Home Sweet Home

Newest Picture with all of the Kids.

It’s been one year since I arrived in Tanzania; one year since I stepped off the plane and into a new life. And now I am going back; back to my family, back to my friends, back to the only life I had ever known until this past year. My year in Tanzania has been full of growing, and changing, and learning, and now I get to go and share that with everyone that I love back home. It was hard to tell the kids goodbye, I only cried in the taxi. I know that they will still be there when I return, and that I get to have them for many more years to come, it made it easier to step on that plane. 

It took me 48 hours to get back to Oregon. First I had a twelve hour bus ride, then one ten hour plane, another ten hour plane, and then the last one and half hour plane. I haven’t had much reverse culture shock, which I am very thankful for. While everything is louder, faster, and crazier than my life in Uhekule, I seem to have adjusted back quite nicely. The only thing I am struggling with is that everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road and car and it’s stressing me out! Luckily my license expired in TZ so I haven’t driven yet for myself. (Probably safer that way!) I have been waking up earlier and earlier each morning; first it was 5am, then 4:30am, and this morning was 3:40am. Hopefully that will stop soon, I do enjoy my sleep.

It’s great to be back home and with my family. It almost feels like no time has gone by and Africa is just a dream. Weird how being in an entirely different environment does that. I also keep wanting to speak Swahili to everyone. I did tell a lady in San Francisco “Asante” which is “Thank you” in Swahili, she gave me a very strange look. 

Food is a bit of an adjustment. So far I get a little sick to my stomach after everything I eat. My diet in TZ consists of fruit, vegetables, and that’s about it. But I am very happy to be eating pickles again, I had a delicious salad, lunch meat is great, I just need to have a nice juicy steak. 

Well some updates from Tanzania, before I left:

We have had a few birthdays; Ima turned 10, Lukemelo turned 9, and we celebrated Yona’s 9th & Emma’s birthday while I was still in TZ.

Ima's Birthday

Lukemelo's Birthday

Yona & Emma's Birthday

We finally finished planting our potato crops. I won’t be there for the corn planting but the field is all ready and prepped for that. I have a big project waiting for me when I return. I’ve decided to work on expanding our garden, A LOT. I want to plant basically everything that we eat, except for fruit. It will only save about 10,000/= TSH a week, but that will add up over time, plus we’ll have it in our backyard! 

The kids are all wonderful, as usual. I think we are truly blessed with 15 of the best kids in Uhekule, totally not biased or anything. Lately about half of them have started to call me “mother”. It’s kind of neat that I get to be a constant in these kids life, for some of them the first and only they’ve had. While it’s an intimidating realization, I also love these kids more than anything, and that gives me the motivation that I need to keep going strong. 

For our Tanzanian version of Halloween we carved watermelons and watched a movie. The kids thought it was one of the funniest things they had ever seen, like all of the crazy American traditions that I have introduced to them. We had a lot of fun putting faces on our watermelons and eating the insides, and putting the candle inside was good for a laugh. 

My Example

Sesi

Elenesta, Elisha, Elia

Tumpe

Elia

Eating the Insides! Tumpe & Akwirino.

Half the kids: Tumpe, Priksa, Akwirino, Franki, Ziadia, Yona, Elia

I’ll be finishing the children’s profiles while I am here, and hopefully will be able to find sponsors for all of them too. That’s my big mission while I am back here this trip. I think my parents are planning an open house, and I hope to have a ‘try Tanzanian type food night’ too. 

Thanks for all your continued support and prayers, lots of big changes happening and it’s all very much so needed!

The Jesus Culture

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 

“Teacher,” he asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul 

and with all your strength and with all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Luke 10:25-28

I’ve mentioned how God had laid it on our hearts to reach out to the villagers and so we came up with an idea for service projects. We want to teach the kids about loving Jesus, and loving others which sometimes is a foreign concept in their culture. Before we left we read the story of the Good Samaritan and discussed ways that we can help people. I told them where we were going and why and asked what things we could do for her. They all had great answers like, help her fetch water, work in the shamba, help her clean, or help her wash dishes. Angel and I had purchased a cabbage and some oranges to take to her. When we arrived at her house she was so thankful just for the visit, and refused any offer of help.I insisted that we were here to help her with anything she might need, but she continued to refuse with tears in her eyes. She had been working on shelling her corn when we arrived and so the kids just started to pick stuff up and help her, even though she was refusing. It was one of those ‘I’m a really proud momma’ moments. We were on a mission and we weren’t taking no for an answer. It took all 17 of us about an hour and a half to finish; I can’t even imagine how long it would’ve taken her alone. The kids really enjoyed it and are excited to continue our Saturday service projects. We also took food to an older man this last weekend, he didn’t need anything that day but we are returning with the kids later this week. The kids are so excited about serving!

 

Ziada, Sesi, Hosea, Priska, & Elenesta

How to shell the dried corn.

Priska & Ziada with our new bibi (grandmother)

The whole smiley crew!

My language skills have greatly approved over the last few months, and I am excited to say that I can carry on conversations for a while now. I still feel like I can only speak a little Kiswahili, but I am told by Tanzanians all the time that I am doing well. I know a lot of vocab and now I would like to learn the proper way of saying things. 

The harvesting and planting process is a long one. We have officially finished all of our harvesting, and planted one of our potato fields. Planting the corn will come in November, so for now we are finished. It’s really exciting to see all our hard work pay off. 

Emma & Ziada

Planting potatoes!

We had an away football game last weekend, and so we decided to take the kids to the game. We all pilled in the truck and went to a nearby village to watch the game. Angel and I are used to all the stares we get at these games, and the children that follow us around, but are kids seemed less than thrilled by it all. Some of them stayed far away from us after we got out of the truck, while some clung to our sides claiming their turf! The game was a tie, and not a very exciting one at that, but the kids enjoyed getting an adventure out of the house. 

Last Friday was the Standard 7 (grade 7) graduation. It is a huge ordeal here, with lots of work and preparation put into it. Angel and I were among the honored guests, and were given seats in the front underneath the tarps. The graduation was to start at 10:30 AM, we arrived around 11:00 AM, and the actual start time was 12:00 PM (Pretty good for Tanzanian time). There were 27 children graduating and the ceremony lasted 4 hours. 4 hours of sitting on a wooden seat. You would think at some point you would get used to sitting on hard seats for hours on end, but you just can’t train your butt for that sort of thing. It was exciting to be a part of the whole thing, and a new experience which is always nice to have. 

Dancing before the ceremony.

Some of the primary school kids

Dancing with my bibi friend!

Living in a small village of 1400 people, in the bush of Africa, creates a great environment for lots of harmful gossip. These people, who claim to love Jesus, are the quickest to judge, and the quickest to throw the first stone. There are a lot of strict rules that they claim are their “culture”, but no one knows that reasons for them; it’s just the way it’s always been. I am very open to their culture and have adapted to most of their ways just fine, however there are some things that are harder to accept, and I am not really sure that I should either. They don’t touch their children after they are 2 years old; no loving, no kissing, no physical affection of any kind. “It’s just the way it is” and it is the most heart breaking thing to see. These children are craving the love and affection that no one is there to give them. They love to be around Angel and I because they know that means endless amount of hugs and kisses and love. They are missing the part in their bibles where Jesus LOVED. He LOVED. And sadly it’s not just these villagers that are missing it, it’s a worldwide problem of people forgetting the whole point of it all….To just LOVE. 

We were at a football game and one of our good friends from the village had a little too much to drink. He could barely walk and was lying in the grass after the game. Angel and I grabbed him and escorted him all the way home; we just wanted to make sure he made it that night. We started to hear from some villagers that that was not our concern. It is not our job to make sure that a drunkard makes it home at night, because he is a drunkard and a sinner. I’m wondering at what point people who claim to be Christians and go to church at least every Sunday, sometimes more, can sit there and say, “You can’t help that man, he is a sinner.” When did we as Christians, forget that we are all sinners, and all fall short of the Glory of God? Angel and I aren’t here to change a culture, that was never our intention, but we are however here to bring Jesus to a hurting place, we are calling it “The Jesus Culture”. 

There are so many beautiful things about these people and this place, and we don’t want to change what makes them all those things, we just want to bring a little light to the darkness.

 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

-Matthew 5:14-16 

Angel and I with our favorite Bibi.