This past weekend was somewhat restful, but maybe not as much as I would have liked it to be. Still, I had a great time! On Saturday morning, I taught a piano lesson to one of my students. I'm amazed at how much he has progressed since March. He is so dedicated to learning how to play the piano and learns so quickly. We've been doing just about everything: scales, chords, sight reading, learning short songs, and longer songs. He's already starting to work into some more intermediate songs. I'm wondering if he's going to exceed my piano skills by the time I leave! Haha!
Afterwards, we proceeded to his orphanage. He had asked me the week before if I would like to visit where he is living because his grandmother wanted to meet me. Of course, I said yes! I didn't realize at the time that he was living in an orphanage and that the kids call the woman who runs the orphanage "grandmother". But, it was such an uplifting experience for me. Many of my students at Wesley are living in this orphanage, which from what I saw, is clean and well kept. I also made a mental note that the mass majority of those kids are my best students, so they must be doing something right at this orphanage. I was SO happy to see them all and my heart overflowed with joy as each familiar face joined us in the common room. We took our chai (tea) together while we watched a cartoon movie about the life of Jesus. After the movie, I joined the kids outside as they played. They had connect 4 at the orphanage and I played with just about everyone at least once it seemed. It was such a wonderful experience getting to see how some of my students are living and I hope that I will get to return sometime! :D
This week, I have continued with my Swahili studies. Already, I am on unit 21 out of 30 and I've only been going for 2 weeks as of today! I think that I will be able to finish Book 1 sometime next week and I'll get to move on to Book 2! Even if I don't finish Book 2, that's OK with me. My goal is to learn as much as I can while I've got the time to really dedicate myself to language learning. I'm finding that I am a lot more confident when I'm out and about. I can actually carry on a decent conversation in Swahili which is most certainly encouraging! As I've mentioned before, my goal is that before I leave, I will be able to preach at least once in Swahili. After the last couple weeks, I'm feeling pretty confident that it will happen, even if I have to write everything down word for word beforehand! :D In the evenings, I am continuing with my usual activities, however, I'm finding that I was much better prepared this week. After all the chaos of last week, I knew what to expect and I tried to prepare last weekend so that I wouldn't be so overwhelmed. Thus, though it has still been an exhausting week, it has not been overwhelming. Bwana asifiwe! (Praise God!!)
I also would like to update everyone about my financial situation concerning my mission project. Altogether, in order to remain in Tanzania and have a flight back home at the end of my time here, I will need to raise $4,800. So far, I have managed to raise almost half!! The total of donations through the end of July is $2,284 and I still need to raise another $2,516. I pray that you all know just how much I appreciate your support. I hope that you can see through this blog that God is changing lives over here and the work is not finished yet!! The students and I have a long ways to go, and there will still be more that needs to be done when I leave. For now, I know this is where I am called to be. If you would like to donate, please click on the page at the top that is marked "How to Donate". On that page, you will find all of the information that you need to be able to donate directly to my cause.
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine
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| A very rickity old bridge that we crossed very carefully on our fateful mountain climb. This picture was taken before my camera got stolen. And yes, I chased after a motorcycle wearing exactly what I'm wearing in this picture. |
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| At the Agape Children's Village making balloon dogs. |
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| Some ladies from the church, one of the visiting missionaries, and myself! |
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