Firstly, I just wanted to give you some other websites you can visit to actually see some pictures of this place, and even some of the people I've been talking about - the main site for this base is www.ywamhopeland.com (since the name of the base is Hopeland...just in case you're feeling as slow as me today!) ans also katy's web page is http://web.mac.com/saunderskaty - that should have lots of photos of our antics over the last couple months!
Also, can I say a HUGE thank you for all your emails - Lynn, Nina, Helen, Claire, Sarah, it has been great to hear from you and i'm just sorry i didn't have time to reply to everyone...also Tony, Kate and Wendy - so good to hear the farming news, Wendy - you NEVER bore me, you know I love to hear about how the maize is doing and what stage everyone's at with their harvesting, and about the cows' yields, so don't leave anything out!!!! i really miss my work now - even though we have some animals here, i don't have time to get involved with anything, and even if i could, i'd probably be no help as i have no idea how they do things here! It's strange to think that it's getting colder and calving and maize silaging is going on, while here it's exactly the same as when i arrived - some days hot and sunny, some days thunderstorms, but it's permanent summer!
Gotta go to lunch now and attempt to clear my plate - i managed to burn my oesophagus with my malaria medicine (i have now learnt NOT to ignore the instructions about not taking it before lying down...) so eating is very painful and i am beginning to appreciate my health while i have it!!!
Hope you're all well, keep emailing - i'll get time to read it eventually!!
alex : )
Monday, 15 October 2007
Friday, 5 October 2007
Yup, i did make it back!!
Hello lovely people! It's now halfway through lunch, and all is going smoothly - the office is open a bit earlier than usual and there's nobody about at all!! Unheard of...
I just got a great surprise - I have been hearing bleating sounds all morning, and just assumed that one of Joe's sheep had escaped, but as I investigated round my dorm where the noise was louder, I found a billy goat!!! I think it's part of the FCD school's new project - they did tell me they were planning on rearing a few goats and/or pigs, but the latest I'd heard was that they just wanted pigs. I'm so happy though, a goat already!! I've been thinking a lot about having goats here as we have so much extra grass, and a few others are keen on the idea (Dr Tim has even taken to calling me "goat girl"), but I'm not sure that's what God wants me to do the the second half of this year - there are so many other projects I could get involved in. I don't finish DTS til February anyway so not much point wasting any energy on the idea yet, but it's just so exciting that we have a goat! yay!
Can you tell that's made my day?!!
Ok, so where was I - I mentioned Lilian's fundraiser which was a coffee night with the Tongans dancing, Nixon and Becky, Susan, Milly and Lilian singing and Simon and Judith from Discovery doing a silly mind-game type thing, and Emma Msaki (one of our DTS staff from Tanzania - have I mentioned him? He's crazy and I love him so much!) being the MC.
Then on Friday instead of our simple half-way day party, they took us to Kingfisher which is a hotel resort with a swimming pool and beautiful gardens!! It was amazing! The boys spent hours with Katy's camera, posing for pictures....they are so unlike English boys, it's unreal!
Msaki left early on Saturday morning to go back home to Tanzania for a week - he has a wife and 2 small kids, and I don't know how he manages to survive so much time apart from them - I'm glad he's got some time with them now. We called him yesterday when we met for small group (Peace, Robert, Emma Mugaya the school leader and me) and he sounded really happy to be back - we miss him though, he's such a big character!
On the weekend I went to Kakira market with Peace and we bought a pineapple for 500 shillings - that's about 15p!!!! It was delicious, we ate our fill last night : )
This week in class we've been learning about the importance of knowing God's word and the battle of the mind, guarding our thoughts against bad desires. Philippians 4:8 says "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you." And no, that doesn't mean that Christians are saints and never think wrong thoughts, but as our teacher says - you can't stop birds from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest there!!
Another thing I learnt from her was a more plausible explanation for the war in Israel - right now I can't find the right words to describe what I've learnt, but for those of you who believe in God, please read Psalm 122 - from verse 6 it says "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, "Peace be with you." For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem." The war that's going on is a spiritual battle between the forces of darkness and the Kingdom of God, and we need to pray! God doesn't want this war, and He's asking us to join with Him and help fight against it by the power of prayer.
On a different note entirely, I have learnt some more Luganda and Tongan! I want you all to learn with me so you can understand when I come home and talk in my new mixed-up way...! So, "kwa gala nyo" means "I love you so much" in Luganda, and "fiefia" is "happy in Tongan. Let me do it in a list:
Luganda:
was'os'o'tiya = good morning
waanji = yes
Tongan:
po'uli a = good night
sio pogipogi = see you in the morning
mohe nonga = sleep with peace (merino also means peace!! if only the sheep were peaceful too...)
ofa atu = i love you
malo ngawe lahi = well done / thank you for what you are doing
kata = laugh
lahi = much (like kata lahi, mohe lahi = too much sleep!)
can you tell Tongan is easier than Luganda?! Hena actually taught me a few more phrases but I forgot them already...
Ok, that's it for now, gotta go for small group!
love alex : ) (mata malimali = face, smile!)
I just got a great surprise - I have been hearing bleating sounds all morning, and just assumed that one of Joe's sheep had escaped, but as I investigated round my dorm where the noise was louder, I found a billy goat!!! I think it's part of the FCD school's new project - they did tell me they were planning on rearing a few goats and/or pigs, but the latest I'd heard was that they just wanted pigs. I'm so happy though, a goat already!! I've been thinking a lot about having goats here as we have so much extra grass, and a few others are keen on the idea (Dr Tim has even taken to calling me "goat girl"), but I'm not sure that's what God wants me to do the the second half of this year - there are so many other projects I could get involved in. I don't finish DTS til February anyway so not much point wasting any energy on the idea yet, but it's just so exciting that we have a goat! yay!
Can you tell that's made my day?!!
Ok, so where was I - I mentioned Lilian's fundraiser which was a coffee night with the Tongans dancing, Nixon and Becky, Susan, Milly and Lilian singing and Simon and Judith from Discovery doing a silly mind-game type thing, and Emma Msaki (one of our DTS staff from Tanzania - have I mentioned him? He's crazy and I love him so much!) being the MC.
Then on Friday instead of our simple half-way day party, they took us to Kingfisher which is a hotel resort with a swimming pool and beautiful gardens!! It was amazing! The boys spent hours with Katy's camera, posing for pictures....they are so unlike English boys, it's unreal!
Msaki left early on Saturday morning to go back home to Tanzania for a week - he has a wife and 2 small kids, and I don't know how he manages to survive so much time apart from them - I'm glad he's got some time with them now. We called him yesterday when we met for small group (Peace, Robert, Emma Mugaya the school leader and me) and he sounded really happy to be back - we miss him though, he's such a big character!
On the weekend I went to Kakira market with Peace and we bought a pineapple for 500 shillings - that's about 15p!!!! It was delicious, we ate our fill last night : )
This week in class we've been learning about the importance of knowing God's word and the battle of the mind, guarding our thoughts against bad desires. Philippians 4:8 says "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honourable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you." And no, that doesn't mean that Christians are saints and never think wrong thoughts, but as our teacher says - you can't stop birds from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest there!!
Another thing I learnt from her was a more plausible explanation for the war in Israel - right now I can't find the right words to describe what I've learnt, but for those of you who believe in God, please read Psalm 122 - from verse 6 it says "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. O Jerusalem, may there be peace within your walls and prosperity in your palaces. For the sake of my family and friends, I will say, "Peace be with you." For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek what is best for you, O Jerusalem." The war that's going on is a spiritual battle between the forces of darkness and the Kingdom of God, and we need to pray! God doesn't want this war, and He's asking us to join with Him and help fight against it by the power of prayer.
On a different note entirely, I have learnt some more Luganda and Tongan! I want you all to learn with me so you can understand when I come home and talk in my new mixed-up way...! So, "kwa gala nyo" means "I love you so much" in Luganda, and "fiefia" is "happy in Tongan. Let me do it in a list:
Luganda:
was'os'o'tiya = good morning
waanji = yes
Tongan:
po'uli a = good night
sio pogipogi = see you in the morning
mohe nonga = sleep with peace (merino also means peace!! if only the sheep were peaceful too...)
ofa atu = i love you
malo ngawe lahi = well done / thank you for what you are doing
kata = laugh
lahi = much (like kata lahi, mohe lahi = too much sleep!)
can you tell Tongan is easier than Luganda?! Hena actually taught me a few more phrases but I forgot them already...
Ok, that's it for now, gotta go for small group!
love alex : ) (mata malimali = face, smile!)
Hurrah!!!
I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I last managed to write anything...crazy! I've been out here 7 weeks now, so that's almost half of the time I've been here...
anyway, so i have now expanded my repertoire of excuses!! i've had a couple of bouts of tummy trouble in the last 2 weeks - first it wasn't bad and only lasted a couple of days - i drank fruit juice and skipped food that i thought wouldn't be easy to digest, and it went away. but last week i ended up not eating much at all for 3 days, and ended up sleeping a lot as i was so weak - i even missed some of class and small group, which i felt was a bit pathetic of me considering i had no real reason to be ill! i wondered if it was the water - the UV light in the filter hasn't been working all the time, and someone said the storage drum might need a clean, so i have just been drinking boiled water and have been fine for over a week now : ) and apparently the drum has now been cleaned and the filter fixed, so i will brave it again tomorrow...don't watch this space too much, it may be a while before i can write again, hahaha!
This week it seems like everything has been against me using the internet - i was either busy during break times, or there was already someone here...and yesterday there was randomly a password page preventing me from using the computer! So I really am thrilled that i can gabble away to anyone who is bored enough to read...
We did have the party for Susan and Nixon, and it was also Matty's (Becky's little 5-yr-old) and Lilian's (Hena the Tongan's roommate) birthday, so it was a great night - pretty much everyone on the whole base came! Then last Weds we had a fundraising night for Lilian, as she's getting married in December and over here they have "Introductions" which is a whole day of formal speeches, processions and food that brings both sides of families and their friends together. Her introduction was on Saturday, and although I couldn't go as I had other commitments, I heard all about it and my roommates Roslyn, Milly and Susan took lots of pictures on my camera. (which you may see next year, i STILL can't put them on here!!) Lilian's fiance and his family didn't turn up til 6pm although a lot of the guests had arrived at 8am!!! And apparently it was considered a good thing that he showed up at all - it seems that it's common for the fiance not even to come!!!!!! Reason #2 not to get married out here.... (#1 is that it just costs so much in time and money!)
gotta go to class, maybe i can continue later, maybe not for another few months - who knows? that's all part of the fun!!
hope you're all well, thanks again for emails and texts, and good job to all you fellow cow people and the Stock1st lot - i know things are tough for you all right now with both FMD and Bluetongue, i was shocked to hear it has actually come now after all the fear about it for so many years...keep going, i'm thinking of you and i miss you so much!
alex : )
anyway, so i have now expanded my repertoire of excuses!! i've had a couple of bouts of tummy trouble in the last 2 weeks - first it wasn't bad and only lasted a couple of days - i drank fruit juice and skipped food that i thought wouldn't be easy to digest, and it went away. but last week i ended up not eating much at all for 3 days, and ended up sleeping a lot as i was so weak - i even missed some of class and small group, which i felt was a bit pathetic of me considering i had no real reason to be ill! i wondered if it was the water - the UV light in the filter hasn't been working all the time, and someone said the storage drum might need a clean, so i have just been drinking boiled water and have been fine for over a week now : ) and apparently the drum has now been cleaned and the filter fixed, so i will brave it again tomorrow...don't watch this space too much, it may be a while before i can write again, hahaha!
This week it seems like everything has been against me using the internet - i was either busy during break times, or there was already someone here...and yesterday there was randomly a password page preventing me from using the computer! So I really am thrilled that i can gabble away to anyone who is bored enough to read...
We did have the party for Susan and Nixon, and it was also Matty's (Becky's little 5-yr-old) and Lilian's (Hena the Tongan's roommate) birthday, so it was a great night - pretty much everyone on the whole base came! Then last Weds we had a fundraising night for Lilian, as she's getting married in December and over here they have "Introductions" which is a whole day of formal speeches, processions and food that brings both sides of families and their friends together. Her introduction was on Saturday, and although I couldn't go as I had other commitments, I heard all about it and my roommates Roslyn, Milly and Susan took lots of pictures on my camera. (which you may see next year, i STILL can't put them on here!!) Lilian's fiance and his family didn't turn up til 6pm although a lot of the guests had arrived at 8am!!! And apparently it was considered a good thing that he showed up at all - it seems that it's common for the fiance not even to come!!!!!! Reason #2 not to get married out here.... (#1 is that it just costs so much in time and money!)
gotta go to class, maybe i can continue later, maybe not for another few months - who knows? that's all part of the fun!!
hope you're all well, thanks again for emails and texts, and good job to all you fellow cow people and the Stock1st lot - i know things are tough for you all right now with both FMD and Bluetongue, i was shocked to hear it has actually come now after all the fear about it for so many years...keep going, i'm thinking of you and i miss you so much!
alex : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
