Pictures from Africa

I have been wanting to post a few pictures that have not made it into posts, but to find the time to do it has been challenging.  BUT since my husband ASKED me to update the blog, I decided I would do it now.  You will see various things, some have things in common and others are well silly - like this one!

Um????  What?

Ah ha!  Douglas having a little fun with Ashuri and Joshua and the glow sticks that Joshua brought from the US

I try to take a picture of the giraffes every time I see them!

There are various patterns depending on the variety of giraffe.

Our garden.  Sweet potatoes did great, got a little corn, some beans and lots of greens and lettuce.

In the neighbor's garden, but we have some planted, but not bearing yet.

In our garden in the compost pile.  If I am right about the variety, he is not supposed to be in this area, but he sure looks like that variety!

My first scarecrow. It kept the monkeys away for one whole day!

Do you know what this is? Answer in next picture.

Army Ants - we had a bit problem with these in the garden, but now they are gone again.

What we would like in our garden!  Honey bees! Tom - where are you when we need you?

Rice drying in the sun along the road on the way to Mbeya

The four-lined grass mouse that got in the house.  He has chipmunk colors.

Tanzania's tallest living man - our student Baraka.  These are normal and even tall people with him!

I love the colors these ladies are wearing.

Road trip.  Yes there is a road to the right and then down across that water...  LOOKING DOWN HILL

And looking UP THAT HILL, the roughness just doesn't show very well.  IT WAS SCARY!

Same trip - different place.  Now you know why we can't just buy a "normal" car.

Now this is the biggest pot hole I have ever seen.  Inside pictured BELOW.

This is a picture from INSIDE THE POT HOLE!  Don't fall in!

Another Mud house with grass roof.  I love taking pictures of these.

This is a type of food storage - grain perhaps, up off the ground to reduce rats.

Baobab trees are so HUGE and so cool looking.  Taken from the train trip.

Some preschool children at a project in Zambia it is a brand new school.

Some people make a fence with tall grass.

Some use various pieces of wood and limbs

Village children along the train tracks greeting and asking for empty water bottles

This tree full of woven bird nests is next to a river.  You might be able to see some of the yellow birds.

The ladies are out gathering firewood.  If they don't have a bike, they carry it on their heads.

The Kibidula staff and family.

This may be from the same trip as above.  At least you can see some of the issues in this one.

Okay, you may have to click on this one to make it big so you can see.  Way back in the back in the center of the picture on those mountains are two white streaks - THOSE ARE WATERFALLS!  They must be HUGE, because we were still so far away.  I would love to see the source for them - ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN!

But if you do have a bike, you can carry a LOT MORE!  He is hauling charcoal and a water jug.

Zambia Trip

Our God is so good to us, all the time!

Our trip to Zambia was full of blessings.  We left our house at 4:25 am Wednesday the 29th.  We rode a coaster (small bus) to the train station.  The bus was packed full of our team members and our luggage.  We arrived at the train station with several minutes to spare, and then the train was about 1 hour late in arriving.  There were not enough compartments for our families to have our own, so our family was split up between the two compartments with the other expat families.  Then the third compartment had our Tanzanian staff and guest.  Our family really enjoyed the train, as we were able to get up, walk around, go to the bathroom, drink, eat, lay down or sit as we felt the need.  Riding the bus, we often dehydrate ourselves because the stops for the bathroom are few and far between!
Sleeping on the bumpy jerky train was a bit challenging, but laying down was marvelous.  The children with us (six of them) enjoyed the freedom of being able to play and associate during the trip.
The ride was not without some challenges, of course.  There was a derailment of a freight train on the tracks that took several days to clear, so we were unable to go to our final train depot by train. 

Train parts along the tracks

There were several stops that were 3 hours or more (when only scheduled for maybe 30 minutes each.)  I enjoyed being able to get some walking done at those stops.  I really enjoy "window shopping" from the vendors at the various stops selling their wares (usually food - boiled peanuts, fruit, phone credit and other things.)

Road side market in Zambia (picture from the bus)

People selling things to the train passengers (window shopping)

Our border crossings on the train were very smooth (except one of our Tanzanian staff forgot to get his paperwork stamped as exiting but we got that resolved - fast work Bill - way to go!)
The Tanzanian staff also got highly questioned at the border, but after talking to our treasurer who was with us, we got through to the Zambian side.
After getting off the train, Bill got us a mini-bus (coaster) to take us to where two cars were waiting for us from Riverside Farm.  We were glad to see friendly faces, and then we took another 5 hour car ride.  We arrived somewhere between 11pm and midnight one day after starting our journey.  I was thrilled to see our name on a piece of paper on the door of our room as we walked into the "White House."  It is nice to know you are in the right place.  I slept like a log in my bunk bed.
The Outpost Centers International Retreat had started Thursday night, so we missed the first meeting.  The following days of meetings were TERRIFIC!  We had 27 people from Kibidula there and two others from Tanzania.  There were about 150 people total registered.
The meetings were practical and encouraging.  They covered many aspects of missionary life and work.  The reports by the various mission stations was very encouraging.  God is working in marvelous ways all over the world.  We had reports from North America, Central America, South America, Asia, Europe and Africa.  There were a couple of people from Australia but I don't know if we had any mission reports from there.

Some different style of mud huts in Zambia

I have four major tasks on my list of super important things to do, and I made contacts with other missionaries and groups that have or will assist in some way with each of those major projects!  LIGHT is going to try to find some sponsors to help pay for the translation of our teaching materials into the local language.  That will take some financial burden off of us.  Light Bearers Ministry (James Rafferty) was there and we talked about health tracts in Swahili.  He said his wife had a heavy burden for health tracts in Africa, and we are going to start communicating about that.  Then I was in contact with Sandra Horner who is working in India.  She gave me some health tracts in English that are more "developing country" type to start with so I don't have to start from the very beginning, but just make some changes here and there and then get them translated then cleared by Light Bearers, another group is going to try to help me create a training manual for church leaders, and I talked with Pastor Cleveland about health expo banners.  My director did also.  He is also going to research the least expensive printing options throughout Africa for all the countries here.  So it was a great help to the work that we are doing, to attend the Outpost Centers International retreat in Zambia.  The local people have been asking for more healthy recipes also, I got BUNCHES from various people to work through to see if they will fit the local way of living (without electricity and availability of food.)

It was a blessing to see the work taking place at Riverside Farm and two other mission stations in Zambia.  The one that we visited is on the Zambezi River.  We saw many hippos in the water there and even heard a few of them making noises. 

Hippos playing in the Zambezi River

The grave of the missionary brother that was killed by an elephant

There at Riverside we were given a tour.  There is a huge baobab tree there close to the Kufue River.  What we were told is that David Livingstone wrote that he spent the night under a large baobab tree by the Kufue river.  And that is the only baobab tree known to be along the river.  It is hundreds of years old and huge.  A local person was there on the tour, and he said that according to the locals this indeed was the tree.  It is nice to see that mission work is still continuing under that great tree. 

The famous baobab tree

Two of my new friends have their father buried there on the property.  He was a victim of Malaria while working as a missionary there at Riverside many years ago.  We heard many stories and it was very touching to see what has happened and what is happening in the various mission fields.

One of the staff caught a large python as it crossed the path on a nature walk. 

Big snake

We heard bush babies during the night.  We were told that there are huge fruit bats around 11 pm, but we didn't stay up to see them eating from the huge wild fig tree outside our room.  The rivers here have many crocodiles.  We heard many stories but didn't see any, which might be for the best.  They get pretty big.

Taking a nature walk up the mountain at Riverside

 At another mission station, they have just built several classrooms.  There is a preschool and a "pioneer" (or lay evangelist) school there.   They had just started their first classes, and we were asked to do some short presentations/talks to them.  So we put on our teacher caps and taught in Zambia. 

Giving a short health talk to the students

I was also give the privilege to share a little about the work we have been doing in Tanzania with the medical missionary work at the OCI meetings.  I did a 7 minute presentation with pictures.  Time was short, but people said they appreciated it.

When the meetings were over, we split up into three groups for the return.  Eleven went by car, eight by bus and 10 by train.  We were on the train again.  We were only 6 hours behind schedule for the return trip.  The wreck had been removed from the tracks.  We saw many broken down train cars here and there along the tracks throughout the trip.  Okay the one thing I didn't enjoy on the train was the bridges.  I admit that.
 

Another Train bridge crossing

We had 5 children for the return trip.  They enjoyed each others company and spent a lot of time in our compartment.  Our family was together for this return trip.

We started the return trip between 8:30 and 9 am (I think) on Tuesday and got home Thursday between 3 and 4 am.  We got to bed at 4:30 am.  It was a great trip and I praise the Lord for providing for our going and returning.  We had nothing stolen or lost (that we know of!)  We met lots of new friends for which to keep in contact and also to pray.  It was a blessing.

So we are back in our mission station home.  We leave for the big Union wide health meetings in Dodoma in two weeks.  Doug has been running around trying to fix water problems a bunch yesterday and today, and the neighbor just came over again to say it wasn't working again, so he will be off doing that again in a minute.  He has a lot of solar work ahead of him along with going through new materials that we may use for our next teaching session which starts in July. 

Someone asked Doug today (Friday) if we were still fundraising for a vehicle for the medical missionary work.  The answer was "yes" by my husband.  I asked him, did you mention that we have received not one penny toward a vehicle yet?  He said "no."  Hmm.  So we still need much prayers regarding that.  I really don't like asking people for money.  God has a plan.

Back to typing up translated materials.    God is faithful and His timing is perfect.  I have a lot of material to go through, type up and so much more.  No time for boredom on the front lines!

Thanks for reading, thank you for the prayers, thanks for everything!

TOO MUCH Adventure!

Sorry for a long time in updating.  I started this update while in Dodoma, and just now found it and have completed it.  A lot has been going on in the last few months.  Joshua's health has returned, also.

Time flies ...  all the time!

From our one month working in Dar es Salaam, we rode back to Kibidula with Bill and Hanne Lise in Bill's truck.  It was a good trip.  We left early and we saw LOTS of animals as we drove the highway that goes through the national park.  We saw so many animals close to the road, and even crossing the road.  It was the closest I have been to a wild elephant, for certain.  It was still not light enough for any really good pictures, most turned out blurry, but Bill helped me get a couple of really good shots by stopping in the road and taking some out his driver-side window.

Elephant just below the road going to get some water from the stream

On their  (Bill and crew) way TO Dar es Salaam, they (Bill, Hanne Lise, Daniel & Ryno) saw a LION!  That is a rare treat, as they stay out of sight most of the time.  I haven't seen one yet.

Elephants crossing - SLOW DOWN

I enjoy seeing all of God's beautiful creatures.... the elephants, the giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs, antelope, zebra, baboons, cape buffalo, and a few others.

Zebras crossing

Chameleon (a very little one on a child's hand)

We made it home safely, thank you for your prayers.


We then spent a few weeks at home getting various odd jobs worked on, especially school work for Joshua.


We were asked to go to the ATAP meeting in Dodoma to represent Kibidula (as Temboh had been invited by the conference to attend but had other pressing issues.)  I  really didn't want to come, but finally I surrendered my will and have made the best of coming here (I am in Dodoma at the moment of writing this paragraph.)   We had a very EVENTFUL bus ride coming here.

"old" friends at ATAP in Dodoma

New Friends at ATAP in Dodoma

First we arrived at the bus stand, and had our tickets that were purchased the day before.  There were MANY people waiting there for the same bus, including Meida (the teacher that is trying to transfer to Kibidula.)  We were very happy to see Meida and spend some time with her.

The bus was about 40 minutes late arriving.

When it arrived the people started pushing and trying to get on the bus, but the conductor, told everyone to get off and started letting people off the bus.  He was also holding up JUST TWO FINGERS...

After the people got off, the people started getting on the bus again, and again they were told to get off.  Doug had gone to get our luggage put into the luggage area of the bus.  Then the ticket person pointed to Joshua and me, and told us to get on the bus.  We did.  BUT THERE WERE NO SEATS.  Meida also got on, and I think maybe a few other people, but NOT EVERYONE, including my husband.  The bus started to leave, and Doug was still not on.  The other people wanted on still, and Doug had a hard time of it getting on the bus, but he did.  We sat on the "hump" area for about three hours.  Joshua made good friends with the driver during this time (as we had many stops for construction.)  At Iringa, more people got off and we then were put in the very back of the bus.  We were together and had seats!   We enjoyed our home-packed lunch and enjoyed sharing it with the man on the left and the man on the right of us.  They were very friendly (after we started being friendly to them.)

We were very happy to learn that the conference organizer for our area was actually on the same bus with several others going to the meetings.  So we made friends early, and that was nice.

Since we were in the back of the bus and not by windows, I had Joshua go ask the driver if we could come back up to the hump to watch for animals as we went through the national park area.  He agreed, and even went a bit slower than normal in many locations and helped point out some animals and told the conductor to watch for animals for us too.  It is a blessing to make friends along the way.  I think the driver really enjoyed it, also.

 At Morogoro, we pulled into the bus garage and they worked on broken brake lines for at least 40 minutes.  We were falling further and further behind schedule.  I took advantage of the time and got some exercise on a set of stairs in the garage area.

Then we headed out and were about one hour back on the road when we hit one of the huge speed bumps at a fast speed.  It was strong enough that it sent us up and out of our seats to land hard back into them.  It hurt my lower back fiercely.  Joshua said he hurt his head.  We then pulled off the road, and they started trying to find out where the problem was this time.  After over three hours on the side of the road it had turned dark and quite cold.  Many people abandoned the bus and caught rides with passing vehicles.  This allowed us to use a bit more space to try to get a little sleep.

Just a few minutes before midnight we arrived at our hotel.  It was a very eventful trip.  But we enjoyed getting to know our seatmates and Mr. Bukuku and Pastor Mwasomola.   We also enjoyed seeing Meida until she caught a ride while we were broke down also.

Thursday we learned that the actual meetings would start that afternoon, so we headed out after breakfast to get some of our errands done (like finding an ATM that we could withdraw money from our US account, getting some copies made, and buying whole grain bread and fruit.)

After we had already gotten most of our fruit, a couple of men had targeted Doug as a prime candidate for an unauthorized donation.

I was picking out fruit, and then asking Doug for money to pay for it.  So I think others were watching where he was getting his money also.  Doug told me to go ahead and find the next item I was to buy and he would follow behind.  Joshua and I set off, and then we heard Doug yelling at us from a distance behind.

Come to find out, Doug noticed two men approaching him from different directions at the same time.  Knowing this could be trouble, he was paying attention.  The one guy came up and and bumped him.  Then stopped and started backing up into him, and the other guy came up to the side where Doug's money was in his front pant pocket.  Doug immediately started asking the guy "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" and the guy started arguing with him and Doug started yelling at us to come back.  As I started to understand the situation the guy quickly got away from Doug, and I approached the guy from a different side and was in his face before he knew it, and I started asking him the same thing.  About that time some men came up and kicked the guy, then started to hit him.  I realized this guy was about to die.  Doug, Joshua and I now turned sides and started to defend this guy.  We didn't want him to die in his sins!  The culture here is often to take the law into one's own hands because often people that get arrested are back on the streets in no time, and the cycle continues.  We did not want to be any part of the death of this guy, even if he did try to steal from us.  Our pleas may have deterred several people, but not all of them.

So I started a different method.  I grabbed the arm of a guy just as he was about to punch this guy again.  It was TERRIBLE.  I have never seen a street situations like this, let alone be in the middle of it.  Just writing this (months later now) it brings up the adrenaline of it all.  The guy got out of there after receiving several bad blows, but there was at least one person still running after him.  Many people then came up to us and explained that he was a thief and that they were just taking care of the situation and they apologized to us for having to deal with a thief.  There are a lot more details, but I will spare you of them.

TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT!  A bit later after the adrenaline started wearing off, I realized that I was hurting, but in my arms and legs.  I am not much of a street fighter!

The rest of the meetings were uneventful, and we made some good contacts while we were there.  We were a lot more careful the rest of the trip.  We would use the taxis a lot more to avoid long walks after purchases or getting money (even though it costs a lot more, the safety issue was pretty big in our minds.)


We planned a stop to meet with the East Tanzania Conference leadership on our way back.  This turned out to be a blessing in many ways.  We had a very profitable visit with them, and plan to work more and more with each other.  AND the rest of our friends that were traveling with us on the same bus, continued on to their destinations.  Their bus broke down IN the game park for hours.  Finally they were all told, get off and find rides.  Their trip took about FIVE MORE HOURS than it should have.  So, it was a blessing that we stopped where we did, spent the day with the people there, and got a different bus the following day (which had some complications, too - but that is again another story!)

Conference leader from ETC and other new friends in Morogoro

Chickens and trash in Morogoro outside our hotel

Making young friends in Morogoro

The typical way to move things around in town is with these carts

The view from out back of our hotel in Morogoro (The PENTAGON Hotel!)

 Since that time our evangelism students graduated after spending two weeks out in two villages doing door-to-door work and also doing a health expo at each location.  The health expos went very well in both locations.  We were able to assist at the one location that was closer to Kibidula, but the other was too far, and without our own vehicle, it didn't work out for us to help there.

May 2013 Evangelism Students Graduation Picture with the tallest man in Tanzania as one student.

Health expo with the students out in the bush of Iditima

We also made a special trip to Mbeya to visit with the Southern Highlands Conference leadership.  That visit also went VERY well, and we are very happy to be working with them. 


Doug has been working on installing solar systems at the primary school (the panels are up and there is electricity there now.)  He has been upgrading the office's system also, along with teaching a special session for a week at the agriculture school (health presentations,) fixing plumbing issues around campus, helping to haul hay and various other things.


I have been spending my time in various things, including editing and redoing a health document in Swahili (which by God's grace we did get typed up and printed JUST IN TIME to give a copy to each of the students only three days before they left.)   That was a serious labor of love.  Joshua had to be my right hand man for much of the editing since his Swahili is better than mine.  I have been spending a lot of time with Joshua doing home-schooling, and started typing up the health syllabus that we had translated.  I have been working on the Kibidula website getting pictures and information updated, also updating our info with the OCI website.  The website stuff seems to take a long time (maybe longer because internet can be so challenging.)  In addition to that, we have been dealing with monkeys, snakes and... Oh, yeah.  THIEVES AGAIN.

This time closer to home.   They were actually next door and also across the street.

At our neighbor to the west of us, there has been repeated theft.  They were getting more and more frequent.  Windows have been broken (but there are bars) and things pulled out the windows, then someone tried to get into the doors, then they actually did get in!  They chipped at the wood on the door until they chipped away the part that held the latch and got into her house.  She had a lot of things in there and a few things had been moved around, but something had scared the thief off or he has some metal issues because he left the electronics this time and only took bananas (that we could tell!)  Doug and I had been walking around the house a couple of times each day to try to prevent further attacks.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, as Doug and I went for our walk, we saw a boy on the road that doesn't belong here at Kibidula.  We walked towards her house, but decided to keep going instead of patrolling around.   The boy walked VERY slowly behind us and eventually we were out of his sight.  We turned around and headed back after 15 minutes of walking, and the boy was not on the road.  Doug got picked up by someone going down campus to do something he needed to do, so I was left ALONE, and still needed to check her house.  Well, I VERY QUIETLY approached the house and heard a SOUND!  I walked around to the back and then behind the wood shed, and there were someone's shoes and a few other things.  I didn't want to "nab" a day worker, so I tried to call the occupants of the house, and I was informed that there were no workers to be there this day.  So I called Doug and said I think I need help, about this time someone starts to crawl out of the window on the back side of the wood shed.  I try to keep him in with one hand and return my cellphone (I should have just dropped it but didn't want it to get broken.)

The young man came out and I was trying to restrain him but he got away from me after a bit of wrestling.  He ran off into the woods a few minutes before Doug got back up-campus with Jason.  But the thief was gone.  He had come asking for work previously so he had given us a name and where he was from.  Doug recognized him when we started our walk.  AND I HAD HIS SHOES and the things he was planning to steal (some socks, a hat, a towel and a garden sprayer.)

So Jason took the shoes, and the info and messages were sent to the village.  The boy didn't come home that day.  He knows he has been identified.  Doug actually saw him TWICE in Mafinga (about 20 km away) at the market, but the guy saw Doug also and ran both times.  Some kids said they saw him last Sunday eating avocados on the runway.  So it sounds like he is back in the area.
So, we had more excitement - AGAIN.

AND there was a group of children stealing from the hanger (a hanger door didn't get fastened all the way across and they were able to pull it out a bit and squeeze through.)  They stole several small solar panels and some other things, including an inverter of ours.  They took it apart and we haven't tested it to see if it will work again yet.  They destroyed some very pricy things (over $1000 worth.)
I am thankful that they were caught and that we can be praying for their salvation.  I am very sad at their choices and the damage that they did.  I hope they will have a change of hearts.

Rainbow into a mountain village on the monthly trip to Mago.

NOW we are off to Zambia in a few days for the OCI retreat along with most of the staff here at Kibidula.  We are taking a train ride.  We have been told that theft and delay are big issue on the train, so again we need much prayer and wisdom.  Please also pray for safety of everything left behind at Kibidula while most of us are gone.  There will be several people here, but it is a big campus.

We have a big health meeting in July that we will attend, then we have 4 weeks of teaching for the new session of evangelism students, we have the rest of the syllabus that needs to be typed and edited, and THEN A TRIP TO THE USA!  We are coming home for a 4 week visit in September/October.  We hope to visit as many people and churches as we can.  If you are interested, please let us know as soon as possible so we can try to work out our route.  The main reason for our trip is to visit with Doug's family.  His dad has been in poor health for a long time.  He is in and out of the hospital A LOT.  So we will come back for a visit this year, instead of waiting for furlough in 2015.

As I started looking through the pictures I have taken since the last post, I realize I have skipped A LOT.  I think I will make another post in the next few days (hopefully) with a BUNCH MORE PICTURES to give you another taste for the Tanzania "view."