Day 18 - Sunday 14th February 2010

Happy Birthday to my brother Dave, hope you have a great day.

The 4:30am alarm call was tough, especially when you wake to the heat and humidity you went to bed with. Luckily the taxi driver arrived and we headed across town to the airport. The taxi driver, Juma, even gave us a short Swahili lesson as we travelled.

The plane took off shortly after 7am, a small twin engine plane of considerable years. We were even given a small breakfast of croissant and roll which I was certainly not expecting.

2 hours later and we are starting to descend. It looks greener than I was imagining.

We landed on a dirt strip and were collected off the plane by a small van, and driven to a tiny terminal building. I can’t really call it a terminal building, more like a small house. It is so beautiful though.

Our greeting party was there waiting, Ruth, a German GP who has set up the clinic that Armorel will be working in, and Christopher the manager of the school. We were then taken into Tabora along a beautiful tree lined road to our new home.

It is lovely, a large 4 bedroom house with lounge and kitchen that is usually used as the Bishop’s guest house. We do wonder how much entertaining we will have to do though.

Barely have we sat down than we are moving on, to the English church service that has just begun. We are warmly greeted and say a few words of hello, in poor Swahili.

The greeting here has been amazing, many kind words and excited people. We had a visit from the Bishop and the Diocesan General Sectary within hours of arriving, all wanting to warmly greet us to Tabora. We feel so very blessed.

These meetings are tinged with sadness as we have arrived in Tabora in a time of drought, and rain is needed soon. The rice crop is on the verge of failing and they say that if it doesn’t rain this week then the crop will be lost, bringing devastation to the region. It puts into perspective our fears, and the realisation that this is our home for the coming year.

We headed to bed after a cup of tea and our first power cut, feeling very overwhelmed by this whole adventure. For the first time since we arrived we sat down and the realisation of this journey hit us. An uneasy night.