During the week we woke up to real rain! The ground was wet and we could actually see the drops falling! A common place event in Britain but one which is considered close to a minor miracle here. In the 6 months we we here last year we saw no rain in Mvumi.Unfortunately it is too little and too late to help the crops.
Irene has again had a “domestic week”, making bread, lengthening mosquito nets and settling in the 2 new hens we have acquired. (Mary and Jane). These are hopefully going to produce eggs over the next few months and eventually dinner! She did pluck up courage and visit the filing room. Last year she spent most of the time working there to trying to get the 1000’s of files into order She was expecting the worst, that the filing clerks had not been able to keep the system going. She was therefore delighted to find everything in order and the place neat and tidy – miracles do happen!!!! She is delighted at the work the filing clerks have done.
Friday has started to become a bit of a “film night” hosted by John Clark, headmaster of the secondary school. Last week 10 of us sat round his table and enjoyed a meal before gathering in front of his T.V to watch “The Reader” on DVD. The large number was made up of VSO visitors and gap year students. This week we watched Slumdog Millionaire. The only thing missing was the popcorn!
We had a marathon church service last Sunday, 4 hours! This was because a couple were visiting from Cornwall and their church has linked up with St Andrews here, so there were lots of choirs and a complicated fundraising activity of selling spoons. The idea was that the local church members would buy spoons here, write their names on them and then the couple from Cornwall would take them back to the UK, sell them at their church and bring the profits back to the church here. Of course the couple were expecting traditional wooden spoons which would look good hung in U.K. homes, but the locals here wanted to buy the best for their U.K. partners so they got metal ones, which to our eyes looked like “tescos value standard”, but to them are highly regarded as a sign of affluence and modern living! The couple were amazed that they had 475 spoons to take back as they cost the locals 300 shillings each, (15p or equivalent to over half an hour’s work at the minimum wage) a lot of money to the majority of church members. It reminded us of how sacrificial their giving is here. UK churches could learn a lot from them. We were then all invited for food and eventually got home very hot and exhausted at about 5.30.
Malcolm has just finished reading a very interesting book about the early history of Mvumi and the first Missionaries from the late 19th century up to 1938. They were tough in those days, walking the 600km from the coast with little support. Replies to letters took months to arrive from England and there was minimal medical help. The first hospital proper was built in 1935 and Malcolm thinks these are now the Private wards which are being refurbished.
The book was written by a former Mission Partner, Elizabeth McKelvey, who was working here in the 1990's and is still fondly remebered by some of the villagers. She researched the book by talking to locals who remember that far back and by searching the CMS archives. I think she has copies for sale if anyone is interested. mckelvey@pobox.com
We expect to have a quiet weekend. Malcolm hopes to go for a walk with Squashy (an Alsatian) and Stumpy (a wild hospital dog).
No plans for next week yet, except the major challenge of working out how to pay April salaries – we need another miracle!!!
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