Maji

The well where we get water from

The life of an African is hard. We were spoiled in Tcad with having our own personal well at home –good for showering, drinking and everything in between.

Here it is work. We need water to flush, wash—face, teeth, body, clothes, dishes, floor, hands, hair –everything! Where do we get it? We draw it from outside, from the well with a bucket. To drink we must “import” from a nearby drinking well. When I first arrived it was raining everyday, now I haven’t seen rain in a week or so and our well shows it. We haven’t been able to easily get more than two full 5 gal buckets out of the well in a day. (If we do it’s slow going and very cloudy) The water that’s down there is dirty. It’s not very clear and just now Mary called me out there to look in the well and I didn’t like what I saw, ants! Lots of them, small clusters of them floating together, individual ones swimming around, doing who knows what, ekk. This is a hard life.

I already only flush once maybe twice a day. I haven’t showered as much as I should (even though I’m running in the mornings again (it should also be noted that while in the States I didn’t always shower everyday, it’s not always needed and it takes a lot of time)) I use the clean water for my teeth but the other for my face. I tell myself it’s like bathing in a river. I’ve got dirty clothes but I don’t want to use what little water we are pulling out, even though Mary says I can it’s okay to.

Soon I will be like the other women who take their dishes and clothes to the local clean waterspout to wash them. Or I’ll be carrying the 5 gallon bucket on my head twice a day.

Our proper well couldn’t come soon enough! The water people have marked the land for where we should dig and are waiting for the “official” permission to dig it. I’m hoping to have our water by December. Kinda like an early Christmas gift.

The good in this is I understand local needs a bit more and I won’t take water access for granted anymore.

I went to the beauty parlor.

I made friends with the ladies at the beauty parlor in Usa Town. They liked my hair and were more than willing to fix my hair and pencil in my eyebrows. Wasn't that nice of them?

Mary

Mary is 25 and has two beautiful children, Caren and Waren, whom they call Sharon. She currently works at the Ngordoto lodge a supervising waitress. She speaks English and Kiswahili, she is wanting to learn French and perhaps even Spanish.

Mary came to us via the Ngordoto Lodge Hotel where Shannin, Paul Pickle and Ron (of Florida Baptist Children's Home) met her while they were in Usa River, Tanzania to secure property to start the home for children back in May 2011. In a short time of knowing her they saw in her a beautiful character and a kindness, and she was endeared to them which lead them to ask her to move into their newly purchased house and help Sonya adapt to the culture and language, with the hopes that once the home is filled with children she would become the first house mother.

Mary is a kindred spirit in the few weeks that Sonya has been there they have had wonderful conversations together, discovering Mary's passion for God, the importance of open communication and her values in raising children to love others. She has opened up her heart and shares everything that is hers with Sonya, including giving her a konga (local African material used as a wrap around skirt) to wear around the house and making sure Sonya has always eaten and is comfortable in the area. 

 Mary isn't originally from the Usa River area. She was born and raised in the Moshi region, located on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Her mother still lives there with her younger sister, twin brother and sister and her cousins. Currently her mother is also taking care of her two children until she can bring them to Usa River to live with her as the housemother.

 On her days off she likes to visit her family in Moshi, spending time with her children and mother is always a highlight to her week. On her most recent visit before she left Mama Mary (The cultural way to address Mary's mother) took time to have a family worship starting with singing some hymns with the family and then she shared Psalms 133 with the group.

"How good and pleasant it is

when God's people live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron's beard,

down on the collar of his robe.

It is as if the dew of Hermon

Were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing,

Even life forevermore."

Indeed it is good to live together in harmony with God's people. We are very glad to have Mary join us, for now, as a volunteer here at Small Steps for Compassion and we soon hope to make her a full time employee.

Karibu sana Mary.

God is Good

I signed on to work for Small Steps for Compassion officially right before I came here in October. But my heart was in it before that, I was just afraid to acknowledge it. All this last school year I had known I was to come here to Tanzania but I was afraid to leave all that I knew and the exciting, safe job I had.  You can ask most anyone who lived near me or talked to me, I was uncertain as to where I was being called, much like our friend Jonah. I looked around for signs that God was leading me to stay and continue working at Camp Wawona, after all city kids needed to see God in the nature and in the mountains, right? I tried to ignore the fact that I had wanted an opportunity to start and work for an orphanage for years (most of my college career), that all my college work and studies had lead me to this job. Instead I was stuck in a bad wash cycle; I just kept spinning and spinning and spinning. I would try and convince God of the other plans and that I could passionately serve God from my safe corner of the world, which I could have. Just not to the full potential that God gave me. If I had stayed I would have slowly decayed in my compromise. I would never reach my full potential that I believe God is working in me currently.  All along I had been given the proper encouragement from friends and family leading me to take this job; I had laid out my fleeces and they were wet, then they were dry. I knew by May that when the time came, when the official questions were asked I would say without fear, "Hear I am Lord, send me".

This summer was a hard one. The workload was different than the previous two summers, I had invested more of myself than ever before at a summer camp. It was summer number eleven, I was in it to win it, I was programming director and very excited. I still prayed almost daily that I would be ready when the time came to leave but was never quite sure when that would be. As the summer progressed I thought I was doing good, that things were going well, I was working hard, accomplishing things and I saw results of a team effort paying off. Yet, in my personal world things were bouncy. I had close friends asking me questions that I didn't understand, supervisors pulling me aside to ask questions and share statements that confused me.  I thought I was doing a good job, I thought that this was one of my gifts, my talents, working at summer camps with youth, planning out programs. I had always loved it and reveled in the work. Now I wasn't so sure. I wasn't even sure if this was what I was good at. By the end of the summer camp season I was no longer on the rinse cycle, I was full on the spin cycle and I was hurting from it.

In all that pain, hurt and confusion I found something small that I needed, I found the ability to let go, to leave. It seems to me that it was a terrible way for me to realize where I am supposed to be. But I suppose being trapped in a belly of a whale was no walk in the park either. I have been here at my new home for a little over two weeks and I'm missing things from my old home in the mountains. I am missing the community, camaraderie, and even the workload, then again I also found that I am still processing and learning to forgive and let go.

I am here in Tanzania now. I am fully committed to changing children's lives. I have signed on to work hard at starting a home for children. All my passions from college are back; my mindset and my dreams are being blessed. God is here in this place. It is here in Tanzania, that I now plead for God to bless this home and in it my faith is being strengthened just as the author E. White put it in her book Steps to Christ, "You will plead with God, and your faith will be strengthened, and your soul will drink deeper drafts at the well of salvation. " It is from the lessons of this last summer that I realized the last part of the quote is true, "Encountering opposition and trials will drive you to the Bible and prayer.  You will grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, and will develop a rich experience."

So that is where I am now, growing, developing rich experiences, drinking deep of the living water, and taking small steps for compassion, everyday. Before I know it my house will be full of children who need that same love, salvation and grace, and because of my journey to get here I will be able to share it. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

Dear Sonya of two-thousand-and-one

Dear Sonya of two-thousand and one,

You have just entered a new phase of fun.

The years will pass and crash but you’ll have a blast

One day you’ll wake up and realize all the days have past

In those days you will feel,

Pain, joy, anger but in that you will be real.

The pain will come but not move in,

He’ll only come once in a wile, never to set up shop and win

Anger, he’ll be there too,

At people, yourself and God, but it will always just pass through.

The heart will grow the most;

Hold on to God, your safety post.

In the times you don’t know what to do,

In growing and changing, God will send you a working crew.

They will teach you, correct you, love you -for you,

Joke with you, laugh with you, and help when you are blue.

These people will be what make the years worth the fight.

Love them and trust them but don’t hold on to tight;

For in the years that you grow

You will move, and change for months in a row.

I will tell you one more thing.

Friendship and truth will always rein king.

The adventures you go on are to crazy to believe.

Just know in Tchad, Norway, Honduras, and America you’ll never work with a Steve.

The numbers of languages you’ll learn are really quite high

You’ll pass most Americans without much of a try.

So don’t worry Sonya of two-thousand and one

The days you are entering are quite full of fun

Hold on tight and enjoy the ride.

Your emotions will shift with the rise of each tide

Each bad moment wont last,

Each good one will go too fast.

Enjoy each day, each offer of heaven.

I’ll see you when you get here, in two-thousand and eleven.

Mary

Mary is 25 and has two beautiful children, Caren and Waren, whom they call Sharon. She currently works at the Ngordoto lodge a supervising waitress. She speaks English and Kiswahili, she is wanting to learn French and perhaps even Spanish.

Mary came to us via the Ngordoto Lodge Hotel where Shannin, Paul Pickle and Ron (of Florida Baptist Children’s Home) met her while they were in Usa River, Tanzania to secure property to start the home for children back in May 2011. In a short time of knowing her they saw in her a beautiful character and a kindness, and she was endeared to them which lead them to ask her to move into their newly purchased house and help Sonya adapt to the culture and language, with the hopes that once the home is filled with children she would become the first house mother.

Mary is a kindred spirit in the few weeks that Sonya has been there they have had wonderful conversations together, discovering Mary’s passion for God, the importance of open communication and her values in raising children to love others. She has opened up her heart and shares everything that is hers with Sonya, including giving her a konga (local African material used as a wrap around skirt) to wear around the house and making sure Sonya has always eaten and is comfortable in the area.

Mary isn’t originally from the Usa River area. She was born and raised in the Moshi region, located on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Her mother still lives there with her younger sister, twin brother and sister and her cousins. Currently her mother is also taking care of her two children until she can bring them to Usa River to live with her as the housemother.

On her days off she likes to visit her family in Moshi, spending time with her children and mother is always a highlight to her week. On her most recent visit before she left Mama Mary (The cultural way to address Mary’s mother) took time to have a family worship starting with singing some hymns with the family and then she shared Psalms 133 with the group.

“How good and pleasant it is

when God’s people live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,

running down on the beard,

running down on Aaron’s beard,

down on the collar of his robe.

It is as if the dew of Hermon

Were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing,

Even life forevermore.”

Indeed it is good to live together in harmony with God’s people. We are very glad to have Mary join us, for now, as a volunteer here at Small Steps for Compassion and we soon hope to make her a full time employee.

Karibu sana Mary.

God is Good

I signed on to work for Small Steps for Compassion officially right before I came here in October. But my heart was in it before that, I was just afraid to acknowledge it. All this last school year I had known I was to come here to Tanzania but I was afraid to leave all that I knew and the exciting, safe job I had. You can ask most anyone who lived near me or talked to me, I was uncertain as to where I was being called, much like our friend Jonah. I looked around for signs that God was leading me to stay and continue working at Camp Wawona, after all city kids needed to see God in the nature and in the mountains, right? I tried to ignore the fact that I had wanted an opportunity to start and work for an orphanage for years (most of my college career), that all my college work and studies had lead me to this job. Instead I was stuck in a bad wash cycle; I just kept spinning and spinning and spinning. I would try and convince God of the other plans and that I could passionately serve God from my safe corner of the world, which I could have. Just not to the full potential that God gave me. If I had stayed I would have slowly decayed in my compromise. I would never reach my full potential that I believe God is working in me currently. All along I had been given the proper encouragement from friends and family leading me to take this job; I had laid out my fleeces and they were wet, then they were dry. I knew by May that when the time came, when the official questions were asked I would say without fear, “Hear I am Lord, send me”.

This summer was a hard one. The workload was different than the previous two summers, I had invested more of myself than ever before at a summer camp. It was summer number eleven, I was in it to win it, I was programming director and very excited. I still prayed almost daily that I would be ready when the time came to leave but was never quite sure when that would be. As the summer progressed I thought I was doing good, that things were going well, I was working hard, accomplishing things and I saw results of a team effort paying off. Yet, in my personal world things were bouncy. I had close friends asking me questions that I didn’t understand, supervisors pulling me aside to ask questions and share statements that confused me. I thought I was doing a good job, I thought that this was one of my gifts, my talents, working at summer camps with youth, planning out programs. I had always loved it and reveled in the work. Now I wasn’t so sure. I wasn’t even sure if this was what I was good at. By the end of the summer camp season I was no longer on the rinse cycle, I was full on the spin cycle and I was hurting from it.

In all that pain, hurt and confusion I found something small that I needed, I found the ability to let go, to leave. It seems to me that it was a terrible way for me to realize where I am supposed to be. But I suppose being trapped in a belly of a whale was no walk in the park either. I have been here at my new home for a little over two weeks and I’m missing things from my old home in the mountains. I am missing the community, camaraderie, and even the workload, then again I also found that I am still processing and learning to forgive and let go.

I am here in Tanzania now. I am fully committed to changing children’s lives. I have signed on to work hard at starting a home for children. All my passions from college are back; my mindset and my dreams are being blessed. God is here in this place. It is here in Tanzania, that I now plead for God to bless this home and in it my faith is being strengthened just as the author E. White put it in her book Steps to Christ, “You will plead with God, and your faith will be strengthened, and your soul will drink deeper drafts at the well of salvation. “ It is from the lessons of this last summer that I realized the last part of the quote is true, “Encountering opposition and trials will drive you to the Bible and prayer. You will grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, and will develop a rich experience.“

So that is where I am now, growing, developing rich experiences, drinking deep of the living water, and taking small steps for compassion, everyday. Before I know it my house will be full of children who need that same love, salvation and grace, and because of my journey to get here I will be able to share it. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

Onesmo my rafiki kidogo.

Onesmo, the neighbor kid who's my rafiki kidogo, little friend, and his dad is the gardener/guard, came over again Wednesday after I got back from the market, to finish coloring his picture I gave him on Tuesday. I had given him a blank piece of paper to draw on with my measly 8 off-brand crayons I bought at the airport on my way over. He asked me to draw him an ua, however he asked me in Kiswahili and I had no idea what he was talking about, I just heard sounds, vowels and consonants mixed together. Thanks to my trusty dictionary and me repeating some 'words' back to him to figure out the main meaning I learned the word for flower, ua. So today, he was back to finish coloring the ua I drew for him.

What a funny little boy! The gate was closed and since he is only about 6 he couldn't reach the bar to open it he found an entrance for small people in the bushes. (I realized it when his mother was calling to him and he had to get me to open the gate so he could get out.) I honestly have no idea what he is saying most of the time! He talks so fast. However I was able to understand he wanted a glass of maji, water. I can't believe he doesn't get upset when I don't understand him the first 100 times.  He is very patient with me and generous. He gave me a zawadi, gift, of a square of gum on Tuesday and a package of two glucose crackers (what a funny thing to label cookies—glucose!).  He likes to pop over after he gets home from school around 11 and see what's going on and if he can help his dad with things. All in all I'm glad to have him around. He keeps me company and helps me learn Kiswahili.

 

Tangeru Market

What a day, last Wednesday! I got my library card and check out the Kiswahili book. Now I have no excuses! So each AM three things to do: worship, check on work, and Kiswahili lessons.

I also went by myself to the Tangeru Market, that's the bigger market and on Saturdays and Wednesday. What an adventure! It is very big. I first went to the clothing 'department'. It was like a giant flea market! Clothing everywhere. Each category was present, men's, women's, children and even sub categories; fleece sweaters, pants, skirts, ties, hats, there were even blankets, towels, rugs, curtains, material and heaps of household things, just a lot of everything. It wasn't the people who overwhelmed me; just the thought of everything I need to be getting for work.

We are working on getting together a catalog of prices and pictures of things we need for the home/kids. I thought about getting prices from things at the market because that is where most things come from for local households, but I then doubted people would want to buy second hand things for our main purchases for our nyumbani, home. We could buy things from the market for extras or if I found something great, like the nice rug I got for my room and the small mirror for my bathroom. Other than that I'm going to go in to Arusha to 'real' stores to get prices on everything like clothes, pots, and school supplies. I hope to do that this week with the help of Mary.

            After looking around/getting lost in the giant 'department' of clothing I worked my way towards the food section. It proved harder to do than originally I had thought. I had to ask for directions, but I wasn't doing a good job. I was asking, "Wapi embe?" which is "Where Mango". Not the best method I've used at communicating before. I was being sent basically in a big circle, and that was frustrating. I didn't want to keep passing the same people, I was getting hungry and you wouldn't believe the heat that I was finding under the Tanzanian sun! At the last place I went to I purposely looked for younger people and asked the same thing, then I tried a new word, Napenda. I like. Then they were beginning to understand, it also helped they spoke more English than the others before. They taught me a new word, nataka, I want. Ahh, the word of the day! "Nataka ndizi", I want bananas. Phew, help was on its way and one of the nice ladies walked me over to the food section.

            The food section was just as big as the clothing and it was wonderful. I just love markets, farmers markets, clothing markets, flea markets, and this one was what I would call a great market or perhaps a super market.  They had the food I wanted, avocados, bananas, garlic, onions, rice, oranges, and lemons. They had it all and more. I made my purchases, worked my way out and found my daladala, bus, for Usa River, bought a roasted corn for a snack and made my way nyumbani. What a great adventure the Tangeru market is to be sure.

Rejoice

Rejoice--

For the Lord has come down to bless us.

He sent His messenger to dwell with us.

Why the sorrow?

Why the indifference?

Look about you--He is here.

If you are not joyful

  the rocks will cry out.

Show love, excitement

For we serve a mighty, powerful God 

 who delights in us, His creation and masterpiece

He does love us.

Don't doubt His want of us, of you, of me.

He gave the most prized possession in His life

  to secure our freedom.

Rejoice.

My first time as an adult woman

What a funny title? But really it's true. Here's the scoop:

This last weekend I read in my Bible in Hebrews 13:2 about how we should treat those who come within our gates kindly and feed

them and show them hospitality because we could in fact be entertaining angels. It made me think about the men who had been at my house working to make the topography map, I hadn't fed them or even asked if they wanted water and they were working hard all day long. So I thought to myself I want to be the kind of person who gives to people without asking for something back. I know that it's what God would want me to do.

Then today I had the chance to do that, the men came back to finish working and I made rice pilaf for them. I cut and cooked the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, onions and green peppers to put in the rice. Then I brought out the water for the hands just like had been taught, and the only chairs I had (two big plastic ones) and I fed the 4 men who were working at my house all day. It was fun and I enjoyed serving them food.

The view from right inside the second gate.

It made me feel like a proper African woman. It took extra work to cook all of it and now I don't have any more rice but it's okay because I did what God asked of me. To feed those within my gate.

A fruit salad blog.

I made a list Wednesday of things to talk about, while traveling with Mary back from Moshi, her families town.

On the way home Mary bought some sugar cane. Yummy. As I was chomping, chewing and sucking on the sugar cane, it made me think that perhaps that form of sugar was stronger and made it faster into my system than perhaps sugar in chi or soda. In fact I was wondering if it was comparable to tobacco chew? It's got the same movements. . . . So I imagined it gave me instant sugar, instant rush. Ha that seems funny to me.

Also I noted how in my few short years of existence/travels I've been called many things --- and they all seem to mean the same thing. They have different origins but still the same meaning, the same setting, the same method of sharing the word and the same effect on me.

Gringa, 

        Nasara,

                  Mzungu.

On our way to pick up eggs Tuesday from the chicken farm (more on that later) we passed Maxi, he runs a local shack/shop on our road. As we passed he said something about a mzungu and I, in typical Sonya fashion, decided I should let him know that was not my name. So I pasted together the words to say in Kiswahili, "Hapana mzungu, jina la guni Sonya. Hapana mzungu." Then he wanted to know if I was a mama or a dada. Mama being a mom (duh) which then he would put my child's name next, for example my mom would be Mama Christopher, because of my older brother. Dada would be a nanny of sorts/house lady/baby sitter (duh :)). Being neither I told him rafiki, friend. 

Now when I pass he shouts out, "Rafiki!". Much better.

While traveling on the bus Wednesday I was given a glimpse of how it must have been for my grandma at baseball games. When I as younger we would all go together as a family and watch the Rangers play. All during the game we'd eat peanuts, drink soda (Dr. Pepper being the summer drink of choice in Texas) and cotton candy or other sweet things. Then at the end of the game my Grandma would start to pick up all the peanut shells and we would tell her, " No Grandma, just leave them. There are people who pick it up for us, it's their job." Even then we'd have to work to convince her to just leave them on the ground. The insight for me came on the bus with Mary. She took my trash out of my hand (I was saving it for a trash can) and she put it on the ground, under our feet. The same place we would put our trash at baseball games, and I had trouble doing that on that bus. Perhaps it's the "leave no trace" training that has been engraved in me over the last year. It's going to be picked up by a worker and it's better than throwing it out the window as they do in other countries. Knowing all that I still had trouble with the bus and my trash. Really though, is there a difference? I wish my grandma was around so I could ask her.

I made notes about these thoughts while on the bus and how I needed to write them down because I need to share the thoughts from my head. Especially here where English is spoken but culture is still different, jokes still hard to get. If you'd have been with me on that bus I would have leaned over and whispered them to you. You would have promptly laughed out loud and perhaps shared something back with me. I can't help it, I like people and I like to share with them, to make a connection. So consider yourself connected, now share back.

500 stories.

I've been telling stories on here for awhile, since I first found out I was going to Tchad in 2007. Now here I am back on the African continent writing stories about starting an orphanage. Here's my 500th story.

I walked to visit a friend and took a trail through the village. I went to Arusha town yesterday in a crowded dala dala (bus). I ate ugali with my hands (very similar to Tchadian buile). Today I washed my clothes by hand outside, I drew water from the well and I talked to a neighbor kid in English while he talked to me in Kiswahili.

All these things are special. The funny thing is they make me miss home. You might be thinking my American home with my family and friends that I grew up with, worked with, and went on adventures with. That, however, is not who I was missing the most. I am missing my Tchadian family, mi famil. Because it was those wonderful people who taught me how to be an African, they taught me to draw water from a well, bathe from a bucket, eat with my hands and so many other things that I need to know how to do here. I only wish I was there with them. Then I wouldn't have to learn a new language, adapt to new customs, and I could dance and play with them.

The great part is what they have taught me makes me a better person, a better worker here in Tanzania with starting this orphanage. Since I'm supposed to be making friends with the community knowing how to do things and not being afraid of doing them is a plus. Sure I need to learn Swahili (Tanya, that's the official language here :), and learn to make ugali. But I know how to learn. I know how to learn those things, I've got experience. I enjoyed my family in Tchad and will enjoy my new family here (as soon as the kids come! Until then I have my friend Mary and the neighborhood), I will enjoy struggling to remember words because I can remember what it was like for me the when I was in Tchad and how eventually the struggle goes away and the words flow.

So you see,

God is good.

For three days when Abraham was walking Isaac to the mountain to sacrifice him to God he thought about all that God had done for him in the past, all that God had done for his fore-fathers. How God never abandoned them or asked something of them that they could not do. He remembered God could be trusted to keep His promises. And like him, I too am remembering what God has done for me in the past. There is no need to worry, be afraid or doubt. I'm not, so you don't either.

My address:----->

Check it out it's to the right.

Or you could just keep reading and get it that way . . .

Sonya Reaves

c/o Juma Kitau

PO Box 15098

Arusha, Tanzania

Love via the post is one of the best kinds.

Melatonin

I've been taking melatonin at night to help me sleep all night and get over jet lag. It's been working fairly well but I think it's been giving me crazy dreams! On Thursday night I had a horrible, awful, terrible, scary, crazy dream. Now if I tell you, you have to promise to not laugh or tease, it's a valid fear and clearly it disturbs me if I dreamt about it.

I dreamt that I was at a zoo or aquarium or something. I was looking at a squid in it's tank. Then suddenly the  squid got out of the zoo or wherever it was and it was flying around. It was all around the sky. It was so scary. I ran along with everyone else to the forest where we climbed the giant sequoia trees. Then the trees started to fall. So I some how jumped out of the falling tree onto the another tree. Then suddenly that tree started to fall. I didn't want to die by tree or by flying squid as others were, so as it fell I waited until it was at an angle then slid down the tree to safety. I'm not completely sure but I think that tree landed on the squid. Phew. 

I hate flying squid. 

The first few days at home

About my new Home 

The house is bigger and smaller than I thought. My room is smaller, the kitchen bigger. My room has a desk build into the wall (pictures later) and two little shelves. I love the fireplace in the corner and my big windows along two of the four walls. They capture the morning sun nicely. I've unpacked all my things and just need to get a few things from the market to finish making it comfy. However it might actually take some time because I want to find someone who can make baskets and a house plant or two. I'll try and go to the market this week.  

My first night home I arrived rather late and just had a shower before bed. The funny part was that we don't have any running water. . . so I showered out of a bucket. I am so blessed to have lived in Tchad. My family there taught me to be an African. I will forever be in debt to them for being patient with me, so now when I live in another African country I can confidently say, "I know how to do that, I can wash myself with a bucket of water, clean my clothes with my hands, draw water from a well, cook rice over a fire." How blessed I am. My house, however, will get running water soon. As much fun as drawing water for my shower, flushing the toilet (at least there is a toilet I always say) and for washing my hands I look forward to simply turning a nob and letting it run. It will also be good because right now we have to bring water in from another place to drink, how very vogue African. 

I still have so much to learn.

I must also be honest. The first few days ( I can say the first few because now I've been here a whopping 4 days) I would get quite overwhelmed. My thoughts would just dive into all the 'things' that need to be accomplished. But they need to be accomplished by 6 months or so. I had to keep reminding myself I'd only been at home for a few days and I wasn't in a rush, pole pole (slowly slowly) as they say. I read in my worship on Thursday something that also helped. It said: "God is my strenght and power, and He makes my way perfect" 2 Samuel 22:33. Then CF Stanley said about that text, "He delights in showing me again and again that He is the source of my strength, myprovision, my protection, and my ultimate success in life." Phew, what a great reminder. Pole pole, trust God. Amen

Nyubani Sweet Nyubani, a story in Swahilish

The mtoto was very hungry. As she was near the mzungu's nyuba she decided to look around and see what she could find to eat. She was grouchy when she wanted chakula. Off in the distance she saw a tree with tiny little embe's, they were not even close to being ripe, then she climbed a another tree and founds some small, green pere that wasn't even close to being pink inside and she decided to not eat those either. Then she walked back in the ndizi plantation to see if there were any in the tree, alas there was only a few tiny green bunches. Not even a tumbili would want them. Suddenly the mvoa started to fall and she ran for cover. While in the cover a paka rubbed against her legs and she decided to find chakula at nyuba. As she walked away the mzungo yelled after her, "Una kwenda wapi?" and she replied, "Na kwenda nyubani to eat". The mzungu replied with a smile, "Come back kesho and I'll have a chungwa for you". So the little girl and her paka went nyubani and returned the next day to visit her new rafiki.

You also might not have known.

When I tell people I'm helping to start an orphanage I don't think they realize what that actually means. I didn't until the last few months, mainly this last week.

I am arriving to my house this week. We don't really know what is at my house as far as furniture goes or accessories like plates, bowls and silverware. We do know Juma just bought my bed. We don't know Mary's (the other woman who lives there) schedule for work, does she work all day every day? I don't even know what food is there and what I'll need to by right away. But that makes it exciting for me. I get to frugally buy things for the house, table, bowls and perhaps some other things if funding is there. We are on uncharted waters, this is awesome.

I learned that I get to work on relationships not only with the community, which I am really excited about because I can't wait to drink chi with people and chat and learn Kiswahili and make new friends, but I also need to build relationships with the local University, the SDA one and the public one as well. I get to build relationships with people in positions that can help the growth of the home. I get to develop paperwork to build this orphanage, set up infrastructures and other cool things.

I am glad we aren't planning on accepting children until at least January because of all the community building and development we are working on. Small Steps for Compassion and I are both on the same page with building community and keeping the local culture the main concern and priority in our home. Things are going great.

When I meet people on the plane I just don't think they understand all of those things. I don't even know if I understand all of those things, but I'm glad. I have so much ahead of me and I'm along for the ride. If you are interested in helping set up my house feel free to donate :) Just donate and make sure that you label it for the home fund. I'll put up some pictures soon and keep updating them as I make it a cozy home.

Lots of love from Montreal-Trudeau, Canada airport.

What I learned this week in life.

People believe in me.

People support me.

People sacrifice for me.

I am loved.

To all those people, thank you.

Thank you for encouraging me to do what I love, for listening to me talk with passion about life, for allowing me to be me.

I don't know how I would have survived alone because you made life survivable, thank you.

To all those of you I talked to this last week, whether for 2 min or for 2 hours, thank you.

You are part of something bigger than yourself, part of something bigger than me, something bigger than starting an orphanage from scratch in Tanzania. You are part of the body of Christ.

"In fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body"

1 Corinthians 12:18-20