Thursday 31st January 2013

Tuesday 29th January 2013

We both went to ISTM College this morning, although Janice was feeling a bit under the weather following a strange attack of shivering and nausea during the night!

John continued his work with the librarian, a very pretty young lady, who was a bit embarrassed one day as to how to tell him she needed to go and feed her baby!!!

Janice and Nancy had a session in the library, re-arranging, tidying and polishing. Books and shelves get coated in dust very quickly here, and some of the books and papers had not been properly sorted and tidied since their move [not a priority for the Congolese!!].

Janice in the library.

After a further attack of sickness followed by headaches at the College, Janice was prescribed with a precautionary dose of medication as the symptoms pointed to a “touch” of Malaria! The pills said ‘for Malaria in pregnancy’...!!?...However, they did the trick by the next morning, and as it’s me writing this blog you can see I am fine again! Well, that’s another new experience, and if that was a “touch” of Malaria I sure hope I never experience a “thump”!! It was not pleasant, and I wouldn’t like to experience it again!!

Wednesday 30th January

The early morning dawned with Janice feeling better; and with another sudden tropical rainstorm. This was bigger than Sunday’s storm and lasted for 2+ hours with amazing overhead lightning and thunder claps....rain on the tin roof is deafening! We later heard that about 100 little homes near the local river had been washed away. One blessing is that rain in the dry season keeps certain crops growing which would otherwise dry up. Climate change is causing problems here though with unpredictable growing conditions for many crops.

Mele by his car and water running off the road into an eroded gulley beside the College property.

This iss a bridge over the river

Mele and John set off for the College when the storm had eased, but the holes in the roads were once again filled with water, with rivers of mud in between! [Pot holes in UK are nothing!!]

Today, John was working with Christian, who is the accountant for ISTM College. In the past the accounts have been kept on “Excel spreadsheets” which are very complex and well devised. The accounts are being transferred to “Sage” accounts. This is a very comprehensive package but it, like other comprehensive software packages, takes a lot of learning. Setting budgets and comparing income/expenditure against budget is something which the directors wish to do but which Christian was unable to set up. John has no experience with “Sage” but was sure that such a facility existed. Christian speaks no English! John speaks no French! AND the “Sage” package is in French! It was nothing short of a miracle that together they managed to navigate the “Help” documentation and find out how to achieve the desired results. Praise the Lord for His enabling in a situation which John had thought would be hopeless.

A very happy Christian at his computer!

Janice stayed at home to make sure of full recovery, reading, and writing in preparation for this Blog and doing a bit of baby minding again, while a mopping up session was going on indoors and on the veranda....the heavy rain with strong winds penetrates through the old windows even when shut! But as the concrete floors are all washed and wiped every day, they don’t see this as too much of an extra chore!


As we’ve said before, sending Blog news and Emails and receiving Emails is very haphazard here, and will probably be worse from 4th-20thFeb when we are on our Trek across the DR Congo; so we were very shocked to hear, a few days late, that after our daughter Julia and Chris, her partner had moved from Devon to Salisbury last week, and their furniture arriving last Wednesday, Chris was rushed into Salisbury Hospital and had an emergency hernia operation last Friday! Thankfully, there was an excellent surgeon who immediately found the problem and operated quickly. We have now been in touch with Julia and Chris, and have been told by both of them “not to worry”. He was home on Sunday, and progressing OK....but not up to sorting out their furniture and unpacking in their new home!