Happy New Year! We hope you have enjoyed a great Christmas, and are ready for the adventures and blessings 2012 brings!

Here in Tanzania we have had a very hot, sunny Christmas, with plenty of parties, presents, and laughter. We are so thankful to The Arusha Hotel and Rotterdam Garden, for the wonderful parties they gave us. And we also thank Rotary Clubs in the UK who supplied presents. Finally, we are so amazed by, and thankful to, the many sponsors who sent gifts for our children.

All our children received a new set of clothes for Christmas, care of a donation from the USA. Thank you!

This is the main summer holiday here, so many of our children travelled to their family homes for extended visits. On Christmas Day we had just eleven children at the SWTz compound and it had the feel of an intimate family day together.

Other news

• In early December we also celebrated 50 years of independence for Tanzania. Face painting was the order of the day and we managed to persuade all our staff to sport Tanzanian flags on their faces too. A fierce football match took place, under the hot sun, tiring us out nicely for a celebratory lunch, followed by more games!

• Rebecca is now back from her three month trip to Canada, and came to visit us one afternoon – she said that the best thing about Canada was the theme parks and all the stomach-churning rides. We asked if she liked the food in Toronto, but no, she missed Tanzanian food too much, especially 'ugali', the maize flour paste that is a staple here!

• We were able to catch up with most of our home-support children. It was good to see how well they are doing, and their families expressed such gratitude for the monthly help they receive. Goodluck visited a few times. He is doing well in school, and makes a bit of pocket money by tutoring his neighbourhood children in English!

• Over the past three months all of our teenagers have moved out of our compound (either off to boarding school, or starting their adult lives away from us), so we have several empty beds and it is very quiet at the moment at SWTz. We have been visiting several families who need help, and are waiting for the Social Welfare Department to give the go-ahead for us to take in some new young children.