A Quick {possibly scary} Glimpse into my Head

Thoughts on weather:
"Is that thunder?  It is!  This better be legit."
...an hour later
"It's raining! Come on, turn the power back on, it's raining!"
... 5 seconds later
"5 raindrops.  Seriously!?"

Glitchy McGlitch a Lot {alternately titled: I love FB}

Brilliant Idea: Host a virtual fundraiser on Facebook to raise awareness for the school and help get a kid scholarshipped into Hope!

Execution: Made a cute logo, filled out all information, invited 356 friends, included 'pinned' post with link to give, every couple days updated the page and 'shared' it on my timeline.

Result: {almost a complete} f. a. i. l.  5 donations.  Better than nothing.  But seriously? Five?

Research: Skyped with a friend one day, mentioned the fundraiser - "The what? What was that?  When was that?  I'm your best friend, why didn't I hear about it?"

Down by the River

That's where our new house is.  Across the street from the river.  Our. New (to us). House.

 *disclaimer - the following pics are all from my phone, sorry for poor quality!

The view from the road (the river is behind me, beyond another row of houses)

Let me back up...

My New Friend Co-yin. (colin)

I like the playground.  It's big.
There are SO many lots of kids there.  Kids running.  Kids sliding.  Kids swinging.  Kids climbing.
First I tried to walk to the little slide but there were so many kids.  I was scared.

A {somewhat} Typical Day in the Life of Me

6:15 Alarm goes off.  Snooze button is pressed.
Repeat two times.
6:30 Pitter patter, pitter patter, "Sun come up? I lay in mamapapas bed?" "Yeah baby, come on."
6:50 Conclude snuggle time with the little bear in bed with his Bible for kids app on my phone.
6:55 Get up to get ready for the day, Bill has already prepared breakfast (he's amazing) today it was pancake leftovers.
7:35 On the road, with my copilot in the back seat, to pick up the other teachers for school.
"Miss Ho-yee sit here, Miss Becky sit here, Miss Megan sit here, cause there's no more room back here."

The Girl in the Yellow Dress

Saturday morning we'd arranged to go to a playground in a village a little way outside of Moshi.  Jill, the missionary that built the playground, picked us up around 9am and we were off.  As we got deeper into the village it began looking familiar to me, and I saw public signs that said 'Njoro' on them, so I asked Jill what the name of this place was.  Sure enough, it was the same slum we had visited just over a year ago.  Come to find out, this village is the poorest in the area, and is where most of the thugs/thieves come from.  The homes are literally stacked so close there's not room to walk between most of them.  They're mostly comprised of mud-bricks with tin roofs, though some of the businesses/shops in the 'central' area were concrete with tile entries.  Jill said that one could walk for two hours in this village, and still not be at the edge.
We pulled up to the playground, which was surrounded by chain-link fence, barbed wire and sealed off with a metal gate.

Teaching {Jr. High} in Tanzania

Teaching Jr. High in Tanzania is:

Teaching four students in one class.
That are at four different grade levels in at least two different subjects.
Teaching one American and three Tanzanians.  One of which has only been speaking English for only a year.  Another who has been shoved through the public school system to Jr. High, despite the inability to math at a 2nd grade level.
Having a class of teenagers where more than half are less-than-eager to speak a single word, let alone engage in a class discussion.

Farming God's Way... and apparently in God's Timing Too

Hey, it's Bill.  I've had a ton of stuff floating around in my head since attending the training for Farming God's Way a couple of weeks ago, and I've finally had the time to sit down and process it.  I'm excited for all the potential this holds for us, and for the people of Tanzania, and I have to share!

I learned a lot about the culture behind farming in Africa. Here people only become farmers as a last resort. Eighty percent of the population in Africa are subsistence farmers. To help you make the connection – it's their 'living off welfare'. In other words, they don't have a job, so they farm so they can eat. Literally. If you ask someone what he does for a living and he says, “Nothing” it means he's a farmer. Most of these farmers are unable to grow enough to even feed their own families. That is one reason for the high number of orphans – they can't afford to feed/care for their kids.

First Day of { }

{Jr. High}

My amazing coworkers: Emily (pre-k), Francis(9th), Holly (4th/5th), Beckey (2nd/3rd), Megan (K/1st), and Me (6th/7th/8th).