Thursday, June 14, 2012

My Mom's Updates from Tanzania

My mom will be blogging about her trip here once she gets back, but I thought it would be fun to post some of the little updates she has sent over the past week. :)

Friday, June 8 email:
Jambo! We arrived safely, all bags accounted for and got to the Safari Centre late last night. We are all sleeping under our mosquito nets in bed.

Today was filled with errands and a lot of market shopping, buying large quantities of rice and vegetables. Tomorrow we have our big cooking day for the Compassion International kids.

Internet is very sparse. I'll email more if we get a chance.

Thanks everyone for your prayers! ~Lori


Saturday, June 9 email:
It's 4:25 on Saturday afternoon and we made it back to our hotel for the day. We left early in the rain, got to feed lots of hungry children and sing, dance and squeeze and hug many of the little ones at church. What sweet-sweet kids, who sit for hours in the church and do not wiggle or squirm. Met a little boy, Calvin, who sat on my lap the entire day :) He was probably 4. Amazing process of cooking pounds and pounds of rice by the local women on an open fire. Also asked someone their name in swahili and she was a young beautiful woman, who helped cook. Esther was her name, she said "Estah".

We're starting to figure out the internet finally.

Tomorrow, back to church and another orphanage. Our team is awesome. Everyone is doing well, everyone is healthy, Praise God.

Hope Jayla had a great dance recital!

I have a whole new appreciation for the 'bumpy road' saying...Lordy! More like rocks and ruts. Wait till you see the video.

Love You! ~Mom

Facebook status: Greetings from Arusha and Jambo! We are all doing well, great teamwork feeding hundreds of kiddos today and singing in Swahili, praising God. Every day is an adventure. As the kids were coming through the line today, I heard a voice reminding me to 'Feed my Sheep'. Love and Hugs from Tanzania!


Monday, June 11:
Facebook status:
Greetings from Arusha! We had a long day at the clinic while the rest of the team split up for school and hospice visits. Everyone doing great, adventure and blessings around every corner. Highlight yesterday was orphanage, playing with kids and doing our Jonah bible study. Have you ever acted like Jonah?


Tuesday, June 12 email:
Jambo! It's Tuesday afternoon and we have accomplished our task of shopping at the market for food and delivering it to Faraje Orphanage. The amount of food we delivered will feed the children for a month. Then what? Breaks your heart to see school age children not going to school because the orphanage cannot afford to send them, let alone to pay their own teacher. They eat porridge for lunch and rice for supper. There were some very bright kids at this orphanage when we did our Jonah bible study with them. One older boy could read english, but again, cannot go to school because of the fees of primary school.

Going to the market is always an adventure, but we are welcomed always, with smiles and "Jambo" which means hello.

Yesterday was really interesting as I spent the day at the hospital with the orthopedic surgeon and Gayle, the team leader. We got there in the morning for Chapel and then saw patients all day long, until 6 pm! Very long day, but very eye-opening to the type of care people get here. They think nothing of waiting in the xray waiting area for 3 hours for an xray. We were the impatient ones.

We've been eating really well. Last night to Nick's BBQ, outdoor grill where a few had talapia/veggies and some had chicken. The food tastes very much like our food at home. One night we ate at a chinese restaurant which was very good too. Sometimes we eat at the outdoor patio here at the hotel, the Safari Centre. It is pretty authentic as far as the surroundings. This is our last night here before we leave for the STEMM children's village/orphanage tomorrow morning for 3 days of work and play. When we return to the city of Arusha, we will stay at a different hotel next week.

We have some of the funnest drivers who haul us around all day long. They are funny, and come to the orphanages with us and play with the kids too. Today on our way back from the orphanage we saw poinsettias growing wild, avocado trees and banana trees. It is pretty lush around here as far as green plants and flowers, almost tropical.

Love to everyone! ~Mom

Facebook status: Jambo! Met some new friends today at the orphanage. Never enough hugs and squeezes for them. So hard to leave them and say good bye.


Wednesday, June 13, email:
Jambo! Sitting in the middle of Africa, on wifi! We made it to the Stemm children's village, visited the classrooms in secondary school, came back and took our paints to the classroom to stencil the alphabet on their walls.

The donkeys delivered the firewood for our bonfire tonight. It cost 8 dollars for 2 donkey's-backs worth. Haha. This area is different with much more livestock here.

We got to see the sun set over the African plains tonight. ~Mom

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