Getting Festive?!

There's a strange feeling in the air. Having lived in the Northern Hemisphere all our lives, December is meant to be cold dark and festive ... often to the point of excessiveness! And yet we are halfway through December and things don't feel anything like that at all here in Dodoma.

The weather is HOT, there is the odd random straggly Christmas tree available in town and a few very tacky Christmas decorations are visible, but you can probably count them on one hand! Yesterday we were even surprised to see a half-life-sized Father Christmas outside a local hotel. To be honest though you would be forgiven for forgetting that Christmas was less than 2 weeks away!

Christmas itself is essentially a Christian celebration and the community of Dodoma is a real mix of religions, Muslim and Christian being the main two but also many who are Sikh and Hindu ... and the western trappings of a 'holiday season' don't really extend to the heart of Tanzania. So to counteract the lack of Christmas in the community, we've been getting festive in our home here in Dodoma.

On the 1st of December we got out our Christmas Tree and had some friends round to help decorate (whilst listening to Christmas music!), eat Jenny's homemade mince pies and we all watched 'A Muppet's Christmas Carol' together!

They did a great job ... and we have had lots of guests round since complementing us on our tree! It's really unusual to have one like that here but was one of the things we packed into the container. While it might seem a little excessive and unnecessary on one hand, it has caused such excitement for us and many others because it is something unexpected (and homely) in Dodoma when you're so far from the familiar. It has already been a blessing to many and was totally worth bringing with us!

Last weekend Jenny and Abigail went to the Candlelight Carol Service at the Cathedral which was lots of fun and in spite of the temperature did feel really festive. It's the first Carol Service we've had the chance to go to in years, as it wasn't something that typically happened when we were in the States. It was a great chance to get Christmassy ... and be reminded of the true meaning of why we celebrate.

Term ends this week and many of the teachers are returning home for Christmas (to various locations all over the world!) or moving on to their next adventures! We invited 5 of them round for a pre-Christmas feast this weekend as we will miss them over the 5 week break. Instead of individual mince pies we made a delicious mincemeat tart ... it tasted just like Christmas! Once the girls were tucked up in bed, we played some games and many tears of laughter were shed!

Today at church, all the Sunday School children got a small Christmas gift in the service and then they went out and enjoyed a fun Christmas party which started with them all singing 'Happy Birthday Jesus', followed by lots of games and laughter!

While many of our friends and family associate Christmas with cold and snow, here in Dodoma it is completely different. It is still hot (it always is!) but Christmas falls in the rainy season ... if the rains come as expected, which isn't always the case. The intensity of the heat has increased over the last few weeks and last weekend we had a small shower of rain that we all went outside and danced in because it was so exciting.

It didn't bring the relief we were hoping for. Not long enough or heavy enough. But on Thursday there was a much heavier, more extended downpour and it has rained a few times since, thick grey clouds, thunderstorms and heavy rain!

Never did we think we would be so relieved and so happy to see rain. Isn't it something that us Brits are meant to get too much of and spend half our lives complaining about? Not here in Dodoma. We are praying that it will be sustained and useful for local farmers. For us as a family, the rains will now signify that Christmas is coming and so therefore something that we hope to get used to being festive over the years to come!

International Staff Weekend Away

Last weekend we had the chance to go away for a couple of days with nearly all of the other MAF International Staff and their families ... some of whom we hadn't even yet met. We have come from all over the world to work together as a team here in Tanzania; England, Northern Ireland, France, Holland, Finland, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and America. 

It was a central location ... Morogoro, a three and a half hour drive for us. The team are spread out across Tanzania in four bases, Dodoma, Arusha, Mbeya and Dar Es Salaam. Here is one of the photos we took on the journey there. It is a straight forward drive (just one road between here and there!) except for the oncoming overtaking buses that you have to swerve to avoid! Yes, really!

The setting was amazing. After living in a flat, dusty, dry Dodoma, we were staying at the Highlands Camp at the base of some lush, green mountains. A real change of scenery for the Dodoma-ites among us!

It was a real chance to spend some time together, over food, in the pool ... just generally hanging out!

We also enjoyed a few different sessions, led by a fellow missionary in Dodoma, Andrew Jones who is from Australia and serving with SIM with his wife and children. As well as a business meeting, bringing updates from throughout the programme ... and on Sunday morning 'church'!

While the more serious sessions were happening, different parents took the kids off for some fun and games. The children just loved the fact that they got to hang out with their friends all weekend long (and were exhausted by the time we got home!!).

Then there were the bigger kids ... who got to 'play' together too! These water balloons are a clue as to what they got up to!

A giant slingshot! Loads of balloons were sent flying and there were many attempts to catch them up the hill too ... with only a few successes but lots of fun in the process!

The weekend was a good chance to get together as a team, catch up, meet newly arrived families and say farewell to those on their way out ... in a great location.

You know you live in Africa when ...

When we were living in Ohio we shared some of the differences about life between there and what we were used to in the UK. Some we could have anticipated and others that were a real surprise! Having spent just over 3 years there, a lot of those differences became part of normal life for us.

Now we've been living here in Dodoma, Tanzania for 9 months ... here are some of the differences that we've found about life here. A lot of them are already becoming more and more normal for us as we go about our day-to-day lives. Of course there are many many more ... this is just a sample!!

• You check the pool for water scorpions before jumping in!
• Anybody and everybody greets you (especially if you have little white children with you!)
• You make sure there are no stones or grit in your sugar, flour, rice or beans ... it can hurt your teeth!
• Your daughters have a 'pet' gecko in their bedroom that they love
• You are used to being randomly stopped by police on a regular basis when driving ... for no reason at all
• The amount of meat on a whole chicken here is probably less than that of a single chicken breast that you can buy in the States!
• If you see something in the shops you like, you know to buy it then and there ... as it may not be there again for 6 months ... or ever!
• There is often the smell of burning rubbish/plastic wafting around your house from some random person who has lit a fire on the side of the road somewhere
• If you need the loo when you're out, it's more likely to be a 'squat' than a 'sit'!
• Ants find their way into ... well ... everything!
• You have to filter ALL your water ... drinking, brushing teeth etc etc
• You drive down the road and within a hundred metres, see someone in Masai clothing, someone in traditional Tanzanian dress, someone in full Muslim gear, someone in a business suit, someone in western fashion ... the list goes on
• The trees bloom just before the rains in anticipation ... not after they've been watered! (See photo below ... dry and dusty Dodoma full of bright red Flame trees!)
• When you're in the middle of nowhere you find people just walking from A to B ... even if both A and B are nowhere to be seen!
• Seeing a properly tarmac-ed/sealed road is a novelty
• Your nearest 'real' supermarket is a full days drive away
• Putting either sunscreen or bug spray on when you leave the house becomes second nature
• Your children think wearing socks is like wearing dress-up (fun and not necessary in 'real' life!)
• You have to wash all fruit and veggies ... who knows what has been on them before you get them!
• When something electrical doesn't work your first thought isn't 'is it broken?', it is 'is the power off again?'!
• You often see men proudly riding around on pink bikes! Proud because they own a bike ... they have no understanding of the 'pink is girlie' western thing, a bike is a bike whatever the colour!
• Climbing in and out of a mosquito net in the middle of the night when you need the loo becomes second nature!
• There is a layer or dust over everything you own both inside and outside your house!

It's strange what becomes 'normal' ... we love it though!

About time for a hangar update

It has been a while since we have written about what has been happening in the hangar. So here is an update from Mark ...

There has been lots happening and I have been learning so much. Our general work is performing inspections of our 2 Cessna caravans and 3 Cessna 206's, as well as our customers Caravans, 206's, 182 and 150. In just one month we performed regular inspections on three Cessna Caravans, and two Cessna 206's. All of this has helped me learn so much about so many different systems on the airframes.

Alongside these 'regular' inspections, we have been doing some more in-depth maintenance. One of our Caravans was due for an engine change. Therefore, we had to disconnect the engine from the airframe, remove the engine and then strip it down so that it could go into a container and get shipped to Covington, a PT6 engine overhaul shop in Oklahoma, USA. Then we built-up our new engine (a newly overhauled engine from MAF Uganda), and installed it back into the airframe. Unfortunately, we have had a few problems with this engine (some historical issues that did not get sorted out fully), so after a Covington engineer flew out here it investigate, the engine has flown back to Covington for them to fix what needs fixing (for those in the know ... the engine was suffering from compressor stall, but only when the Caravan's air plenum was in place).

This same aircraft is also undergoing a major avionics upgrade. We have removed all the navigation indicators and units and will be replacing them all with a Garmin G600 suite. I have been busy removing all the redundant circuit breakers and wires from the Power Distribution Panel and then installing all the new circuit breakers and wires that are needed for the new units. I will also be fabricating and installing new avionics shelves in the cockpit, under the floor and in the tail section. I will have more photos and will write about this again later (I promise!).

Another large task that I have been involved with a lot has been the complete inspection, strip and repaint of a Cessna 206 that belongs to Foxes Safari. This very intensive inspection is known as a 'Check 3' inspection and it pretty much means that every single part of the aircraft has to be stripped down and inspected. During doing all these inspections we have found quite a lot of corrosion. Corrosion is like aircraft cancer, and has to be removed wherever it is found or it could become deadly. You can see just a few of the corroded parts that we found. What is worrying, is the top right and bottom centre photos shows the rear wing attach bracket and carry thorough. If you understand aerodynamics, you will know that it is the wings that 'picks up' the rest of the fuselage when the aircraft takes off, and the whole fuselage hangs from these brackets. Not a good place to have corrosion.

Therefore, you can see that we have had to remove quite a bit of structure, chasing the corrsion through the structure to make sure we catch it all and either clean out the mild corrsion or replace those that are too badly damaged with new parts.

Life is never dull working as an aircraft engineer here for MAF. One highlight in recent months was being flown out to act as the 'breakdown mechanic' on a safari plane. Landing on a dirt runway next to a couple of giraffes, having flown over a herd of 11 elephants, I fixed the plane before heading home ... so it's not all about being stuck in a hangar!

Visiting the Big Smoke!

Abigail had a two week break from school this month and now that we have our own wheels (finally!) we thought it was about time we took a trip to Dar Es Salaam for a few days! We've lived here for 8 months and not really had the opportunity to visit Dar and see what 'city-life' is like here in Tanzania.

It was an 8 hour drive each way with a stopover in Morogoro but the girls did great with all of it! Here's a couple of photo's of where we took our break on the way there and back. From the reaction we got, I think they were quite surprised to see Wazungu's (white people!) stopping there! We ate chapati's and chips mayai, (a Tanzanian speciality ... chip omelette ... sounds kind of strange but taste's yummy!) and used the 'long-drops' before heading off on the second part of the journey!

The long drive was worth it though! Here was the view that greeted us when we arrived in Dar!

We were staying just north of the city. Close enough to explore different areas most mornings and hanging out at the hotel and the pool every afternoon!

Dar Es Salaam has moved on a lot since Jenny used to live in Tanzania. It was really strange to find so much that was familiar about the western world right on our doorstep. The shops and restaurants had developed a lot and there were more English goodies available to us there, than on our trips to Columbus when we lived in Ohio! Having said that ... you definitely had to know what you were looking for and where in the city, as the 'western' niches were quite well tucked away and spread out amongst the crazy pot-holed and traffic filled roads! 

It was such a great opportunity to familiarise ourselves both with what there is to do, where to go and also what is available compared to what you can get here in Dodoma ... which is a LOT less, if you were wondering! Think 'kid in a candy store' and that accurately describes all four of us to each new place/shop/eatery!

It was a real treat, for Jenny especially, to go out for dinner each evening. There is so much effort that goes into the preparation of meals living here, that it was a definite bonus to swap that for being served in a selection of great restaurants that we'd been recommended by others who have lived in or visited Dar before! The girls enjoyed getting dressed up and driving out somewhere new each evening too!

We were on the look out for other places to go on future visits (and have a running list now!!) but two of our favourites this time was the Mediterraneo because of the amazing location right on the edge of the Indian Ocean and delicious food ...

... and Addis in Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant where the girls were super excited because they didn't have to use cultery, only fingers and we all got to share one huge plate, that we also got to eat! The fact that it was decorated with upside down umbrellas was also apparently a bonus, according to the youngest two members of the family!!

We all had a really good time, living in the 'real world' for a few days. The girls keep asking when we are going back to our 'home hotel' (as opposed to our 'home home'!). Learning to love a town like Dodoma is one thing ... learning to love somewhere like Dar Es Salaam is something else entirely ... but we're one step closer to that now and we are all looking forward to our next trip there!