A nice day for a party

It is always sad when friends move on, and this week a family who have worked in Iringa for over 13 years said good-bye as they move back to High Wycombe. As regular members of the English church here they were first formally sent on their way at the Sunday Service. This seemed particularly difficult for the children who have lived their whole lives in Tanzania, and going to England is like going to a foreign country.

  

Then we were all invited to a farewell party at a lodge site some miles outside Iringa. The site usually caters for American students visiting Tanzania on field and research trips. Irene took the opportunity to explore the surrounding countryside with Gaia, who is completing research in Iringa for her PhD. (About the impact on families hosting visitors from the developed world).

Lunch was a Bring and Share event with piles of food brought by the Guests. Irene soon settled down to a fine meal. Unusual for us to be able to eat in the open in January!!!!

Back at work we are considering  introducing cash-less payments. When we were last in Tanzania 10 years ago, using phones to transfer money to other people was already commonplace and many people, even if they did not have a bank account, used this method to pay for goods and fees etc. This was in advance of the UK. At Neema Crafts this week we met with representatives of Vodacom, a major mobile phone service provider, to consider enabling customers to pay for goods and meals from their phone’s mobile money account.