Opening a new ECD centre

Hello everyone from a  beautiful day in Mzuzu.  Its been another good week but not without its frustrations.  

Last Sunday at church I found myself sitting beside a young lady called Katie who with her two friends was on holiday from University and travelling through some of sub Saharan Africa.  They all came for coffee and we had a lovely chat!  

Francesca, Emily and Katie

On Monday I decided I had to get down to writing up my thesis  and took some time off to see if I could make some headway!  

My worst nightmare - statistics.....

I took myself off to somewhere that phone network is poor and where there was no internet access, to give myself a chance to do some work.  It was beautiful and I wonder if any of you can guess where this is!! 

However, no sooner had I arrived at my destination and was taking my bag out of the car than the frustrations began.......... there was a hissing noise and within 30 seconds the front tyre was completely flat.  Okay, this happens, but the tyre was brand new and had only been put on a couple of days previously!    

The next morning I found some people to help change it, but when we took off the spare wheel it was a bit flat as well.........so now I am stuck!  The two guys however took the tyre and pumped it up.  This meant I had to go back to Mzuzu to see about the new tyre..a morning wasted already!  When I took it back, they didn't have another one in stock and had to order it, so we had to go and get one of the old tyres to put on in the meantime!!  At last its been sorted and we got the new tyre fitted later on in the week!

I managed to get some of the writing done but perhaps not as much as I would have liked, as I had to come back on Thursday to deal with other issues in the office!

On Saturday, I headed to Thunduwike which is a rural congregation where we had a service to dedicate the new Early Childhood Centre.  It was a colourful day, a hot day,  a dusty day, but a lot of fun was had on the way and during the function!

the congregation when we arrived...

The moderator of the Synod, Rev Dr TPK Nyasulu, was officially opening the Early Childhood Centre and so he was taking the service.  I worked with Dr Nyasulu in Zomba so we had some catching up to do on the way there!!

Rev L S Nyondo (General Secretary), Rev T P K Nyasulu (Moderator) and myself

There were quite a few choirs which made the occasion colourful and joyful.

the Umanyano choir (womens' guild)

the Sunday School choir - they were brilliant singing and dancing!

The donor who made the ECD centre possible is Mr Mbulo a business man whose home is at Thunduwike.  Here you can see him with the keys of the ECD centre which he is about to give to me as handing over to the Synod.

Mr Mbulo in the centre - the lady on the right is Mercy, our Trainer in Jombo Presbytery

Receiving the keys of the centre

In turn, I handed over the keys to Dr Nyasulu as he was going to formally open the new centre.

Once the service was over we then processed to the new ECD centre to dedicate it.

Its a beautiful  building.....

some of the congregation....

cutting the ribbon..........

And before we went to lunch, having our photographs taken - the sun was so bright I had to wear my sunglasses!!

Today I went to Viyele CCAP church where Nicolas was preaching as it was the Sunday School service.  Unfortunately I forgot to carry my camera but it was again a colourful occasion with many choirs and much joy!!

Just to finish - Pemphero came yesterday to blow bubbles after I came home, and I love this photo..........

And so, another week is over, the days are passing very quickly.  Now its warming up in Mzuzu and the country is very dry.  Schools opened last Monday so I hope to see what is happening in our school here during the coming week.  We still have not moved to our new building - money is finished and we still have a lot to do.  I just pray that one day we will see children playing there!

Oh and the jacaranda trees are out - the beautiful purple colour all over the city!!

Wishing you all a good week,

Blessings,

Diane