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After months of planning the big day finally arrived. On January 26th I said goodbye to my family and stepped onto the plane. It was just me and God and 23kg of luggage, which was scary and exciting in equal amounts! We had a good flight to Dar es Salaam on the Tanzanian coast, and then after one day there a safe journey by road to the capital city Dodoma. After a few days settling in there I arrived here in Morogoro for 4 months of language school.
There are about 20 of us here at the language school – all trying to learn how to speak Swahili. Most of us are missionaries or doing some kind of Christian work, although I’m the only one from the UK. So I get mocked for my English accent. But I’m used to that by now…
A typical day would go something like this…
6:45 Wake up
7:00 Breakfast. Bread and jam and sometimes mangoes mmmmm…
7:45 Classes start. I remember that it’s only 4:45 in the UK and I really should be in bed. I realise that I’ve fallen asleep and I really should open my eyes.
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The language school in Morogoro (well, actually the football pitch at the language school in Morogoro…) |
10:30 After tea break we move into small groups to practice what we’ve learnt.
2:00 Lunch time. Yum yum. Followed by sitting around with the teachers (who are Tanzanian guys about my age) chatting in Swahili enjoying the 2 and a half hour lunch break…
2:30 Back to class. A random man asks us if we want to buy a poisonous snake from him. Ummm… no thanks – not today.
4:00 Sit around chatting and watching football on TV. Play a bit of football.
6:00 Dinner. Yum yum.
7:00 Watch English football on TV. Discuss it in Swahili – kind of bizarre.
8:13 The electricity goes off.
8:14 We run out of ideas of things to do in the dark
9:00 Electricity comes back on. We’ve missed the end of the football. But it’s OK because I can find out the score on the internet.
9:05 Internet goes down. We try to amuse ourselves playing a random German number game. I realise that I can no longer add up small numbers.
10:30 Time for bed. Laugh at the hungry mosquito that’s buzzing around my head but can’t get inside my mozzie net.
I’ll hopefully be here in Morogoro for a total of 4 months, and then in June I’ll go back to Dodoma to start working on language assessment – analysing languages to decide the best strategy for providing the people with the Bible in their own language.
Things to pray about…
Praise God that my resident permit is almost ready to be issued. This would allow me to stay and work in Tanzania for the next 2 years.
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Me, teacher Mathayo and Anna (from Sweden)
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Thank God for my good health so far, and please pray that I’d continue to be healthy and not get any silly diseases.
Please pray about the possibility of a Kenyan man joining us on the survey team. At the moment there will be just 3 of us, but it would be really great to have another guy on the team.
Pray that I would be able to learn Swahili quickly and well. At the moment I’m able to say most things that I want to, but I find it quite difficult to hear what other people are saying, especially when they talk really fast!
Please also pray for good friendships with other people here at language school, and then within the survey team.
And please pray that we’d be focussed on God, and that Jesus would be at the centre of all we are and do.
Thank you!!!
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If your contact details change, please let me know at the following address:
Mark Woodward, 31 Pound Close, Semington, Trowbridge, Wilts, BA14 6JP, UK (01380 870784)
My address in Tanzania: SIL, Po Box 1369, Dodoma, Tanzania
My website: www.habarizamark.co.uk
E-mail: mark@habarizamark.co.uk
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Wycliffe Bible Translators, Horsleys Green,
High Wycombe, Bucks, HP14 3XL, UK
www.wycliffe.org.uk
E-mail: askus@wycliffe.org
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