Beckwith's Big Adventure

Sorry!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 05:57:00 +0000

2015 is almost over and we have been SO terrible at keeping you updated for which we want to apologise! Many of you have been asking about the blog and updates over the months, so thank you for your patience!

While in theory the move from Third to First World should have been relatively straightforward ... reverse culture shock, learning another new culture, settling into yet another new community and building relationships ... a third international move in just 5 years, seems to have taken it's toll on us, with no expendable energy left for anything else. Certainly not how we would have planned it to be but we're working our way through it. For the most part it's been a more of a case of survive than thrive but there has been lots of fun dotted in amongst it all!

In a nutshell, here's our year ...

We said Goodbye to Nana, Jenny's mum in January and the girls started school and Kindy
Our container arrived in February and the unpacking began ... again!
Mark spent a week in PNG in March and Jenny started work in the hangar too
Grandma & Gramps, Mark's parents, visited in April/May
We were in the UK June/July for Home Assignment and Mark's sister's wedding
Jenny's sister travelled back to Australia with us in July and we all got chest infections
August, we were in recovery mode from everything that had gone before
In September we got a few days away at the beach as a family
October saw us celebrate a year since we arrived in Mareeba and finally have the chance to start getting into some kind of rhythm
School and most other things start to wind down in November for Christmas (yes, really)
December saw the start of the two month school break ... for Summer and Christmas!

As you can see it has been anything but quiet, we even put a 6 month ban on visitors to help us just have the time and space to process the last couple of crazy years but now that we're almost at the end of that time, we realise that it will probably take a lot longer than that!

It has been an awful lot tougher than we could have imagined. At times where we would like to have had the energy to invite people over to get to know them better or be involved in more things, we have been more focused on just getting to the end of the day in one piece. With transition comes extreme tiredness and that still seems to be affecting us, although not always on a daily basis any more. We know the stages of transition, we understand the why's and how's etc but sometimes knowing it and knowing that there will be an end to it just hasn't been enough comfort! The daily struggle has meant we haven't had the time or energy to focus on too much outside of our immediate family, including replying to emails etc, so again apologies if you're used to us being a lot more efficient than perhaps we have been!

There has been lots of good stuff though too, even from the list above you can see, we've been lucky enough to make many new Australian memories, as a family and with our visitors too. Here are a few observations that we have made about how life is different for us once again since we've been living here in Far North Queensland ...

Lying in bed and hearing the sound of a hot air balloon directly above our house on so many different mornings!
Watching flocks of hundreds of cockatoo's flying over our house
Living within an hour's drive of idyllic paradise beaches
Eating dinner outside and noticing flying ash and smoke dumping on our garden and our food from the burn-off ... fires lit intentionally in the surrounding areas to prevent bush fires later on
When your children say 'There's a really big worm in the laundry room" and your first thought as you head to check it out is, is it going to be a big worm or a small snake?!
Every day being approximately 5 degrees hotter than when we lived in Africa
Kangaroo's and wallaby's really do just hop a long the side of the road (and yes, many don't make it!)
So many new acronyms and abbreviations to learn, some not as obvious as others!
When there are several 'pet' lizards all over your house, one in particular who lives under the oven!
Hanging out a basketful of washing and the first things being dry by the time you peg the last ones up!
So many more British food items available in the shops, than in both Tanzania or America
Recognising that the chirping sound we regularly hear is not in fact a bird but our resident gecko's (no idea why we didn't pick that one up in Tanzania!)
Having most things available locally but only having to drive an hour to a wider selection of shops and restaurants rather than an 8 hour drive to Dar Es Salaam, where things still weren't all that straight forward!
Having the girls mimic the laughing kookaburra sound, over and over again, as we regularly hear it!!

These are just some of the things that have become 'normal' for us over the last year or so! Who knows what 2016 will bring for us? We hope that it won't be too full that we can't take the time out to 'breath' every now and then ... and we'll try to be a bit quicker in letting you know what we've been up to as well!

First Visitor to Mareeba!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Sat, 23 May 2015 12:17:00 +0000

While our second set of visitors have just left ... back in December, just over 5 weeks after we moved into our house and even before all our belongings arrived, we welcomed out first visitor to our new home here in Mareeba. The house was all a bit upside-down and having arrived from Tanzania with 4 simple suitcases, we were living with all kinds of things begged and borrowed ... but it worked and Nana came to spend out first Australian Christmas with us!

As you can see our Christmas decorations were small, understated and mostly from the local charity shop (whilst our others things were still on a ship on the way!) ... but fun nonetheless!

While we weren't able to answer half of her questions about how things work over here or about where different things are ... we were able to explore with Nana and try and work out the answers together!

Abigail started her month long Christmas holidays just 2 days before Nana arrived and so we had lots of opportunities to explore our new 'home' town and area with her. While Mareeba itself pretty much shuts down for a couple of weeks over Christmas with businesses and shops closing, all the local touristy things were thriving and so we had the chance to visit some of them with her.

We had lots of crafty fun at home too with all kinds of projects ... and lots of water fights to cool down, in the garden, in the sea, at the pool, at a local creek and a trip to Green Island, as it was so stinking hot!

But one treat that wasn't available to all, was a chance to go up in a MAF plane over Mareeba, while one of the training pilots was keeping his hours up. It was a short 20 minute ride but gave us the chance to see our new home and the surrounding area from the sky.

We also celebrated our first Christmas here during Nana's stay. After early morning pressies, we took a trip to the park and even spied a couple of kangaroo's off in the distance! Yes, really!

With limited kitchen equipment while we waited for our container ... we went for a more simple option for Christmas dinner! A BBQ, seemed to be very fitting for where we are now living, followed by a meringue tower! Very different from anything we have ever had before on Christmas day and a lot of fun!

It is safe to say, as well as exploring with her, we made lots of memories and we had lots of fun with Nana over our first Christmas in Australia. Early in the new year, Nana flew back home and then we properly started the task of settling into life here in Mareeba!

Time to 'potter' once again!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 12:07:00 +0000

Since that first slightly off-kilter week (Hello Australia), it's crazy to think that six months have passed ... in that time we have achieved so much.

We've pretty much completed all the practical stuff from finding a house, buying cars, getting driving licenses, enrolling in schools, opening bank accounts ... to making friends, finding a church, joining a gymnastics club and working out the new 'normal', to name just a few!

We've also just about finished that stage of settling where we felt we were literally haemorrhaging money, having had to find everything from clothes pegs to washing machines, from rubbish bins to beds, from herbs and spices to dining room tables and everything else in between. We've been learning how to get a good deal by bartering in the retail stores and finding what else we can get hold of and alter from the charity shops (or Op Shops as they're known here!) ... as the cost of living in a First World Country on a MAF wage takes some adjusting to!

There weren't a lot of options property wise in Mareeba but the one we found was a little gem. It's actually the manse of the Uniting Church (not the church we have settled in) and is quite central to the town but tucked away from the main street. It came part-furnished which was wonderful and put less pressure on us at the beginning and is less than a kilometre from the school we enrolled Abigail in and round the corner from the supermarket (very practical!) and McDonalds (which the girls want to visit WAY more than we actually do!).

At the beginning of February, exactly as planned, our container of belongings arrived ... thankfully it was nothing like the stressful experience we had last time round getting it all to us in Dodoma! So while we've still have bits and bobs to do ... it definitely feels like home now!

The girls are loving school and kindy. Abigail is at St Thomas of Villanova which is a Catholic school. It's quite small, which is great for her and in some ways there are many similarities to CAMS in Dodoma, still with quite a strong Christian influence. Naomi's Kindy is on a 5 day fortnight and she LOVES her teachers and all the stuff they get up to! Both the school and kindy are in walking distance and so the girls scoot to and from school, with Jenny, almost every day!

Mark's working hard in the hangar and has even already done a short stint (a week!) in PNG helping out the MAF programme there with a wing modification (more about that in a separate post)! Jenny has also started working in the hangar part-time as the Communications Officer and is enjoying being part of everything that goes on in the hangar and helping others to feel the same as part of her role, because unlike the overseas programmes, MAF in Mareeba is less of tight-knit set-up.

We have also celebrated our first Christmas here, while Nana was visiting (more of that in a different post too!), started getting to know the local area with little trips out as a family and enjoying that settled feeling of just pottering around the house and garden doing little jobs and feeling 'normal' again. That is something that we have been longing for, for the last couple of years with no stresses of things like ... will we get our visas? will we understand enough of the language? when will our container be released? will our MAF base close? which MAF programme will we move to? will our container survive another trip across the world? will the mountain of paperwork we have to complete be enough for another visa? will we all be OK learning a new culture again? will the girls adjust to more goodbyes and starting again?! As you can imagine that list is endless and the majority of the items are now redundant ... a BIG weight off of our minds, allowing for the pottering!

One added bonus since we've been here was the arrival of ZBZ. This was the plane that Mark was part of the team doing the first avionics upgrade in Dodoma and also that he did the last engine change on. ZBZ left Dodoma for Uganda while we were still in Tanzania and earlier this year it flew the mammoth journey all the way from Kampala to Mareeba, so that it can now be used by the MAF programme here in Arnhem Land. Two Swiss pilots, one of whom often used to sit round our table for dinner in Dodoma, flew the 15 legs over a week, so the photo below show plane, pilot and engineer reunited! Exactly a year before all 3 were based in Tanzania, now there is one in Uganda, one in Mareeba and one, soon to be in Arnhem Land!

We needed to get some new family photos recently ... so what better a backdrop than ZBZ before it heads off once again!

Hello Australia

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 04:07:00 +0000

It's hard to believe that we arrived here 5 months ago. In many ways that time has FLOWN by but we accomplished so much, especially in those first few weeks that it seems like forever ago now!

After a completely uneventful journey, 3 flights (Dar Es Salaam-Dubai-Perth-Cairns) we arrived in the early hours of October 10th to start our next big adventure. We're very grateful for the in-flight entertainment which kept the girls completely amused the whole way and on arrival we obviously looked like we fitted in, because going through duty-free in Perth we were greeted with "Welcome Home! Hope you had a nice holiday!" (Little did they know!)

Those first few days were a bit of a blur as we struggled to adjust to the time difference, which was 7 hours ahead of Tanzania. However on both days at the weekend we were able to catch up with families who live in Cairns. One who work for MAF here (having previously lived in Dodoma before our time there!) and another who we've known for years, it was great to have the chance to catch up properly after quite a long time!

Mareeba (where we live now) is about a 50 minute drive up through the Kuranda Range and rainforest and then inland across the Tablelands (up in the distance of this photo!), so on the Monday, after a few days to adjust we headed up to look at schools and houses ... and also to meet up with another family that Jenny knew from her Dodoma days the first time round who are now serving MAF here.

By lunchtime though, it was clear that something wasn't right with Mark and so a trip to hospital was in order to find out what was wrong. (We were already grateful for the medical services that would have been much less accessible had we been in Tanzania!) We were then sent back down to a different hospital in Cairns with more equipment where Mark was being tested for fluid/blood clots/tumours on his lungs and where the girls had to leave him late at night hoping that he would come home safely in the morning.

Thankfully it turned out to just be fluid (pleural effusion), which while excruciatingly painfull, was not life threatening and Mark was returned to us in a taxi at 4:30am the next morning but was really sick for the next few days. Our well laid plans to find cars, houses and sort out the endless paperwork that comes with arriving in a new country just had to wait. (As an aside, at his follow-up appointments and x-rays several months later, he was given the all clear once again!)

By the end of that first week, we'd restarted the settling process, albeit at a slower pace and bought a car, registered some of our paperwork and secured a place at school for Abigail (among other things!). But by the Sunday we decided to give ourselves a break from it all and did something just for fun and completely touristy, a trip on the Skyrail and Butterfly train, above and through the rainforest.

It was just what we needed and we lots of fun together. The photos above speak for themselves. Not quite how we'd envisaged our first week to go but you just can't plan these things!

Goodbye Tanzania!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 12:53:00 +0000

Was it really 5 months ago that we were packing up our final boxes and saying our goodbye's back in Tanzania?! With all that that entailed and the settling in process at this end, these next few updates might be a little overdue!

The end of the first term in Dodoma and the girls last day at CAMS was Sports Day. Abigail had lots of fun competing and Naomi's class came along to watch. For the first time in years and years, the yellow team won (spot the colour of Abigail's t-shirt), so it was a perfect end to our time as a family at CAMS!

It was also probably one of the hardest days in the way of goodbye's as well, even though by this point we had already said goodbye to the majority of our MAF friends. Teachers and friends at CAMS, made up a large part of our Dodoma life, both Tanzanian and Ex-pat and there were lots of them to say goodbye to and tears on all sides!

When we got home after Sports Day, we had to say one of the hardest goodbye's ... to our House Mama, Maria. She was most definitely part of our family and with her limited education and no means to travel, one of the hardest people to keep in touch with. For Jenny, it was the second time she has had to say goodbye to her and it didn't get any easier.

The following day all we had to achieve was the safe collection of our belongings and the final few goodbye's. In true Tanzanian style this did not go off as planned. In fact, at an already extremely stressful time for us, it probably couldn't have got any worse. Instead of a 9am pick-up, the team and truck didn't arrive until 5pm. The truck was too small and there wasn't another one available.

A good friend had to frogmarch the driver to their local depot and proceeded to sit on a pile to tyres while waiting for them to sort it all out! The new truck had no breaks or fuel so had to be fitted with both and so in the dark and after the girls were in bed, they finally loaded our belongings onto the truck below. Having driven through the previous night and then seeming to be extremely spaced out, we confiscated the keys from the driver until the following morning. Driving on the Dar road is dangerous enough without them having to drive through the night once again.

As we had spent so much time waiting and on the phone trying to sort out the collection of our stuff, unfortunately the final goodbye's that we had planned for that last day never had came about and there were some really lovely friends that we never had the opportunity to farewell as a result.

However, the end was inevitable and very early on the Sunday morning we slipped out of town almost unnoticed, except for one of our favourite guards who came to say goodbye. Having lived at the bottom of Lion Rock for so long we drove by it for the last time.

Before the mammoth trip across the world to Australia we took a few, much needed, days out at the beach in Dar Es Salaam. Having some time to take stock as a family and also just have some fun after such an emotional roller coastal of the previous weeks and months.

We visited some of our favourite spots one last time and then just concentrated on having fun ahead of the hard work that we knew was to come, settling in Australia. As you can see we definitely succeeded with the latter!

On Wednesday 8th October, we bid farewell to Tanzania and all the work, memories and friendships ... ready for the next adventure!

Choices, choices, choices!!!??!!??

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Sat, 14 Feb 2015 00:29:00 +0000

Being a missionary and have also been to All Nations Christian College (for those not in the know, it is a Bible College with mission as the main focus), we have heard many a story about missionary life abroad, what to expect during transition and how things will change when you finally go back to your passport culture.

One of the examples that we have been told, by lecturers, mission sending agents and missionaries who have come back home, is the culture shock of walking into a supermarket after years of buying your food from a market stall or a small corner shop. Your choice was limited to what they had in stock that day/week/month. For a lot of missionaries, things like butter, cheese, bacon and chocolate are luxuries that, either you can't buy or were just too expensive on such a limited wage. Then, on returning to a 'First World Culture', you are faced with SO much choice.

Have you ever counted how many different brands of butter/margarine there are in your local store? Now imagine that your only choice for the last X number of years was a margarine that is so nasty, even the ants won't go near it, and now you find yourself faced with a chiller full of choice and you are left trying to remember what it was you had all those years ago. Then you still have the rest of the supermarket to look through. We have heard of people just standing in front of the chiller section crying or they have had to walk out with nothing before they have a panic attack.

This was not the case for me (Mark) when we moved from Tanzania to Australia. Even though we are still on the 'mission field' and are in a different culture, I found that food shopping at the local supermarket has not been too bad, even a pleasure to have access to different options again. So why am I writing this? As a bloke, my panic attack happened when I went to the local hardware store (which isn't big by any stretch of the imagination!) to buy a few things to work on the house we are renting. It was just simple things like a padlock, some screws, nuts & bolts, a few tools (to replace those that I had left behind or were still in transit) and a garden sprinkler. Simple yes ... no.

There was just too much choice. So many brands (most of which I didn't recognise) with so many variations, that it got too much. In the end I left with only half of the things on my list and most of those had to be taken back because they ended up being the wrong anyway.

Things have now calmed down a bit since we first arrived, but I still feel a lot of pressure often when purchasing something quite simple. So I just want to finish off by saying ... be aware of those who are returning from the mission field (either short term or for good), that sometimes the choices that you find so simple and easy, could possibly be the 'straw-that-breaks-the-camels-back' for them. Help them out, recommend things or brands that you use and just be there for them when it all gets a bit too much.

Avionics Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 12:15:00 +0000

Because of moving from Tanzania to Australia and everything that that involves, our blogging has been quiet for some time. So time to try and catch up a little with things that have happened between our last blog (back in October I think) and now ...

So, I thought that it was time for me (Mark) to write something about the work I had been busy doing in the hangar the first part of 2014. MAF have decided to upgrade the avionics in all of the C208/B Caravan/Grand Caravan aircraft in Africa. This means that all the old dial indicators will be removed and be replaced by multi touch screen displays.

OLD AND NEW DISPLAY

Tanzania were very fortunate to have been selected to do the very first installation on their aircraft 5H-ZBZ, and I have been the lead mechanical engineer on this whole job. There are many different parts to this project and being the very first aircraft, a lot of lessons to learn.

Sitting on top of ZBZ installing antennas

The circuit breaker panel had to be re-done for al the new avionics units. Which also meant that we could clear out a load of redundant wires at the same time. (It's amazing how many redundant wires there are in aircraft, and the weight gain that can be achieved by removing these from the airframe).

As the new system has many new avionics boxes, I had to design, fabricate and install new avionics shelves that would be strong enough to pass the critical 'G' load (simulated G-force to prove the shelf will not fail in crash).

The next set of photos shows a shelf that was already installed with a KN-63 DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) unit, and what I did to modify it to hold the new GTX-33 Transponder unit as well as the original DME.

Original Tray and DME Unit

New Transponder and Original DME Unit with the new tray

The next tray to be fabricated was installed below the DME/Transponder tray and holds the new GAD 43e Adaptor and the GDC 74A Air Data Computer. The old tray had to be removed and then remade from a thicker material to meet the Garmin requirements.

The next unit, the GRS 77 AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System) unit. This unit has to be installed so that it is zero degrees in both latitude and longitude during level flight. This meant that we had to install a fake floor underneath the floor below the co-pilot seat. It was a challenge to get it fit right, but as you can see from the digital protractor, I got it right.

At the back of the aircraft, we had to install the units for the GRA 5500 Rad Alt (Radar Altimeter) and the GTS 800 TAS (Traffic Advisory System) along side the existing WX-500 Stormscope unit. I created a new shelf for the very heavy TAS unit, and the Rad Alt fitted next to the Stormscope.

One other unit to be installed was the GMU 44 Magnetometer in the right wing. There was already a mount for the old unit in the wing. MAF US had created a jigging tool that helps convert from the old style unit to the new which helped a lot.

Then there were all the new antennas that needed to be installed all over the aircraft (as well as existing ones that had to move location because of proximity to other antennas. I installed at least eight new doublers and antennas as well as moving two to new locations.

Lastly, but definitely not least, the change of the instrument panels and radio stack to install the GDU 620 Display Units, GTN 750/650 Touchscreen GPS/Nav/Comm/MFD units, GMA 35 Audio Panel, IndigoOne Satellite Tracking, EFD1000 Display and the ESI-1000 Emergency Standby Instrument. New panels were cut in Australia by a water-jet cutter. Once they arrived, there were a few minor adjustments, then the instruments were installed and connected to the newly installed wire looms.

In the end, we got everything installed and after a few issues with the avionics not talking to each other, and doing the configuration set ups, it all worked perfectly. As you can see it was quite an involved process, which we repeated on another aircraft in Dodoma (5H-OPE), before MAF started the upgrades in Kampala, Uganda.

The team with the finished avionics behind
(A mix of English, Australian, Swedish and Tanzanian)

As a testament to the amazing new avionics, this aircraft has just made a nine day journey from Uganda to Australia (via Ethiopia, Djibouti, Oman, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia). Very soon, this Cessna 208 Caravan will be serving MAF in Arnhem Land.

Celebrations!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:17:00 +0000

So, there have been a few celebrations for us in the last week!

Last Wednesday, Mark had his birthday which was quite a low key event but just how he likes it! We picked up Naomi from school and went out for a birthday lunch, then collected Abigail (who finishes two hours later than her sister!) and in the evening had a birthday dinner! Menu chosen by the birthday boy!

Just three days later it was Abigail's 6th birthday. On Friday, Jenny delivered some cakes into school at break time for Abigail to enjoy with her friends!

Her actual birthday was on Saturday ... which started very early, as two excited girlies couldn't wait for the fun to begin! Abigail opened a few little presents first thing in the morning!

Then at 10am (or thereabouts!) we had a small group of the girls from her class and their teacher (the lovely Miss Idowa) come for a party! It was meant to be 10am-12pm ... but some didn't arrive until 11am and some weren't picked up until 1pm! Very Tanzanian!

Abigail had very clear ideas about what the party was to include and helped with all the planning! So, we did something crafty, making paper plate crowns and straw necklaces. In fact, one of them was even wearing her necklace to school today (Monday!)

We also played some old-school party games, an egg hunt and pass the parcel ... and then enjoyed a feast of snacks together.

Since her 4th birthday Abigail had decided that she would have a Spongebob cake for this year ... yes that was two years ago, because she had already decided that there had to be a butterfly one last year! Abigail is not one to forget these things easily and although she is a girlie girl for the most part, she LOVES Spongebob. At her request we copied a really silly face cake we saw on the internet and then both her and one of best friends decided to try it out for themselves on the day! Beautiful!

In the afternoon, we gave her the rest of her presents but out here good presents are quite hard to find and being in a state of transition made it even more difficult for us this time round. Abigail however didn't seem to notice the more low key present giving this year which is something great about living in a less materialistic culture!

One thing we did 'give' her though ... which turned out to be one of her favourite things, was her own email address! She loves writing to people, texts, emails, cards, letters and due to the nature of what we're doing, has family and friends dotted all over the world. Usually she logs into our accounts but now she has her very own one which was filled with messages from close family and friends when we opened it on her birthday. While she doesn't know the password and everything that goes in and out is checked by us, she is in her element! The downside for us is now she keeps asking us to 'check her messages' for her!

After a very restful Saturday afternoon (we were too tired to do anything else!!), on Sunday, the teachers from CAMS invited us out to lunch as a thank you for all we've been involved in at the school during our time here!

While this academic year our input has been minimal due to our imminent move, we have had the privilege of looking out for the teachers and helping out in lots of things at the school where Jenny used to work (and both girls love to go!). The staff are a great bunch and we're going to miss them all loads! We were really touched that they wanted to treat us to lunch!

It's been fun to be able to celebrate all these things! Now we have just 3 weeks left in Dodoma! Tick tock, tick tock!

Our Temporary Normal!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:58:00 +0000

So the new normal is only temporary but it's our normal for now!

Our visas for Tanzania are only valid until late October, so it was a HUGE sigh of relief last week when our visas for Australia were granted ... for the next 5 years! So, since our exciting safari adventure a few weeks ago, life has been settling into the newest and last 'normal' of our time in Dodoma.

Both girls are now at CAMS. The new school year started at the beginning of August, with Abigail going into Standard 2 and Naomi starting in the Nursery. Both girls are enjoying being at school, Naomi in particular is loving being a 'big' girl now ... and Jenny is enjoying the space to get on with other things, like packing!

We did joke, that even though the girls will only manage to complete the first term of the school year, their teachers would need lots of prayer! This was the pair of them just before heading off to school on the first day of term!

A couple of Abigail's friends have moved on since the end of last year but she's enjoying her new teacher, Mrs Idowa and her classroom is the one that used to be Jenny's when she taught at CAMS! Abigail even got the class merit certificate the first week of term for being good at Maths. In Topic though, they are talking about themselves and as Abigail is a year ahead, all her peers are 6 and 7 years old, none of them could believe she was still only 5! She's literally counting down the days until her 6th birthday in September!

Naomi's work is less strenuous! Singing, dancing, colouring, painting and playing in the playground. The Early Years Centre at CAMS for Nursery and Reception is a really fun place to be. Abigail loved it when she was in Reception and Naomi's teacher in Nursery is Mrs Vincent, an old friend of Jenny's, who Naomi loves!

As you can see though, for someone who had stopped having her afternoon nap a few months ago, school is so much fun, that most days Naomi misses out on a hour or two of the afternoon!

With no MAF bus anymore and apart from one other little girl in Nursery, no more MAF children heading to CAMS, Jenny makes the trip across town to school twice (sometimes 3 times) a day. Thankfully though with the increasing number of new roads and road repair in Dodoma, there is now a slightly better, quicker route, missing out the town centre completely which is great!

In the hangar things are continuing. While there are still some final bits of paperwork to complete the handover to CAS, Central Aviation Services, a new maintenance business run by the former MAF Chief Engineer, we're pleased to say it's all going ahead. Last week Mark came off fixing planes and along with the others, started the big inventory of all the remaining MAF property in order to sell it or ship it to another MAF programme. Everything needs to be counted, even down to the last rivet. Not the most exciting of tasks but all part of closing the programme.

At home things have started looking a bit different too. We are slowly sorting, selling and packing all our belongings once again ... made all the slower by the fact that for customs purposes, every item in every box needs to be listed. We started packing properly just over a week ago.

The good news that we would be definitely moving to Australia added a little bit of focus this weekend and has allowed us to be able to label each box with a destination! We are now 34 boxes and 3 suitcases down ... goodness only knows how many more to go!

We will continue to pack and to spend time with our favourite people here in Dodoma over the next few and final weeks. School will finish for the girls on October 3rd ... and so we foresee the big move to Australia sometime in the week or two after that. Already we are looking at the properties to rent in Mareeba online, but won't commit to anything until we actually get there.

It seems slightly crazy to think that we're moving again so soon and to be honest the Australian visa news is still sinking in because it came as such a surprise to us. We had no idea that anyone had been assigned our immigration case or that the authority that needs to recognise Mark's qualifications and experience had even approved us! But we're definitely not going to argue with the decision!

At the end of the day though, the one thing we can be certain of is that God is in control and that Beckwith's Big Adventure is soon to be moving continents once again!

Southbound for a Mini-Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 07:58:00 +0000

With our visas renewed for a final three months, we had the chance to take what will possibly be our last opportunity for a mini adventure in Tanzania ... and it was so much fun!

The road from Dodoma to Iringa is almost complete and so instead of an 8 hour drive as it would have been just a couple of years ago, now takes just under 4, with very little traffic! Although, there are still a few unfinished stretches! Check out the dust cloud we left behind us on one of them!

We spent one night in Iringa and had the chance revisit the Amani Christian Training Centre where Jenny was part of a Soapbox Team in 1997, building a house and doing some work with street kids. 17 years later the house is still standing and being used ... amazing!

The next day, we drove down 'The Never-Ending Road' to Ruaha National Park. A couple of hours drive, with very little (no) tarmac in sight! It was definitely worth it all though!

We were only in the park for just 24 hours but it was amazing! The views in Ruaha are incredibly breath-taking and totally impossible to capture. Ruaha is vast and each area looks completely different ... and then of course there were the incredible animals that we got to see on our two safari drives! Below are just a few of the photos we took! (check out the Beckwith's Big Adventure album Our Mini-Adventure in Tanzania on Facebook for more photo's of the whole trip but especially the safari!)

Foxes River Lodge where we stayed was amazing. Literally staying by the river amongst the animals. Waking up in the morning we discovered that hippos had been wandering around our little banda during the night!

There was also a pride of lions who were hanging out round the camp too (about 7 or 8 apparently!). At meal times we had walk a short distance (less than 5 minutes) to the restaurant which was set high-up on a rock with amazing views.

We were advised that for the evening meal we drive there, as although there were Masai guys employed to walk us to and from our room, there was concern that our girls, being quite small, maybe a little too tempting for the lions!! Yes, really! The photo below shows one of the young males, about 4 or 5 years old who wasn't going to get the opportunity to snack on our girls!

Having done lots of driving over 3 days. We did one more stint on the road to stay at Kisolanza for a few nights R & R! We got to stay in a beautiful cottage, eat wonderful food and be completely looked after ... and be a little bit silly too!

One of the highlights there for us was ... wait for it ... feeling cold!! The elevation is a lot higher than Dodoma and being in the southern hemisphere it is 'winter' time. We really had to wrap up warm and it felt wonderful ... as did the need to use the log fire in our cottage! For those wondering ... it was around 10 degrees celsius (50 degrees fahrenheit). It's amazing what you get used to, it honestly felt freezing at times!

We explored a little bit around the farm and took a walk along a mini-dam. It all felt decidedly English and familiar ... so it was with great reluctance that we packed up and returned home!

On the way home we popped into Neema Crafts in Iringa. An absolutely amazing place where we had stayed on the first night of our trip. They provide handicraft training and employment to people with disabilities. The things that they make are beautiful (the girls next bedroom will be sporting some of the African bunting below!), as is the yumminess we were served in their cafe, which is run by deaf people, so the menu even includes some sign language you can use! To run something like this in a country where the majority of the staff would be marginalised because of their disabilities is truly inspiring! (Read up on the history of it on the link we shared!)

It really was a wonderfully timed break away from absolutely everything! Our favourite family adventure to date and we feel really privileged that living here in Tanzania, we have had the opportunity to do it!

Now the clock is ticking while we wait to see what comes next! ;)

School Holidays in Dodoma

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 19:13:00 +0000

The 5 week break from school is almost over! Yes, really! It began at the end of June (when we made our trip to Dar for medicals!) and school starts again on August 4th, so it seems strange when we hear about all our friends in the UK, just finishing the school year, as the girls get ready to start again. BOTH girls ... Naomi can't wait!

In the meantime, with MAF officially closed, Mark and the few remaining engineers have a whole pile of extra unexpected work. We're pleased to announce however that a new company run by the ex-chief engineer and providing work for many of the ex-MAF, is well on it's way to being set up in the hangar. We're so happy that many of Mark's former national colleagues will still have employment even though MAF is gone!

There is currently still no news on the Australia front, but Jenny and the girls weren't going to let that dampen their fun over the school break, although you have to get creative here as there is not much to do in Dodoma and nowhere to 'go'! As well as catching up with both ex-pat and Tanzanian friends, there have been play dates, birthday parties and sleepovers ...

Makeshift camps in the living-room, material and second-hand clothes shopping, and meals out, like the yummy Zanzibar mix and samosa's shown below!

Jenny and the girls also set themselves a crafty challenge ... to do some different kind of craft every day, which isn't so straight forward given the resources available here! From playdough to paper flowers, paper plate crowns to welcome home posters, birthday cards to paper lei's, heart tree pictures to paper plate weaving, straw necklaces ... the list goes on! Here are some of the photos we took ...

The lovely thing has been that with each project, the girls have always been thinking about who they can give each of their new creations to! Many of which they have allocated to some of their friends who are in the process of leaving. Below is a photo of Naomi with 2 of her friends, the one on the left will be here till the end and the one on the right left earlier this week with her family to a different part of Tanzania.

The girls have also been enjoying riding their bikes a little more too, to get rid of some of their energy after all the craftiness! Naomi has really cracked it (with stabilisers!) this holiday and never wants to stop! It's been fun to watch them improve as they cycle up and down our compound and we're really grateful that we were able to bring both bikes in the container with all our stuff last year!

There is just one week of the holidays left now before both girls head to school. We're pleased to be able to share that our temporary Tanzanian visas have just been renewed once again and we are not having to plan to leave the country in that final week ... but have instead planned a little adventure of our own to a different part of the country! Watch this space and we'll update you when we get back!

While We Wait

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 17:27:00 +0000

So, what are we up to ... now that the majority of our friends here are bailing ship for one reason or another and we have no choice but to play the waiting game?

One thing is jumping through all the administrative hoops that Australian Immigration requires. We are still constantly filling out forms and uploading documents to our file on their website ... and waiting for a response.

One requirement is the 'medical examination'. It is necessary for all of us, but only accessible through one doctor in Dar Es Salaam ... for the majority of East Africa! YES really! After 2 weeks of phoning the doctor every day with no response and then just being told come tomorrow, come tomorrow, we heard he was meant to be in his office last week and so did the 8 hour drive to Dar to see him.

It was in the centre of a very busy city, down a back alley of one way and blocked off streets but we found it! We arrived promptly the first morning to get it out of the way, only to be told the doctor was out all day in meetings and to come back tomorrow!! Only in Tanzania.

We thought we would get the second part of the medical out of the way instead, so then went to the hospital to get chest x-rays ... only to find that protocol requires we see the other doctor first before they could authorise the x-rays. We did however register as patients (see below) in anticipation of better success the following day!

Instead, the rest of 'Day One' was spent visiting a few more western highlights that we don't get to enjoy in Dodoma. A play-park, a fun restaurant, the little book shop at Slipway where the girls got comfortable very quickly!

We also picked up a few fun memento's of our time in Tanzania, knowing that the 'clock is ticking' for us ... including these fun Tinga Tinga name plaques for the girls! But apart from that, we spent 5 of the 10 hours we were out of the guest house that day negotiating Dar gridlock not going very far and with very little to show for ourselves.

Dar 'Day Two', was a lot more successful! The doctor was there and this time we knew exactly where we were going! There were no requirements listed for things we needed to take with us but we took everything we could think of, the only thing that was missing was a passport photo for Naomi. While Mark and Abigail were sitting in the doctor's office with him, Jenny and Naomi nipped out and were tracking down a little shop that we could get a quick photo done ... no pressure! (Especially when Naomi threw a fit for about 15 minutes in the shop refusing to have her picture taken. Not pleasant!) Eventually though we had success!

After the medical we were escorted down the alleyway to do bloods and urine samples. Sounds wonderful eh?! The office was fine but when it was our turn, we were taken into a corridor, just behind the door there was a desk and we were all lined up along the wall (because that was the only space there was!) ... very bizarre and Tanzanian! It was however sterile and over very quickly.

Once that was completed we returned to the hospital for the x-rays again. It was another bizarre set-up, including one 'changing-room' being an old office with holes in the floor with wires sticking out of it and a section of cracked and missing tiles, a working computer on the floor and other randomness and then another 'changing-room' including a broken x-ray machine piled high with boxes of patients files and large canisters of some chemicals, complete with an alternative door, that random cleaning ladies walked backwards and forwards through whilst you were mid-change!

Needless, to say we were extremely relieved when it was all over, it was quite the experience! The girls were really patient throughout and we got it all done in the time we'd allocated. So, the next stop was the beach and a few days away from it all ... especially the traffic! This was our view! MUCH improved!

Although we hadn't planned for another Dar break, we were going to make the most of the fact that we were right there and spent a few nights at the beach and the adjoining water-park for the girls! When you think water-park, think Butlins 30 years ago ... with no improvements since! What you can't see from these photo's is the peeling paint, the rusted and cracked pipes that are not successfully holding up bridge sections or even the fish carcasses that were floating in the water dropped by the crows flying overhead! However, for Tanzania, this place is awesome and our girls had nothing else to compare it to, so for them it was the best thing ever ... needless to say we had lots of fun and ignored the inconveniences!

Waking up to the view below every day was just perfect and enjoying the hotel pool was fun too ... that's where we hung out each afternoon! We are really lucky that this kind of scenery is 'right on our doorstep', it is truly breathtaking and something we will miss when we leave!

Before we made the long drive back home to Dodoma (which we achieved in record time!), we managed a trip to a shop that sells lots of recognisable home brand products or things that just aren't available around town in Dodoma! Other items we bought include: broccoli, iceberg lettuces, hula hoops and a box of Dorset cereals! All things you might take for granted normally back in the UK, just not if you live here!!

This was just the first week of the school break. Who knows what the next few weeks will bring, lots more packing (each week a couple more boxes are being filled!), hopefully news from Australia ... but also lots more fun!

Since we've been back!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 15:01:00 +0000

The time since we got back from the UK has flown by ... filled with so much stuff as well as many many changes within MAF, amongst our friends and in our home, to name just a few.

All four of us have managed to be ill in various ways, which hasn't been ideal. Both Mark and Abigail have had a week off work and school and Naomi and Jenny have had to take time out of everything in order to recover too! Thankfully though, we all seem to be back on track once again!

The biggest change has been that MAF in Dodoma has officially closed it's doors. Mark and a few others have been working on finishing the remaining jobs, including the second avionics project.

At the end of May, the national and international staff from Dodoma and some from the Dar Es Salaam base celebrated the last 50 years of service of MAF here in Tanzania in the Dodoma hangar with a big celebration. There was a service and a meal all together ahead of the final week of work. MAF will now be based in Arusha with just a couple of pilots continuing the remote evangelistic and medical safari's in that part of the country.

This week Abigail finished Standard 1 at CAMS. She got a great report and has enjoyed taking part in her class assembly once again this term. She's celebrating the end of the school year by going on a sleepover with 3 of her closest friends! When the next term starts in August (assuming we're still here!) both of the girls will be going to CAMS ... Naomi is VERY excited!

There was also a little bit of excitement during one break time in the playground recently too ... there honestly aren't that many snakes around, in fact this is the biggest one any of us has seen! Abigail told us she wasn't the least bit scared by the whole experience!

Jenny has enjoyed some excitement since we've been back too. As well as celebrating her birthday with a chocolate cheesecake, which was amazingly special ... given that the ingredients are so rare here the cheesecake that Mark, Abigail and Naomi made her cost the equivalent of about £20!! She also had the chance to catch up with a couple of her ex-pat friends from her old Dodoma days while they were temporarily back in town for different reasons! It was very special!

Apart from that life right now is filled with goodbyes, sorting, selling, filling out endless forms for Australian Immigration and the beginnings of packing, although we don't know when exactly that will be for! It is an emotional roller-coaster that we didn't sign up for ... but are taking one day at a time! Below is a photo of the English congregation at the Cathedral, complete with many people who will also be leaving Dodoma over the coming weeks, or have already left ... as well as a couple of photos of some of our more special friends that we have just or are just about to say goodbye to!

We have also started the process of thinning out our belongings once again, in anticipation of the next big move. We're trying to get as prepared a possible in advance, so that we can be one step ahead of the game and have already sold or given away many items of furniture or things that we own. The girls have enjoyed being part of the process too and are both now excited about what's coming next with constant references to 'Can we do that in Australia?' or 'Can we get that in Australia?'!!

We continue to be playing the waiting game for now ... thank you for all your prayers as we wait for the both TRA (Trades Recognition Australia) and Australian Immigration to process our paperwork ... and while we seem to be saying constant goodbyes to people we have formed good friendships with over the last 18 months.

Easter in the UK!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 19:00:00 +0000

Hello again ... after a LONG break from the blog! Big apologies ... with the craziness of our time in the UK and then coming back to various illnesses, the hangar closing and the biggest mountain of paperwork we've ever had to plough through towards our Australian visas, life has been anything but normal!

Having said that, we really enjoyed spring time in the UK, there was very little rain and lots of beautiful spring flowers. We realised that it was our first Easter in the UK since 2009 and it was lovely to experience the fresh, flowery spring, filled with MANY chocolate Easter eggs!!

In the end we had 10 speaking engagements of varying sizes (including multiple church services, bring and share lunches and afternoon teas), 3 trips to Interhealth in London, 1 trip to New Scotland Yard for fingerprinting and a visit to the MAF UK offices. In amongst that we had a chance to visit M&M world, ride on the London Eye, go to Monkey World, a ride on the Bluebell (steam) Railway, catch a West End musical, go bowling and have a day at a seaside. As well as meeting up with close friends and family. Here are just a few of the photo's we took ...

One of the highlights was the opportunity to celebrate Naomi's 3rd birthday with family. It's one of the first of our birthday's we've had the chance to spend with them all since we started with MAF back in 2009 which made it extra special!

There was definitely more that we would have liked to have done and many many more people we would like to have had the opportunity to see ... but a month is a month ... and there is only so much you can fit into that short space of time!

We did feel completely wiped out at the end of it when we got back, which is probably part of the reason various family members have been under the weather since then. However we did consider it a real privilege to update so many people face-to-face, as the ins and outs of what is going on in our lives and MAF here in Tanzania was much easier to explain in person.

Thank you so much to all of you that we were able to see ... for your support and encouragement during such a challenging time for us as a family.

As always when you live overseas there are always foods that you REALLY miss and are on a wish list for when we're 'home'! Amazingly, having lived in Tanzania for 16 months, this time round things like chicken, broccoli, salad and red peppers were on ours! We did manage to visit some of our favourite eateries and enjoy some British treats too though ... Cream Tea, Fish and Chips to name just a few! We'll leave you with a couple of photo's of those!!

UK Schedule - Easter 2014

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 20:58:00 +0000

We're here! We made it!

Life is slightly surreal now as we adjust to the time, catch up on sleep after a couple of days travel and also adjust to living back in a totally different culture! Out shopping today the fashions on the high street made us feel very out of touch, middle aged and frumpy!

There are so many things that have excited us already in our first 48 hours ... smooth non-pot-holed roads, drinking tap water, soft toilet paper, escalators (Abigail called them 'moving ladders'), the list goes on! It really is the little things that you take for granted in every day life that are the highlights right now!

We've also enjoyed some foods that we haven't been able to get for the last 14 months, since we were last in the UK! Croissants, Ikea meatballs, nice non-bullet-like peas, fish finger sandwiches, Skips, cherry tomatoes, Crunchy nut cornflakes and more. We have many other goodies on our wish list that we can't wait sample too!

If you think we're home for a holiday, think again!! For those of you who would like to see us our timetable is pretty full with appointments (dentists, Interhealth etc) and other such exciting things. We have also scheduled in time with various churches and prayer groups to update you on life in Dodoma and what the future now looks like for us. Not bad considering this time last month we didn't even know we were coming to the UK this soon!

For those of you who haven't heard we are in the process of applying for visas to work with MAF in Mareeba, Queensland. Described as an outback town of about 8,000 people to us by Australian friends who live there (with lots of cowboys and rodeo's!), where the tarmac on the road runs out if you head west, there is an MAF hangar that services approximately 30 planes. These aircraft fly for MAF in Timor-Leste, Arnham Land, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh and get all their heavy maintenance done from a central base in Australia. While we don't know exactly when yet, we do know now that, visa permitting, that is where we will be headed hopefully in the latter part of this year.

For our UK friends who would like a chance to see us over the coming month, here is the schedule of our main engagements ...

11th April - Friday - Sharing and Lunch at Christ Church, Orpington - 11am

13th April - Sunday - Purley Baptist Church - 9:30am, 11:15am, 7:15pm

16th April - Wednesday - Visit to MAF Offices, Folkestone

20th April - Sunday - Whyteleafe Church - 10:30am

24th April - Thursday - PBC Home group evening

26th April - Saturday - YCC group afternoon tea - 3pm

27th April - Sunday - Emmanuel Church, Weymouth - 10am

1st May - Thursday - West Wickham & Shirley Baptist Church, Mission Evening - 7:45pm

3rd May - Saturday - Rickstones Church, Essex - 4pm

4th May - Sunday - Croham Road Baptist Church and Bring & Share lunch - 10:30am

We will be based between Mark's parents in Biggin Hill and Jenny's mum in Warligham for our time here. Our contact numbers are Mark - 07914 973264 and Jenny - 07774 286581 ... although signal-wise things seem to be a bit dodgy and we're still working out just how the UK phone networks work!!!!

We really look forward to catching up with many of you over the next few weeks!

What's Going On?

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:55:00 +0000

It has been a while since we last wrote. Not because we have nothing to tell you ... but because we're still in the midst of processing all the things that have been going on regarding MAF here in Tanzania and where that leaves our future as a family.

We now know that the major changes within MAF Tanzania will involve closing both the Dar and Dodoma bases with all future engineering carried out in Kenya. We're also pleased that the high impact flying will be able to continue in the north of the country, with medical and evangelistic safari's. However, none of it will include us.

Here are some photo's of the hangar in Dodoma ... it seems sad to know that in just a few months, after almost 50 years, it won't be operated by MAF anymore.

When a building is constructed, there is a team of skilled workers to start from the foundations all the way to the day of completion. That team then move on to their next project. MAF have had the chance to start from the foundations here in Dodoma. That work is now completed and can be something that all involved can be proud of.

In the meantime we have been looking at what will happen for us as a family. Below is the latest Engineering Vacancies bulletin from MAF International ... we could end up living and working in any of these programmes by late 2014/early 2015. Daunting and Exciting! Right now MAF in the UK are talking to the Asia Pacific Office on our behalf, but there isn't much more to add to that right now.

For now our home (below) is still home ... and we are beginning to sort through our belongings once again. It only seems the other day that we were unpacking our container. To be honest the last thing we want to do is pack it up again, but that is the reality for us now. The timing and destination is still yet to be determined!

With the uncertainty that lays ahead, we know that committing to a Home Assignment trip to the UK in July is out of the question. Just a week ago we made the decision and got the go ahead to return to the UK for the month of April instead. We are in the process of contacting churches, supporters, friends and family to arrange our time there at very short notice.

So for those of you in the UK, we arrive on April 7th and leave on May 7th! Hope to catch up with some of you very soon and also to be able to answer some of your questions ... although on that we cannot promise anything, as we don't know many of the answers ourselves. One step at a time!

Nana's Second visit to Dodoma

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 19:00:00 +0000

As we mentioned in our Christmas post. Jenny's mum came to visit us again. As well as celebrating both Christmas and New Year's with friends, here's a bit more about her trip!

She got up to all kinds of mischief while she was here, baking with the girls ...

Putting the Christmas face paints to good use ...

Having her hands sawn off during a play dough session ...

Lots of giggling and snuggling ...

We were able to introduce to her to many of our friends ...

This time round she had a go at tailoring her own African outfit, instead of having one made ...

As it was the school holidays for this visit, we all got to go away to the beach for a few days together in Dar Es Salaam which was wonderful.

We did a little bit of touristy shopping ... and went to some 'real' supermarkets, with shopping trolleys (seriously, when you live in Dodoma, that it REALLY exciting!!).

The choice of restaurants in Dar is huge compared to Dodoma too and the girls were really keen to go back to the Ethiopian where you don't have to use cutlery, to show Nana what it was like!

We had the chance to catch up with some of Nana's friends in Dar one afternoon too which was nice ...

And then, all too soon we had to say goodbye again and we drove back to Dodoma, while she travelled back to the UK.

First Christmas in Tanzania

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 18:44:00 +0000

As we're on January 2nd ... we thought we'd fill you in a little on our first Christmas here in Dodoma! To be fair, the essential parts were not all that different from what we would do anywhere else in the world!

There was the nativity play at Abigail's school. Form 2 put on a great pantomime-style production. Lots of fun!

The MAF family Christmas party at the hangar ... with a chance to meet some of the spouses and children of Mark's colleagues, complete with games and food.

Family coming to stay. Jenny's mum arrived for her second visit to us here in Tanzania.

Our traditional family un-traditional Christmas Tree, Christmas Cake. It had a collapsible issue that we hadn't previously experienced so we had to take the photo quickly before the landslide of chocolate cake began!

Christmas stockings with goodies waiting for the girls on Christmas morning.

Christmas presents of the more traditional variety (thanks to our container!) and also those that are a little different to what we usually give out!

A traditional Christmas meal with friends. We had 3 families, 13 of us all together, all sharing out the cooking.

We found Christmas crackers in Dar Es Salaam during our October visit ... and introduced our Swiss friends to them. Pop!

One thing that was a little bit different from previous years (apart from the heat of course!) were the Christmas bugs. They come out around December-time and are thumb-nail sized, red and fluffy looking. Rather cute for a bug!

Getting Festive?!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 18:06:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 10:49:00 +0000

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 ...

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:40:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 17:55:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 11:05:00 +0000

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!

Birthday Month Dodoma Style!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 14:09:00 +0000

September is a BIG month for birthday's in our family ... and a few others too it seems! Almost every week this month we've had at least one party to go to, sometimes two!! We've also done our fair share of hosting, with both Mark and Abigail celebrating in the same week!

You have to be a little bit more creative here when it comes to birthday's. Abigail has been to both a butterfly and a pony themed party recently, complete with homemade butterfly wings and hobby horses from locally bought kanga material.

Decorating cakes becomes a little more challenging too ... we tried out an American friends marshmallow fondant icing recipe and were really pleased with the results for Mark and Abigail's cakes. It did require forward planning though, as the marshmallows are not easily or often available here!

Our own super busy party week went something like this ... Mark's birthday party came first on the Sunday, his actual birthday on the Tuesday, Abigail's birthday on the Friday with her party on the Saturday!! Abigail turned the grand old age of 5 and Mark hit a big milestone, the big 4-0!

We had mainly MAF families around for Mark's party (for which Jenny's mum was still here for), Mark like's things pretty low key! We decorated outside with '40' balloons and bunting and then played some lawn games, like Kubb and just hung out!!

The kids kept themselves playing and bouncing on the trampoline and everyone brought some yummy food to share!

Even the wildlife appreciated the snacks ... what a huge and beautiful butterfly!

On Mark's actual birthday we were able to surprise him with a pile of cards and presents that many of our family, friends and supporters had sent after a cheeky email from Jenny, telling everyone it was a special birthday! Thank you SO much to everyone who got busy sending cards ... they are still arriving several weeks later and the count is somewhere in the mid-70's right now!! Here are just a few of them!

Abigail had fun celebrating her 5th birthday ... on the actual day she had school and Bible Club, so we only really saw her for a couple of hours ... time enough to eat pizza and open and enjoy presents though!!

The morning after we had a group of her friends over to celebrate properly ... with games outside and inside, yummy food and of course, a butterfly birthday cake!

Since the girls were born we've always done a birthday measurement, so Mark hastily put the chart up (it was one of the many things still to do since our container arrived!). As you can see Abigail is now only a few inches off 4ft!!!

After all that excitement, life has become a lot more mundane again ... not in a bad way, in a nice, familiar, we're really settled way. Now that all four of us have celebrated a birthday here, we really are 'home'!

Our First Overseas Visitor to Dodoma!

noreply@blogger.com (The Beckwiths) — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 06:47:00 +0000

We've just enjoyed three weeks with our first overseas visitor. Yes, we're still in the midst of sorting out the boxes etc and still don't have a car of our own (hoping that the latter will be rectified this week!) ... but we convincingly cleared the spare bedroom in a very short space of time, as it was a last minute booking and had Nana (Jenny's mum) come to stay!

As well as a brief visit to the hangar, see above with her MAF visitor's badge (she almost made it on a MAF flight but priority had to go to the evangelists), she also got a taste of what life is like for us here in Dodoma!

We visited the markets in town and introduced her to the fruit seller who regularly comes to our gate. We went material shopping and then had our fundi, Mama Neema make up some clothes for her and the 3 girlies in the family.

Someone asked her what her favourite thing about being here was and as a regular visitor to Africa, it wasn't so much the destination but the company of two little munchkins that was understandably her highlight! Painting with Naomi, playing buses with the whole family, running around outside with the girls or drawing with chalk on the front porch were just a few of the things she got to enjoy!

Having visited Jenny when she lived here before, it was nice for Nana to meet up with Maria, our House Mama, once again too. Maria taught her how to make her yummy rolls and invited all of us to her home for chai and chapati's one Saturday morning!

On her journey here, it took Nana 3 days to get to Dodoma from the UK, including an 8 hour bus ride up from Dar Es Salaam. There is a company that flies that route too (although obviously a lot more expensive) ... so when Mark was at work and Abigail was at school last Monday, Jenny and Naomi took Nana to Dodoma Airport (a tiny little building next to the MAF hangar) and waved goodbye!

Both the girls have been asking where Nana throughout the week since she left. We're sure it won't be too long until we see her back here once again!