still alive!

Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay in writing...no good excuse, i've just been too lazy! when we got back from TZ i just felt so tired and emotional that i wanted to hide out in my room - unfortunately, i had lots of odd jobs i'd promised to do so ended up keeping busy enough to remain worn out until the last couple days of my "holiday", and only managed to feel bored for half a day before it was time to begin the next chapter of my year here!

In case i never mentioned this, we flew back from Kilimanjaro airport - God provided us with money through Katy's dad and some of her sponsors, and we had enough for all 8 of us to fly! It was amazing watching the sun rise over Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Meru (the mountain close to Arusha town) as we drove to the airport in the back of Pastor's pickup truck - it has to be one of my best memories so far! Then we also got a closeup of Kilimanjaro as we flew past it in our tiny plane....i'm hoping to get hold of katy's photos at some point, you can see them on facebook or on her website though.

So, since Monday I have been trying to find myself work to fill the week - i am supposed to be mainly working with Mary who befriends and counsels prostitutes in a town named Mbiko, the other side of the Nile from Jinja. The overall aim is to get the girls out of prostitution and into other jobs, so Mary visits them at home and at work, holds crafting sessions to teach them new skills, and invites them to her home for tea and fellowship, and some of them come to Bible studies she holds. Sarah from America was working with Mary til she went back home in December, and now Mary's been on her own again for the last couple of months. I had a meeting this morning with Mary and Sandra who's the overall team leader for ToRCH ministries (Together Restoring Community Hope) and felt a bit overwhelmed at the vast amount of effort required in helping the girls transition back to a "normal" life - it's such a long process, and i probably won't be able to see much change in the 6 months i'm here, but i feel it's the right thing for me to work with, and i'm sure even that in itself will do me good - i'm so impatient and so used to visibly seeing the effects of my work (when a cow is milked, her udder is empty, when a calf is fed it lies down happily, when a yard is swept it's clean!!) so it will be "character building" to work towards something that i have to just trust is having some effect somewhere!

From what we were discussing today, it didn't seem there'd be much free time, but if there is, i'm hoping to help staff the DTS which is beginning on Monday - there are 39 students this time, in slight contrast to our 6, and only 1 extra staff member so far. 12 of the students are westerners, so i hope i can help support them - as lovely and understanding as the African staff are, they will never completely be able to see things from a western viewpoint, just as i will never fully understand their viewpoint, so it should help to have one staff member who's from the west, even if i am only part-time and hardly ever there!!
The American girls who have arrived so far are amazing - they are really sweet and fun, and have already got stuck in to helping serve food and clean chairs....it really challenged me how unafraid they are to chat away to everyone as if they've been here for years - i always feel so nervous when i'm new, and other teams that have come in have also been much more reclusive. if they keep this up, the next 3 months are gonna be great fun!

that's all for now folks, talk to you again soon....thanks again for any emails i havent managed to reply to, i am trying much much harder now that i'm passing through town more often, it's just the usual dodgy internet problems but at least i'm replying to some now!

oh, how could i forget? Peninah cow had her baby last night - a little bull calf! how could i almost forget the bovine news....?!

love alex