Week 2 in the village!

Habari za leo? How is your day today? Say, "Nzuri!" That means good!

I just wanted to add a quick little blurb about our time in the village thus far! I have completed my first two weeks of teaching at the school, and I am excited that I am finally starting to get the names of the 70 students down. It is a work in progress, seeing as many of their names take me about 5 tries to pronounce correctly. They just look at me and laugh! It's so cute! I have a new found respect for teachers that have a huge number of students. I am used to keeping my own group of 20 or so having taught third grade, but I must say there is great joy in getting to interact with each student in the school. Teaching English can present some challenges since I don’t quite speak Kiswahili, but the teachers at the school are very supportive, and they help translate for me. Emily just completed the health assessments on the kiddos and the vast majority of kids gained weight! As a whole, the kids gained 63 kilos! We were very pleased with their growth as the school works hard to provide porridge for the kiddos each day. It is infused with a vitamin powder made from a local leafy plant they call the ‘miracle tree.’ We hope to continue to use of this powder in the school and throughout the community to promote good nutrition. This week we had our first dinner guests as we invited our pastor and his family to our house for dinner. It was a great joy to get to host them as a token of our appreciation for their help, support and encouragement thus far! They work so hard to lead the church, run the school and serve the community as a whole. We are very humbled and honored to work alongside such people. Emily and our friend Mama Hadija cooked the rice for dinner and, since we haven’t quite mastered cooking local food, Mama Hadija cooked the beans for us. We provided a potato and vegetable dish that was well-received and chocolate cake for dessert! It was a great success, and we were very thankful to share in some fellowship with them. On the language front, we continue our language lessons, and we are learning more each day. Just listening and writing down what we hear has made a huge impact. We spend about 4 hours a day on language learning from working with our language helpers to studying and listening to our digital recorders and then practicing our phrases out in the village. We have broadened our visiting to surrounding villages too, so it is fun to travel around. We have found that we tend to stick out. When I arrive home neighbors often tell me that Emily went off to visit in another village. If either of us doesn’t know where the other one is, we don’t even have to call each other on our cell phones. We just have to ask a neighbor! They know exactly where we are at all times. It’s pretty funny! We live in a fish bowl. We came into town yesterday to run our weekly errands, and we enjoyed a nice night in at the town house relaxing. Today Emily is attending a natural health seminar and I am working on planning out my curriculum for the next few weeks until mid-term assessments in the beginning of September. We return to the village tonight just in time for a wedding celebration today and tomorrow! These are big events and the first official wedding invite we received. We are excited to attend and continue to connect with the community! We will report back on the festivities next time! In the mean time, please continue to pray for our team, language learning, teaching and serving in the school, and connecting with the local people. We are glad you get to experience this adventure with us, and we will continue to update you on life in Tanzania! Can you tell I like excaimation points???

Peace out,
Sarah