Happy Birthday to me! As well as a Billy Connolly video (from my wife) and some money from my mum and dad to buy myself a birthday meal (? -I've offered to take Heidie to Chipanga for a slap up but she doesn't seem that interested) , I also got a HUGE red nose, a right Harry Redknapper. Man, it's sore. It look like a boil of gigantic proportions. Anyway, I saw Dr. Misago this morning in passing and after he had stopped laughing, he told me to take Panadol. Now Panadol is the painkiller that they give to the women who give birth at the Hospital. So my nose has been clinically diagnosed as being as sore as the pain women endure in labour - which by all accounts is sore. The culture here for women in labour is to be as quiet as possible and rarely is pain relief given. It seems the more noise you make, the less respected you are. No comments please!

This afternoon I have had a very positive meeting with the General Workers Union. I have tried to meet with them on a monthly basis to iron out issues as we go along. I have also opened another two week workshop at the Seminar Centre, sponsored by UNICEF - the topic being Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMtCT) of HIV/AIDS. The Seminar Centre is really the big hope for the financial security of Chikankata. I have already had the training room extended - I was the foreman for this project - and in August we will be making all 30 accomodation rooms self contained. We will continue to run courses but will also try to hire out the facilities for conference when we are not using it. The ZIM Team are coming late July and I am pinning my hopes on them to help us out. Hopefully this will make us a bit more financially stable.

One of the things I love about Chikankata is its rich heritage. The many people who have lived and worked in Chikankata continually contact us to let us know they are praying for us. If you are reading this - thank you so much. We really appreciate, and are truly humbled, by your support. Today I have received an e-mail from the Slators at Worthing. Other people I have been in contact with recently are Dorothy Nesbit, the Gauntletts, the Calverts, the Charltons, the Cowdreys, the Belchers, the Blurtons, the Pallants, the Carrolls to name a few. You may be interested to know that at present my Tonga name is Mutinta Makowa (excuse the spelling) which means the only white man. When you look at the picturs from the 50's - late 90's it's inconceivable that for the first three months of this year, Heidie and I were the only white people on the Mission. Thankfully, it seems things are changing with Rachel back from the UK, Annette arrived from Southampton and Peter and Emma arriving from Australia. Hopefully there will be two more couples here by the end of year. We are planning a Chikankata celebration (60 years since the official opening of the Hospital) next year, likely to be at the end of May - so watch this space for details.