Sands of Time

It seems hard to believe that I have been back in the U.K. for two months. I arrived on the day they called an election, which has now passed. I arrived just after Easter and now the summer Hilidays are fast approaching. Today at my school in Tanzania they will hold Prize Night that end of year celebration of success. There are just three weeks remaining until the end of term. I have completed my last tasks as a teacher, having marked the Year 10 ICT exams and written report comments there is nothing else I can do. 

In 38 days the family will return to the UK and the next phase will begin. I will receive my last wage in August and then my enforced unemployment begins. This will be a challenge. 

Meanwhile Anita is looking for work – we have spread the net wide and are looking in both Lincoln and its surroundings and Milton Keynes (where there is the offer of some accommodation and the outside chance of a job), but there is nothing certain yet. There are choices to be made but whatever happens the priority is 

• Anita gets a job wherever
• Daughter gets into Sixth Form in same place as Anita.
• I complete treatment in Lincoln

If it were MK we have friendships and local contacts as a family as well as a church fellowship we have been part of for many years, though much of the youth group that my daughter once belonged to has dissipated. Even so friendships remain. We made our adult lives in MK so it is a strong draw for us all but is it going backwards? Are we trying to recapture something that will have changed? I don’t think so.

This may impose continued separation should a job be gained elsewhere but it is important I finish my treatment in the same place i.e. Lincoln. It is vital however we have some income and so the job for Anita must be a priority and the location must be for two years to allow for Sixth Form studies. For me the treatment should be over by Christmas and so I can join them later. In the meantime it would mean weekend trips one way or the other. 

The alternative will be here in Lincoln which will avoid the separation, but brings other challenges. One such challenge is the Sixth Form courses on offer locally don’t completely match the options my daughter would like. Secondly the three of us crowded into mum’s house will be a strain. Welcome, as we will be, generous as mum is, it will be tight living for several months whilst we would sort out our own accommodation. In my time here I am renewing contact with Lincoln folk and my old church, though it may be as a family we look elsewhere as the youth are not well represented at St George’s, another priority is good fellowship for my daughter. 

There is a more secure option in Lincoln but is it the right place to be? For me it was home, for family it was a place to visit Mum/Nana. Even so we would be together as a family not separated by miles.

There are advantages to being in either place and at the moment the choice is completely open. We pray that the right opportunity will arise in the right location. Wherever we end up we do trust it is in God’s will and two years from now who knows where we will be?

Post Script

I just realised that in my previous blog I used the same title for a different time just over three years ago.