Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012 (12)

Day 12    6/20/12
This morning was another slow start, and it was welcomed.  We got our things around and packed for camping with the Maasai, then assembled gift bags to hand out to the kids - about 150 filled with bouncy balls, crayons, coloring books, silly bands, whistles, etc.
We headed out to the Maasai around 3pm.  It was about an hour drive outside of Moshi to get to Maasaini, where they live.  We stopped at the market (which was just getting over) on our way into camp.

We saw a shoemaker making shoes... can you see what they're made of?

Tires!  These are quite popular with the Maasai.

We were very warmly welcomed by several Maasai who watched patiently as we set up camp.  Our tents were safe and secure surrounded by a berma that promised to keep away any stray elephants and such. 

 

 The berma is the 2 feet of thorn bushes you can see encircling our site. Our tent was the cammo one.

    

Yup.  That's our toilet. 

After we were set up they made us some chai (tea) and mandazi (fried dough).  It was a nice snack after setting up camp.

It got dark pretty soon after and as I was attempting to put Owen to sleep in the tent the singing and dancing began.  It was SUCH a beautiful thing to hear, and later to watch.

They sang and danced several hours into the night.  After Owen finally fell asleep I went out to join them.  Georgia (family friend of Marry & Peter that joined us) brought her guitar so we took a turn singing for them  We sang "I will dance, I will sing to be mad for my king..." and they loved the part of the song that goes, "naaaa-na-na-na-na-na - HEY, naaaa-na-na-na-na-ha - HEY" When the song was over we told them it was their turn to sing a song for us and a couple of the kids sang, "Naaa-na-na-na-na-na HEY!" and started giggling, it was really cute.  When it was our turn again one of the moms was doing some hand motions toward us, and I figured out it was the motions for "Lord I lift your name on high" So we started singing it and a couple of the women, sure enough, had remembered the hand gestures that go with the song from another team that had come out there!  So we sang it through a few times and taught everyone the motions and they liked that a lot.
There was a slight misunderstanding about dinner plans.. so we made ham & cheese sandwhiches we'd brought for lunch the next day. (The Maasai were supposed to cook dinner for us, but they'd decided amongst themselves (without telling us) that they would cook lunch the next day instead).  I finally headed to bed around 10:30, to find Owen laying the opposite way he should have been across our sleeping bags, forcing us to sleep like an H with him as the middle part.  Silly boy :)

Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012 (11)

Day 11      6/19/12

Today was another work day at the restaurant.  I stayed home with Owen for the first 1/2 of the day.  I put him down for a nap, cleaned up our room & hand-washed a handful of our laundry to prepare for camping.  After he woke up he had a PB&J Chopati (tortilla/crepe thingy) for lunch then played until the team came home for lunch.  The Bill ashed up & stayed with Owen while I went to work at the restaurant. I took pics for a little while, then worked on the mural the rest of the time.

 Around dinner time we headed home.  Mary cooked a pasta dish with some garlic bread & salad that was delish - a little taste of home.  :)  After dinner we watched Nefarius - a documentary on human trafficking. 
It was a pretty low-key day for me, it was neat to be able to work tag-team with Bill today and see how things would work (a tiny bit) if we did live in Africa.

Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012 (10)

Day 10       6/18/12

We had a slow & late start this morning - which was a nice change of pace.  After breakfast we went to the House of Hope property to see it and to do a prayer walk.  While I was walking I really heard God's voice through nature.
The property is surrounded by chain-link fence, but there's bougainvillaea growing up it - creating a hedge of protection. 

On my walk I saw a butterfly land on one of the flowers & I felt like God spoke to me that the girls/women that come to House of Hope will feel safe & secure and be able to just rest in God and his creation.  That butterfly had the freedom to fly to any of the neighboring fields/farms, but she chose to stay and rest at the House of Hope.  She was protected.  Safe.  Just like the girls will be. On one side of the property the bougainvillaea is flourishing and a bit overgrown- but there are shoots of it reaching 2-3 feet into the property and I saw that as God reaching, stretching himself toward the House of Hope.  And the... interesting (? for lack of better word) thing is - that part of the property (I learned later) is the exact spot where the building that houses the girls will be.   On the other three sides, just outside the property, are fields of corn, with very tall stalks. 

As I walked and prayed God showed me that those hundreds of corn stalks standing tall and surrounding the property represent his army of angels.  They surround that place.  Watching.  Protecting.
We also took some time to write down scriptures we felt the Lord giving us and we buried them at the four corners of the property, laying the spiritual foundation.  Mary & Peter took oil and anointed the perimeter of the property, and as they met in the middle the rain came pouring down.  We had been talking about and praying about fresh rain earlier in the week so it was really neat to see God unleash that at just that moment.
After everyone had time to walk the property and pray, we met on the foundation to look at the plans for the buildings. 

 

The foundations is poured for the first building, which will be an office classroom, storage and (upstairs) temporary housing for missions teams that come, or for rescued girls as an interim while building #2 is going up.  The 2nd building will be a two story home for all the women and girls that will be rescued from sex trafficking, abuse or who are otherwise unwanted.  There will be a playground and a garden where the girls will be taught how to do Farming God's Way.
The goal of the House of Hope is to raise up and educate the girls until they are either ready to go to college or ready to learn a trade. 
That is where the restaurant comes in. 

 The restaurant is an old house that Mary & Peter are remodeling into a restaurant, and leaving part of it as an attached apartment.  The restaurant will provide jobs for the locals, but it will also serve as a place for the girls to learn all the different trades associated with a restaurant (cooking, cleaning, serving, etc) so once they have been trained they can go into Moshi and surrounding areas and get a job. 
We worked there at the restaurant the rest of the day.  It's an old house that hasn't been lived in very several years so it is very, very dusty and dirty.  Time was spent washing the walls before we could prime them, and the guys demolished the cabinets in the kitchen.

 

 

I carried Owen around in the Boba a long time, but it was getting to dusty and fumy with all the demo and the painting so Marilyn took him and walked around outside before finally just taking him back to the house so he could play & Bill & I could keep working.  As we were cleaning up to get ready to head back home to shower and go to dinner, Mary came and whisked Bill & I back home, told us to shower and get ready because a car would be here to pick us up at 6:30. 
So Owen hung out with the team and Bill & I were taken to the Union Coffee Co. restaurant where a romantic table set with a couple dozen roses and several candles awaited us.  (pardon the cell-phone pics)

 

We had our own little dinner for two for our 6 year anniversary. :)  It was so sweet.  The whole team signed a card that the driver gave us right before we got the restaurant and it said everything was already taken care of and ordered and that we could get a latte and/or dessert if we wanted too.  We got to talk about the trip and about the possibility and dynamics of us coming back as a family - without a team.  It's pretty exciting to think about ;)
The team came around the corner at one point (they were eating on the other side of the restaurant) and sang "Happy Anniversary to You" to the tune of Happy Birthday, it was sweet.  After we ate we took the car back to the house and they had decorated our room with flowers and candles and I got an hour-long full-body massage.  I kind of knew about the massage.  Tracey is a single mom of two who earns her living by going to peoples' houses and giving mani/pedi's and massages.  She's a friend of the family so Mary had asked who wanted to sign up for a massage.  Yes.  We're on a mission trip.  Getting massages.  BUT. We're helping Tracey out a lot.  Everyone on the team got a massage within a three-day span, so that was a very good week for her :)  Anyway, the one hour massage was 20,000 tsh (shillings), which ends up being about $15.  She's been doing them since she was 17 (she's now 36) and was trained in Nairobi.  It was wonderful - and SO relaxing. 
After the team got back Bill & I put Owen to bed then headed over to the house and finished out the night with another game of Nertz. :)

Pardon This Interruption...

.. from your previously scheduled program of Tanzania posts, but I simply must chronicle these oh-so-adorable-make-me-melt-isms my little peanut has been doing lately. (and also to throw in some pics from his 1-year session that I just got back!)

Like when you ask him what a sheep is, he opens his mouth, strains really hard and says "ah-ah-ah"

And like when he sees a dog - any dog: real life dog, on TV dog, cartoon picture of a dog - he starts saying 'ruff ruff' in a decibel almost high enough only dogs can hear it. And on our walk last night we saw a dog across the street that was coming back from his walk and going into his house. And twenty minutes later when we walked past that same house he started barking. (ie. my boy is a genius!)

And also when you ask him what a cat says he says "eeeeeee" really high-pitched cause he can't quite say the M or the OW sound on either end of Meow. And then he immediately begins looking for our cat and saying 'bug-bug?' over and over again until he actually finds him.

The way he dances melts my heart.  He either puts his hands out (kind of like one would hold a hula hoop around your waist) and twists really fasts, or crosses his arms over his belly and bends his knees, bouncing up and down.  And when it's really sweet, is when he comes over to me and says "up up" and I pick him up and he grabs my hand (old-fashioned-slow-dance-style) and starts jumping up and down with a big toothy grin because he wants me to dance with him. <3

Lets also talk about how fast he is.  He walks everywhere now. And is beginning to run.  And plays chase with that coy little smile and giggle that gives you the go-ahead that he wants you to come after him. And now that he is such a good walker he loves to pick things up and walk around with them.  Like his walker toy.  That he's supposed to push.  He picks the entire thing off the floor and walks around with it. 

And the boy talks.  All.  Day. Long.  What he's saying is only between him and God because I'm pretty sure no one else could decipher it 90% of the time but he jabbers all day long and it's adorable.  He has inflection and motions and facial expressions - the whole nine yards.  It reminds me a lot of Boo from Monster's Inc.

And it's really small and probably silly to you but I think the way he drinks from a straw is sooooo stinkin' cute.  The way his little lips pucker up and his cheeks stick out, and the way his eyebrows go way up (because apparently when the eyebrows go up the water in his cup rises as well)... it's so adorable.

His arm.  The boy has a great arm.  He picks up his volleyball and chucks it halfway across the room.  He has a little hackey sack he can throw really far too, and he loves to just throw/roll/bounce the balls back and fourth!

OH! And the other day I was getting his jammies on and he was standing up so I pulled his shorts down, and he reached down and pulled them back up - by himself!  It was so cute! And then it became a game :)

 There are a few things he really dislikes - getting his hands/face washed after meals, getting his nails trimmed, getting his diaper changed, and occasionally getting buckled into his carseat.  So I started asking him if he can 'be a big boy' so we can ___ (fill int he blank with the task he dislikes) and it's been working!  I can't believe it, but he will sit still, stop whining and let me do whatever it is, most of the time.  He really is getting SO big, I just can't believe it.

He's got his own little personality and is communicating really well as to what he wants and doesn't want.  He asks for 'hep' whenever he needs it, rather than throwing a fit, and will lead me somewhere to show me something if I'm not understanding him.  ::sniff:: my little boy is growing up.  I do love this stage though, it's so fun to play with him, watch him learn new things and figure things out for himself. 

Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012 (9)

Day 9    6/17/12
Ty, Bill, Owen & I went to church with Gaudy & Justin today.  The rest of the team split up as well - so altogether we went to three churches.  The church we went to is the church Peter & Mary planted a few years ago and used to attend.  There were about 50-60 people there.  It met in a big building, very open with high ceilings.  Praise & worship lasted about an hour.  It was mostly in Swahili but some of it was call/response so I was able to catch a few of the choruses.  Owen liked the music a lot - they had a base guitar, keyboard and a handful of vocalists - including kids.  The kids danced too - it was too cute!

Each of us spoke after the offering was taken.  Bill & I shared about God's provision over our lives.  We shared how God told me to stay home with Owen when I got pregnant, and that once I did our income was cut in half.  But because we obeyed God, he's been providing for us ever since and we've always had more than enough.  I talked a little about Mission for Mawu, Father's House Ghana, and how even when there was pressure from others to use the money for our own bills, I never did. Because of that choice and because of God's amazing provision, not only are we able to live with more than enough, but we were able to get all the way to Africa with our entire family!  The church seemed very responsive, there were a lot of "Amen's" and clapping.  It was neat to be able to share God's goodness with them.  Afterward the church prayed for us all.  The pastor told Bill & I that he hopes we choose Moshi as our home (after hearing that we will move to Africa someday) and that we are welcome at their church anytime.  It was sweet. :)  On the way home from church Gaudy said, "Your story really touched me, thank you for sharing."  She's such a sweet woman.  I have a feeling we would be great friends if I lived here... have I said that already? I don't know - but she's super sweet and has a great sense of humor too.
When we got home we got ready to drive over to Kilimanjaro to the waterfall for a picnic.  It was about 40 minutes to get partly up the base of Kili where the waterfall was.  We had our picnic at the top of the falls.

 

After eating, we walked to the bottom.

Only the boys actually got in the water - because it was FREEZING.  I'm talking - numbingly-take-your-breath-away-cold!  We stood in it and my feet were going numb!

It's winter there so it wasn't too surprising that the water was freezing!  The boys braved it though and swam over to the falls and climbed up behind them.

 

On the way back down the mountain we stopped for tea at a cute little lodge.  It was a perfect way to warm up :)
Once we got home we made home-made pizzas for dinner & relaxed for a while.  The power ended up going out and Peter & Mary were gone picking up close family friend Georgia from the airport, so we didn't know how to kick the generator on.  So we busted out the flashlights and continued on with our pizza cooking.  Good thing the stove was a gas one :)
After we got ahold of Peter & the boys turned the generator on we busted out the cards and played some Nertz.  It was pretty fun!
Bill & I have been talking a lot with Mary about logistics of being full time missionaries and it's been great to pick her & Peter's brains.  Especially since they're parents and are very like-minded.  I really feel like we'll be back here relatively soon.  Not exactly sure when, but I have definitely heard God say "Soon" more than once.  Guess we'll see....    :)

Our Adventure: Tanzania 2012 (8)

Day 8     6/16/12

This morning Bill & I led devotions... & I liked it a lot (not that I'm biased or anything).  We sat & talked about it last night and landed on talking about Mark 4:26-27.  It talks about how we plant the seed but God grows the seed.  A perfect thing to keep in mind as missionaries - we may never get to see the 'fruit' but we can rest assured that we planted a LOT of seeds and God is going to take care of them and water them.
After devotions we headed for the basketball courts.  There are only two in the entire town - 2! And one of them is at the hospital and only for med students.  We dropped everyone off, but Owen & I stayed with marry and went errand running - with hopes that Owen would get his morning nap in the car.  He only ended up sleeping 30 minutes or so, but it was better than nothing!  After running to the bank, buying exactly 2,856 bananas (okay, not really) and stopping at the bakery we headed back to the courts.  By that time the clinic was in full swing with about 70 teenagers!  Frankie planned the clinic and had six stations around the court.  I threw Owen in the boba and grabbed my camera.
Marilyn & Ty were sharing testimonies and praying at their station.

Bill & Peter were doing footwork/defense drills with their kids.

Aimee & Taylor were doing ball handling/dribbling.

Frankie was teaching shooting skills.

Kaylyn & Olivia were teaching passing/ball handling.

The kids all looked like they were having a blast and they were soaking up all the new knowledge like sponges!

After the stations were all rotated through we gave them a break with some bananas to replenish their energy and some water to rehydrate.  I'm pretty sure Owen had like 3 bananas because he was enamored with the fact that there were 2,856 sitting on the table in front of him. "Ba? Ba? Ba?" Was all I heard for like 15 minutes.  He had a lot of fun playing with little Faith too.  Those two are so cute to watch - they always copy each other and get to giggling fits.  Then there's little Hope - she just loves taking care of "baby Owen." She gives him his water, gets him his toys - it's precious.
After the water break Frankie set up a couple games to get the kids more practice & give them a chance to win some basketballs.  It was neat to watch them get competitive, but they would also cheer each other on at the same time.

Whenever they won a ball they and their friends would get so excited - we wrote their names on the balls and handed them out at the end of the clinic.

By around 2pm, the sun was getting to everyone and about half the basketballs had been won, so we wrapped things up, handed out t-shirts and gave away the rest of the balls.  We took a few group shots and realized there ended up being about 100 kids once they stopped trickling in (that's how things roll in Africa (: )

They all did such a great job - and Frankie was just amazing at executing it!

It was a really, really fun day.  Owen did a great job too.  He was totally happy to just walk around the court, hang out with Olivia and play with the Street girls.

After the outreach we came home and just hung out - being in the sun all day took a toll on all of us!  Owen took a nap and he was out for a couple hours.  After a while we girls took turns with the ironing - all the clothes are air-dried and have to be ironed to not only get out the wrinkles but to kill any eggs that may have been deposited by mango flies.  By the time we were done with that it was time to get ready for dinner.  We were heading to Naseebs - a dive in the city.  I rode in the truck with Peter and the girls (rather than the SUV with Owen) and it was an awesome change of pace.  It was a lot of fun and nice to be kid-free for a few minutes :)
Naseebs was Ah.Maz.Ing.  Seriously, probably the best chicken I've ever had.  It was about half a chicken, or maybe a quarter, marinated in something delicious then cooked over coals on the sidewalk.  It came with fries.

Owen probably ate almost all of my chicken - Marilyn was nice enough to give me half of hers. :) After we were done Mary & I went to get (sneak) pics of the kitchen - which was really a water tank, very small counter with sink.

 

There was one (visible) chicken (still alive).

Three tubs of (dead) chicken marinating on the floor, and a cooler of soda.
There were 2x4's laying on the floor, walks 1/2 completed, and squatty pottys across the 'hall'.  This place was (quite literally) a hole in the wall - but man was it oh. so. good.!  After dinner we stopped at the supermarket and got some sweets before heading home and hanging out for a while before bed.  It was a great day!