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!)