My apologies this blog has taken so long to be posted. Typically, when I arrive in Tanzania, I am swept up in looking for changes and problems and trying to remember all the kids names. Now multiple that by the fact I was gone for 9 months instead of 1 month. Add to that early week trying to reacclimated to the culture, language barriers and the heat and that first week supplies many things to talk about. This time we add in starting a new construction project for the dining hall, a mission team visiting from the states and my local pastor being promoted to Bishop of the ward and I end up with more things to talk about than space to cover it in one blog. So, I have spent much of the week staring a screen trying to figure out how much to include in a single blog all while wanting to keep my podcast going. So here is the solution: This week will cover the new construction and basics of returning, next week will be a podcast featuring Austin and Sherrie Brookie talking about their “Paid in Full Project” which will be well timed just before the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, after that I will do separate blogs on the team and Pastor Stephano’s promotion ceremony. After all those I have the sermon, I did the Sunday the team visited our local church and a podcast with Bart Street talking about long term funding of mission projects through endowment and legacy gifts.
Prior to my arrival into Tanzania, I met a young lady who was supposed to hike Kilimanjaro who was from Aiken, SC. Unfortunately, she missed the narrow window on PCR testing required to fly so she was joining her group after the climb but before they went to Zanzibar. I got lucky in Greenville and found a group advertising 2 hour return on PCR results. These tests are required to fly through Amsterdam and into the USA. The test cannot be more than 72 hours hold. This is difficult when your travel takes you at least 48 hours. I needed results as quickly as possible because Tanzania would prefer paper copies of your results, so I needed to be able to print them before I left. Of course, that was the week the delivery of their supplies was late so they could only do a 12 hour test which put me on the edge of my window and being able to print the results. Fortunately, they got me the results in time, and I had my printed copy with all my other documentation needed for this trip which included my brand new passport, Tanzania visa paper copy, vaccination passport, international driver’s license, SC state driver’s license (the international requires you have your state driver’s license). Travel is not fun anymore!
Once arriving in Tanzania, you have to submit to an antigen test which you pay for though the cost is only $10. As normal, the credit card processing online never worked so I fortunately had a couple of $5 bills to pay for it. That adds roughly 45 minutes to your time to go through Customs and Immigration. The good news is it relieves some of the confusion and congestion in the Immigration area. Customs was the nicest they have ever been to me. Outside my friend, Heff, was there to great me and give me a ride to Moshi.
I tried a new hotel in Moshi (you arrive here at 8 pm, almost two hours to get through Customs and Immigration and Antigen test, an hour drive to Moshi and you need a hotel) that I had seen and wanted to try but was always too expensive. Due to low volume, I guessed the price was down. It was very nice (from a Moshi viewpoint) called Parkview. I like the fact it was close walking distance to several places I frequent. However, I found out all the hotels were really booked, including my normal Tanzanian style hotel was fully booked. Like I said it was nice, clean and secure though the bed was like a piece of plywood.
My first day at the school was filled with the normal of finding what is broken and asking why they have not fixed it. Being gone for nine months that list was a lot longer than I wished for. Most of the time when I asked how something got broken (Like a door that had been impacted hard enough it broke a welded hinge) I get answers that would make The Family Circus comic proud. “I don’t know” “It was not my shift” “when did that happen?”
It also is a day of finding everything in my house and where I packed it up before I left. That took most of the evening and finding everything I bought in town was stuff I had plenty of and the things I did not have much of were the things I either could not find in town or forgot about. That first night out is always rough because that is the first one without air conditioning from the hotel or the house in the States. That means sleeping in your own sweat again. There is also that first cold shower the next morning. Hardest of all was missing playing a game of scrabble with my mom after dinner. I had several milestones during those nine months of playing that much scrabble. I finally got a word that used all seven letters that I could play. Actually, it happened twice. Both times I used an “s” in the word to change an existing word -so very high scores. I also got to use some great words like “fez” and “quire.”
My first Sunday service they had me address the church. One thing is certain, I will never be considered a local here. No matter how many times I return from a trip home, they want me to greet them again. It is also the fishbowl phenomenon where I constantly have someone staring at me including a church I attend regularly.
So now we are at school, and I am proud to say I remember about 70% of the names of the ones I new before which is about 70% of the kids at the school though I am really weak on the youngest kids since I am just meeting most of them. They have extended the bus route which causes it to get to the school later than it did before. One route every morning misses the morning devotional and formation which I am trying to get corrected. The kids were all full of energy after their two week mid semester break. I found it funny they all had to go see their scores from their last tests over three weeks ago. They look at them daily like they may change. Of course, I could see myself hoping some new evidence came in to raise my score.
The big thing we are preparing for is the country wide Standard 4 standardized test on October 28 and 29. Please put that on your prayer lists now. I will put out specific prayer requests for each student before the test like I did for the ward level test they did before. My goal here is for all our students to be in the top 5% like they did in the ward level. Being country wide this means the pool of students will include the elite private schools in Arusha, Dar Es Salam and Zanzibar.
With all this going on, we also got started on our Dining Hall project with the official signing of our contract documents and more importantly the first payment. I want to take this time to thank everyone who got us to this point. So many folks gave generously to help us reach the 50% mark on our fundraiser that includes the building, the tables and chairs and a vehicle for me to use. I am very proud of my support family and how well they stepped up for this campaign. If you are still thinking about it and would like to consider helping out, please visit our site at https://dining-hall-and-missionary-vehicle.causevox.com/ or if you would like to send a check for the project you can make it out to B2BU Ministries and mail it to them at PO Box 2016, Fremont, NC 27830.
