At a birthday party.

We were at a birthday party on Compound B (the other MAF compound) and Esther was dressed up in new clothes. She was lovely and clean at the beginning, but not as sparkly at the end. Perhaps you can see why?






But what a lot of fun! And she just loves to hang with the boys!

Bible Club

Bible Club is on a Friday afternoon, straight after school. The mum who drives the school bus on Friday, goes to school, collects the children and then drives on to Bible Club. She stays there (with the school bus) for the couple of hours that it lasts. Bible Club is a lot of fun, with great singing and dancing, stories, DVD, quizzes and then lots of play time at the end. The children all love to go! So the driver that day has about 10 children to care for. Even the little ones who don't get collected from school like to go in to collect their bigger brothers and sisters and then on to Bible Club. It's a big excitement of the week.


Quiz Time at Bible Club


The adult that you see in the picture is Sharon Heaney from Northern Ireland, who is working with her family at St. John's University with CMS.


Some team work discussion going on.




Some singing and dancing at Bible Club.


Even the teachers like to dance!
This is Christine Salaman, who leads the Bible Club at the minute. She and her family are also missionaries with CMS, working at St. John's University. She leads singing and dancing, Quiz time and hosts it at her house. She and her family are preparing for their Home Assignment in November, when they will return to the UK for 6 months.

With there being so many children, we mums take it in turns to do this run, so that means that we have the next two weeks off, as the other mums take their turns. This works quite well for us all. The week I drive, Esther does without her nap, so she gets quite excited about that, but is very tired after it all.

This week there will be no Bible Club, as the children finish school on Friday for 2 weeks holiday, between terms. Although the school system is set up to run the British curriculum, they are using the New Zealand terms, as they say that it allows the teachers more time to get here after their school year finishes. The Christmas break is also our hottest time of year, so it's good that the children get a longer break off school. That's why we have such a short break over the British summer - we use our hols later in the year!

Look out for the 'Sports Day' blog. The boys are so excited already. It's the highlight of their year!

Esther's Friends!

Our closest neighbours were away for a weeks holiday, and just got back at the weekend. The Parker family who are from England. Their children are called Ben and Esther, and our Esther is very friendly with both children. Ben is the same age as her, and doesn't go to school, so he is about in the mornings and our Esther (who they call 'Little Esther') loves to play with him. However, when his sister isn't at school (she's 4 years old and called 'Esther Parker' by all or us). 'Little Esther' just loves to play with her. She's another girlie girl, who likes dressing up, wearing high heels, and playing 'Mummy and Baby'. She's also great fun at the Play ground, and the two Esther's just love to play together. There was great excitement when they returned from their holiday.

When we first heard the Parker family were coming and what they were called, Joshua thought that perhaps they would have another child, and call him Joshua. We thought that after moving here and meeting us that would be highly unlikely!

She also has a good friend called Aleah. She is Swiss and speaks Swiss-German, German, some Ki-swahili and English. She is 2 years old and such a sweetie. She is going to have a little brother or sister at the end of the year, so her Mummy is very busy preparing to return to Switzerland for the next 6 months. Esther will miss her when she's gone. They love to play together as well. Often you will find them in the sand pit together, and occassionally dressing-up.

A new friend that Esther now has is Gabbie. She and her family moved here from Mongolia while we were in NI. Her daddy is our new finance manager and her mummy is teaching at CAMS (the boys' school).

Esther with her friends.

Esther with Aleah.



Esther C. with Esther Parker and with Ben (or Benny as she has named him).

Kite Flying

Benjamin picked kite flying for a treat at the weekend. It was a boys activity and was a lot of fun. They were up with the sun (about 6.30am) and made some toast to take with them. They went over to the small hangar and they flew their kites with daddy, then had some breakfast and flew kites again.



Next time, it's planned that Esther will go and they will try out the Bob the Builder kite with her!

Next time came when we went to visit some friends for a barbeque at the weekend.
Esther had her turn with the Bob the Builder kite, and ... yep, she let it go. Well, if you've ever had a go at some kite flying, you can probably guess what happened, on her first go. She held it well for a few minutes, and then she let go, and off went her little kite into the top of a skinny tree. Well, I think she did fine. She's only two, and really, the kite was already up the top of the tree before she let it go. But, like I said, it really was a very skinny tree. so thin in fact that even Joshua couldn't climb it. He tried to reach the kite from the top of Daddy's shoulders - but couldn't. So later, when Daddy was a bit calmer, Mummy had a go. Yep, from the top of Daddy's shoulders too! Well, pooor Daddy was at the physio today. Bad shoulders, along with other stuff. Perhaps Mummy was a little too heavy. Fortunately, there are no photos as no one had a camera! Mummy made sure.

Recent Events

Recently there have been a number of things going on with us, so we decided to include a few of these in this weeks blog.
Glenn was awarded a certificate for completing 5 years of work with MAF!


You can see him here with Ian our new Programme Manager, from England. Ian has committed to staying with MAF Tz for the next year, to fill in until we can get a permanent replacement. Thompson. a local man, who has worked with MAF for 20 years, received a certificate and a traditional farewell (MAF tradition) of sodas a cake at 3.00pm. He was given gifts of material (very traditional). In the photo, he is picutred with Ian Sinkinson (our PM) and Heri Shekighenda our chief engineer. He doesn't look terribly happy, as he has enjoyed his job, and there isn't anything here like senior citizens aquafit or walking clubs. However, he will get a pension through MAF. We have been better off for having him. He always knew his job ( he was a stores assistant) and took pride in his appearance and care in his job.


Joshua and Benjamin both had assemblies at school.

Assemblies are now all held in the new Library, as it is the best shaped room.
Joshua wasn't in either drama this time, but was still very happy to be involved.


When he was given a certificate for helping with bringing in costumes, his sister was delighted, and ran up to the front to give him a hug!




This video is of Benjamin's assembly; the topic was 'Castles'.

Sunday picnic -for all missionaries.
There was a 'bring and share' Pot Luck supper, after some games. We had to stand at the place where we live and travel to work to show all the others how far we travelled and where we lived. This was just a map drawn in the sand and some plates marking places. There was also the game that used some large bean bags and 2 wooden slanted boards with a hole in each, that you had to try to get the bean bag through. It was a fun afternoon and a good chance to meet a few new people, and to renew other friendships, with people that we never see outside of work, or than to wave at in their car.

Lots of competition between the children.

Time to talk and eat.

Even fun for the little ones...

almost a Mexican wave! Every time someone hit the board - they cheered for all!

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Thanks to some funding from a previous MAF team, Erasto was able to have the school painted. He also had some big cracks filled in and another building has been added on. I think it is to be a store!? He isn't teaching any longer, but still has a passion for the school, and is the Head. This is him with Nesirith his wife and his son Brilliant.




All the teachers outside the school. this was taken at the beginning of September. The teachers are Sylvia and Anna, with Nesirith and Eliza as the two assistants. They continue to love their work, and are here from 8.30 am to clean and pray each morning, 'till 12.30pm when they tidy up. It's a 3 hour day for the children - 9.00am -12.00. This is where I go on Monday mornings. I teach some songs and rhymes, and do some simple stories and also some Bible stories - with meaning and all is translated. It is a slow process, but this is all the English that the children get. My hope is that through this opportunity to learn through play they will be able to think outside the box in the later years of their lives. They spend 2 years in each class - the younger one is aged 3-4 years and the older one is 5-6 years.

Washing machine

Our washing machine has becoming increasingly noisy over the last 12 months. Well, the crunch finally came when it began to spill water at a rather fast speed - we had to mop - no, it wasn't fast enough - use a hand towel to mop up the water. Then, Glenn had to commit his weekend to finding and sorting out the problem. The problem was at least one hole, which he managed to find a short term soloution to. As we have to order a part and have it shipped, we needed an immediate short term solution, which was a little rubber nob that Glenn had amongst his 'bits and pieces' and he was able to glue this in and then attach the old part back onto the machine. (I hope this is not too much detail for you women, but enough for you men!) Now, our machine is working much better his Friday night and all day Saturday did the trick. It doesn't leak water and is a much quieter instrument to have in the house. When we first came here it was the first thing I wanted moved, as it was in the first bathroom, but Glenn suggested leaving it there as the plumbing (if not done carefully) could leave us with a very big problem flowin through our hosue. Hence, the washing machine is still in the first bathroom, right in the heart of our house.