Spending the first week in tropical sunshine has made all the difference. Well topped-up with vitamin D, we came back bouncing with energy (in spite of a 25 hour return journey) and recovering quickly from the time difference and beginning a new term.
(Leaving Africa was not easy. Those emotions now seem distant...a part of my heart packed away with the suitcases. I get them down from the attic to peep in now and then, feelings longing to clamber out into the fresh light of day, but there is no future for the longing-to-be-there and the -missing-our-kids feelings, save for a thankfulness for the time and opportunity. Thankfulness is a large and comforting weight to keep us all in order, a kind schoolmistress maintaining calm in the chaos of immaturity.)
Arriving in Guernsey less than 20 hours before the first school day, I hit the ground running. Straight in to a full teaching week, so was quite exhausted by the Friday and had even organised a ladies' breakfast for that first Saturday morning. There were six of us, in the end, and it was, as always, refreshing and revitalizing. Nothing I like better than spiritual conversations over coffee and baked goods of some sort. Cheese scones and cardamom twists. #favourites.
Meanwhile, Cat, Andy and Cara continuee to persevere. Feeding is sorted, but Cara slept relatively little which didn't give her exhaused parents much of a break. Prayed she would settle in to a routine soon, which, by halfway through the month, she had begun to do, sleeping longer and awake for shorter periods in the night. Phew.
Sleeping better, smiling lots. We've loved frequent Skype 'Cara dates', enjoying getting to know her while we grin like lunatics. She grins, slightly lopsided at times (a Pollard trait) whil showing off a cute little dimple on the other cheek ( an Andy trait). 'Chats' and tries to join in with singing. Cute/sweetheart/gorgeous are the adjectives of choice, used over and over again...
Back to a constant diet of Brexit anxiety - in the media, that is. I haven't taken much notice, although the antics in the House of Commons - particularly the Speaker - have been quite entertaining. Who knows what will happen? The speculation and misinformation flying around has been spectacular. Historic times, as the Government sustained its biggest defeat ever on a vote, as Politics is evident in every public conversation between MPs, as the country is so divided.
Closer to home, there are more pressing worries. Dear Lisa's father, Denny, is very ill with melanoma; Pickle's friend Howie has been diagnosed with brain cancer, with only a few months left of life: items being ticked off on his 'bucket list'; and Jonny and Adele, again, have visa issues and their sojourn in Tanzania is once again uncertain, with friends leaving/planning to leave. Including Byron and Lisa, very sadly, as they make a decision to return to California to help Denny and Carolyn; and then, at the end of the month, our dear friend Heather is diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
In all of this, we know that God is sovereign, that He loves us, our family and friends far more than we can imagine and that, as we trust and put all things under His care, He orders our days. Yet alongside this are the fears and worries that threaten to overwhelm. It is not in our nature to willingly accept sickness and death: we are made in God's image, for eternity and perfection, and so, as this is the only earth we know, we long for eternal life in the now....
Meanwhile, we drink Tanzanian coffee. Adele and Jonny gave us a set of 'taster' bags for Christmas.
We tested one type every day for five days, before a final tasting where we compared them all together.
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| All set up for final tasting. After 5 days of one type of coffee a day, it was now time to taste test all together, one after the other. #justlikewine |
Results:
R preferred no3, A preferred no5 which was Rs 2nd choice. No 3 was the most expensive at 52000tzs a kg, no5 was the 2nd most expensive at 34000tzs a kg, thus proving that we have discriminate tastes.
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