Daily Schedule

It has been incredible here. We are heading back to Shamba today to stay for the next couple weeks. Let me give you a quick overview of our schedule.
We have worship every morning at 6:30am and evening at 7:30pm. We sing some songs (usually in swahili). This part is so soulful and loud. There are no instruments or microphones, just everyone singing loudly for the Lord. Then, one of the students (I get to too) stands up and shares something from the Bible that is a challenge to them and encourages others with the word of God.
After worship our team from FSU has a time for a devotional, time to reflect and regroup. We discuss the plans for the day, then sunscreen up and head out to the project site.
So, we are building a chicken chicken farm. The reason the school would like to see this in place is to become more sustainable. They will have a consistent source of income, food, and fertilizer. It is really their project, we are just helping them kick of the project. I have learned a lot about construction and civil engineering. I just get more excited about it everyday.
Once it is complete, there will be three students put in charge of the farm. We will also hire a professional chicken farmer to come train the students for about a month as they learn how to care, raise, and manage the chickens.
It is really hot during the day. I have my trusty hat and loads of sunscreen on when we are at the work site. At night it cools off and is very pleasant.
We have breakfast about 10:30am, so we get a few hours of work in before then. We usually have mandazi (fried dough sort of like a unsugared doughnut) and tea (it is really hot, not super refreshing, but good)
The students have school until 2:30 which is when we have lunch. Ugali (firm corn flour boiled in water) and beans. Sometime we have fried fish. They just take a four inch fish and fry it ( think they scale it, but there isn't much meat on it and the bones are scary).
After lunch we either continue working on moving blocks, sand, digging, or helping the mason set the foundation and walls, or we work with the students. I have an intro to engineering course that I am teaching that is so much fun! Otherwise, this is the time that we can chill with our friends. Then in the evening we help with tutoring.
One thing that we wanted to research here is the spiritual side of the culture. Particularly, what role the local church plays in the community. We have met with three different pastors. One from the African Inland Church (it is a church in a remote village near Mwanza), then we met with a college minister at the University of Dar, and the last one was a very passionate pastor at a Pentecostal church in Dar. It is very encouraging to see what God is doing here.
One thing that I have learned about team dynamics is that you have to repeat plans and idea multiple times before the team can be on the same page. Although we have not had any major miscommunication, there has been some frustrations with communicating the tasks for the day and the goals that we want to accomplish. That has been good to work through.
We miss Carrie, Krista, April, and Ryan. They are in the air on the way home.
Lee