff. I suppose it’s like going to the supermarket and getting a BOGOF, or maybe like cereal packets where you get a free toy inside. Well, the added free stuff includes: some odd bits of gravel - well actually quite a lot of odd bits of gravel, some even the size of golf balls somehow qualifies as “sand”; clumps of mud the size of a football also somehow make the grade as “sand”; roots and other bits of vegetation make the classification; and finally, if you’re really lucky, there’s the odd animal turd thrown in the mix too. Wow! I didn’t know African “sand” was so full of surprises. You certainly do get more than you bargained for. Take a look for yourself below:

African “sand”

Anyway, I managed to avoid most of the offending freebies when selecting my “sand”, then spent about half an hour picking out the gravel, and mixed some mortar to give it a go. I spread out the stuff and tried a tile, and it was rubbish. You couldn’t get a tile on flat no matter how hard I tried. There were still too many big bits of stone and gravel. I scraped the stuff off and discarded that mix. So I figured the best thing to do would be to sieve the “sand” and then used the actual sand (as we know it) to make the adhesive. So I drove to the compound, and found some wire mesh fine enough for me to make a sieve. However thankfully the store keeper found one that had been made earlier. It appears someone else had also discovered the added qualities of African “sand”. I then spent nearly an hour sieving the “sand”. And man it was hard work. Have you ever tried it? Has your bag of B&Q sand ever come with freebies? Imagine holding a bucket of sand and shaking it from side to side for even a few minutes. Yes with a sieve it does get a bit lighter as you shake, but African “sand” has A LOT of freebies.

Anyway, after a frustrating morning, I was determined to place a couple of tiles before lunch, and managed to get two in place. I then got back from lunch and found that one of the tiles had not stuck! Because of the heat, the working time for any mix is very short. Plus the water I was using to make the mix is warm. We have a water tank with Lake water in it for building use, but it’s a black tank sitting in the hot African sun, and is luke warm at its coldest. Joy of joys. I had a better afternoon and through God’s grace I managed to tile the full tiles on the top. Tuesday, I did all the cutting and got it finished late in the afternoon.

Finished tile worktop:

Wednesday was also an interesting day. I was fixing some new connections to site water main – 3” tees, straight connectors and a stop end. The fixing went fine, but I was definitely not confident in the quality of the Tanzanian products. The fittings are generally made of plastic and use a plastic collar to grip a plastic pipe, which then compresses a rubber “O” ring to give the seal as you tighten. For some of the joints, I could tighten the joint with my hands. For a pressure pipeline, this is not good. I did take the joint apart to check everything was ok, but the joint was still the same. My suspicions were confirmed yesterday, when we switched on the pump. The joints leaked like a sieve, and some even blew apart. You may ask, surely there are better fittings? Well no. They either have to be special orders or imported, both of which take a long time and are extremely expensive. The pipeline is only used to fill the site water tanks. The water tanks supply the houses and buildings. Once they are filled, the pump is turned off, and the pipeline left till it is needed again.

Thursday and Friday went fine, but I am curious about the Africans, and what they think of us westerners – or wazungu (singular – mzungu). Firstly, am I, an Asian a mzungu? A white person is a mzungu, but am I classed as a white person, or one of the Asians that live here anyway? Secondly, I am curious about the African work ethic. I spent Friday afternoon putting in drain pipes and backfilling trenches. During the whole of Friday afternoon, I was being watched by at first about 6 men, which steadily grew to about 12 as the day wore on. All were sat in the shade while I was working hard in the sun. On top of that, one of them was supposed to be digging a trench for me so that I could put a stub pipe into the septic tank. This trench is important as the stub pipe will be the incoming line for the next family house, which is currently being constructed. And since from today the first family house will be in use, the septic tank is now in use! Need I say anymore! Anyway this guy was just scratching around, not putting in any effort. In the end I had to finish digging the trench myself. What he had done, I could have done in about half an hour with a spoon!

Did they think I was crazy? What did they think of this English guy toiling in the sun? Was I their afternoon entertainment? Now I don’t know how to tell them to get back to work, so I just carried on. I talked to Dave about this later on, and they had a big problem with long breaks and lots of sitting around in the past. But what they do now is to give them a contract for a piece of work. For instance, if they need a trench dug from A to B, which is x wide, and y deep, then they speak to a “gang” and arrange a fee for the work. The gang can take as long as they want to get the work done, but will only get paid once it is done according to the contract. So if they do want to sit in the shade and watch a crazy mzungu, they can do. Though if they do want to work hard and quickly, and earn more money, then they can do that too.

I am just sharing my own thoughts and experiences. When we first came here, we used our eyes to see the physical differences between home and Africa. Now I’m using my eyes to see the differences in culture, and point out what I find strange or odd or difficult. I don’t believe the western way is the “right” way, but I also don’t believe the African way is “right” either. We can definitely learn from each other. If only we in the west took a bit more time to talk to one another and build relationships with each other. We do try to rush through life. Even though we’d be moving slower, it’s still motion.

How did we get here?

I guess some of you may be wondering how we got from working and living in Redhill, Surrey to suddenly taking an 11 month old baby and spending three months in the African wilderness?! Well it’s all to do with our faith in God, and what He has said to us. Christianity is all about a relationship with God, which has been restored by Jesus. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, our relationship with God has been restored, and God speaks to us, His children.

Both separately and together, Lucy and I have felt a calling to Africa. What we mean by calling is that God, through His relationship with us, has put “mission Africa” on our hearts. However, we didn’t know any details from God. We didn’t know which country, when we’re to go, how long to go for etc, plus we have a young daughter! What do we do! Well we prayed about it, and after talking to some friends decided to go on a short term mission trip. We wrote to a number of mission agencies, and AIM were the first to respond and come and see us. We decided to go with AIM, made an application with them in mid-September, had an interview with them in late October, they asked us how soon we could go, and we were leaving on a jet plane on the 24 January!

God has really guided and provided for us during this time. Each step of the way He has pointed us in the right direction, and provided for us. He has used friends and even strangers to show us the way. One of the biggest tests of our faith, and biggest testament to God is His financial provision. The first step of faith came for us in January 2009. Our company changed its maternity policy to a much better deal. Lucy was pregnant with Esther, and as her due date was before 1 April, we missed out in it by a matter of weeks. We could have fought for it, and may well have won, but it would have meant that Lucy would have had to have worked for 12 months after returning from maternity leave. We knew we had this calling for Africa, and didn’t want to be tied down, but we desperately needed the money, so we prayed about it, said to God that we’re not going to contest it, and left it at that. In March, our company announced that it was not going to be awarding any pay rises due to the financial climate, but for some unknown reason (God!), we got bonuses that amounted to the additional money the new maternity deal would have given us. Praise God! We got the money, and were not bound by any contract!

Secondly, we had this calling, but had no money to fund the trip. We needed £6500 to go on the trip, but had no savings due to Lucy being on maternity leave and only really living on just over one salary. We were told by Steve Lancaster from AIM, that “if it’s God’s will. It’s God’s bill!” Basically by us taking a step of faith and acting on our calling by God, God will provide. So we asked our church, our company, and the church Lucy grew up in, for support. God obviously guided them, and told people how much to give since we were given just over our total budget!

Thirdly, God has provided for our mortgage. We spoke to our mortgage company in November, and they said there wouldn’t be a problem in getting a mortgage holiday, but that we’d need to apply after our January payment, as we wanted it to start in February. So less than two weeks before leaving, after the January payment had been made, we applied for the mortgage holiday, and frustratingly it was declined! After numerous phonecalls and a long letter, it was still declined. So we prayed, left it to God, and left on a jet plane! Anyway on arrival in Africa, we checked our bank balances for our salary payment, and we’d been overpaid by our company! We emailed to our company, and they said we could have the money taken out of our salary when we get back, and have it spread it over two months. Praise God! The overpayment covers our mortgage while we’re away! We are extremely pleased about this as we didn’t want people’s giving to cover our mortgage.

If you already believe in God, then the above is a great testimony to the awesome provision of God. If you don’t believe in God, and see the above as a series of coincidences, can we encourage you to consider that there is a God that loves and cares for you. Logically there can only be two possibilities. Either there is a God or not. If there is the slightest possibility that there is, surely it’s worth investigating?

Three Weeks In

It’s been a busy week. The push to get the first family house completed is well and truly on. We’re getting lots done, although progress can be the usual African slow at times. We had an interesting day on Tuesday. We had a visit from the Tanzanian Immigration office. They wanted to see what was happening at Mavuno so that they could process the various work permits and visas. They were supposed to arrive at noon, but they arrived at 4:30pm in typical African style. The visit went well, which was such an answer to prayer, and they were happy with everything they saw. As a result we managed to pick up all but one of the visas on Thursday. (The remaining visa needs to be sent to Dar Es Salaam, but there shouldn’t be any problems). Tanzanians are hospitable people and as such it is important to honour and show respect to anyone that visits your house, especially officials. So, a meal was prepared for the officials, including meat as a fully vegetarian meal would be considered dishonourable. We were planning on eating together, but as they were so late arriving, we had already eaten. The officials turned up in a 4x4 and came in leaving two guys in the car. As part of offering hospitality, the two men in the vehicle outside were offered some ‘sodas’, while they waited. They looked at each other and declined. They were asked again as it was very hot, and they said that they’d share a bottle between them. We only found out later that these two guys in the 4x4 were actually illegal immigrants that were picked up on the way to Mavuno! No wonder they were unsure how to respond to the offer of a drink!

Despite the tough week, we’ve had a very relaxing day today. We had a lie in till 8am (that’s pretty good with Esther!), had breakfast, and then took a walk to the beach before lunch. Relaxed in the afternoon, and Lucy made a lovely meal in the evening. It’s been a quiet day, especially as the Helsbys have been away visiting friends today.

Hitesh – I’ve had a tough (physical) week his week. I’ve spent most of the week outside in the blistering sun. Apart from the pipe laying and digging trenches, four of us spent a day wrestling with a 3” PVC pipe that will be a new water main to the new houses. The pipe is pretty rigid, and we laid 400m of it! It was a very physical day, but we got lots done. The pipe was black in colour and got so hot that we had to use gloves to handle the pipe. I spent Friday and Saturday wiring the solar panels to the new family house, and thank God it worked first time without any problems! I thankfully didn’t get electrocuted, and nothing blew up, plus all the sockets and lights work. We’re desperately trying to get the house finished by next Friday so that the first orphans can move in. It will be quite a momentous day, especially for the Helsbys and Tanners. They’ve been working on the project for 5+ years and to finally see the first orphans live on site will be massive. I start tomorrow (Monday) doing tiling. Kitchen worktops here are cast in concrete and then tiled. You can get the chipboard laminate ones that we have at home, but they just don’t last. Not entirely sure what the Africans do that destroys them so quickly, but if it’s concrete, it will last!

Here's a picture of some of the drainage I laid


The Tanzanians are very big on their greetings and building relationships. When you meet your fellow workers, you must ask them (in Swahili) how their journey was, how’s their day going, how are their family etc. We’ve picked up many of the phrases and can start a conversation. However, when you ask the question, the answer is always Nzuri! Nzuri means good or OK. So even if you’ve had a terrible morning, or a terrible day, you must always answer that it was good! Really can’t figure this one out, though it does mean that you know how to answer most of the questions asked! I think there is a way of saying after, “but it didn’t work out etc…”. However my Swahili hasn’t got that far! I think it’s to do with the fact that Africans don’t like to disappoint. They want to say yes, or give some form of positive answer. For instance, if you need a ride into town on your friend’s pick up, he will immediately say “yes”. But it’s only after you’ve talked to him some more that you realise he’s already taking 10 other people, and that the answer is actually no! It’s all about the relationship!

Lucy – This last week has been good. We visited Mwanza on Thursday. This is the 2nd biggest town in Tanzania and is about an hours drive away. Somebody from Mavuno tends to go there at least once a week as this is where everything (pipes, fittings, food!) is bought. As well as popping to a few fantastic shops full of pipe fitting, bolts, valves and fan-belts (which I probably found more exciting than I should have done!), we went to the market…which was great! I’ve been before and it is so much fun, particularly with Esther in tow. Virtually every stand you go to the local women talk to you in Swahili and then give Esther a bit of food. In that one visit she was given half a passion fruit, some doughnut, a banana, a very small local fish known as Talipia, and a carrot! Not bad going. The people in the market are a lot of fun and so generous and warm. Even with my virtually non-existent Swahili, it’s still really good to be able laugh and smile with them! We also went to visit a German missionary’s house and had a bible study with 3 other missionaries from the area. Was really good to meet them and get to know them a bit.

Picture 1 from the market


Picture 2 from the market


I have also had a little project to work on myself this week. I have been reading up on and trying to build a solar oven. The theory behind them is incredibly simply, amazingly money-saving and very efficient. I am trying to come up with a design that not only works, but can also be built from all local materials for very little cost. So far is costing less than £4! I trialled it today and got water in a pot to reach 90C. Will keep working on it to try and get the water to boil. The aim is to try and persuade some of the locals to use them to try and save them money.

Today has been great. It’s been really nice to just spend some time as a family and do very little! Walking to and from the beach was lovely – we saw monkeys, a fish eagle, some gorgeous butterfly’s and some very cool birds (no idea what kind, sorry, not a twitcher!)… was a very good way to spend Valentine’s day!

Esther – I has had a good day today with Mummy and Daddy. We went to the beach and I played in the sand. But on the way home I was soo tired from having lots of fun that I fell asleep as Daddy was carrying me home.

Mummy and Daddy gave me some chocolate, and here's a picture of me afterwards!




Here's a video clip of us at the "beach" last week. The water is Lake Victoria.

Life at Mavuno

Hi everyone! Hope you’re all ok back home. We are all very well, and are enjoying the Tanzanian adventure. We’ve been in Africa just over two weeks now, and we have all settled in well.

We are amazed at how quickly Esther has adapted and settled in to life over here. Thank you to all those that have prayed for this. Esther absolutely loves it out here. She loves to walk around and explore. Her favourite place is by the front gate where she likes to watch the two dogs run around and play with each other. She’s very often shrieking with excitement, as only Esther can do! Esther loves the kids and gets on really well with them. Plus she’s a great hit with the locals, and is a great ice breaker. Attached are a couple of photos of her. She’s still full of life and energy, and is constantly on the move!

Esther in a cupboard!

Esther playing

We’re staying in a very lovely house. Attached are a couple of photos of the house, including one that shows the storage compound in the distance plus a few storage containers. There’s also a picture of our room. We’ve been very blessed with this house and the accommodation. We were amazed at it when we first came here. We’ll be staying here for another week and a half before we move into some more simpler accommodation, which is about 10 mins walk past the compound. This current house has solar panels for electricity, plus solar heated hot water. Water comes from Lake Victoria, which is to the left of the photo (you can just see a bit of it in the zoomed out site photo). Lake Victoria is probably about 15 mins walk away from our current house. In fact, Mavuno have cleared a little area and have their own beach! It’s very cool, though you can’t swim in the Lake due to the parasites in it! We went there on Sunday, and there’s a picture of most of the current team – Helsbys, Millers and Mistrys.

Current house and surroundings

Current house


Our room

Families at Mavuno

There’s a whole host of bugs and creatures around, and one of the insects we’ve seen a lot of lately is the siafu! They are crazy ants, and pretty vicious little things. They go out on the march for food, and form this thick line, probably about an inch wide. There’s a photo with a thick black line of siafu, and one close up. Often, there are some sort of soldier ants that cover and protect the worker ants that run up and down the channel underneath. If you manage to step on a line, they will crawl up under your clothes, and will all bite in unison once someone gives the signal. Not nice.

"Line" of siafu

Siafu close up

Hitesh – The main family house we’re working on is about 10 mins walk from the site, which is the other side of the photo. They had hoped to have it finished and a family moved in by now, but the house is still not ready yet. I’ve been busy working on it trying to help get it completed. I’m currently working on the drainage system to the septic tank, installing all the pipework. It’s not quite as easy as the UK, especially as the quality of the materials is variable to say the least! Plus it’s boiling hot! I spent nearly 2 hours today digging out a trench in the baking heat for a pipe, and it was VERY hard work! Other things I’ve been doing include: fixing and wiring solar panels; fixing leaky hot water pipes; fixing a leak in a large 3” water main; building storage shelves; placing mosquito screens; and designing roof trusses.

My day start with breakfast at 7:30am, and then attempting to start work at around 8:00am. I say around 8:00am as Africa time is never very precise! We work from 8am till 1pm, where we stop for lunch for an hour. Then continue work from 2pm till 5pm. We have dinner around 6pm, then generally to bed about 10pm ish. Flexibility and patience are the key, and I’ve struggled a bit with the patience side of things! I was aware that “the west has the watches, but Africa has the time”, but it’s different when you’re in the thick of things. Often I spend the whole morning trying to get and find tools and materials, and don’t often actually get started with productive work till the afternoon. When I’m at work in the UK, I have goals and lists of things to do for the day, and generally get most if not all of them done. Here, I’m really learning to just go with the flow of things. The Africans say that even though you’re moving slowly, you’re still moving!

Hitesh putting up mosquito screens

Flexibility is also very important. We’ve often planned to do a certain task the previous day, but come the morning, other tasks take precedence, such as having to fix a leaky pipe, or having to run the water pump to fill the header tanks. Or even having to source a generator to top up the electricity batteries as it’s a cloudy day and the solar panels aren’t generating enough power. I’m enjoying the work, and definitely know at the end of the day that I’ve worked hard, despite often having very little to show for it!

Lucy – My life has been a bit less extreme than Hitesh’s! In general I am playing a bit of a balancing act between looking after Esther and trying to do a little bit of work! My day starts, following breakfast with everyone, with a bit of bible reading and singing with the Helsby’s six kids. Esther loves the singing time! Then I put Esther down for a nap and spend a bit of time reading the bible and praying a bit myself too. Then I try and fit in a bit of work if I can - not always successful! I try and pop over to the ‘family house’ that Hitesh has been working on to see if I can help out – see attached photo. After lunch when Esther has her second nap I try and fit in a bit more work. Yesterday I had a bit of a wander around the site pacing out rough distances between the pump house, and various junctions and bends in the pipework that have already been laid, trying to get an idea of what’s in the ground. Whilst I’m here I’m aiming to try and put together a sketch of where all the pipework is, where the connections to the houses are, and where the header tanks are positioned; together with pipe lengths and diameters. I think this’ll be useful not just for now but in the future too. I was out yesterday measuring distances for about an hour – but managed to get burnt. Can’t get over how hot it is here!

Lucy at work - painting

Although weather is generally very hot we’ve had a few wet days and nights recently with a fantastic thunderstorm last night – was awesome! Never seen lightening like it – Was pretty much continuous lightening flashes for about an hour!

Hmmm… what else is there to tell you. Well, we went to church last Sunday for the first time – which was cool. Couldn’t understand a word of what was being said as it was all in Swahili but the people were really warm and welcoming – which was lovely. The kids got extremely excited when we took the digital camera out and took some photos of them. They especially loved seeing the photo we’d taken. It’s quite a small church of about 50 adults and slightly more children. It’s one of out ‘local’ churches but it still took about 45 mins to drive there and the drive home included a fair amount of off-roading over fields and very rocky tracks… all because a local construction company had decided to open up a trench across the access road we’d used to get to the church and had felt it wasn’t worth providing any means to allow people to continue using the road. The only option was to wait until they’d laid their cables in the trench and backfilled it again, or to off-road it. As the Helsby’s have a 4x4 we took the later option!!!

Church

We are very slowly picking up bits of Swahili and can generally greet people and ask how their morning/afternoon is going and how work’s going. However, it still takes me quite a while to process the information when someone greets me in Swahili so my response is always a little delayed!

When we move into our new house I think our Swahili will have to improve as we’ll be living amongst the locals. Think it will end up being quite a different experience to where we’re living at them moment.

Still can’t get over how beautiful it is here! It is such a privilege to wake up and look out onto Lake Victoria, see beautiful blue skies and the sun beaming down. The setting here is idyllic – I don’t think you could ever get bored of it! Even the evenings are lovely. We’re sitting here writing this listening to the crickets chirping away and… that’s about it. Every thing else is silent. Fantastic!!!

Esther - I is very tired today, cos I helped Daddy put in a pipe. I liked it today when Daddy took me for a ride in the pick-up truck.