for you mommy. :)

masai. for culture day.

coffee beans!

the farm..

the farm.

the farm.

thanks be to God...

This week has been a bit emotional for me. I’ve been thinking about last year, wishing for my mommy quite badly, and dealing with my roomie leaving. But through all of that God provided lots of sunny days. Sunshine can cure lots of things, ya know…

In town with Megan and Anna, we ventured into this very cramped and full to the brim jewelry type shop. I was buying a birthday gift for Avery, and a couple rings for myself. Avy’s gift was Tsh 7000. I looked at him and asked for 6000. He laughed, and then proceeded to help Megan with her purchase. When he was finished, he turns back to me, smiles and says in a potentially flirtatious manner, “Now back to you.” I’ll take this moment to explain that this guy is probably in his mid-twenties, good-looking, and a trendy dresser. He was a bit hesitant, but he gave me it for 6000. As I was paying, he asked me how long I was in Iringa. I stumbled around for words in my head, and couldn’t seem to blurt out anything but the truth. “’til June.” As I was leaving he said, “Maybe see you again!” Oh boy, friendly Tanzanians…

One night, Megan I were snuggled in our beds and she says to me (regarding her not being here anymore), “It’s comforting to me to know that the Morrison’s woke up to those gunshots (the night the gal in town was attacked), so if you scream they’d hear you.” Eeek! Not comforting.

Megan woke me up one night and announced that there was a mouse in our house. One day as I was retrieving TP from the basket hanging on the choo wall I discovered a spider right by it. It was a big one! If you make an ‘o’ with your thumb and pointing finger, that’s about the size of him, legs and all. I decided to leave him alive since he probably eats other bugs. I haven’t quite decided on a name for him yet, but that’ll come. Prior to my last blog post, I also discovered a snail almost as big as all my fingers on one hand combined on the path to the Morrison’s. I made a loud noise upon discovery. I’m used to snails the size of large coins. Not snails the size of small birds!

Friday night came with mixed feelings due to Pierman and Megan leaving. But the good news: I saw the Southern Cross! This is one thing that I’ve wanted to see quite badly here. And I did. All I’ll say is that we’re missing out in the northern hemisphere. J

Megan wrote me a note that she told me I couldn’t read ‘til she left. Like a good girl, I waited. It was rewarding to wait. The note was incredibly sweet and filled up my love tank. It also got me to think more about my future, which I’ve been doing anyways, but… It’s funny how we have this great big old planet, and billions of people on it, and we’re supposed to find our place on it. Thank goodness for God and parents. They help finding that place easier. And what’s my place in this world you might ask? Right now all I’ll tell you is that my place is in God’s hands and Africa for now.

As some of my pictures show, this weekend we visited this beautiful horse farm and some of us – ‘us’ as in us from Rivervalley, not ‘us’ as in me J –  played volleyball. We ended up running through the torrential rain and getting quite wet. All was worth it though for the fun pictures I got. This last week has been a fun week for the photographer in me. I even got some photos on vodarock. It has a breath-taking view of the valley.

I woke up on Sunday morning to my alarm beeping. I looked over to Megan’s bed, and wondered why she wasn’t there. It took me a moment to remember that she’s gone. A sad way to wake up. But after a quiet and relaxing breakfast and a hot shower, things were loads better. Oh, and the sun was shining. How can things be bad when the sun is shining? J

I love to be thankful, but don’t always execute that love. So as of last blog, here’s my new addition: Thank you Jesus for… Another year for Tricia to be her beautiful self – her birthday was the 25^th. Cruising down the African highway crammed into a car filled with friends, bopping to World Cup tunes. Rain drops so huge, they soak you in a minute. Thunder almost loud enough to rock your socks. The thoughtfulness of my mum – she surprise called me thru Skype, but I missed it. Weekends to refresh one’s soul. And the promise of potential in the unknown future.

our current teacher. mwalimu joyce.

favorite passtime.

wiki moja.5

Oh my goodness, I am overwhelmed. A week and half in Africa is a lot different than a week and a half in the States. You’re faced with new and exciting moments and challenges like never before. Trying to sum up in a few words what happens in many hours and days is, well, challenging.

I think I forgot to mention this in my last blog, but… I ate a bug! After dinner one night, little flying termites came into the dining banda. Kirstein started trying them, then Pierman ate one. Tricia’s like, “You’re next Naphtali!” I wasn’t sure I could do it. I took a moment to work up the courage then salted it like Pierman, and went for it. And guess what? It was kind of like a tiny, crunchy salty treat! I only ate the one, though…

When the moon comes out here, it is something out. The moon and the stars are so much brighter. One night, some of us climbed to “Voda-Rock” with cameras and sat and stared. I think I could have sat there, people or no people, for quite a long time. There’s something so fulfilling and content-ish about gazing at the night sky. It’s one of my favorite things about living here and God’s handiwork.

I won’t go into details, but this week I was reminded of the beauty of this culture. An attack happened in town, a pretty non-existent happening here. In response to it, the people in the village and town were appalled and sort of bonded together. And our guards (at least this is what we heard) shot off their guns every other hour that night to show that we’re protected and they’re armed. I love how people here care so deeply about things and each other. The individualism of the states, especially the North West, is non-existent here, replaced by close-knit family relationships.

Oh! And last week, I had the awesome privilege of taking photos for the language school website. I spent Thursday furiously editing photos, and come Friday, though I was a bit sleep deprived, I was finished. Oh the surprising things ones gets to do in foreign countries!

I have less than four months here, and I’m still pretty oblivious as to what I’m doing after July. God’s timing is perfect, and I know it will come in time. But seeings as how the unknown is a bit scary, I covet your prayers as I wait God to show me the best path. Thank you Psalm 27:14!

Yesterday was DJ and Tricia’s 15^th anniversary. 15 years ago, I was six and at their wedding! Who would have thought on that very special day so long ago that I would be here with them on this other special day? Once again, God’s sense of humor shows it colorful self J

Thank you Lord for… Time unexpected. God holding us forever in his hands. Surprise massages in the middle of Africa. Zip lines. Daring rock traversing and safety in such traversing. And tea on rainy days. Speaking of rainy days… It’s raining now. Thank goodness for the thatched umbrella over my table J

terrible hair-day. i know. but this is me shaving coconut. start drooling... now!

yep, those, my friends, are wings. from flying termites that invaded our banda when it rained one night recently. sick!

market day and cooking day payoff.

this is our choo. 

my home away from home :)

almost ants in your pants.

Confession: I kind of assumed that once we got here to Rivervalley, I wouldn’t have much to blog about. Yeah right! God wanted to take me on an adventure, and He’s definitely doing a great job of it.

Let’s start with Monday. I got a tiny dose of independence (can you hear me saying whoo hoo right about now?) when I snagged a ride from Mark and Laura and went to Neema Crafts for something to drink and to do online stuff like blogging and email. I was honestly a bit scared, but once I started the short jaunt to Neema, I was just fine. Upon arrival, they told me downstairs – least I think I heard right – that the internet in the upstairs café was working. Once upstairs, I ordered Earl Grey tea and asked about the internet. I was eventually told that the internet wasn’t working. I turned on my computer anyways and found that I could get a signal, but needed a password. In the midst of this, I found out, slightly to my disappointment, that they didn’t have Earl Grey, so I went for a latte instead. When I asked about the internet again, they told me to go down the hall to the internet café to get a password.

The awesome thing about Neema Crafts is that they employ only the disabled. One of the downsides however, is that you can’t always communicate with them very well. Some of them are def J So, when I got to the internet café, I tried to communicate with the def guy about the password, and he told me to go back to the other café. When I got there, I once again was told to go to the internet café. This time when I returned, the kind def guy directed me to (I think) his boss and he told me to hook up to a cable. It worked, and I got internet with decently good high speed! I read an email from my mama that made me start to cry, right there in the internet café, not once, but twice! Once while reading, and then again a bit later.

Amidst all of this, there sat in Neema’s café my latte, mostly undrank and unpaid for. But I did get my internet taken care of for only Tsh 500. Yahoo! Oh, just for clarification, the exchange rate here is about 1600 Tanzanian shillings to one US dollar. I felt a bit sad about not getting to finish my latte, but after almost thinking I wouldn’t get to do internet stuff, it was a fair trade. Before I left, I paid for the undrank latte, and then was on my way.

Avery was sick at the beginning of the week, so our school schedule fell out of whack. Garrett and I were going a bit crazy too. Leap Day found us with no Swahili teacher due to her being sick. I reviewed and such with Avy, we had chai break, and then, in honor of Leap Day, we skipped school and watched a movie. Leap Day, after all, only comes once every four years. In the other three years, you wouldn’t do school on that day, so why do it this year? ;)

Thursday I had to remind myself that I am not defined by my circumstances. The day started off with ants invading the choo and a cold faucet shower. That was my second faucet shower of the week… I’d turned in my laundry on Saturday, and still hadn’t gotten it back, which meant Wednesday I’d had to hand wash my undies since I’d ran out. We had to walk up ‘Kilimanjaro’, a hill with a teaching banda on top of it, for our Swahili class. I must note that this is not my favorite thing to do. it’s much too far from the choo, and on one particular hike back down Kili earlier in the week after class, I maddened what Garrett thinks was a fire ant and he bit my toe. Phewf, pain! That’s one African experience I do not need to repeat! On top of all this Thursday madness, we also had to make up Wednesday’s class that we missed, and I found it to be a bit overwhelming and had to remind myself that it was only one day.

The good news about Thursday? Well, there turned out to be lots. One was that, like I said, it was only one day. Another was that the kiddos and I got to skip homeschooling for the day since Swahili took up most of our morning/before lunch time. Since it was market day for most of the other Swahili students, they left after chai break and we got to snag one of their teaching bandas and not hike up Kili again. And… Praise Jesus, my laundry came!

All the market shopping on Thursday had multiple purposes for those who did it. 1. Practice market Swahili words 2. Shop for cooking Friday! The kiddos and I got to observe and dabble a bit in cooking the Tanzanian way and got another break from regular Swahili class. I tried my hand at coconut shaving, cinnamon pounding, and, with each sickening moment that passed, watched a bunch of chickens being slaughtered. I regained my appetite in time for some yummy pastries that the students had made and some homemade chai tea. Oh my goodness, I think I died and went to heaven within the first few sips of that deliciously spicy cup of wonderful. I thudded back to earth once I finished it and found myself later that day hesitant to drink tea because I knew that whatever tea I drank after that just wouldn’t measure up.

All the students cooking paid off, and we feasted for lunch. Feasted with our hands in fact. Let’s just say that I’m no pro at eating things like rice and beans, with my fingers. I much prefer the knife/fork method J

Walking was a bit difficult this last weekend after our Saturday walk. I enjoyed it immensely before my outdoorsy sandals started to rub the bottoms of my feet in a not so nice way. But before that, I experienced my first Grand Canyon. It was literally a baby version of the Arizona one, in Africa! We had the most amazing view since we’d hiked a bit of a hill to get to it. Green African tree draped hills stretched beyond fields of corn and maze. We stopped along the highway for refreshing sodas and kitten time before we walked on to the village for a fishing hooks, fishing wire, and candles.

Once back from our ‘5k’, I took my first hot shower in a week. It becomes a bit more special when you haven’t gotten one in a while. After lunch, we had a ladies’ tea turned mostly into a ladies’ coffee planned by Tricia and Avery. I drank Starbucks after much too long a time of not, and relished it more because of it. The day was most beautifully sunny, a huge treat after days of gray and wet. Thank you Jesus!

After Each Sunday when we do church, I find myself refreshed and renewed. This Sunday was no exception, especially since it’s some of our new friends last week of Swahili school. God has provided us with some new friends this past week, Andrew and Amethyst, and Amethyst lead us in worship with her guitar, and for our sermon, we listened to (Aunt Tina, if you’re reading, you’ll appreciate this J) a session of my Christian Life class from my year at Ecola. Afterwards we had a special time of prayer for Kirstein and Mark and Laura, the ones leaving next weekend. How amazing a time to talk with our Heavenly Baba (dad) and pray over them. I am so thankful that God determines our steps, and knew just who should be here when. Happy week my favorite blog-reading friends! J