Haarlem

Monday 18th April
It was another lovely day, but unfortunately I was feeling very tired and was struggling a bit with a migraine that had started the previous day.

We went out mid-morning into the town centre, found a carpark in a parking building and went for a walk down the streets to the ten Boom museum. Deep shadows still filled some of the narrow streets due to the tall buildings blocking out the morning sunshine.
Unfortunately we found out that the museum is closed on Mondays, so we decided to try again the next day as we had the whole morning available.
So we went on a wander around the shopping area – lots of shops stocking clothing and shoes, and a range of others too of course. There were so many bicycles either being ridden or parked in the streets, often in one of the many bicycle parks
There was a very bustling market full of all kinds of interesting things and I enjoyed hearing Kay enquiring about prices at a stall, and the gutteral reply. The Town Hall is one of the imposing buildings surrounding the market place. We went for a coffee inside one of them before continuing our walk.



Guess what we saw on one street corner! (LH pic.) Inside an arched passage off another street we spied the fresh green of a spring garden - we found a plaque on the wall which said that it was the site of a former convent. Further on we saw a most unusual-looking building at the end of a long, narrow alleyway.
The many canals intersecting the city are very beautiful with a variety of boats and bridges. On the way back to the car park we came across a tiny car parked on the pavement!

After lunch, we went out for a good walk, passing by an old fortification and German gun positions from the Second World War before reaching the Spoorbaam river. Many people were out walking dogs, some several together – in fact, for some people it is their occupation, walking dogs for people who live in apartment buildings but work all day. There was a lot of traffic on the river, and one barge looked particularly low in the water, it appeared to be full of concrete! One could almost imagine you were out in the countryside walking beside the river as the houses drop back some way. Many people come here to escape their urban surroundings and to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet.
We followed a canal back into Haarlem and enjoyed looking at the lock gates and interesting housing round and about. Soon we were back to the statue of the boy with his finger in the dyke. You can see just how unrealistic this is when you have seen the real dykes.



Some of the streets had some really interesting houses and some were at a much higher level than the canals.

Further on we walked beside a very dank smelling canal that had houses with quite substantial gardens on the opposite side to us. The path on our side of the canal bordered quite a larger marshy strip of land that has been allowed to remain as part of the green belt. There were quite a few wetland birds around.
After dinner we watched a couple of videos before going to bed rather later than usual. It had been a wonderful day.

Palm Sunday

Sunday 17th April Palm Sunday
We were blessed with yet Another sunny day which warmed up well. Sunday in the Kolbe household is rather different from what we’re used to. It’s a day for sleeping in and having a substantial breakfast (brunch?) mid-morning! I was feeling a bit sad that we hadn't seen any churches in the neighbourhood that we might have attended (although Bruce wouldn't have understood any of the German), and started thinking about how much people who don't have faith in Christ miss out on in life. Reading the prophecy in Isaiah 42 about Christ's ministry and how people would respond to Him and His message - many act as if they are both blind and deaf and refuse to believe. Just a few of my thoughts on Palm Sunday leading up to Easter!
After breakfast, the computer was back in use again to check the train details for going to Holland. We had only booked the journey back from Haarlem to Düsseldorf the night before as it was a cheaper fare that day. The other ticket would be purchased at Dorsten station.
We sent a text to the Weavers to let them know our arrival details then managed to coax the misbehaving printer into printing off some tickets for us. Jeremy was busy packing up a bag for us to take back to NZ as we had so little luggage ourselves (one bag weighing under 15 kg plus our two small cabin bags!). He and Judith were planning to move to NZ in May and didn't want to have to pay too much excess. Anthony was also going to bring some luggage back with him. The suitcase was quite heavy when finished, but at 22kgs wouldn't exceed our baggage allowance.
It was soon time to go to the station by car, as it is a few kilometres from where the Kolbes live. Most railway stations in Germany have automatic ticket machines which can even print you a rather useful overview of your journey as well as the ticket.
The train was very short and had a diesel engine. We were amazed at wide carriages with fold-up seats. It stopped many times on the way to Cologne, where we had to change trains. We bought some peanut bars from a platform vending machine whilst we waited and coffee on the way to keep us going as there was no time for lunch.
Our first impressions of Holland were good - despite the flatness of most of the land, it is still interesting. There are so many new things to see, from the numerous ditches and canals with their barges and longboats, to the different types of housing.
It was quite cloudy from Arnhem to Utrecht, which seemed a very interesting place to visit. As we passed by a large canal, we saw what looked like floating houses, and an import/export building that had loading doors opening directly onto the water
At Amsterdam, we had to change to a small local train which went from a rather isolated platform that was a very long way for poor Bruce to carry that heavy suitcase! It wasn't very well signposted so it took us a while to find it.
On arriving at Haarlem, no-one was waiting to pick us up, so we sent some more texts, and were picked up after a shortish wait. No-one had picked up our earlier text with our train details!





After dropping off our bags at the Weavers', we were taken on a bit of a tour of the area as the evening was so fine and warm. So we drove to a local windmill, to the statue commemorating what is apparently an English legend about the boy and the dyke and the North Sea Canal where we watched the progress of a ferry boat, which apparently used to be free.
It's so different in Holland from NZ, there are so many, to us, unusual things - the almost omnipresence of bicycles, the narrow, bricked streets with many speed humps (it must be excruciating if you have to go to hospital by ambulance!), the canals with so many different types of bridges, the different types of housing..... Fascinating!

The Weavers spent many years as missionaries in a former Communist country and are now based in Holland running Kairos courses in Europe. It was delightful to see them again, and we had fun having a bit of a catch up on news since it was probably a couple of years since we'd last seen them. After a late tea around 8pm of soup, rolls, and cake we watched Bourne Supremacy before going to bed.

A quiet day in Horgenzell

Monday April 11th
We slept until 8 as we were so tired! Oh dear! It was yet another lovely fine day. We didn’t really feel like doing too much, so we walked with Ingrid to Uncle Otto’s to get some potatoes. He runs a small organic farm, which doesn’t earn very much money but provides an interesting lifestyle. His paid employment gives him as much in two to three months as he gets from the farm in a whole year.

We went into the barn to see the livestock - a pen of zebu-cross steers, and two pens of Simmental bulls (two different age-groups). Another part housed German large white pigs. The boar was huge! The piglets are weaned at six weeks, then sold on for fatterning another six weeks later. The cattle were due to be turned out shortly having spent many months indoors. They are fed a lot of silage when housed, which is quite time-consuming. Someone had had fun carving a log to look like a pig!
Outside again, we started chatting with Otto's wife. It was interesting to hear that their eldest daughter had actually spent eleven months in NZ and Australia, so they were very happy to meet some real Kiwis.
During the afternoon we just read books before going out for a walk around and about Horgenzell before tea. Photos: Kapell church; Typical countryside; "be careful" bear in Horgenzell; memorial near Festewegen.








In this part of Germany there are many small villages (3-400 inhabitants). Many of the houses are surrounded by a small block of land of just a few hectares in size.
Between the villages is farmland, much of it planted our with apple trees, closely spaced and hard-pruned. You can see some in the photograph of Horgenzell below. Each village has one or two businesses, but many people have a job in town to supplement the meagre income from the land. Everyone knows which village to go to if they want a blacksmith, and which one you go to if you want your tractor repairing!
Photos: Horgenzell in the distance; an old timbered house near Uncle Otto's, the Meschenmosers' house.






The houses are quite distinctive, often having three to four floors with a huge roof with eaves that almost touch the ground. The size can be a little illusory as part of the lower floor is often a stable or barn for cattle or other livestock.
Many people are closely related – Bernhard’s relatives mostly live in Horgenzell or in the nearby villages, but Ingrid’s family lives a little further afield.








As it was such a lovely warm day, reaching 22 deg after a cool 4 deg start, we decided to have a barbecue. Bernhard had the job of getting the fire ready, and Ingrid and I had fun making damper - hers from a yeast dough and mine from a scone-type mix, which they really liked. The tripod frame used to be used for stooking hay! The neighbour's Norwegian Fiord ponies were quite interested in the proceedings at times.

South Germany

Saturday 9th April
We left the hotel not too long after breakfast. It was good that it was so close to Le Midi Station. We bought some food at a small supermarket at the railway station before making our way to the Thalys platform. The journey to Cologne takes less than two hours, and the train is very comfortable. You hardly realise just how fast the train is going. There is a digital display of the speed between the carriages. I think the fastest we went was around 170kph.

The first photo is taken on the way into Liege - the track was quite high above the streets at one point, as you can see. At the railway station was a large globe, apparently there as part of an ecological expo.
We were rather surprised when the train ground to a halt some time before we were due to arrive in Cologne. An announcement came over the loudspeakers saying that there was a problem with a train ahead of us on the line. A little while later, we were told that the track was closed to Cologne due to a demonstration. They first told us we might be delayed by up to half an hour – as there was 40 minutes between our trains, I thought we might just get there on time. But then they started saying that it could take 3/4 hour to get moving again! Oh dear, what to do? I sent our son Jeremy a text to say that we were delayed by a demonstration and that I might need him to phone our friend Ingrid who was going to meet us in Ulm if we missed our train. I only had enough money left on the phone for another text or two.
We started up again 35 minutes after stopping and soon arrived at a small platform (Stoltz Rheinland) that was covered with people – a huge collection of police in bright yellow jackets surrounding a mob of protesters. Apparently they had interfered with a previous train and so the railway company refused to let any more trains proceed until the police had got the demonstrators off the tracks. There were a few announcements about onward connections to various trains, and eventually they came to ours – they said it was being held at Platform 6.
Unfortunately we were one of the last off our train, and by the time we reached our platform, the train had already gone. On looking at the timetable, we found out that the next to Ulm was a whole 2 hours away. I sent Jeremy another text and he agreed to phone Ingrid to let her know.
We had some books to read so that kept us occupied. It wasn’t a very warm day but it was OK. The photos include one at Siegburg/Bonn station, a country town on the way to Frankfurt and two photos in Mannheim. One town before we reached Mannheim was called Waldhof and had some interesting brown and white churches. Further south we passed through some more rugged terrain – in fact it later turned out to be the Swabian Alps. Geislingen was quite a large and attractive town up in narrow valley in the mountains, with plenty of traditional houses with brown roofs and up to 3 rows of dormer windows.
We arrived in Ulm just after 5 to be met by a smiling Ingrid, her husband Bernhard and youngest daughter Friedericke. We decided that, owing to the lateness of our arrival, that we’d just go straight to their home in Horgenzell.
Unfortunately they had already left home by the time Jeremy was able to try to contact them, and the daughter Veronika who’d been left behind to take care of things tried sending them a text – but they had the cell phone switched off! Eventually, after waiting at the station without seeing us, they’d switched it on to phone home to see if there were any messages, and found out that we’d been delayed. So they decided to do a bit more shopping, much to Friedericke’s delight!
We eventually arrived around 6.30, and had a lovely meal. Afterwards, we walked to Kapel, another portion of the little village where their church is. The population of Horgenzell is around 300.

A walk to the lake

Thursday April 7th
After a good night’s sleep, we woke to a cloudy day which was slightly humid. It rained for about an hour. We watched TV in our room for an hour or so after breakfast, relaxing. We found an interesting documentary about various successful businesses and industries in different African countries. Two new sugar cane factories had been built in Mali; there is a new village project in Madagascar raising silkworms and spinning the fibre; gold is becoming much more important in Ethiopia and a group in Benin had managed to successfully source clean water for 18,000 people They said that holding public meetings, keeping technical & financial areas separate and operating transparently had caused the project to succeed.
As we were going to be flying again in the afternoon, we decided to take a walk, hoping to reach the lakeside. We set off walking up a hill past hotels, and really posh houses with tall walls topped with barbed wire, razor wire, cast-iron spears, or electric wire. Many had large gardens with plenty of flowers and trees. We saw many walls covered in creepers. The most popular plants appeared to be blue convolvulus, pale lilac and pink bougainvilleas white and orange trumpet flowers, jacaranda trees, Brunfelsia and a very unusual-looking 2-dimensional palm tree. Further over towards the lake, we walked past a large convent, several schools and a huge Roman Catholic Church.
Down the hill on the other side, we started passing through small villages whose dirt tracks were lined with dilapidated shacks and small shops, very similar to Tanzania.
Eventually we did manage to find the lake, and came across a lot of small fishing boats close to a fenced-off area housing what looked like some kind of small factory. A young man came up to us and started talking in excellent English. He actually knew where NZ is and even Wellington! Most people we have talked to in East Africa think that it is in Europe.
He said he had come from his home village to Kampala to study at Makarere University, but was taking this year off as he’d run out of money. He said that he took odd jobs and helped the fishermen to try to earn some cash so that he could start up his studies again. 100,000 Makarere University has a staggering number of students, 10,000, and they wish to increase this number by 10,000 per year up to 2015!
He told us that the building was indeed a factory that makes boats from fibreglass, much more up-market than the usual wooden plank ones. Next door to it is a Fisheries Training Institute where you can study a diploma for 2 years and then get sent to one of the lakes in East Africa to try to help the fishing industry.
The fishermen were catching Nile perch and Tilapia, but mainly small ones. The Ugandan government is going to close the lake for 5-6 months. It wants to help the fishermen to set up shambas during that time to grow their own food – but of course, they’d have to start well before the date of closure, because it usually takes several months to grow a crop of any kind!
We went for a walk past the Institute, ending up on a narrow rocky promontory. From there, we had some interesting views of the coastline and many islands. There were two camels inside the institute’s fenced enclosure that are used to give tourist rides on one of the beaches. Our friend pointed out Museveni’s house, Imperial Beach, Kampala’s water treatment plant, and the council buildings.
We wandered back to Entebbe, trying to hint that he could now leave us. However, he stayed close, showing us where he lived. We decided we’d better share some lunch with him, so bought fantas and samosas at the supermarket and sat on a seat in a small park just across the road. He actually seemed quite reluctant to eat with us, so I decided he hadn’t really been trying to cadge a free feed!
He eventually left and we continued sitting there watching the passing traffic heading to and from the airport. A couple of female goats and their kids were grazing the grass, and I was a bit alarmed when one of them took off across the road in all the traffic. The others had to follow, of course! We were amazed at how many UN vehicles kept passing by, in both directions, and how many had just one occupant. Sometimes a UN minivan would go past, and at least they usually did have a few passengers.
A drunk came and started talking to us, saying some rather strange things, so I was quite relieved when he decided to move off. He said he was so poor he could only afford ‘wine’. He showed us a plastic bag full of a pink liquid which he was carrying inside his jacket wrapped up in brown paper.
We decided to stay at the hotel until the time came for us to head to the airport. Once there, we were surprised to find that you have to go upstairs to check in. The lady at the desk in the airport lounge said to me, “We meet again!” That was quite funny!
Our boarding passes mistakenly said that the time for boarding was 5.30, an hour later than the real time! AT first I thought they’d delayed the flight, then found out that it was going to depart on time.
On asking in one of the bookshops if one could buy stamps at the airport, I was told that if I gave her my postcards, one of the other ladies would take them to the post office for me and buy the appropriate stamps. So that’s what I did, and I do hope the four I sent actually got posted!
We had some rather nice coffee there in small cups, then went to the gate to await boarding. The other passengers were mainly men!
We were flying with Ethiopian Airlines to Belgium via Addis Ababa. The Boeing 757-200 had excellent leg-room, a real plus for Bruce. All the other planes were too cramped for his long legs. He gets so uncomfortable.
There was quite a long break at Addis, and we wandered around the many shops at least twice, enjoying looking at the rather fancy-looking clothing on display. Unfortunately most of the garments had no price-tags, and I found out that they were quite expensive!
One of the ladies’ restrooms was not in a very good state of repair – the soap dispensers were only hanging on by one screw, the taps were wobbly and everything looked rather dodgy! There was a newer one in another part of the terminal.

Divine appointment in Nzega

Monday July 20th  Windy/cold at first, hot later.  Michael showed us an old letter he'd been sent by a USA Bible College re a pastor’s course.  Even back in 2003, the fees were a total of USD 14,000 for one year live-in, with only 10 hours' guaranteed teaching time per semester!  Overseas students in difficult circumstances could do it by correspondence as long as their home church would guarantee the tuition & book fees.  Then he showed us his chekechea teacher-training certificate from Biharamulo.  He studied there from 2005/6, a Swedish missionary paid his fees.  He also showed us last year’s one-month driving course certificate.  He'd been a bit disappointed by his results, but we told him it’s hard to learn to drive in such a short time.
Mid-morning, we walked to Nzega through lovely countryside, passing an English Medium Primary School in the town outskirts.   We met lots of Michael’s old school friends, and sat in the shade of a veranda outside a guest house owned by one of them.  It was being renovated so they had no soda to offer. 
We were surprised to be waved at by an Mzungu in a passing Land Rover which then stopped.  She came over, asking Michael in excellent Kiswahili who he was, before introducing herself as the Finnish missionary who employs Mama Lucia as cook and housekeeper!  As they hadn't been in Tazengwa for very long, and only stay there for breaks from their work 100 kms away, Michael had never met them.  We ended up being invited for coffee at 5!  It was truly a ‘divine appointment’, they’d only got back the night before & were to leaved again the next day!
As we were feeling thirsty, we went to have soda + buns at a cafe before going to the internet.  We met a young boy on the way, who looked about 8 but was 11.  He spoke really good English, and asked Bruce SO many interesting questions!  Great fun! 
Unfortunately I'd accidentally left my notebook in our room, so couldn't upgrade our seats as I didn't know our Skywards numbers.  We were able to read some emails at last as I eventually managed to find Xnet's new webmail address.
We then went to book seats for Friday, but only paid half the fare: if you pay it all, they might resell the seats!  After that we went to the Post Office to buy post cards – but they don't sell them!  Bruce was suffering from the heat again, so we didn’t want to walk back through town to find a bookshop and to go to the market (soko) to buy bibi some fruit and vegs. 
We heard whistles being blown & marching - along came a team of women dressed in bright uniforms, advertising a concert.  They were all smiles when I greeted them in Kiswahili!
On the way back, we eventually found a roadside stall where we bought some tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, onions + bananas.  Further along the way, we bought a huge pawpaw, then at a kiosk, we bought Michael a new toothbrush, some toothpaste and candles.  He'd accidentally left his toothbrush and toothpaste at Rosa's and had used up our spare airline set.
We reached home at 3 and had lunch an hour later, a good thing we'd had a snack in town!  After a brief break, it was time to go to the Swedish Mission.
The first Swedish missionaries arrived in Tazengwa in 1932 and started a school for Swedish missionary kids from all over Africa.  It closed 5 years ago, but reopened as a Bible College for training African pastors up to degree level.  It's now solely run by African staff.We passed Michael's primary school, which is two blocks of classrooms set in sandy land - one block is shown in the photo (top left).  The monument (above) across the road is in memory of the first Swedish missionary, and nearby is the FPCT church (left) where babu was the 2nd African pastor.
The mission compound is surrounded by a tall netting fence, a thatched kibanda houses a security guard just inside the large gates.  The grounds are attractive, and you follow a broad, smooth, sandy drive towards the large thatched house. 
No-one answered our calls at the front door, so we went round to the back.  The noisy generator had drowned us out.  Hanna Väyrynen + Lucia were in the kitchen, but sent us back to the front veranda to eat & drink together: home-made Finnish yeast buns, spicy biscuits + real coffee (Kenyan) or tea if you preferred. 
We had a lovely time with Markku + Hanna, who practiced her English so Michael felt a bit left out.  Bruce said now he’d know how he feels!  We were surprised to hear that Finnish is quite similar to Kiswahili so they pick it up fast; they find English very hard to master.
We shared about our backgrounds, families and work in Africa.  Hearing about the Maasai’s problems, they lent us a book on a Christian community development programme (CHE) that they use.  It's used in many countries and seems to be really effective.
It was lovely to find people with hearts like ours, and who see the problems of the typical African mindset of depending on outside help, and wanting to have bigger, ‘better’ churches – i.e. more Western-style, instead of being content to use what they have/can afford. 
We went home via another babu’s place.  As a retired Primary School teacher, he has good English.  He thanked us several times for helping Michael study, saying the family wants to help but don’t have the resources. 
I was really touched when Michael took my hand on the way home, leading me round the stones and dips in the path - it was dark, we had no torch, and I don't see well in the dark.
It was a big gathering for tea, including Mama Lucia + her girls.  We had rice, curry, bananas + cucumber, then a time of worship together.  Pic: Mama Joyce, her daughters Maria & Editha, little Michael.