This may be a long post as I have several things to cover in this one blog. First will be about the team that visited when I first got back to Tanzania, Second will be a praise and prayer request and the last will be a story that highlights what it is like being a white man in rural Tanzania.
The group that visited had set up their trip to be just after the end of the second semester mid semester break (say that five times fast). The group was a collection of people from Florida and Missouri through a group called Devoted Ministries. This group has been working for many years to build a canal to divert water back to an area of the country that used to have a river flowing through it until something or someone changed the course of the river many years ago. The project had been in a holding pattern until a recent push of activity to see it completed this year. The group was coming over to see the almost completed project. Unfortunately, the person who spearheaded this project and had a strong passion for it recently passed away. His wife and daughter were on the team to see the project.
Their trip was a different one for me as I normally do all the inside Tanzania planning and arrangements, but they set up their hotel and transport to and from the airport. I did arrange their safari trip, transportation to and from the school for two days, transport to the church for worship and transport to their canal project. In the end we only had one snag with the group transporting them to the canal wanting to renegotiate last minute. The Tanzanian philosophy of business it was better to get $25 more and tick me off so I never hire them for another team again losing all that future business.
So, Stephano (local pastor and school director) went into town to greet the group at their hotel on Saturday and I took them around to places to eat and bank ATMs to get money. They were scheduled to go to a Moshi church on Sunday, so we went back to our houses in the village. On Monday they went on safari with Heff’s company Cheeky Monkey to Tarangire National Park. Because it was the first day of school and I had just gotten back, I elected to go with them on their safari so I could greet the students and teachers as they returned from break.
So, Monday morning, Stephano and I drove two vehicles into Moshi to pick up our guests and then take them out to the school where they spent the day. Our set up is simple, with my bedroom in my house having a locked door for their personal belongings leaving the house unlocked so they can have access to my western toilet. They ate with the kids, and some ate the same food as the kids and others snacked on food, they brought with them. Throughout the day they assisted the teachers with lessons, played with the younger kids and did a little bit of artwork with crayons and paper.
After school was finished, we drove them back to town and then drove back to the village to spend the night. I did spend one night in town with them when they asked me to stay for dinner and I try to never drive after dark around here since little kids play in the road and people walk down the middle with all dark clothing making it impossible to see them through all the dust reflecting your headlights back at you.
We did that schedule for two days and then they took a day off to rest. Both Stephano and I went into town and spent the night so we could be ready to go early for the trip to the canal. This was hampered by the renegotiation. Just to be clear I did not object to the price he wanted, I objected to waiting until everyone was in the van and asking for almost twice the originally agreed upon price.
The canal project is unfortunately a long trip at 4 hours from Moshi one way. This was the only reason I was not more involved with the canal project when they first asked a couple of years ago is that without a vehicle that trip is one day one way minimum.
The benefits of the canal are obvious even though it is not completed. They are using water pumps to irrigate fields as far as the eye can see on both sides of the canal. An area that has not seen crops in a long time has fields and fields of melons, corn and vegetables growing. The final stage will take the water to a dried-up lakebed which will help the cattle farmers by having a location nearby for their cattle to get water.
I stayed in town with the team to make sure they got a chance to enjoy the Green Bamboo restaurant on the Uhuru Lutheran hotel grounds. This is one where you order various kinds of roasted meat by the kilogram, and everyone shares.
They did do one Sunday at our local church in Kiruani. Stephano even roped me into the message which I will probably put up on the blog in the near future. It was a typical group visit to our church with the kids and Maasai singing several times as well as the normal choir group. after church we had the obligatory group photo which was the one at top then I took them to the TPC golf club restaurant for a meal.
Everyone had a good trip and enjoyed getting to meet our kids at the school as well as to see their project having such a positive impact on the community it serves.
Praise and Prayer Request (In case you do not see my Facebook feed)
I want to thank everyone who has participated in our dining hall/vehicle fundraiser for the school. We are at 53% with about a month still to go. We have started the dining hall with the first day of school also being the day I signed contracts and paid the initial payments to get things started. We currently have the walls and columns up with the concrete beams (in a ring) around the top in place.
I have also purchased a vehicle for my use in the ministry. It has already been an immense help with a trip to Arusha this past weekend to search for items for the students Christmas gifts. The trip was by far the best to Arusha I have had. I got a 2000 Toyota Rav 4 with four doors and a hatchback. It has working A/C which made the trip to Arusha really great, but also because it is not as big as the Landcruiser’s I normally get to drive it was much nicer to drive in all the congestion (never complain to me about Woodruff Road in Greenville-It does not come close) as I fought for space against cart pushers, motorcycles, transport trucks, dalla dallas, pijaje, and pedestrians who just walk in the middle of it all.
You can visit our fundraising site at https://dining-hall-and-missionary-vehicle.causevox.com/
I am also asking everyone to pray for our Standard IV students as they prepare to take their standardized test October 28 and 29. This will be the country wide test so I do not know when I will get results, but we are praying they do at least as well as they did on the ward level test. They are from left Grace, Teresia, Gladness, Elvice, Kimani, Elbariki, Obedi and Elia.
Last night’s story
I can not really tell last night’s story without first highlighting for those who have not followed me for a long time that you always stand out as a white person here. From everyone assuming white people are all from Europe (many think the USA is part of Europe). You will get the Mzungu (European) price at a lot of hotels which means they want to charge you more just for being white. Always assuming you are going to pay for things. I have had a church call me to the front and expected me to match everyone in their church who donated to a special building fund (it was a church I was just visiting in Singida). I have people who stare at me during church every Sunday despite I go there every Sunday I am here. We call it the fishbowl effect where you are always being watched and stared out and everyone knows what you are doing all the time. I had an easier time getting around in the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War without people seeing me than I do here.
Another aspect of the fishbowl effect is they bring things to you asking you to fix them. Fortunately, as an engineer and my military career I understand how to fix most things at least temporarily. It gets interesting when they bring someone injured or sick to me. I expect to get all the kids who get injured at the school. But last night after a long day with the heat getting in the 110s I was too tired to even cook dinner but just sitting there watching my hometown service via Facebook.
I get a knock on the door and there are about ten people standing around my little porch. They wanted medical attention but never understood when I asked why they did not go to a doctor or pharmacist. In the end one of the older ladies in the group who may have been the kids’ mother or grandmother held up a 1–2-year-old by one arm out to me with what had to be a motorcycle injury. He was missing large chunks of skin off his leg. Fortunately, there was not a lot of bleeding at this point. He was of course crying a lot, maybe from the way he was being held, maybe because he lost some major skin.
Several attempts to get the headmaster wife’s to get a key from the headmaster to the teacher’s room where all the first aid supplies are located failed to produce results. Turns out as normal her husband (most husbands here) is not there for the first part of the night. So, it looks like I am up. We used my shower to clean the dirt and grime off the kid and get a better look at it. I did not have any bandages large enough to cover the wound area, so I took my antibacterial ointment and had the headmaster’s wife apply it generously over the cleaned wound and then took some clean cloth and wrapped the wound using tape to close it up on both ends but not so tight as to restrict blood flow. I asked they come back tomorrow, and I would drive them to a pharmacy where we could get better bandages, but they have not shown up. So, if you are coming here to stay, be prepared.
