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Sunday, November 25, 2012

Thanksgiving


In honor of Thanksgiving (which I did celebrate with the other missionaries this past Friday), I would like to post an entry centered around many things that I am thankful for in the past week.

As much as I wish I was home with my friends and family back in the states, I am so terribly thankful to be serving here in Morogoro, Tanzania. Those of you who have been following my blog know that it hasn't been an easy journey for me (but, what journey in life is ever going to be easy?). It's taken a lot of hard work, patience, and faith, but I've come so far as a person since arriving here. I've done things that I've never dreamed of doing. I've learned about what it means to be part of a community. I've learned a new language and culture. When I finished my undergraduate, I swore that I was never, ever, ever going to teach. And, yet, here I am, teaching and LOVING it. Honestly, though, I feel that what I have here in Morogoro is unique and I'm not sure that I'd like teaching so much if I were doing it in the US right now.

On Thursday, I decided that, even though people here don't have/celebrate Thanksgiving, I needed to make the kids do journal entries about what they were thankful for. I got quite a few interesting answers and some really awesome ones. It got one kid who wrote: “I am thankful for fruit. I am thankful when my mother gives me fruit. I am thankful when my father gives me fruit. I love fruit…etc.” And then, there were the kids who wrote about how thankful they were for their parents helping them and how they were thankful to be able to get an education. And, then there were the kids who wrote about how thankful they were to God. I took a picture of the entry from one boy in Class V. I hope that you enjoy what he wrote as much as I did!! :D




Friday was a terribly special day in the life of our school. I’m not sure how many of you remember or read about this, but a while ago one of my students was run over by a pikipiki (motorcycle) and had to have surgery for injuries associated with a broken collar bone. During break, she came to school for the first time in about 1 ½ months (since the accident). As she walked up the driveway, all of the other students ran up and gathered around her. They were all screaming and cheering with joy. And then, they all began chanting her name and giving her hugs. It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever witnessed. It reminded me of movies when the war hero comes home victorious. I wish I had been able to take a picture of it for you to see, but I didn’t have my camera on me.
In the afternoon, I had my usual piano lessons with John and Elizabeth. After the lessons (which were cut just a bit short because of a power outage), Kjirstin and I had a shot bit of down time before we headed to town. We had to do ALL of our shopping on Friday because I knew that we were going to Bagamoyo all day Saturday and on Sundays a lot of places are closed. We managed to get everything and then we headed to the place where we would be having our Thanksgiving celebration. We were running late due to the shopping we had to do, but luckily, the MacSavenys were also and we just happened to cross paths at the same time. Thus, we were able to ride with them for the remainder of the way. The Thanksgiving celebration was a great time. The food was SUPER good and I was excited that there was no rice or ugali on the menu. Not that I mind these things, but sometimes I just need a little variety in my life. Yes, we did have turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, pumpkin pie, and so many other delicious items that we all enjoy on Thanksgiving. 







On Saturday, Kjirstin and I woke up early in the morning to accompany the students on their field trip to Bagamoyo. Honestly, it turned out to be a great trip and I was quite impressed with how things went so smoothly!! At exactly 6am, the students began arriving at the school and soon after, so did the two buses that would take us there. We had students all the way from Class II - Class VI going on the trip. Sometime between 6:30am and 7am, we crammed into the buses left the school. And when I say "crammed", I mean that it was like being on a daladala. There were people sitting in the isles, some where standing, I even had a kid in my lap for part of the time. It took about 4 hours to get to Bagamoyo. It was a LONG trip there, but I had a good time on the bus. I was on the "big kid" bus and I was sitting next to a lot of students that I know really well. My piano student was sitting next to me and we talked quite a bit of the way there. 
Once at Bagamoyo, we found the site that we were going to get to tour. Bagamoyo is a very historical place in Tanzania as it was the last stop on the slave trade route before the slaves were shipped off to other places. I was to that it was named Bagamoyo because the people were so weary and hopeless by the time they had had been forced to walk all the way there. There are many sites in Bagamoyo, but we only toured one. It was built in the 13th century when the Persians came to Tanzania. We got to tour the ruins of their mosque, graves, and the port where the tide reaches in the evening time. During the day, the water receeds for 1KM and leaves behind a bunch of sea snails. The people who lived at this site used to collect the sea snails and cook them to eat. They had a pot of snails cooking and offered them to the students, but, surprisingly, none of them wanted to try the cooked snails. After we toured the ruins and got to see the Baobab tree that is over 500 years old, we piled back into the buses and made our way to the beach. It was so exciting to see the faces of all the kids as they played in the water. There were even a few that could swim and I went further out and they swam out to me. After playing in the water, we ate our lunches, changed and headed home. Again, I talked with the students and even got to sleep for a short time on the way back. As we reached Morogoro, the kids got super excited and started singing and cheering. I felt so badly for the poor bus driver, but somehow he managed to keep going even with all the racket and chaos. When we arrived at the school, parents were already ready and waiting so we all dispersed and Kjirstin and I walked home, tired, sweaty, salt-watery, and everything in between, but so happy. Thankfully, when we arrived home, the water was on and we were able to shower and I was able to wash out our salt-water soaked clothes!! :D

lecture time about the history of the site.

Entering the mosque

The well of "lucky water" next to the mosque.

Some students in the mosque ruins

The kids didn't want to eat these boiling snails (not even with ugali!!!)

Kjirstin and some of the kids at the beach.

At the beach with my piano student!!

Well, that's all I've got for now. There are so many things to be thankful for, I hope that you have been able to take time to praise God this past week. I also hope that you all have been able to enjoy your time with friends and family. I may not have been able to be with my family, but I am thankful to be a part of what's happening here in Morogoro. I've been blessed in so many ways that I can't even count them. Bwana asifiwe!! (Praise God!!)

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine


Saturday, November 17, 2012

Running Races

I guess it's been a while since I posted last, so here's an update on the going on here in Morogoro!! :D

On Sunday I preached my sermon at church. Oftentimes, in my life, I find myself comparing life to a race. For those of you who know me, running has been a big part of my life since I began college. I've run many races including a half marathon (and I intend to run another half marathon at Kilimanjaro in March!!). In life, I tend to ask myself "which direction we're moving in? Am I pointing myself towards God? Is this the path that He is leading me down?" Having lost a friend at an early age (during college), I know that some of us will finish our races before others, but if we are pointing ourselves towards God, we're going to end up in the same place and there's going to be a HUGE party! That is the ending prize; getting to spend eternity with God in heaven. But, while we're here on the earth, we must continue to run the race. Sometimes it's easy and we can run swiftly with joy in our hearts. Sometimes, we walk through life, taking time to enjoy the scenery. But, sometimes, it's very difficult to keep moving and it feels like we are crawling forward. And sometimes we feel like we are beyond help and we collapse in the middle of the road. It doesn't matter what stage we are in right now, Jesus is beside us, running, walking, or crawling along with us. He experienced it all and He knows what we're going through. And, lucky for those of us who chose to run with Jesus, when we collapse, He's there to pick us up and He will carry us onward. In a nutshell, that is what my message was about.

On Sunday evening, Kjirstin and I hosted the prayer service at our house. I led music (which was almost a disaster...my poor fingers were shaking so badly). Honestly, being here has challenge me in a big way musically. I didn't realize how much I was going to have to accompany people (English choir and leading worship for prayer service) and it's quite nerve wracking. I mean, it's one thing to play a solo by yourself. It's a whole other thing to have a group waiting for you and counting on you. Aside from less than a year of piano lessons in 1st grade, my formal training encompasses 3 1/2 years (2 years of class piano and 1 1/2 years of private lessons). I have to say that, like my Swahili, although it's not great, my piano abilities are improving rapidly and I am very thankful that God has given me this challenge! (which doesn't mean I always like it; I just know it's good for me) Also as part of the service, I gave a short message which was basically a shortened version of my message from church.

The rest of the week has progressed as any normal week should. I taught classes at school and church, I taught piano lessons to young and old. I washed clothes by hand, I went to town to buy groceries. I bargained in the market, I rehearsed the English choir. The only true oddity in the week was that on Friday morning, we found out that Class VI was going to have a friendly test with another local private school (St. Mary's). The last mock exam went TERRIBLY. Even the English scores (which are usually the highest) were quite poor in my opinion. But, it was only the first practice test that they have done with other schools, so I'm hoping that they were just nervous and that the scores will improve with time. However, after talking to one of my students about the latest test, it seems that there were some mistakes and unanswerable sections (which of course is a problem). On Monday, I will be marking the English tests from St. Mary's (and they will be marking ours), but I'll still get to see how the test was composed then.
One SUPER exciting thing that happened this week was the arrival of a package from my aunt, uncle, and cousin! Receiving packages is always like having Christmas! It's so nice to have a little reminder of home, as well as friends and family who are supporting me throughout this adventure.

Today, I woke up early, read in bed for a while and then tackled the remaining laundry. Just before 9am, Nathan arrived because he wanted to go to play frisbee with me. We took the daladala to town and then walked to SUA. It was a GREAT game. We had a TON of people (like 8 on each team!). I mean, sometimes we only have like 8 people total. Also, there was a big event going on at the next field, so we had a nice, upbeat soundtrack going in the background. It was really fun despite the heat!

One sad thing about this coming week: on Monday Nathan is going to begin pre-form 1 (which is  like preparatory class for secondary school). The results will come out before Christmas, but before that, no one knows. Thus, many of my primary school graduates are traveling or doing interviews at private schools (just in case the result for public schools is not favorable). Anyways, I feel like Nathan was my first friend here in Morogoro. When I first arrived, we would always washed clothes together after school, we watched many of the movies that I brought to Morogoro together, and he always has a question for me to answer. Honestly, I'm going to miss hearing "Madam, I have a question for you!" all the time. LOL! Even today, as Nathan and I were walking on our way to SUA, he was asking me all kinds of questions because of a book he read about farms in the US. At one point, he said that he had just one more question and that was the last one. I just laughed and said that I didn't believe him because he always had new questions for me and that he was welcome to ask me about anything any time. I hope that he goes far in life. He, like so many of my students here, has such a willing and curious mind and wants to know about everything. I just wish that the knowledge they all crave was more easily accessible...

Some exciting things about the coming week: the other missionaries and I are going to be celebrating Thanksgiving on black Friday (since that day works better for everyone). Kjirstin and I are going to go into town after lunch on Friday (Fridays are half days at school) to help with the preparations. On Saturday, we're off to Bagamoyo with the students in classes IV and VI (and I think III). It's going to be a long bus ride to and from DAR, but I'm sure we're going to have a lot of fun playing at the beach and learning about Tanzanian history. Apparently there are some specific sites that we're going to visit where slave trading was done, and various other historical events happened. I think I'm more excited about the history than swimming in the water. (Those who know me well know that I'd climb a mountain over going to the beach any day) However, it will be cool to say I got to swim in the Indian Ocean with some of the coolest kids in the world! ;)

I hope that you all are having a wonderful and beautiful weekend!
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Here, There, and Everywhere

In the last week, I feel like I have been ALL over Morogoro I've done SOO much!! And, pretty much that's a true statement. It hardly feels real to me that just one week ago, I was spending the night in town at Day Spring Orphanage and all of my wonderful students!!

Despite my continued hope for just a normal week of school and teaching, my wishes have been foiled once again! Tuesday afternoon, as the students were about to leave to go home, the head teacher cycled up to the school on his bicycle to tell us the news that we would not be coming to school Wednesday - Friday. It was previously thought that we would be able to continue with regular classes while class IV was taking their national exams, but at the last minute, things were changed (again...). So, suddenly, I had a TON of free time and nothing to do! But, never fear, I certainly have had many things to keep me occupied.

On Wednesday, I spent a good portion of the day around the house cleaning and organizing things. I ran in the morning and then spent just over an hour doing some laundry that had been piling up. Although Mama Vanessa does laundry for us when she comes to clean our house, there are still certain items that I don't feel comfortable giving her to wash for me. For example, underwear, and I have some delicate times that I don't want to get stretched out or ruined. One of my piano students came in the morning for a lesson. Since she usually has lessons on Wednesdays after school, I told her she could come during the break if she wanted to (and, of course, she did!). I hung around the house in the afternoon and watched a movie until prayer service at 5pm and karate practice afterwards.

On Thursday, I didn't do too much in the morning. I had wanted to work on graduate school applications, however, the internet connection was so slow I couldn't do anything. Kjirstin and I went to town to do some shopping and then we met my friend Shantelle for lunch at Acropolo. The restaurant has a nice garden area out front, so we sat outside. It was a warm day, but it was nice to be outside in the shade with a bit of a breeze blowing. And, I must say that the food was delicious!! African food is very bland tasting to me (coming from the south where spices rule), so it's always nice to get some variety of tastes in once in a while. Then, we returned to the house where Shantelle is staying with the other members of her team and we all went swimming. It's been such a long time since I've gotten to see these friends and it was a wonderful time! The sky was sunny with a few puffy clouds floating lazily along, and the water was cool and clear. It was very nice! After we returned, I went running and had some time before dinner.

On Friday, I was awoken early (6:15am) by Mama Vanessa who had come to clean and wash. Since I didn't have to go to school, I decided to go back to bed for another hour. When I woke up, I went to get breakfast for myself when I heard all kinds of noise and fighting outside. I looked out my window to see students of class IV fighting and screaming and all kinds of nonsense. So, I dressed and went outside to see what was the matter. I was a bit worried about going to the school because of the national exams, but I was concerned because I didn't see any other adults at the school watching the children. I went out and found many students holding sticks that they were using to hit each other. Other students were yelling and flailing their arms about. I never found out what started it all, but I quickly took charge and the students who had been fighting were punished. Then, I made the whole class stand in silence against the school building until someone else arrived to take order. I tried to call pastor, but he was detained somewhere else, but luckily the school secretary arrived before the test administrators did. I was mostly worried about getting them all into trouble because I was a teacher and I was at the school. But, I still didn't feel right about just leaving the kids without supervision.
Later in the morning, John and Elizabeth came for their piano lessons. I'd say they were tough lessons and neither they nor I were terribly focused. In the afternoon, I had English choir and then I got to skype home.

Today, I woke up and did my Saturday morning yoga routine and washed a few clothes before leaving for frisbee. I got to town a bit late, so I decided to try a new way of getting to Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). I had been told that there is a daladala that runs from the soko (market) to SUA and I decided to try and check it out. Sure enough, there it was, so I jumped on and had a pleasant ride to my destination. Normally, I don't mind walking there, but it does take like 30-40 minutes, so it's nice to know that there is a faster option (for the ever so cheap price of $0.20) if I so choose to take it. After frisbee, a friend who lives in Kihonda offered to give me a ride back. We stopped at the soko (market) quickly so that I could pick up some fruit for the week and then we were off. She showed me a market that is nearer to where I live. I'm glad I know about that, so if we need anything during the week, we won't have to go all the way to town. After the short detour, she brought me home. At home, Kjirstin and I ate quickly and then headed out to the Agape Children's Village (which is an orphanage that I've visited 2 times before). We took the daladala to the Vetta stop and then walked a few miles to the orphanage. This is the first time I've walked there (the other two times I had a ride) and it took a little while to make it there, and I had to stop once to ask directions. We arrived in time to attend a youth service with the older kids from the orphanage. I taught them some songs and then we sang some other songs that they knew. After, one of the youth gave a message and then the service was over.
Kjirstin and I had brought some books to read to the younger kids, but since Tina had to go to a meeting, we didn't have a translator. We ended up getting to talk to the two new volunteers until time we had to leave. (I think we're going to try and come back during the Christmas break so that we can do the things we had planned to do today.)
Along our trek back to the main road we ran into one of the Wesley Primary School students!! It was very exciting to see her and she showed us where she is living. I am amazed that she lives so far from school and how far she has to go to get to Wesley. Honestly, these kids amaze me with how much they have to overcome to get education and how quickly they have to grow up here. Soon after we ran into her, a daladala came by and we were able to catch it and ride all the way back to our usual stop. It was such a blessing because it was hot and we were tired.
Minutes after I arrived home, we had English choir and then right after I had a piano lesson with a lady from our church. She is progressing for sure; slowly but surely. I hope that by the time I leave she will know enough to be able to help others.

Well, today, I'm going to be preaching at church. Then in the evening, we are hosting prayer service. At the service, I'll be leading music and also giving a message. Thus, the fun doesn't stop!! :D

I hope that you all have a wonderful start to your week!
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Cultural Excursions


So, this weekend was packed with all kinds of cultural activities. On Friday, Kjirstin and I went over to the pastor's house early so that we could make chapati. We arrived a bit late to make the dough, but we told the recipe (so, I hope I'll be able to make myself some). However, we did get to roll out the dough flat for cooking and I got a chance to cook the chapati in the pan. It was SUPER exciting! I hope that I'll be able to make my own chapati in the future! Maybe even the near future. We've officially bought ourselves a kerosene jiko and a pan so that we can cook food for ourselves at our house! YAY!! :D

Here're some pictures from making chapati:







On Saturday, I woke up early and went running. Then I returned home and was expecting to have some time before John came for his piano lesson. We didn’t get to have our piano lesson on Friday because Class VI was taking a friendly exam with another school in the area. It seriously amazes me that Class VII has hardly been graduated for a month and already the pressure is being put on the upcoming Class VII to perform well. I just hope that the students will be able to withstand all of the pressure that is going to be put on them. Anyways, due to the exam, we re-scheduled for Saturday after he and the other members of Class VI met for an extra class in math and science. But, surprise, surprise, the plans got changed and the extra class was canceled. So, when I returned from my run around 8:30am, he was already at the house ready for the piano lesson. I quickly showered and got him set up with the keyboard. I gave him some music, so he could have a chance to practice on his own while I continued getting myself prepared to meet the day. Then, we had our piano lesson and afterwards, Kjirstin and I went with him into town to spend the day/night at the children’s home where he is living. I’ve been there once before over the break from the census (which I have previously blogged about) and it was really nice to have a chance to go back. 

When we first arrived, the students were having their hair shaved because they have to keep it so short for school. Thus, we didn't see too many of them a first. We got to talk to a lady they call their Aunt Bupe, as they all filtered in. She's studying journalism here in Morogoro and we talked about school and what she's interested in doing with that. When there were many students in the room, they broke out the "Line up Four" game (which is just like "Connect Four") and we played that for a while. At about 4pm, we finally had lunch, and I was QUITE hungry at that point. I have a picture below of me eating the food in true Tanzanian style: meaning, with my hands. Yes, that's right, kids here DO get to play with their food, and so do I! ;)

After lunch, I pulled out the DVD's that I brought. Of course all of the boys wanted to watch the superhero movie: Captain America, and all of the girls wanted to watch the Disney princess movie: Tangled. We started with Captain America, but had problems with the sound (which we thought was a problem with the DVD itself), so we tried Tangled. We were still having problems with the sound, so Kjirstin and I fiddled around with the plugs on the Tanzanian DVD player until we got it right. Thus, we watched Tangled and when that one ended they wanted to watch Captain America. After two movies, I was tired of sitting, so I broke out the scotch tape and we made ourselves a Four Square court outside. When I was a kid, I played Four Square a LOT and my friends and I had invented so many different types of games, not just regular. It was SO much fun teaching the students how to play them all. We were smiling and laughing the whole time! When it got dark, we went back inside and Kjirstin and I had time to just sit around while the kids were doing chores (or something else, I'm not really sure). At random times, many students would all leave together to go do various things, but I never found out what everyone was doing. Around 8pm or so, we ate dinner which was quite similar to what we had for lunch, except we had pilau (spiced rice) instead of ugali (stiff porridge). After dinner, we watched Mulan and then it was time for bed. 
I think I would have slept well enough, but we had one small problem: there was a Muslim wedding going on across the street. This meant that music loud enough to wake the entire city of Mandeville was blasting just feet from us. The only reason that it got turned off was because it began to rain sometime around 3:30am. I have to say, it was a pretty rough night and I still woke up around 7am!! The kids were getting ready for church, and Kjistin and I had down time to eat and hang out before we left for church. It was SUPER cute, all of the kids were pretty much dressed in matching clothes. This meant that most of the girls were wearing the same dress and most of boys were wearing the same shirts and pants. We all left the orphanage together at about 9am and walked about 20 minutes to church. I'm sure we were quite the sight! The church service was very nice and very modern. They had quite the set up with a band and the choir was quite large compared to ours. They sang some songs in Swahili and others in English. The pastor preached in Swahili and there was a translator. It was really funny to see how excited the translator got. He was putting just as much emphasis into what he was saying as the preacher. And I'd have to say that was one of the most charismatic preachers I've ever seen. Overall, the service was quite different from ours at the Methodist church. The order of events was a bit different and it lasted for 3 hours instead of just 2. But, somehow, that didn't bother. I wasn't bored at any point and I wasn't completely exhausted by the end. I think I've built a stamina for these extended programs they have here. Overall, I really enjoyed it and it was nice to get to experience another church here in our area. I hope that I get to return sometime in the future!! But, I do have my responsibilities at our church with the English Choir and also I'm going to be preaching this coming week. 
After church, we returned to eat lunch and I played more Line up Four and Four Square with the kids until it was time for Kjirstin and I to leave for the prayer service with the other missionaries. 

In other news from Tanzania:

Please pray for rain! There is supposed to be a short rainy season during the month of October which basically has not happened at all. Thus, people are very worried about the water shortages we might face if we don't get rain. Already, they are rationing the water and usually it's off all day and only on in the evenings (starting around maybe 5/6pm). It has been on all day today which kind of weirds me out a bit, but I'm very thankful for sure!

Also, please pray for Class IV. They will be starting their national exams tomorrow and these will determine whether or not they get to continue on to Class V. Like the Class VII exams, we will not be allowed to go to school or even enter the school compound while the tests are being administered. 


I think that this is all for now! It's been quite a crazy weekend, but now I have a five day break, so I'm looking forward to getting much needed rest and also finishing my graduate school applications!!


May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,

~Christine



Me eating my ligit Tanzanian food in a ligit Tanzanian way (meaning, with my hands). Aka: beans, and ugali, a cooked veggie and a bit of meat. 

Playing "Line up Four" with the kids (yes, that's what the box says, not "Connect Four")

Teaching the kids how to play four square!!


Four Square!

The choir at the Calvary Assemblies of God church that the kids attend with their "grandmother"