Six weeks away and back to Musoma

It has been seven weeks since writing. My holiday to Europe was full of interesting surprises with initially the cancellation of my flight from Tanzania by KLM and still waiting for insurance to finalise my claim.

I met Linda in Southampton and together we cruised to Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, back to Denmark (Copenhagen), Norway (missed all of it), Iceland, Lerwick (Scotland), Newcastle and back to Southampton (30 days in all).

The cruise was more relaxing than intended. On July 12 all passenegrs staying on past Copenhagen (where many were exiting and others getting on) underwent a COVID test. I tested positive and spent nine days in isolation while Linda was able to enjoy her time without me. I was asymptomatic, other than a slight runny nose for a day or two. I stayed in the isolation room, jogged on the spot for 40 minutes daily, ordered liberally from room service and read lots and watched 4 movies. I totally missed the four stops in Norway and first two ports in Iceland and got to know my neighbours from chats on the balcony. A lovely couple from Florida who we had dinner with towards the end of the cruise.

Mostly my view for nine days

Sign says it all. I am unclean.

Room service was great

Flowers from the ship

3am in the North Sea off Norway

Norway

More of Norway

Iceland

We left the ship in England on 29 July for Heathrow. Linda to Australia and me to Franfurt for a flying visit to German family I had not seen for twelve years. Following five full days in Germany, I flew to Riga, Latvia, mainly to catch up with an 88 year old cousin to obtain more family history on my father’s side. She was a lot more open on this visit than my previous visits and I learned a lot about my father, his family and her as well living, with my grandparents on the original farm when the Soviets arrived looking for uncles (three of whom subsequently captured went to Siberia and not for a holiday).

Back to Tanzania leaving Riga on Sunday. I arrived in Mwanza Monday night 8 August after five airports and four flights. I flew Tuesday to Bukoba to do a favour for a friend from another agency who had some projects in Lweru Diocese and also for a meeting with a disability organision in Kagera Diocese on behalf of Mara Diocese. The disability meeting opens a possibility to commence a disability program in the Musoma area but there is a LOT of work. My visit to Lweru was fascinating as I visited families which had been gifted a cow for nutrition purposes as well as income generation. One of the families I visited had a child with sysmptoms of kwashiorkor so milk will assist in overcoming protein deficiency once it has calved.

I also visited a number of churches where my friend’s agency had put roofs on churches which is the most expensive part of a church building. Locals make the bricks and construct the walls but the cost of iron sheeting and timber often sees these buildings damaged in heavy rain. My last church visit the people gave me a chicken and a bag of nuts as a token of appreciation (thanks Lucy) as I was the ARDFA rep in their eyes.

Back across the lake Friday. Two meetings in two days and two days to get there. I saved a day by flying direct from Dar Es Salaam to Bukoba otherwise it would have been a full week away.

Meeting at Karagwe

Arthur and I in Karagwe

One of the pastors who has a cow. Kwashioror symptoms observed in his daughter

Another cow

When the church gets too big you build over the old one

Another cow

Appreciation for the roof

Chicken and peanuts

Grateful

Bishop Godfrey and I

Back to Musoma late Friday afternoon and feeling “at home.” Bishop’s wife and son and youngest daughter are here for all of August due to the national census. Biblical in its organisation, each person returns to their home and the country effectively is shut on Tuesday 23 August as thousands of census collectors visit each household in each village across the nation, tablet in hand to personally interview each household member. Schools, colleges and universities are closed for the month instead of the normal July break. It seems to be a mammoth and very expensive task as census collectors spent 11 paid days being trained.

I preached at the English service on my first Sunday back and my first week back has been frenetic. Then to the Cathedral where an ordination service commenced at 8am and finished at 2:36pm! It was some service and whilst long, the penchant for music was in full force as twelve choirs including mainly visiting choirs sang. There was a mosh pit as these choirs and congregations came together and sang and danced in praise. Unlike English churches where a song may be 3-4 minutes in length, some of the Swahili songs stretch out to 10-12 minutes so ninety minutes minimum is all song. Then the ordinations which were held in two parts. Deacons which is their first ordination comprised nine men and women and then priests who have generally been ordained as deacons for some time and this was much longer for the six men and women. Photographing them from behind the bishop, the solemnity and emotion were clear on their faces as hands were laid on them as the bishop ordianed them.

The service ended with the usual auction and I bought two of the three goats as ordination gifts for two of the women priested. Both are women who suffered polio in their younger years and have overcome adversity to attend college for three years, supporting themselves in the process while still raising families as single mothers. The commitment is extraordinary against a background of poverty and disability disadvanatage.

A mosh pit as all choirs and congregation joined together in song

The deacons

A deacon being ordained

Those being ordained as priests

A view from behind

Martha being ordained a priest

Annarose being ordained

I bought two of these girls

Mama bishops with Annarose

Martha and I

Paulina (note her staff)

I had planned to summarise my first week as well. It has been busy but will defer for another week.

Just Like That a Month Has Gone!

An interesting, peaceful but very busy week. Church as usual on Sunday. It was a shorter service than usual as the main choirs were away singing at a fundraiser. After church as I was speaking to people a man who was born with albinism approached us, bent over and out of his gumboots pulled an empty tube of SPF60+ sunscreen, seeking donations to buy more.

Albinism is seen in adults who survive childhood without being kidnapped and butchered by witch doctors Well what can you do? The TZS 10,000 is a lot of money for people who may only earn 400,000TZS a month (AU$225 is a very good income) so it was nothing to give him the $6. I saw the same tube later that week sheltering from rain for exactly TZS10,000.

Lunch on Sunday was at Afrilux where I have eaten each Sunday since arriving but this time with Bishop away, I took the pastor of the English Service and his wife to lunch and had, as usual tilapia but baked which had a tomato based sauce on it. Not as good as fried tilapia.

Adram and Roy Sunday lunch

Roasted tilapia

One of a number of albino adults in Musoma

Bishop was away at his village after getting a call from his dad who wanted to see him. He mentioned Monday and Tuesday were public holidays so I started working at home Monday in preparation for the workshop I was presenting at on Thursday and Friday on strategic planning. I rang the Diocesan Secretary about some issues about the workshop as he was translating, only to find out the holidays were Tuesday and Wednesday so off I went. I located what must be the only locksmith in town to get a key cut. Enroute the public reserve was populated by hundreds of Muslims bowed down under large tents in what I understood later to be the beginning of Eid at sunset that night.

Monday flew and before I knew it, the workday was over after 5pm. I walked home and found a hairdresser and had a cut for 3,000 TZS or $2. I left a tip with both the cutter and the woman who massaged my scalp with oil after the cut.

Tuesday and Wednesday were holidays for the Muslim festival of Eid which celebrates the end of Ramadam.I went into the office late morning as Max was working and I needed some assistance from him Lunch was at the Serengeti Resort, a bar that serves food. A muslim man was there with a bottle of red wine and a bottle of coke. He was alone – it was apparent after sometime. I saw something I have never seen before: the Coke was a mixer for the red wine. I saw it with my own eyes!

After work haircut

Key cutting

Eid ceremony

Bishop was back Tuesday and it appears his father is having some health issues he wanted to share with him. Over one of our regular after dinner conversations he mentioned a building the diocese owned which had been vacant for years since his arrival which previously housed a disability program supported by a Dutch NGO. The upshot of that discussion was to arrange a call to the disability program on the western side of Lake Victoria which coordinated 21 disability programs for the Dutch rather than them setting up an office here to see if this program could be kick started again.

After breakfast we had a long conversation with Aggrey from the Karagwe Disability Program. He was confident this program could be supported again by the Dutch and he will arrange an introduction to the new manager there as he has retired.

I had given Bishop an old phone and we spent time this morning putting the Google Fit app on it and showing him how it worked. He is very health conscious and has stopped using sugar since I commeneted on its negatve effects. We decided to walk to church for the 3pm Wednesday service and walking home were caught in a torrential storm. It rained during the service, stopped, we then got to the shoe repair guy on the street outside the cathedral where he had his shoe repaired. It rained there again as we waited so we sheltered under the shoe repairer’s shelter, had a corn on the cob from a young student he knew who sold these for some extra money (TZS 200 = 12 cents!), then made our way to town when it poured again while we were in another shop. After stopping Bishop then found a milk vendor. Street vendors purchase from suppliers and pasteurise it on the street over charcoal stoves. The milk is warm as it is poured into an empty water bottle. TZS 1000/Litre or 65 cents.

Milk for sale

Harvesting storm water

Wet after a rainy walk

When it stopped 30 minutes later we walked across to another store to buy a pillow and the heaviest rain of the day hit with thunder and lightning. The power went off briefly. After about 30 minutes when it eased off we just walked in the rain to the amazement of locals under shelter. Bishop mentioned they are more scared of rain than motor cars.

Shoe repair shop

Corn seller

Note the recycled tyre sole

Fixing Bishop’s shoe

Goat for lunch

Red wine and coke

POLIO

While polio is unknown now in Australia, I do remember at primary school kids with leg irons who had polio in the late 1950s. The evidence of polio here in Tanzania is evident in a number of people I have met who are pastors at the cathedral who still limp or walk with difficulty, all the result of polio in their childhood. All in their forties which suggests polio was still rife here in the 1970s if not later.

The photo above of the shoe repair man is a good story. Afflicted before five with polio, he survived and is now married with children. He had a shoe shine business and in 2019, a visiting Englishman provided capital for him to make sandals as well as repair shoes and keep shining. So the covered area you see is his “shop” and to the left you can see his hand pedal tricycle which gets him around.

The Strategic Planning Workshop

This is the first pressure I have felt since being here. 28 Archdeacons and area deans were gathered to learn about strategic planning. Few had English so I was working through a traslator, Max, the Katibu or Diocesan Secretary. Google Translate has been my friend. It dawned on me Tuesday that my overheads could be duplicated then translated using Google Translate. This assisted greatly as Max was able to refer to the OHP while I had my tablet with the English slides on it.

We managed on day one to get through what components are required in a strategic plan finishing on the process of developing one and a visual of the matrix from vision to tactics which support strategy.

The big surprise of the day was the introductions which were just an icebreaker asking for tem to introduce themsleves, their area of birth, number of siblings and favourite food. The number of siblings was a shock as one after one identified 8, 9, 10, 12 siblings from one mother. One pastor was one of twenty born to one mother. Another was born to his polygamous father’s ninth wife and counted 32 boys. I asked later about the girls and he didn’t know but thought altogether there were over fifty children. His story will be a separate blog.

Day two started with them developing a personal plan to get some practical experience, then we did the SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and it highlighted the endemic poverty these men come from, their uncertain incomes where $40 is a good income monthly and their need to farm in sometimes harsh environments when drought prevails. However they did well to identify all the components of the SWOT analysis and a good morning from my perspective was accomplished.

After lunch we had the chair of Mothers Union address them on the trial of a successful program mobilising communities using the Church and Community Mobilisation Process (CCMP) which has been around Africa for decades and in Serengeti has seen eight savings and loans groups start since 2019 which operate like community banks. Two of these in a large town have 28M and 31M TZS ($19,000 and $21,000) in the economy providing loans for members. This has seen many small enterprises established and increased economic conditions for many.

Her session started with her bringing a wooden box about 30 cm long and 10 cm deep. It was a money box used by the village S&L Groups. It was at that point I understood this was starting something kids in Australia learned from Kindergarten which is how to save. Remember the Commonwealth Bank deposits and the weekly banking which taught us to save. As she spoke, I didn’t need Swahili to understand that most pastors found this something that would be helpful for them. We assume a lot and here I was witnessing many understanding for the first time about saving for the future and borrowing for investments.

The response to her teaching was overwhelmingly positive and hopefully there is a takeup for MU to train people in many villages in the concept.

Groupwork

Groupwork

The workshop room

Reporting back

Reporting

Engageded in discussion

Australian Moneybox

Group photo

Tanzanian S&L Moneybox

I concluded with a hastily developed evaluation in Swahili, the main question being what will you do in the next two months as a result of this workshop. The translated responses will be interesting.

Day one I was absolutely wrecked and not so much after the second day as I was more confident. However overall a fairly positive outcome.

Saturday as I write this was a quiet morning then off to lunch at Rehema Cafe which is only open by booking and ordering ahead by Friday. The three English GOMAD volunteers were there and we talked about COVID and two of them have had COVID three times, both early on and prior to vaccinations being available. Apparently it is rampant in England at present. Hannah the 19 yo nurse saw a colleague aged 19yo die in April 2020 within three days of being vaccinated. She was the only one of the three not to have had it.

Late afternoon was spent at a Bible Study the bishop attends. Very formal structure and this week was a sort of time of rememberance for one of the members whose father in law died two months ago and a gift of cash being provided as a means of showing their support and affection for her and the extended family.

Tim Swan CEO of Anglican Aid is visiting and I catch up with him tomorrow at Bunda as he visits the college there and also the secondary and primary schools.

A busy but satisfying first month.

New Beginnings

Induction at Mara Easter Week 1

Its has been a busy week here in Musoma. Arriving by local bus from Mwanza (4.5 hours) I learned a lot from just a bus ride. I gave up my seat to a woman with two kids she was standing trying to hold as the bus weaved along the main road avoiding hazards. Lots of young blokes who didn’t even look up. This is a strongly dominated male culture.
Bishop George met me at the bus station and took me home. I am living with him while in Musoma. His wife Janet who teaches in Dodoma came home early for Easter to greet me and head back to Dodoma (20 hours on a bus) on Easter Monday. Christina is the housekeeper who cooks, cleans and does all things domestic. There is a 24 hour security guard at the gate and at night the guards are armed.

Bishop George and his wife Janet

Christina- Cook extraorinairre

The house at night

I had the house to myself on Saturday and Sunday as they went to a village for confirmations and it was too far to travel back Saturday night. I went for a walk up town and cvisited the markets and bought one or two items. A plate to sit on top of the gas stove will allow my stove top espresso maker to keep me in decent coffee.

The heat has surprised me and I did sleep a lot on the weekend. Not sure if it was the heat or effects of jetlag. The weekend also brought news from my wife that she had tested positive for COVID on a PCR after two negative RATS. While concerning she was assuring me she had only mild symptoms. How I have not contacted it as my daughter and two grandkids contracted it in the days prior to my departure and I had significant contact with them the previous weekend at my grandson’s birthday party.

I downloaded Duolingo, hoping to learn some basic Swahili given I am here for more than just a week as have my past visits been. I gave up by Monday, but Glen a former missionary here who is back for ten days to say goodbye after the hasty Covid departure said he would see if there were any books they had when they were learning Swahili.

The first day in the office surpised. I have an office and a title – Business Manager – somewhat embarrassing and I did ask who made way for me to have sucha big office. Katibu (Diocesan Secretary Max) told me it was a meeting room and as I was a “big man” I deserved a big office. By week’s end it was all making sense. The photo of the office says all you need to know about the state of administration not only here but generally in Africa. A meeting with the bishop outlined the tasks he had in mind for me to work on in my time here. The list seemed intimidating initially but as the week went on it was clear I am seen by him as a change agent.

A big office for one

M works in the Link Office

Two Eddies and both Lay Canons

My induction proceeded with introductions to all staff working in the diocesan office here.. There are many departments and significantly a number of younger staff. The diocesan office now has a legal adviser, given litigation is becoming an issue and also to deal with land issues and contracts.

I spent most of Tuesday in Mother’s Union Board meeting. Significantly from that I learned that MU had done training in 2018 on a Church & Community Mobilisation Program (CCMP) and two groups have already saved TZS 30 million (Tanzanian Shillings) or about $18,000 which was used to finance small projects on a loan basis to community members. This is significant and the bishop is keen to have this roll out across the diocese. Reading through the financial statements I was also questioning how accounts are presented and individual cost centres not showing as P&L centres. This is an area to address with finance who was at the meeting. Over the Easter weekend (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) Janet and a number of MU members visited remote villages with gifts of food and school supplies for distribution to needy children and their parents.

Wednesday was sermon preparation day. But first I had to sort out my online access to the bank as I had been locked out due to too many attempts at my passowrd. I ended up having to go to town and but an international bundle for the phone and ringing my bank. Amazingly it only took 10 minutes but the bundle did cost $30 and was needed as I didn’t have SMS for my Australian number to receive a code to verify it was me making the changes.

The Bible readings for Sunday were Psalm 118:14-24, Isaiah 25:6-9, 1 Cor 5:7-8 and Mark 16:1-7. By day’s end I had the outline completed and an idea of what I was going to say.

Maundy Thursday was a meeting with Arthur who has three jobs in the diocese. It went for three hours and it seems he and I will work together trying to help manage his workload and put in systems that will help him. I manged the completion of my sermon and used Google translate to translate it into Swahili. The bishop was impressed at the accuracy of the translated sermon. The subject is The Shroud has Been Lifted. I also wrote a blog on the absence of Easter Bunnies and eggs in Tanzania. It struck me that there is no commercial advertising of Easter. The blog can be located at the link above. At 3pm a service was held in the cathedral with lots of music. I took a video of a song sung by the bishop’s secretary. It is absoultely amazing when you think these singers have no formal music training.

Arthur the Link, Education and

M is Arthur’s assistant

Maundy Thursday worship

Good Friday was church at 10am (English) and at midday a service of the last seven sayings of Jesus which lasted three hours. First time I have ever heard of this type of service but lo and behold Darling Point Anglican in Sydney had the exact same service but with nine last sayings. Church is very liturgical and this would have been a high holy day. Again excellent music. In this context the liturgy is remembered as I observed even young children reciting responses. No prayer books in sight. I downloaded a Swahili song book earlier in the week and was able to attempt to sing some of the songs in Swahili.

Glenn and Dominique who were missionaries here for ten years are back to say goodbye and sort out their goods before going home. A short trip of ten days, they took the bishop and I for dinner to a local restaurant which allowed a time of saying goodbye. The school Glenn led had a farewell for him earlier in the week and formal farewell from the diocese will take place on Tuesday before they head home.

Dinner at Matvilla with Glen and Dom and kids

My diet here is totally changed. I have been doing keto for over three years and the diet here is totally the opposite. High carbs, high protein and low fat. Fat in fact is only in the oil used for cooking and any fish or meat. In the week here I have eaten an extraordinary amount of beans and am surprised at how tasty they are.

Christina the housekeeper here knows how to cook. Rice is an accompaniment with most meals and either a small amount of meat, generally chicken but once we had beef. Spinach as greens and plantains (cooked bananas) are regular side dishes and maybe 100 -150grams of meat on any day. On the days eating out I order tilapia, a freshwater fish from Lake Victoria – arguably the tastiest fish in the world. The house is literally a 200 metre walk to the largest lake in Africa.

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MU ladies on their way to villages

Tilapia

Perhaps the biggest change is walking the dogs or should I say the dogs running us. It is a brisk 2.5 km circuit as the dogs pull us along. I haven’t exercised as hard in many years. My heart rate is getting to 160 according to my Fitbit. My thighs are feeling it. On Saturday the dogs get a wash that essentially dips them in public dog bath and has chemicals for parasites, ticks and allows them to be scrubbed down. This happened before sunrise so they get the first bath. 80 to 100 dogs go through the same water on Saturdays for 500 TZS each.

Central markets

Central markets

Communion wine is stored in a water bottle

Adram pastors the English congregation

Magnificent sunsets abound on Lake Victoria

Easter is the diocesan auditor – a new position

So it has been busy, tiring but a great start. I am lookning forward to the next few months.

2021 – A review in photos of the most Challenging year of life

In a previous blog I reflected on the challenges that 2021 posed. It was indeed the hardest year of my life. It seems a confluence of activities formed that pcaused incredible pressure. None of the issues themselves would normally have been difficult. When combined together however it was huge pressure and not one of them identifably significant. How did I cope? Only God knows.

In photos and text I comment on my year month by month.

January saw us returning to Sydney after spending most of December and January at Bangalow. Christmas saw us and our daughter at Bangalow at our son’s house while he, his wife and grandson #4 were in hospital following a bone marrow transfusion (BMT). Maintaining their house and Christmas with our three other kids and four other grandsons was a pleasant time. Byron Bay is only 10 minutes so the beach and lighthouse were visited regularly. As we were allowed we visited Brisbane and had coffee with our son.

BMT requires the recipient to be isolated in a hospital room for months. His parents rotated between themsleves to be in the room 24/7. How grandson#5 coped for three months is beyond me.

26 January, I left for Sydney and work accompanied by their dog who was spending the time before they returned.

January started with a drive from Bangalow to Sydney to transfer my son’s dog for foster care while they were in Brisbane with our grandson

February was a fairly normal month. Work, a work conference but the additional responsibility was as a nominator for the replacement of our senior minister at church. This task entailed headhunting Anglican Ministers our group of 5 thought may be suitable. It turned out to be a massive job. There was a night at the theatre in Wollongong and a staff conference at the Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort. I did the BBQ. We had German visitors who stayed a weekend with us. Hannah and Ina were Bible College students who I met through extended family. Hannah is from near Frankfurt where my mother came from. A weekend with visitors allowed us to visit the Southern Highlands and Illawarra.

I also completed an exam in the PTC course Early Church History. Only 83% but there was a lot in it.

We had German visitors stay a weekend. After a year of COVID disruption it was good to meet international visitors

As in February, it was good to be catching the train to work. There was some normaility even though the trains were empty. COVID has certainly changed people’s preparedness to work physically onsite. Our office barely had more than a few people coming in from January to March. Zoom was the order of the day.

March saw me continuing to travel to work. Working from home there were days where I did not leave home, not even for a walk. I forgot to go out, unlike 2020 when methodically I would wlk to the beach for time out at lunchtime.

Walking and podcasts were the two new activities I started during COVID. I also started the Moore College Preliminary Theologcal Certificate in August 2020.

The Archbishop retired this month so there was a farewell at work for him. Also a service at St Andrews Cathedral on 26 March to farewell him. Two days later I preached at Fairfield Anglican Church. This has a bit of history as my father’s funeral was taken by the then minister of this church in 1970 when I was 15yo. There were people who still remembered him. I remembered him as a very kind man who came and visited us in our grief. I have never forgotten that time he spent with our family.

At the farewell for Archbishop Davies I had the opportunity to have a photo with Kanishka Raffel who in May was elected as the new Archbishop

April 1 saw us attend Hamilton after seeing it in London in 2019. It was possibly better than the London show. We stayed in Sydney overnight on the road north to Bangalow.

Back in Brisbane in to see our grandson for his 5th birthday. We managed to get across the closed border with a clown suit to try and cheer him up. Sadly he was frightened of me.

The rest of April was pretty much routine with going work, studying the PTC and enjoying freedoms post COVID. Church work now as a warden in addition to being a nominator added to my already busy year.

OK not the funniest and maybe a bit scary

May was a huge month. Grandson#5 ended up with complications from his BMT after coming home earlier in the month. He and his parents had been in Brisbane since August 2020 so nine long months in Brisbane and then only two weekends at home before he was back in hospital.

The rest of May included my graduation in 1st year PTC and an election synod where I awas able to vote for the new Archbishop. A great privilege. Our youngest daughter announced her engagement and I was actually asked by her beau if he could marry her. They are a great match. Linda had a significant birthday which was celebrated with a small group of close friends a tthe Kirribilli Club.

I graduated year one of the PTC at Moore College in May

My wife celebrated a significant birthday in May

June was a busy month. A trip to Brisbane for a week where I was able to help by sleeping overnight at the hospital and give sgrandson#4’s parents a night off.

I went to see Hamilton again. I am addicted.

Our youngest daughter was married on 19 June, a week before the lockdown. Dorrigo was freezing but it was a superb location and a beautiful wedding. Afterwards we had a holiday near Byron which had been booked months prior and were unable to get a refund..

The hospital sleepover with my grandson

A wedding in Dorrigo on a crisp cold day

NSW went into lockdown while we were on holidays at Byron. We arranged with my son to remain at their home in Bangalow looking after it till they were able to return. It turned out they could not come home till January 2022 so I worked from Bangalow. No one and I mean no one came to our office till late October. Lockdown 2021 was tougher than 2020 but in Bangalow apart from six weeks we had relative freedom.

The George Gregan Foundation built the outside playground at Brisbane Children’s Hospital. We spent a day in July visiting our grandson who enjoyed being out after six weeks bedridden on a drip.

Lockdown at Bangalow meant visits to Byron Bay and walks up to the lighthouse. I saw whales for the first time off Cape Byro

Working from Bangalow was much easier than being in Sydney which had a harder and harsher lockdown than in 2020. It was audit time at work and our accountant got Delta Covid and was exteremely sick and hospitalised. He survived but it meant challenges and delays.

No one went to the office at all from June. Last year I was in regularly but Delta had everyone running for cover. No one back till October. Working from home was a blessing with all the other stuff I had going on.

Whales at Cape Byron.

This was a typical day. Some days it was 4-5 meetings on screen.

October saw us in Brisbane for a weekend with our grandson#5 and his parents after a devastating September where he was readmitted after a seizure and on life support for a week.

We saw our son and other grandkids sporadically who also live in Bangalow. We went bowling and did other things with them when allowed to. The lockdown in Banglow was a much easier experience than Sydney.

Church work was ongoing and it was nothing to spend the day in front of Zoom and have evening meeting a few times a week related to building replaceemnt, my role as warden and as a nominator (recruiting a new senior minister)

Built in 1941 this building was demolished in October to be replaced by a modern education centre.

As the lockdown was ending in Sydney we planned a trip to Wollongong to check out our home and other things. Given my impending retirement I planned a visit to a new GP in Wollongong as my GP for the last nine years is in Sydney CBD. The trip bag was with my son’s dog, whose time in foster care came to an end as the foster carers had a dog themselves.

I had planned to have November off, but as the CEO was asked to travel at short notice to Africa I stayed on. In any case preparing for my replacement took a lot of work. So a lot of work was done planning for her start and documenting my role, much of which was in my head. As it turns out my thoughts of a month off ere wishful thinking. It was actually very busy.

My visit to Wollongong was planned to be home for a short time and to bring Pix back to Bangalow as her foster parents had a new dog.

The result of my GP visit was a new GP and some blood tests and an expectation I would see him when needed again. However back in Bangalow a few days later he rang me. Never have I had a GP call. He wanted to refer me to a haematologist as my white cells were low. As I wasn’t back in Wollongong till December we agreed to repeat the tests a few weeks later and see how it went.

Never having been to Accident and Emergency in my life, December opened with a visit to A&E at Lismore on 1 December and Wollongong on 5 December after blood tests showed no white blood cells. The impression from doctors was that I should be critically ill with almost no white cells – neutropenia was the diagnosis. A delay to my visit to Adelaide while I had a bone marrow biopsy and various other tests. At no time was I sick -I felt fine but was rattled. I ended up seeing a haematologist (Feb 2022) and after a myriad of tests it is assumed I had an asymptomatic virus.

Lismore Base A&E 1 December.

December saw me in Sydney to do a handover with my replacement and attend a farewell. It was held for the whole floor and I was one of four being farewelled. Virginia from Anglican Aid had an extra year on me, Rob had five and Jo was retiring after twenty years. Tim Swan gave one of the best farewell speeches for me. It was fantatstic and did take the mickey out of me. Lots of laughter.

I arrived in Adelaide after borders opened to visit our eldest daughter and grandson #5.

Tim should have been a comedian with the speech he gave for me

Everyone laughed

My response

Virginia with whom I worked for nine years. 10 years.

Jo and Rob also retiring

Grandson #5 in Rundle Mall. Adelaide is very liveable.

These are just examples of the frenetic pace of 2021. If it were not for COVID I could not have coped. The lockdowns actually freed up a lot of time and increased my capacity. The biggest pressure at the end was preparing for my replacement, spending a week with her and ensuring we had as much in systems developed as possible to ensure the agency could continue as it grew.

I had three COVID tests in the week prior to Christmas and Christmas Day was a non event as we planned to head to Brisbane, preparing to assist with care for our grandson as his mother was booked for a caesareaan on 29 December. So after church we spent a few hours at the COVID testing clinic at Wollongong hospital to ensure we could get into Queensland. Healthy grandson #6 was safely delivered providing a nice end to 2021.

Farewell 2021. A busy but good year.