The Chicks are growing up

I cannot believe how much these chicks have grown.

It has only been about 2 weeks.

Back Home

The Chicks are here (Tanzania) and we are done....

We all are now back home from Tanzania. Some of us are in Florida, Georgia, and now one of our team members are in Colorado. God had put this group together for a reason and every person that came played a special part in making this chicken farm happen. God had really blessed our trip. No one was seriously injured or sick. We all got back to America safely with all 10 fingers and toes.

Last Days and Recap

(We are back in America! Now we have fast internet, and we can upload pictures. Sorry about the lack of color in our blog.)
This post is going to be long because now I have time to fill you in. I think I will touch on several of the highlights of our trip.

Chickens
So, let me start from the first few weeks of the trip. It was very helpful having Geophrey Mbatta on our team. He grew up in Tanzania and went to the University of Dar es Salaam to get his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering.
His connections were invaluable. One of his friends owns a large scale chicken farm that we got to tour with Hezekia. It helped give us a clear picture of how the local farmers run their farms. It was nice to confirm most of our research and answer some of our practical questions. One of our questions was how do locals provide heat without electricity. As seen in this picture, they use coal burners.
The head veterinarian at the large chicken farm came out to our site to inspect the environment and our work. He was pleased, but he had several suggestions for us to help improve the farm. We learned how important it is to keep local chickens separate from broilers because of the disease transfer. Cornell, one of the students that is being trained by a local expert to care for the chickens, and I had a long meeting about daily care and vaccinations.
We had a very busy last week. With final preparations for the farm before the chickens came, we got to paint, install doors, window shields, and a disinfectant foot bath. After finishing the construction side of the project, we begin to prepare for the first batch of chickens to arrive. Richard, the new staff in charge of the chickens at the school, and Cornell took charge of disinfecting the house, laying the deep litter, cleaning the feeders and water troughs, and setting the coal heaters.
The greatly anticipated chicks finally arrived the last day we were at the school. Woot Woot!
We had a chicken party, the last night we were there to celebrate. However, there was some miscommunication and dinner ended up not being ready until 1:30 A.M. because we had to fry up 110lb of potatoes (chicken and potatoes is a typical meal when you eat-out in the city)

Engineering Class
One of the other projects I was working on was an introduction to engineering course. Many of the students I met two years ago expressed interest in become engineers. They enjoyed math and science so they were told that engineering would be a good fit. I wanted to take the knowledge I have learned so far at FSU and create a course that would give an overview of what civil, electrical, industrial, mechanical, and environmental engineers do.
I made a booklet to handout to my class and we went through each topic. Every other week we would have a lab where we would build something that we had talked about the week before.
These pictures show students working on their bridge project. The goal was to make the strongest bridge out of 100 popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue in one hour.
One team made a bridge that could hold the weight of 22 liters of water. Their use of triangles and reinforced joints worked!


One really encouraging gift we got to present was scientific calculators. We gave the calculators to the 20 students in the advanced physics class, the most challenging class at the school, as an encouragement to study hard. I need to give a special shout out to Mrs. Chomate's class at Fairview Middle School in Tallahassee for their hard work and support. 6th and 7th graders raised money to buy these calculators. The teachers and students greatly appreciated your gifts.


Local Churches
Another interest of mine is the spiritual aspect of the Tanzanian culture. I wanted to understand specifically how Christians are different in Tanzania. I wanted to talk with pastors to understand their vision for their church and see how it may be different then many churches here in America. We got to meet with three pastors, and visit four different church services.
We visited an African Inland Church (AIC) in a small village outside of Mwanza. It was a small block building with over 200 people flooding out of it. We were treated like honored guests when we arrived. Sitting at the front of the room, we enjoyed the dancing and unique high-pitch singing that is very typical in this sort of church. Geophrey translated for us as the pastor conducted the service. After the conclusion of the service, we got to visit with the pastor and deacons for a meeting about our inquiry. We quickly learned that learned this pastor is the pastor of 9 other churches in the surrounding villages. He visits each one on bike once a month for a few days. He expressed a concern for a lack of pastors and the wild growth in each congregation. With mens' groups, womens' groups, and family groups, the structure of the church is very community building focused. However, the lack of pastors makes it difficult to raise up other pastors.
We talked with the college pastor at the University of Dar es Salaam. He was very encouraged by the leadership and passion of the students. They are very active in reaching out to the community all over Tanzania. On breaks there are groups that travel to schools to help teach and share the gospel to villages all around Tanzania. One interesting dynamic to the university setting is that there is very little segregation among denominations. They all work together in unity.
We also had a meeting with a Pentecostal pastor. He has occasionally been involved in the work at Hananasif orphanage. One of his passions is to mobilize young people to be involved in their community. With a large church that is continuing to grow, the Pentecostal church of Dar es Salaam has a desire to reach their country through community groups, worship services, and church planting.
It is fun to see how God is working all over the world. I did notice that there is a much more real sense of spirits, both evil and good. Several of the female students at the school have experienced very vivid spiritual attacks. So real that the only thing we could turn to was prayer. It is a fairly common occurrence there. One thing that I could not help but notice was that although we are in different ends of the world, we are all serving the same Lord Jesus.

Team dynamic
Last time I was in Tanzania, it was just me and my good friend Paul. The two of us would work together to accomplish whatever we were working on. However, this time there was between 4 and 8 of us. I was responsible for filling our schedule and making sure we were on track to finish our projects before we left. So, coordinating masons, carpenters, supplies, and labor was my daily task. It was a good opportunity for me to learn to plan ahead and delegate.
My team was so wonderful. Although there were some 12 hour work days we put in due to the time sensitive cement, we never had major conflict. I think a major reason we were able to stay focused and united was because of our daily time in the morning to study the Bible together, then pray and layout the plan for the day.



This summer has been such a wonderful experience. I got to work with my friends from Tanzania to help start a sustainable source of food, income, and fertilizer, lead a team from FSU across the world to make it happen, apply my engineering knowledge to such a project, and learn a little bit about how God is moving on the other side of the world.

I came to the city alone for the weekend to help Baba (Hezekiah, the director) with a grant proposal. There is a foundation here that helps small non-profits with projects, I think through funding from different embassies. The first time you apply you can only apply for the grants of $7.5 million shillings, or $6,000 USD. But it seems like once you prove you're a good organization through that they can help with up to 125 million shillings. So hopefully I can help them write a good proposal.
In other awesome news, I started a relationship with one of the other team members, April. I had asked her to pursue a serious courtship-type relationship before the trip, and she was part of the initial 3-week team. She called and gave her answer after returning to the US. Talk about a long-distance relationship - 9,000 miles! Haha, so that's pretty awesome, I'm excited.
I am returning to the school in the countryside for the last time on Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully we'll be taking the initial batch of chickens with us, but they are proving more difficult to purchase than the staff had anticipated. So we may not see the first batch put in, but we expect to essentially finish the construction by Tuesday with the exception of the outside paint job (which isn't too essential).
It's really cool to see it all coming together. It's amazing what can happen in 9 weeks. We'll be sure to post pictures and tell you all about the end-product as soon as we can.
Oh, and this Wednesday to celebrate we are buying chickens to eat as well, as a kind of going-away present for the kids. So they'll all get to have some chicken for dinner and we'll christen the chicken farm. They don't get meat very often, so I know they're really looking forward to the "Chicken Party"

last supplies

I had to come to the city these past two days to gather the last supplies before we bring 1000 broiler chicks out to Shamba! Exciting.
We had a professional chicken farmer come to the site to inspect the progress and give us suggestions of what we need to do before our first batch comes in. He was very encouraging. He is very optimistic about the project.
I have gotten to talk with Dietrick a lot recently about how God is moving here in Tanzania and how God will use each of us to reach the world for Christ. It has been really fun. Whether I am here or in America, God has a huge vision to see the world reached and I am a part of that. wootwoot!
I have to go get chicken feed and vaccinations now. Then I am out to Shamba.
Lee

Moving Blocks

Hello Friends,
One of the big tasks the students at Hananasif are assigned to is moving blocks. When there is a construction project in progress, concrete blocks are needed. Usually over 2000. These blocks are solid sand/cement blocks that are made at Shamba. They weigh between 30-40 pounds. On Friday, after school all the guys at school were asked to move about 1000 blocks from the site that they make the blocks to the new girls dormitory. With very little complaining, we began the endless task. Because I am the tallest, it was easiest for everyone for me to pick the blocks up and put them on each students shoulder. So, my job was to check the block for centipedes (which are very poisonous here), then lift the block on the the head or shoulder of a student. Wow! My friends here have amazing endurance. We moved them all in about 2 1/2 hours. However I was virtually useless about 2 hours into it because my arms just stopped working. I really appreciate the hard work the students put into their school. They play a large part in building their school. With out them the school could not continue to be built. They are very committed and involved in each part of their school.
I will let you know how things finish out when we are back in the city on the July 1st.

Lee

Good Times

Hey everyone, this is Rachel! So after the longest day known to man spent in Amsterdam Tiff and I got in a couple days ago, and so far it has been amazing. No, really, amazing. I've already learned my numbers up to 10! Hahahaha! The kids are so eager to teach their native Swahili and learn English, too. We're on our way to Shamba later this morning and I can't wait for our 3+ hour trip out there. =] Too much to write in and not enough time! I will write more later. Take care!
~Rach

The Final Leg

It's hard to believe 2/3rds of the trip is over. The past 3 weeeks, the middle section, has been great. We got a lot of tiring construction work done, and the main physical parts left to finish are the plastering an the adding of the mesh.
We're leaving in a couple of hours for the school, but first I've got to go meet with some Aid organization that gets money from different countries' embassies. They can give between 5 million and 100 million shillings ($4,000-$80,000 USD), and apparently some pressure from an American would be helpful. Hopefully that'll go well.
Over the past few weeks I've been playing soccer very day with the guys at school. I played like 13 years ago in middle school, but I was never much good and haven't gotten any better. It's still fun though, and gives me a chance to get a good wrkout. I feel fitter than I have in some time, think I'll make a habit of this. They have a new teacher who's also a soccer coach, and he tells me I'm really good. I knew he didn't mean my ball-handling skills, but he explained what he meant was he was surprised a guy my size could stay in the game for 90 minutes every day. So that was encouraging.
I feel like we're getting to really know some of the students and they have a olot of trust now. This weekend while in Dar one of them took us to his house, which was cool. All the students at the school are chosen based on need, so you can imagine he lives in pretty tight quarters.
Well, in less than three weeks I'll be on my way back to the US. I'm sure it'll be hard to leave the people here, much as I miss those of you in the US.

Back in Dar!

Hamjambo rafiki! Wow, it seems like its been a while since we've been able to update, and so much has gone on! We have spent the last 3 weeks at the Shamba, hence no internet connection. Let me try to update you on whats been going on!

The chicken farm is looking amazing! Check out the pics Melinda put upon the blog. We now have floors, wall, and the beginnings of windows. It has been a tough 3 weeks full of lots of buckets of water, sand, kokoto, and cement. Yes! I must say, my muscles have been growing. I can now carry two buckets at a time and have been perfecting my skills carrying a bucket on my head. My goal for the trip is to be able to carry a bucket on my head with no hands. Ill let you know how that goes! This coming week we will be working on putting wire mesh on the windows and plastering the walls. I cant believe this thing will be done in less than 3 weeks!

The past few weeks have also been full of getting to know the kids and their stories more. From parents who have died to fathers who refuse to recognize them as their children, family members in prostitution and on drugs-these kids have been through a lot. It is really amazing to hear about what some of these kids have experienced in their short lives. You would never know because they are all so joyful and full of life. It really is amazing to see the hope that many of them have found in God and to see how God has really been a father to them. I feel like He has protected them from a lot of things and will use them for great things in their life. So many of them have big dreams to help the people in their families and to help the people of their country. One young man, has a dream to become a doctor and reach the world for Christ with people his age. How awesome is that!

This weekend has been great and relaxing. We got the last two members of our team in safely and plan to return to the Shamba tomorrow sometime to settle in for the last leg of our trip. 6 weeks down, 3 weeks to go. This time here is flying. Please continue to pray for our team. There is only a short time left here but I know that God will use it to fulfill his purpose. Woot woot! :-)

~Angela (aka Angel aka Malaika)

I've Arrived!

Hello world. This is Tiffany. I am so excited to finally be in Tanzania! It was a bit rough getting here.....Rachel and I had some difficulty in Amsterdam. We had a lot of trouble finding where to drop off our bags, changing our money, buying train tickets, and getting on the right train. Then we got lost in the city and spent 2 hours walking around trying to find Jordan Hostel. Finally we broke down and bought a map. This was a great idea. Another hour later we found the hostel. (I know, your probably thinking that with the map we should have found it in a couple of minutes. But without the map, we would probably still be there wondering the streets.) We checked in and took a nap, which was glorious, because we had not slept in like 36 hours. After our nap we found The Pancake Bakery and had a delicious dinner. After dinner we went back to the hostel to sleep. In the morning we safely found our way to the train station and then to the airport. After another flight (this one 10 hours) we finally arrived in Dar Es Salaam. We were greeted at the airport by Galen and Melinda. How excited we were to see smiling faces! We came to the City Center orphanage and spent the night. This morning (Sunday) we went to Dar Es Salaam University for a church service in English. It is amazing that no matter where you are in the world, God has a message for you. The sermon was just what I needed to hear. The point that mainly sticks out for me was when the pastor said, "Christian growth is not about your position, it is about your direction." A very powerful reminder that though we stumble and fail, we get up, brush the dirt off our knees, and keep walking towards Christ. After service, we met a man from Scotland that was at the church. He invited us over to his house for tea, and the pastor and his family came as well. What a wonderful experience to spend time with fellow believers. Christ is such a wonderful connecting point among all people. The man opened his home to us, gave us snacks, coffee, and tea and we had a great time just talking with everyone. (He also had a Western toilet that flushes...PRAISE THE LORD) The rest of the afternoon we met with a girl at the university to have lunch and then went shopping an a Westernized mall. Throughout the day we got to ride the Dali Dali (just think of a little tiny bus going really fast and shoved to the max with people). Overall, quite an amazing experience. We will leave tomorrow to spend 3 weeks at Hananasif and I cannot wait. The people of Tanzania are beautiful. They welcome Mzungu (foreigners) like they are family. When we were at the English service this morning, and spending time with the young children at the city orphanage, I am again reminded about the amazing beauty of Christ. I see image of God on the faces of these people and it is impossible not to love them. In all my travels, I am reminded over and over again that people are people wherever you go. I thank God every moment for this opportunity to be here. Thank you for praying for us and continue to do so. To God alone be the glory.... Soli Gloria Deo

~Tiffany

New Pictures of the chicken farm

This project has been so amazing. We are almost finish with the chicken farm. As of right now we have four walls, a floor, a roof, a storage room, and window and door frames. Next we have to clear more land, put the metal mesh up for the windows, plaster the walls and paint.
Saturday Tiffany and Rachel arrived in Dar around 10:30 pm. So now we are a group 6 instead of 4.
We are leaving back for Hanansif today (well maybe in the next 10 minutes). So no internet for the next 2 1/2 weeks.
But while we are gone Galen has informed us all on his developing plan of taking the Browns to the Superbowl. We are all praying for success in his future endeavors.
Talk to you when we are on our way back to USA.

Back in the States...

Hey Team!
The trip back home was long and tiring and sad. All of us dicussed how strange it felt to be leaving. We felt like we just got to Tanzania. It was quite strange. I felt like I was in a daze actually. I'm still Jet lagged but i'm going in to work tomarrow. I did indeed decide to keep up with new African traditions such as bucket showers since the trailer i'm living in currntly has no running water. I also made Chipati today gang and it was really easy and super tasty. I definitely lost seven pounds in Tanzania. I thought I gained weight but nope. I really miss Ugali and beans. :)
Please tell the kids hello and send them love from me. I really miss them a lot!!!!! I am praying for you all. I hope you all don't get too tired of eachother too fast.
"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love and honor one another above yourselves." Rom. 12.
Wish I could still be with you all! I am continuously praying!
Mungubariki marafiki!
Love,
KristaJoy

Buckets

Well, half our team has left us. Just the others are left. I guess it'll be a bit easier coordinating things now with only four people, but it's still sad the other four are gone. A bit bittersweet. Better bitter and then sweet than sweet and then bitter though, by which I mean we'll see them all back at FSU in the fall, so all's well that ends well.
We got to put in some solid work this week, just about as hard as I've ever worked with the possible exception of a couple days in Honduras last year. One day we were doing laundry in shifts while working waiting on supplies. We wash in buckets, so you need two big buckets of water, one for washing and one for rinse. These buckets are very heavy, so I carried several for the girls because they have to walk really far to the girls' dorm where they wash their laundry. So I was really sore and thinking I could go without lifting another bucket for a while, then go back to the work site and we immediately have to carry buckets of sand from one spot to another, buckets of water from a reservoir to mix and to pour on the concrete, and then buckets of cement from the mixing spot to pour in. We succeeded in getting all 12 pillars set and poured concrete around, by keeping doing this until an hour or two after dark on the last day we had at the school. It was pretty intense, my shoulders and biceps are just now beginning to feel normal again. I'm pretty sure I could life my life satisfied without ever lifting another bucket, but I'm sure I'll be lifting tons more of such things throughout the summer.
In all seriousness, I was really excited about it and enjoyed it, I'm not complaining at all. It's really nice to put in full days of hard manual labor, there's something simple and fulfilling about it after years of academia. I'm looking forward to putting in some hard work through the summer, strengthening myself physically and spiritually.

And then there were four...

Well, it has been a very busy week! Last night, four of our team members headed back to the US. Ryan, Carrie, April, and Krista are probably hanging out in the airport at Amsterdam now waiting for their next flight. Galen, Lee, Melinda and I are gearing up for the next phase of the trip. But, let me update you on what has been going on.

This past week Carrie and I conducted our second health class for the students. The topic was personal hygiene. We discussed oral care and hand washing. It went really great! For oral care we facilitated a discussion with the students about barriers to brushing their teeth. The kids had some really thoughtful answers and it was awesome to see their brains trying to work out the issue. Then we talked about how we can overcome these barriers so that they can be brushing their teeth. Carrie had a great idea of getting some concrete blocks to represent teeth and she did a demonstration of how to properly care for your teeth. We even used some rope for floss. This kids loved it. For the handwashing, we also did a demonstration. Carrie was able to get a black light and “glo germ” from the FSU College of Nursing. We took the kids to the office where there is electricity and had two of them rub the glogerm on their hands. The glo germ is invisible in regular light but will show up in the black light. The powder represents germs on their hands. First we had the kids wash their hands normally. What they usually do here is have someone pour water on your hands from a pitcher. No soap is used. When we checked their hands with the black light it was clear that the majority of the germs remained on their hands. The kids were pretty shocked and immediately wanted to wash their hands again. We gave them some soap and the germs came right off. It was really a great way to visually show the kids how effective it is to wash your hands with soap. We ran out of time for a discussion so we will continue next week on that topic. I want to facilitate a discussion much like the one we had on tooth brushing concerning the barriers and solutions to washing hands with soap here at the orphanage. I hope that the kids will be able to come up with a solution for themselves and really run with it.

The kids were not the only ones last week getting some health classes. Carrie and I also did a basic CPR training for the teachers. They were very interested in this and enthusiastic about getting involved. Being out here, we do not have any CPR dummies like you might find in a CPR class in the states, so we did some creative improvising. We had the teachers volunteer as victims and we went through the steps of CPR. Instead of doing compressions on their chest though, we had them do it on a football. Out here you've got to work with what you've got. I think it was a pretty good simulation though. In the end they each went through a CPR scenario and I think they really learned a lot. Now they feel more equipped to handle a situation where a child stops breathing.

Well, thats the health update. We are getting ready to head out soon so I will finish up with a little language mistake story. While in Mwanza I was talking with Goephrey's sister and was saying “Ninatayiri.” I thought I was saying “I am ready” but she was looking at me funny. I kept repeating it and finally she started laughing. Apparently, I was actually saying “I am circumcised.” it took her a minute to figure out what I was really trying to say. To say “I am ready” is Ninatayari. Very close. We had a good laugh. I love swahili!

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

Back and forth

My mind is all over the place so this blog is going to jump around a little.

I feel like we are just going, going, going........... going and we are. Now we are back in Dar (the city center) . We got here (Dar) last night (may 21, 2010) at 1:00am and we left sometimes after 9:00pm and we will be staying here until Monday, going back to Hanansif. It take us so long to get from Dar to Hanansif, about 3 hours if there is no traffic and if we don't get stopped by the police.

But I am sad to say that the reason why we are back in Dar is because it is time for four members of our chicken team to go back to America. Ryan, April, Carrie, and Krista are leaving for home Sunday (BOO) they will be missed. The people that are staying are Lee, Galen , Angela, and myself. In a couple of weeks (two and a half, I think) we will be joined by the two other members of our chicken team Tiffany and Rachel, YEA.

New people are starting to arrive at Hanansif. One person is named Stephenie from Gainesville, Florida. She will be starting book clubs with the kids. Also more people are suppose to come ( I think a team of 15 people).

Last night we set the columns for the chicken farm. It took us all day, until after 8:00pm to finish. Next we have to do the roof and start on the walls. YEA.

I do hope to put pictures of the columns on the blog soon but here internet is charged by the megabits. It takes a lot of megabits to upload pictures so I will loud them when I can.

Travel Day

Well, today was quite an adventure! I want to start off with a prayer request for one of the students of Hanansif. This evening a young boy, Omari, was taken to the hospital for malaria. Normally, when malaria is caught early, it can be treated very easily. However, it seems that Omari's malaria was caught much later. He was having seizures when they took him to the hospital. Please pray that God would heal him and that He might be glorified through this. Omari has a strong spirit and we are all praying that he pulls through this serious illness.

Our day stared off early at the school in Mkuranga. We woke up around 4:30am to get ready to head out to Dar Es Salaam. We left the school at 5:30am, just as the kids were waking up. Our team had another long ride to Dar, but this time it only took around 3 hours to make the trip. Nonetheless, it was just as bumpy as the first time! We rode in the back of the HOCET truck and bounced around on the unpaved roads. Luckily, there was not as much water in the road this time so we got through pretty easily. Once arriving at the City Center in dar, we ate breakfast and got ready t o welcome another member of our team, Geophrey. Geophrey is a native of Tanzania who now attends school at FSU. He is going to help with our chicken coup project. We will be leaving tomorrow to head out to his home town, Mwanza, to hang out with his family for a day or two. Once Geophrey arrived at the city center and introductions were made, we headed out to a tanzania chicken farm about an hour away. This chicken farm was awesome and had around 24,000 chickens in it! It was very helpful to compare this farm to what we are working on at the Shamba. Originally, we had planned to purchase laying hens and sell the eggs. However, the farm we are at today was raising broiler chickens and after some comparisons, it might be possible that the type of chicken we purchase for the farm will be changing. More updates on that will follow!

After the farm a few of the girls went with Geophrey's sister to her boutique in another part of dar. We got to go to a market and get pineapple and bananas (so delicious). Plus, we all got to purchase some kangas. Kangas are basically a piece of cloth with a Swahili saying on it. They are extrmely useful and functional. Women here in Tanzania use them for skirts, dresses, tableclothes, to carry things, and even as towel (they dry super fast). We love these things.

Our evening is concluding here in Dar Es Salaam. We ate dinner and had some great hang out time with the younger kids here at the city center. Everyone is getting showers and going to sleep. We have another early morning tomorrow as we will be heading out for Mwanza at 4am. Please pray for us that we might have a safe trip. We will hopefully be passing through the Serengeti and Mt. Kilimanjaro too! We are all pretty excited.

So that was our day today. I am so excited to be here in tanzania working with Hananasif. The kids here really are amazing and super encouraging. I will try to write more about them next time.

Cultural note for the Day;
Here in Tanzania it is traditional for the man to pay his future brides parents in order to marry her. Also, in order to get invited to the wedding, potential guests must either donate money or help out with the ceremony in some way- ie bringing food, music, etc.

Picture Time

Tanzania






Amsterdam

Compilation of Team's First Week

While we are at the "shamba" (farm, referring to the orphanage school in the countryside) the team has designated a different person each day to blog. Since we don't have internet access there, these will come in the form of compilations of writings throughout the week.

From Lee, Sunday May 9th :

Our first full day at shamba was very eventful. We got to wash our clothes by hand, play soccer, and participate in a formal debate that the students put on.
One thing that we learned while washing our clothes is that we have way more clothes than we wanted to wash. Luckily, I had an idea about how long it took to wash clothes so I was conservative about how many clothes I wore. Yes, I wore the same clothes several days in a row. I should have warned the others. Hehe.
Soccer was fun. Very tiring. These players are used to the bumpy, high grass fields that I am not. Very few of us had cleats and most of the players played bare feet. Their passion for the game was exponentially greater then the pain of the harsh ground and relentless collisions. The debate today was about whether the sun of the rain was more important. It was all in English because they must improve their English to perform well on the national exams. Both sides were very articulate, although some had better English than others, I was impressed with the boldness and the confidence that was demonstrated in the debate.
Again today, I got to talk some of my friends from last time I was here. Yose Onesmo, is in his last year here, form 4. He is studying hard and excited about what God may have for him next. However, he has not idea what id could be. The next step would be form 5, however, Hananasif Academy does not currently have this level, so he is just focusing on his tasks at hand and once that is accomplished he will look to what he can do next. Shamba is beautiful. We start work on the farm tomorrow.

5/11/2010, Tuesday – Ryan McKenna:

We have been here several days now, since Saturday, and we have started and finished digging the foundation for the chicken coop. We had 2 shovels and 1 hoe to do the work, so we rotated on the shovels to keep the shovels going and our bodies from getting dehydrated. It is very hot and the sun is very strong, the hat I brought is a lifesaver. In the mornings at 6:30am we join the students for worship and then they are off to their classes. We then have our own team devotional and planning for the day. Then head out to work on constructing the chicken coop. They do all their own cooking and cleaning here so it looks like several students have cooking duties on a rotating basis. I think they are not able to be in class on the days they are cooking. We have had the opportunity to talk with the students and teachers here. They are very smart and motivated and grateful for this school. It seems that most of these kids would be on the streets of Dar es Salaam because one or both parents have passed away or left them and they have no way to pay for secondary school, which evidently is not tax funded here in Tanzania, each student must pay. There seems to be a self-ruling kind of process here among the students. There are about 95 students here, about half n' half guys and girls all in different grade levels they call “Forms” ~ our equivalent to high school. So the seniors seem to be the leaders in helping the younger ones. The teachers teach but do not seem that involved in the personal lives of the students during non-school time. So the older students lead worship, help with school work, etc.
On Sunday they have a worship service and asked me to do the teaching. I shared the Gospel message with them and I am not sure what they were thinking. I have not been able to figure out how knowledgeable they are in the Bible or what they understand so I figured starting with the Gospel would be good.

“Sing to God, sing praise to His name, extol Him who rides on the clouds – His name is the Lord – and rejoice before Him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.” ~Psalm 68:4-5

Hezekiah was saying that he wants these kids to understand that God is their Father, many of the kids here understand this because that is all they have, He trully leads them as they have no father in their life. When the kids found out I was a pastor several of them came up to me and expressed to me that they wanted to be a pastor when they got older. I shared with them the character qualities of an elder in 1 Timothy and Titus and told them to ask God to build their character in these areas. They had a Swahili Bible and they eagerly wrote the verses down on some paper. I do not think they knew these verses were in the Bible. These young men have no practical example of a father figure in their life and I am not sure what person will help them, so I trust God will use these verses to give them direction and a goal to trust God for in their lives.
In the evening there is time for the students to do their homework. Some do the homework and others hang out because they have finished their work. This is a great opportunity for us to interact with the kids. Lee and I are going to try and see if some of the kids want to learn how to study the Bible tonight. Our hope is that they will start a habit of studying the Bible together. I think some of the kids have Swahili Bible's and some do not. We will find out tonight.
The team overall is doing well, the Lord seems to be working with all of us in different ways and we are all excited to see what He will do with us.

From Galen, Tuesday 5/11 :

Yesterday we started the hard work, digging the foundations, which went suprisingly fast. Until Geophrey gets here tomorrow, we have done most of what we can do with the possible exception of moving bricks into position to be laid. That really isn't urgent because we have to wait seven days after we pour the pillars to let them set before we can lay the bricks. So it's going well, according to schedule.
During the days we've gotten to know the students. My favorite so far is a younger one named Omary, about 15 and a half. He's kinda small (Tanzanians have a reputation for being shorter than other Africans apparently) but apparently good at soccer and kind of a class clown. Also Jovin, Dietrich, Naima (Grace), Gustav, Doris, and others speak well and have been good to get to know. Doris and Irene told me and Carrie stories the other day. Irene made one up basically about a non-Christian boy and a girl who becomes a Christian, likes him, and helps him understand the gospel using the born again story fro John 3, which Ryan had taught on that morning. Then they get married after he turns away from his drug-dealing lifestyle and trusts in Jesus. It was interesting, because the girl telling the story is kind of shy and you can really see the common heart of women everywhere in the story. They really have the same desires as anyone here, but marriage and family is probably their biggest desire especially because of the families they've come from that are either missing parents or extremely poor. The orphanage is free to all, open only to those who demonstrate the greatest need. Many have families, but the families can't afford to send them to school at all. Also the students apparently aren't allowed to ate within; there are 90 students or so, and probably 2/3rds are girls.
On the lighter side, yesterday a boy from a nearby village came by with little plastic sealed bags of shelled peanuts. Only 100 t-shillings each, or about 8 cents. He didn't have change for a 2000, so I bought five with my only 500. According to Jovin, this boy is from a very poor Muslim family nearby. I am curious how they seal the peanuts in these bags; I doubt they have electricity. Also last night I took a shower late at night, like 1 am. When we woke up we discovered that a lion had coe by in the middle of the night, possibly chasing some other prey. I probably just barely missed it... the tracks led very close to where I was taking a shower. Like 10 feet away. There are hippos nearby too, at the river, hoping to get to see one this summer.

The Kids at the Orphanage

I can't write much right now, but one thing that impressed me greatly this last week was meeting the children at the orphanage. They are teens, probably ranging from about 12-18. When we met them, they welcomed us in the most unselfconscious way. So many of them came and shook our hands and welcomed us. They were not shy and did not avert their eyes from us. Nor were they in any hurry. I was struck by how atypical such interaction is among their age range. Even later in the week, we had many reports from team members that many of the teens were asking very in-depth and detailed questions about politics, life, and social issues in the U.S. as well as getting input on their school subjects from our team. These kids really love each other and are taking their studies seriously. It has been very inspiring to be around them for the week.

On chicken farm news, I will let you all know that we have made good progress. Today we visited a chicken farm near Dar Es Salaam, and many of our questions are being answered. Please continue praying for our team and our project.

Tanzania...life is slow...hot and wonderful!!!!!

Habari yako?
It has been a beautiful trip so far. The city center is full of energetic children, boys trying to teach me swahili and me sucking up every moment of it. It is weird to me that the kids here sometimes get malaria every week or month..it becomes a way of life..a hard one that is for sure. Luckilly it can not be contracted by direct contact. Sleeping under mosquito nets is quite different but I like it. I fearfully ran from a very large cockroach last night when I tried to blog and pastor Ryan said there was a rat in the kitchen this morning. Galen has a lot of mosquito bites...haha...sry Gman. The team got to discuss the important detail about the coop with Hezekiah last night super fun. I can't wait for Geophrey to get here so he can get construction going!!!! Judith I hope you had great graduation and I can't wait to see you when I can't back! One day we ill go to Tanzania together hopefully my rafiki!!!!
Keep prying that nobody gets sick and that we stay encouraged and continue to encourage one another constantly!!!
Kwaheri!!!!!
-Krista JOy

McKenna Mission Moments

It has been awesome to begin to learn and understand the culture here. It is amazing to how the people live and how they think about life, God and the church. Lee and I were able to take advantage of our time in Dar es Salaam today and visited 2 local churches. One church we were able to meet with the pastor, very exciting and faithfilled believers here. We head out to Shamba (the school where we are building the chicken coop) tomorrow. They say the roads are very bad from the rain so it will take 4+ hours to get there with the trucks getting stuck in the mud along the way. It should be interesting. Pray for us, our physical strength and spiritual strength. We have had some opportunities to share the Gospel in ways i had not expected. God is our sustainer.

Temporarily Displaced

This is Galen. Yesterday we visited the US Embassy, which was fun, never been in one before. Not exactly what I expected. We weren't able to go in to visit USAID without an appointment, but the Citizen Services at the Embassy gave us some useful info. We used that info to find the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Livestock Development and Fisheries today, got some good leads how to help the orphanage with government resources and info.
Today I went on a walk with Melinda that was intended to be brief, just to grab a coke. Ended up finding Pepsi, which is even better, tasted exactly like in the US. Somewhere in the process it became a 3-hour walk because we became temporarily displaced from the surroundings which we knew. Found Hananasif School a couple times, but not the orphanage. We found a cool cabbie named Steve who had a sticker that said "This car is under the protection of the blood of Jesus" on the dash and another that said "Jesus loves you, helps you" on the window. Steve knew very little English, but after visiting everyone he know that did, at a hotel, and then at some other friends' place, and then his sister, we finally got him to understand where we wanted to go. An hour after getting in, we were back. Fun times. Temporarily displaced.

In Tanzania

Hawajambo Rafiki!

Greetings from Tanzania! I am Angela, the lone Gator of the team. These past two days in Tanzania have been an adventure! I have really enjoyed getting to know many of the students at the city center. I have had so many opportunities to practice my Swahili skills and the kids are so willing to help. Today I went into the city and got to buy a kanga. A kanga is a traditional Tanzanian skirt. It has so many uses though! A towle, table cloth, skirt, shirt, dress... I cant wait to use it! Its getting late here though so I must be going! I will try to update soon!

Usiku Mwemba! Kwaherini!

Getting to Tanzania - a passport fiasco

Hey Everyone!!

So for starters, lets mention that my passport was "misplaced" (aka. I lost it) the weekend before our Monday flight. We checked everywhere for it! I was at home already and even my parents went through the stuff I had brought. My roommates in Tallahassee were scouring my apartment, visiting the FSU library (the last place I remembered having it) and even checking the lost and found. Unfortunately, no passport. I talked to Lee about it several times over the weekend, and he stayed pretty calm about it on the phone. His Uncle, our travel agent seemed somewhat pessimistic about my possibility of making the flight or even the trip at worst.

However, we were pretty sure God would not have me raise so much money to come only to leave me hanging, or grounded, in the end. Sure this passport thing was not His fault, but He is our heavenly father in the end and His love never fails us even in our imperfections.

My parents ended up driving me to the Miami Passport Agency Monday morning at 3:30 am. We arrived around 9 am. There was a line to even enter the agency, and only people who had appointments could pass through quickly. My Dad saw that we were not getting anywhere in the non-appointment line, so he called our Congressman and our Senator's office. Around 11 am, they called me out of the non-appointment line to go into the agency by name. I skipped the line! I didn't deserve to skip the line, but I am sure God wanted to honor my parents and their efforts to get me to this trip. Also, many people had prayed for me over the course of the weekend, a pastor's family in Gainesville, my roommates, family and friends.

So after I entered the passport agency, I waited in line again. For the second time, after waiting about 10 minutes, they called out my name and called me to the front. This time the lady at the window took all my paperwork. She told me she was an FSU grad. When she finished, I asked how long it would take, and she said she was going to put my papers at the front to get my passport soon. My passport came within 1 hour. We left Miami around 12.30 and I made it to the Orlando airport in plenty of time for our fight that evening. I felt like a V.I.P. (very important person), but the truth is that I'm not that important, but I know a V.I.G. (very important God) and He will make His power known through us if we let Him.

posting from Carrie
Habari! (How are you?) We've all arrived safely in Dar Es Salaam. I will need more time to think in order to write you more of an update. Tanzania seems like a familiar world, as though I have been here once before. Today April, Galen and I went to to several offices in order to inquire about the chicken farm. The food is actually quite good. They spoil us here. We have had an opportunity to shower every day. And at night we sleep on brand new mattresses under netting that hangs from the ceiling. I will write more later. Thank you for praying for us.

1st day in Tanzania

After a long flight into Tanzania from Amsterdam, we got off the plane and we were warmly greeted by our hosts from Hananasif. We made it!
I got to see several of my friends that were here two years ago when I came to Tanzania. They have all grown as much! One of my best friends here, Damas, and I got to talk a while today about where life has taken him in the last two years. He is the Headboy (school president) of the school. After being forced to start Form 3 (Junior year of high school) over again due to absences because of complications with a broken leg and other medical issues, Damas has adjusted back to school and continues to be very academically competitive.
We are getting adjusted to the time change and the food change. We get to eat with our hands every meal! Pretty great. For lunch we had ugali (a bland corn flour based cream of wheat) and red beans. For dinner we had rice and beans.
We head out to Shamba, the school, on Saturday to start surveying and digging the foundation.
Appreciate your prayers,
Lee

Hello, I will try to post photos when I can

Hello All from Tanzania.

So far I have been to Amsterdam, which was so much fun. We got the chance to walk all around the city and eat pancakes. YMMMM

Now we are in Tanzania. This morning a met a filmmaker name Bill (I can't remember his last name) he works for National Geographic. It was so cool. I got to go with him and his wife to make a documentary about the school we're at.

Got to run. I will post soon

Final Preparations

Today is the day. At 7:30 PM we will leave Orlando for Amsterdam. Until we have time to post again, we wanted to let you know that it is still possible to help with the finances of starting the chicken farm. God has provided a lot already, and we only have about $2000 left to raise! Seatbelt strap messenger bags and "I Bought a Chicken" T-shirts of all sizes are still available. Get all your friends and family to check 'em out and donate at www.seminolechristianlife.com/tanzania

The Team

Ryan (Pastor of Seminole Christian Life)

April (Urban Planning Masters)

Krista

Rachel (Theater)

Tiffany (Kindergarten Teacher, Oak Ridge Elementary)

Angela (Health Education at UF)

Melinda (Fine Arts Masters)

Carrie (Nursing)

Geophrey (Tanzanian Citizen, Civil Engineering Ph.D.)

Galen (Urban Planning, Public Administration Joint Masters Program)

Lee (Civil Engineering)

Tanzania! Why? What for?

Hey, it's Lee!
Let me give you a quick background of what we are doing and why we are doing it. As you will read further down, I got to spend two months at this school in the spring of 2008. The people there had such an impact on me that I am working with a team this time to work with them again.

Hananasif Orphanage Center (HOCET) is a non-profit orphanage outside of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Founded by local visionary Hezekia Mwalugaja in 2002, HOCET is a grassroots organization created to care for orphans and vulnerable children. Tanzania, currently ranked one of the poorest countries in the world, has an escalating proportion of orphans due to high rates of disease and poverty. HOCET seeks to offer holistic, community-oriented care through education, healthcare, spiritual and leadership development, vocational training, and the arts. Through networking people throughout Tanzania, HOCET works toward securing hope and a promising future for their society's most vulnerable youth.

HOCET started a secondary school in 2006, providing education for orphaned and vulnerable children who can not afford to pay the fees necessary to go to a public school in Tanzania. HOCET purchased 300 acres outside of Dar es Salaam, and has since constructed and currently running a secondary school which focuses on science, entrepreneurship, the arts, and agriculture.

This is where we come in. In the spring of 2008, I spent two months at HOCET. I worked closely with the founder and director, Mwalugaja. Together, we brainstormed possibilities to make HOCET less reliant on individual gifts and sporadic donations and more reliant on self-sustainable projects to provide food and income. Our conversations kept coming back to a chicken farm for local poultry production as the key to the orphanage’s long term success. Essentially, building a chicken farm at the boarding school would provide a sustainable source of food for the students, income for the school, fertilizer for the agricultural program, and an educational tool for the school’s entrepreneur program. After nearly two years of thought, research and discussion, we are moving forward with the project. Mwalugaja is talking with local poultry farmers in Tanzania while I use my resources here in Florida to research and fundraise. Sustainability is an achievable goal, and the logical next step is a chicken farm.

We will keep you updated on all that we do while we are there. When we are in Dar es Salaam, we will be sure to drop by an internet cafe to update you on the progress. God is doing huge things in Tanzania. We are excited to be a part.

Thanks for following.
Lee