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!