Greetings from Bunia: Tuesday 26th October 2010

We haven’t been able to check our Emails since Sunday due to lack of electric power etc, so I can’t acknowledge any yet! Poor John and other college staff have also had problems with their computer work. John will give details on that. I am typing again in readiness for an Internet slot....hopefully with photos this time.

Yesterday morning I completed the next Flannelgraph set which is for the School for the Deaf here in Bunia.....” L’ecole poor les enfants sourd”......! [ My French is expanding!].

At 9.15 am today the Director and another teacher came for their lesson. Oh, how I valued my sign language knowledge because, although limited, it was my lifeline for today’s teaching! The Director only spoke French and sign language; the young lady teacher was profoundly deaf, so could only sign! So, English wasn’t much help!! However, with my basic French plus signing we all communicated, and they were soon able to understand the flannelgraph idea. We had a lot of laughter, and over coffee they were both intrigued with comparing our British Signing compared with their American method. We practiced with each other and had an enthusiastic and fun time signing in both styles and being amused by some of the differences! I was able to give them copies of various diagrams of the British signs [from my past lessons with friend Mary Cripps!], which they were keen to learn. They were thrilled to take the Teaching Flannelgraphs back to the school. There are no books of Bible story pictures, so this will ‘bring the stories alive’ in their Religious Study lessons. I hope to visit the school soon.

All the medical items, which were donated by friends, have been gratefully received. Absolutely everything is useful and needed. The toothpaste and brushes are going to the Deaf school when Dr Nancy will be giving a Hygiene lesson!

We hope to collect the Swahili Bibles on Friday, and some of these will be taken on our proposed visit to Nyankunde on Sunday where there is the Bible College and a Hospital. This will be an interesting visit to the area where Nancy and Philip were until the 2002/3 wars caused them to flee following the slaughter of many patients and staff and destruction of the Hospital and their home. Nyankunde is an hour’s journey from here......on those rutted and bumpy mud roads! We will write about the trip in our next Blog news.

Greetings and God bless all friends and family,

Janice.