Nyamango Clinic

A while ago I went with Mary Jane to help with her clinics on Nyamango, Chimabaya and Soswa islands. the trip was four days, three nights, with clinics each day on one of the islands. I helped by filling in baby's weights on their cards and charting their progress (kind of like a plunket book). It was a great experience, despite being challenging at times.

1) Nyamango Island from Soswa Island.

Nyamango is where we slept each night.

2) The clinic on Nayamango. The che's do a skit

before we get started for health education and

and a gospel message is given.

3) Mary Jane checks up on the mama's who are

expecting while nurse Leah gives immunisations

to the children. Out back Marita is doing HIV

testing and counselling.

4) The view out accross the eastern end of the island.

DAY 2 - Chimabaya Island

















1) All set up and ready to get going for the day.
Make-shift clinic in the local church.






















2) Dried fish anyone....






















3) View from the clinic door.

DAY 3 - Soswa

Bumbiri Trip

Sights from the trip up to Bumbiri Island...

Randoms...

These are just a few random pics I've taken over time around the place.

A ferry decides to load a few more people outside my front door.

Just another beautiful sunset.

My little rats...

...Eventually turned into cats.

Most exciting event in Kahunda this year?...

It could quite possibly be the case.
A crowd gathers at the end of the "air strip" as a plane prepares to land.

The plane touches down safely and Josh managed to keep everyone out of the way.

The two Mchungaji's (pastors) share a moment while Andy's not needed for crowd control.

Look with your eyes only people!

Yummy!

My lettuce plants starting to grow. We've enjoyed many salads since and they are still going strong! Thanks for the seeds mum! :o)

Trip to Kahunda Rock

A while ago we went for a walk up to Kahunda Rock, a large granite rock at the top of the hill above Kahunda. Unfortunately the light was really bright so I didn't realise that my camera was set to black and white, but you get the idea.


Kim and Abi walking up.

View down to the lake.View down to the end of the airstrip. The wind pump is just past my house, the pier is outside Mary Jane's house. The Andersens are somewhere in between.
Thunder clouds roll in from the east.

Retreat at Mombasa, Kenya

Last week I spent 3 days near Mombasa. I attended a retreat for Short term Missionaries who work in Eastern Africa. We also had the opportunity to visit the old town area of Mombasa and here are some photos taken that day:


The group in old town Mombasa

The following pics were all taken in Old Town Mombasa:







And this one we couldn't resist:



Chips is done the old fashoined way as well:

A few days in Mombasa

Well, the idea was to post some photo's of my journey via Nairobi to Mombasa by bus, but I couldn't get that done, so here are 10 points that sum up the journey:

You know you're in Africa when...
1. You leave the bus station knowing there is something wrong with the bus only to drive 8 hours before the bus driver agrees.
2. The bus you get to replace a broken bus is also broken and gets rolled backwards down a winding hill road to start..with passengers on board.
3. All the men on the bus have to get off and push the bus to get it started.
4. No one complains about numbers 1, 2 or 3.
5. You leave the ladies at the mall to find two camo clad men with rather large guns having coffee outside the coffee shop.
6. They check the underside of your vehicle for bombs before letting you through the hotel gates.
7. You can't drive more than 10 minute stretches without facing a series of large speed bumps (on the main road!).
8. They scan the inside of your bags with a metal detector before letting you on the bus.
9. You have some sort of a proposal from a man almost every day.
10. Every sunset is more beautiful than the last.

What a Blessed Day!

Hi! I'm off to bed soon so this will be short, but I had to share my great day!
Today was such an answer to prayer over and over again. First up I had a fabulous class in the morning and my students had tonnes of questions, which is VERY unusual. I ended up staying 20 min after class (in their break time) answering all sorts of random questions about volcanoes. Ok, so some were a little off topic, but mostly they were good. :o)
When I went to school after lunch I had a great time chatting with many students who are really starting to accept me and just count me as part of their crowd. There was a visiting school for sports so we played our first netball game.

Man! If you've ever seen a game between the Ferns and the Aussies and thought that was tough... wait till you see a game in Kahunda! Somewhere along the way someone forgot to tell these girls it's a non-contact sport! Crazy! Anyway, we lost by only one goal which isn't too bad considering we just started getting organised (and no-one decided to inform me we would be playing a game today!). So all up not bad. I managed to ref the game without dropping dead from the heat (they play with only one ref) so that was a pretty good achievement. Also, the rough play (understatement of the year!)gave me a good chance to chat to the girls about fair play and representing Christ in all we do. That chat is yet to come though, something to pray about please!

It was also a good opportunity for some of the teachers there to see me in my element and I think it's the first time they've seen a Mzungu female teacher involved with sport, so it helped with relationships with some of the staff which have been challenged over the last while.

Then...nope that's not the end of my good day... Margaret showed up to come and tell me I have a work permit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So yeah, that was pretty cool and such an answer to prayer....
But wait...there's more.

After the football match (which we drew) I had a chance to catch up with some students and ended up having the best opportunity to witness to one of the young guys. The poor guy is searching, but just is not seeing faith in people's lives and so doesn't really understand why he should follow any of the religions he can see. But yet, God is working because he is looking and asking so that was really neat and I'll definitely be catching up with him again. Unfortunately he had to go and so did I, but maybe it was good to give him some time to reflect and me some time to pray before carrying on with next steps.

So yeah... that was a pretty neat day. Oh and Andy and Thor came back from Mwanza and brought me chocolate so that really did top of an amazing day. :o) Praise God!

Netball!

Yes, many of you know that this is a passion of mine and I am praying that here it will be a tool of outreach. I have started coaching the girls netball teams, who previously had no coach. There is one teacher in charge of sport at school and he is the only one taking care of the hour of sport every afternoon which is a challenge when there are 350 students! So naturally, this being Africa, he coaches the boys soccer team and the rest are left to sort themselves out.

The girls have been very welcoming and my first afternoon was rather amusing. They have clearly read the rules, but having never had a coach or seen the game played (as far as I can gather) the application was a little interesting. My first task has therefore been to re-teach them how to play the game. It's been fun, especially trying to communicate with some of the form ones who barely know English as they have just started at secondary school.

There are only about 14-21 girls who show up for practices and I have decided not to go chasing after the others. This gives me the opportunity to get to know a smaller group well. I've begun praying with them and they have welcomed me to spend time at the dorms, which is really encouraging. Hopefully more will join as they see a bond forming with myself and the teams. Please pray that I will have much opportunity to input into the lives of these girls.

Some may wonder, why at a Christian school, I place so much value on this as a ministry. The thing is, from my observations, Christianity really is a label here. Everyone has a label of some sort, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Simply Christian, or they may define it to protestant or baptist and then of course there is some Islam in the community also. This, however, is often where it ends. They probably attend church most Sundays, but in daily life there isn't much more thought given to the subject. There doesn't seem to be much teaching about living a godly life in response to the gift of Jesus Christ. So, I hope to give these girls an example in my own small way and the encouragement and love they need to build up a living faith. Eventually I hope to do Bible studies and topical discussions that relate to their lives and how they may be servants also. So I ask that you please pray for this area of my work that I may get to know these girls, their concerns, their joys and their desires and so, that I may love them and encourage them in their faith.

The next big task that lies ahead is actually choosig a team to represent the school in the interschool competition which will start...well...I don't know when exactly. Communication isn't big on the list of things to do here so I'll just have to make sure I'm prepared. I would guess early March.

I hope to have a few photos added to this site soon, but please be patient as the connection is slow and intermittent.

In His service,
Marlene

From broken mast to school opening

A few photo's with comments of happenings as quoted from Margaret's newsletter - Margaret is the wife of missionary Andy Andersen in Kahunda

Broken mast

Margaret wrote: This last Sunday, while sailing home from the new church plant at Burongero, our mast tang snapped up on top of the mast which caused the entire mast to lose its balance in the wind. The mast, sail and boom came crashing down on the four on board! Our new volunteer, Marlene, was on the side where the mast and boom landed! We PRAISE GOD that she was not hurt at all as the mast and boom landed on either side of her—she was only pinned down by the sail which came to rest on top of her. Thank you, God, for this miracle in protecting her life and that all of us were safe as we limped home! This was Marlene's first time out with us on the lake, but being a good New Zealander she, took it all in stride! The catamaran will now be out of operation as a sailboat until we can get replacement parts, but Andy will continue to use the hull with the 3 hp engine to power out to the islands.
















Opening of school/kindergarten.




Quoting Margaret again:
Thank you to those who prayed for the launching of Lake Victoria Christian School! Classes began on January 11th with 40 students enrolled, ages 4–8. We now have 46 Kindergartners enrolled in this first class and 42 more on a waiting list for a second class which hopefully will open later this year. With classes this large, a lot of the focus has been classroom management and learning routine this last week, as well as learning the kids' names! None of the students speak English, yet the parents want this to be an English medium school, so the challenges are great, but they are learning quickly!

Kahunda

Monkeys outside my my room (the photo is fuzzy from the mozzy screen on the window)
My room - I'm making new curtains!

This is our house. I share this with Kim, a health worker from USA

Kahunda Village

Arriving in Tanzania

Selling fruit as the bus passes through
Mwanza Granite Rocks
Mwanza city centre as seen from the ferry

First there was a stop at the gate of the Serengeti after which we went on to Mwanza and the next day from Mwanza to Kahunda.

From Nairobi to Kahunda

A sugar cane truck
The coutryside outside Kisii
Tea Coutry with huts everywhere
This is the Rift Valley, coming down from Nairobi to the border of Tanzania.
These are the first photo's . As the computer is very slooooow, they will come in drips and drabs.