Travels and training

Time to hit the road again – or get stuck on it! On Friday & Saturday, Liz Wisbey and I were leading a workshop for Sunday school teachers, training them in how to handle God’s Word carefully when teaching children and interactive ways to help children learn. So, on Thursday we set off to the Kinga language area, together with Matt Wisbey and Frank (a Tanzanian colleague) who had Literacy work to do there. We knew the roads on the most direct route wouldn’t be good as a result of the rains, but we took that way anyhow, despite my anxieties due to having got stuck on that route the previous year! And sure enough, we came to a slippery, muddy halt a couple of times. However, with Matt’s good driving, the faithful Land Rover’s low gears and the help of villagers who seemed to have been waiting for the next vehicle to get stuck, we were soon on our way again.

The Kinga language area is high in the hills – our journey there took us to heights of around 9500 feet (2880m)! This makes it a beautiful but cold landscape, and it rained most of the time that we were there.

We enjoyed good Tanzanian food in the same tiny little eating place most days – usually eating rice, beans, mboga (like spinach), beef and fruit. While waiting for the food we often sat around a little charcoal fire to keep warm. On the final evening we ate at a different place that is supposed to serve more ‘Western’ food – this meant we were able to get pasta instead of rice, but the rest of the meal was the same!

The workshop was fun, though tiring, with over twenty teachers, who particularly enjoyed the games we played with them. However, we have left with the feeling that we are spreading ourselves too thin. We don’t know when we will be able to go back to this place to follow up, as there are nine other language areas to visit. How can we be sure the training has been effective or how can we help them to continue to develop in their important responsibility of teaching children the Word of God? Liz teaching

By the way, we returned safely, without getting stuck, by a different route that was about three times as long!