Last night we got back from a week in Dodoma, Tanzania ... a place that before long we will be calling home. While we were only there for a week, we were actually gone for two ... as it took 4 days and 4 plane rides to get there and 3 days, 1 bus and 3 plane rides to get back ... our biggest adventure as a family to date!
The girls were absolute troopers with all the travelling and totally took it all in their stride ... adjusting to the time difference was a bit more of a challenge though!
We will be there working with MAF (as you probably already knew!) and so we had the chance to look around the hangar. Mark spent a couple of mornings in there, in an attempt to familiarize himself with everything before starting work next February!
We had the chance to get to know some of the people and families already working with MAF in Tanzania through their great hospitality (we stole these photos from the MAF websites as we didn't think to take family shots of those we met while we were there!). They are ... the Meders (Swiss - Ruben is base manager in Dodoma), the Parkers (British - Andrew is a pilot, based in Dodoma), the Aylings (British - Stuart is base manager in Dar Es Salaam and met us from the airport and bus at the beginning and end of our trip) and Pierre Casemajor (French - Engineer in Dodoma)
The girls made some good friends as well ... especially with the two Meder girlies, Aleah and Soraya, who are roughly the same ages as our two!
We also had the opportunity to see our new home while we were there. It is on MAF compound B, which we would share with one other MAF family and two other houses, which are being used by SIL as offices. It helped us to see around the inside of the house so that we can plan what will be helpful to ship with us when we move. Now we have something to picture and aim for when we pack up our boxes over the coming weeks.
We took the opportunity to look around the town and market and get more of an idea of what life would be like for us when we live there. Naomi loved the hustle and bustle of the market and when we were leaving she was pointing to go back inside it again.
The local bus system wasn't something that we got to experience and probably won't as we'll have our own vehicle once we move out there ... but you'd be surprised how many people can squeeze into one of these!!
For Jenny, a lot of the trip was very familiar (having taught out there from 1999-2001). It was nice to be able to introduce the rest of the family to the school where she worked ... especially for Abigail who is enrolled into the reception class for when we arrive in February. Abigail really enjoyed seeing her new classroom and wanted to start straight away. She couldn't understand why she has to wait just a few more months!
There was also an opportunity for Jenny to catch up with a couple of friends too ... and introduce the rest of the family. We saw Esta when we visited the school and had lunch with Irene. It was so fun to be able to fit in a chance to do that in the midst of all the other appointments and preparations!
We had some down time too ... messing around in the MAF pool several afternoons. The weather was in the high 80's, so it was really nice to cool off and act a bit goofy together in the midst of everything else!
So now we are back home again and have the mammoth task of packing up our lives here in the States over the next month. Selling some things, buying others ... and packing everything up to ship. Having visited Dodoma now, we will be much more focused and it might make the packing a bit easier now we have a life to picture out there.
You can also have a look at our Facebook Page Beckwith's Big Adventure for loads more photographs of what we got up to! ;o)
