Hiya Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas! What a special time of year this is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray you can enjoy this holiday with family and friends and truly focus on the reason for the season.
I am just returning from another trip to Dar es Salaam to work on finalizing my work permit and I praise God that the woman working in the Ministry of Health office said it would be completed next week. This is such a huge answer to prayer to have this, especially as in January I head to the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania to do some more hands on nursing as I shadow a team that includes 1 doctor and 3 nurses to increase my knowledge of medicine in this part of the world. I have a lot to learn with tropical medicine and look forward to gaining experience in HIV/Aids ministries. So anyway I am very thankful to soon have a work permit, after over 6 months of work to get it.
You may wonder what we are doing for Christmas. For December 24th, we will have a team member, Mary, and another single missionary woman visiting us, Kim, over for dinner. Christmas Day we will spend at our church. Our pastor is putting on a Christmas presentation and there will be lots of food and fellowship. From what I hear, many people come from the community. I am excited to experience this. A few days later, our team will come into town and celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas day together. We drew secret santa's to buy presents for and will plan to cook lots of good food. It is not home, but again we are so blessed by our team and community and I look forward to celebrating together.
Rejoice! Merry Christmas!
Christmas Blessings,
Emily
PS-Sorry this is so short, have to head back to the village!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Choose your own adventure!
Hey there friends! What adventures we’ve had since our last post…I know I say this often, but life here really is an adventure. My tag line for most things I do has been “choose your own adventure.” You know…the books you read as a kid where you had to decide what happens next then turn to page 34 or 76. Such good times. Any who, I use this philosophy with cooking, visiting, traveling, etc… It works out well since most things don’t quite go as planned. In the wise words of my dear friend C.S. Lewis- make plans and hold on to them loosely.
So…the story begins last Tuesday at our team day when we found out Emily’s resident permit would finally be ready on Friday! Hooray! We couldn’t let Emily go to Dar all by her lonesome, so one of our team members-we will call her M- and I took the liberty of escorting Em to Dar on Thursday so we could head straight to the government offices on Friday morning. So…Thursday morning comes and Em and I are ready and waiting for the first bus at 6:10…we are a little antsy because we have to make a bus out of Tanga at 8am. Our village bus does not arrive until 6:45. We are laughing at this point and making slight adjustments to our plan if need be. We are put putting along when M calls and asks where we are. She’s in town and ready to go at the bus stand. This particular bus line leaves on time (the only one in East Africa), so we are trying to get to town on time and M is stalling at the bus stand. Suddenly it starts to rain and we are thinking…hmmm, maybe this rain will help stall the bus too. Needless to say all of our stalling was wearing on the workers’ patience and they decided to leave with M on the bus. We told her we’d jump in a taxi and chase down the bus…which is exactly what we did. It was like a scene from a movie…and though we were eager to catch the bus we didn’t want to die in a car crash either. Our trusty taxi driver got us behind the bus and they pulled over on the side of the road and we hopped on, wet and exhausted already from the first leg of our adventure. Good times.
Thankfully, we made it to Dar and even got to see a movie and do some Christmas shopping at a mall on Thursday…a real treat! Friday we went to the office eager to get the stamp in Em’s passport, but sadly we were told to come back on Tuesday…Tuesday?? This was only Friday. What were we going to do in Dar for 4 days? Hmm…when meandering around downtown Em had the genius idea to ferry over to Zanzibar for a mini holiday. Why else would her permit get postponed other than to provide a little island excursion? We thought about this for a while and weighed the pros and cons of going back to Tanga, staying in Dar, or going to an exotic island for a few days. The island won, and on Saturday morning we were off to Zanzibar. The funny thing about our trip was that the entire island was out of power and running on generators. We stayed at the beach and even though our power was rationed, it was an amazing time of rest and renewal. Em and I went on a spice tour and it was amazing! It was also a good time to practice language and meet new people. All in all, it was a perfect little girl’s getaway!
We returned to Dar on Monday and on Tuesday morning Emily got her resident permit! Praise Jesus! We found out some info on her work permit and she has to return to Dar next week for that, but we are hopeful it will all be taken care of and completed so she can continue her work with no anxiety or stress. We are very thankful that things have worked out as they have, as you have to be very patient with these processes. We are learning to be grateful in all circumstances and to make the most of each day. We are now back in Tanga and will return to the village today. Even though it has only been 6 days, we feel like we’ve been gone forever. It will be good to get back and reconnect with our friends and neighbors. We are excited to share our joys of the Christmas holiday season with them. Pray we take advantage of every opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas! We will celebrate with our church on Christmas day then on the 27th head into town for our team Christmas. Though it is difficult being far away from home during the holidays, we know we are right where God wants us, and there is great comfort in that! Thanks for your continued support and prayers! Keep them coming! We pray you have a blessed Christmas!
Love,Sarah (& Em too)!
So…the story begins last Tuesday at our team day when we found out Emily’s resident permit would finally be ready on Friday! Hooray! We couldn’t let Emily go to Dar all by her lonesome, so one of our team members-we will call her M- and I took the liberty of escorting Em to Dar on Thursday so we could head straight to the government offices on Friday morning. So…Thursday morning comes and Em and I are ready and waiting for the first bus at 6:10…we are a little antsy because we have to make a bus out of Tanga at 8am. Our village bus does not arrive until 6:45. We are laughing at this point and making slight adjustments to our plan if need be. We are put putting along when M calls and asks where we are. She’s in town and ready to go at the bus stand. This particular bus line leaves on time (the only one in East Africa), so we are trying to get to town on time and M is stalling at the bus stand. Suddenly it starts to rain and we are thinking…hmmm, maybe this rain will help stall the bus too. Needless to say all of our stalling was wearing on the workers’ patience and they decided to leave with M on the bus. We told her we’d jump in a taxi and chase down the bus…which is exactly what we did. It was like a scene from a movie…and though we were eager to catch the bus we didn’t want to die in a car crash either. Our trusty taxi driver got us behind the bus and they pulled over on the side of the road and we hopped on, wet and exhausted already from the first leg of our adventure. Good times.
Thankfully, we made it to Dar and even got to see a movie and do some Christmas shopping at a mall on Thursday…a real treat! Friday we went to the office eager to get the stamp in Em’s passport, but sadly we were told to come back on Tuesday…Tuesday?? This was only Friday. What were we going to do in Dar for 4 days? Hmm…when meandering around downtown Em had the genius idea to ferry over to Zanzibar for a mini holiday. Why else would her permit get postponed other than to provide a little island excursion? We thought about this for a while and weighed the pros and cons of going back to Tanga, staying in Dar, or going to an exotic island for a few days. The island won, and on Saturday morning we were off to Zanzibar. The funny thing about our trip was that the entire island was out of power and running on generators. We stayed at the beach and even though our power was rationed, it was an amazing time of rest and renewal. Em and I went on a spice tour and it was amazing! It was also a good time to practice language and meet new people. All in all, it was a perfect little girl’s getaway!
We returned to Dar on Monday and on Tuesday morning Emily got her resident permit! Praise Jesus! We found out some info on her work permit and she has to return to Dar next week for that, but we are hopeful it will all be taken care of and completed so she can continue her work with no anxiety or stress. We are very thankful that things have worked out as they have, as you have to be very patient with these processes. We are learning to be grateful in all circumstances and to make the most of each day. We are now back in Tanga and will return to the village today. Even though it has only been 6 days, we feel like we’ve been gone forever. It will be good to get back and reconnect with our friends and neighbors. We are excited to share our joys of the Christmas holiday season with them. Pray we take advantage of every opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas! We will celebrate with our church on Christmas day then on the 27th head into town for our team Christmas. Though it is difficult being far away from home during the holidays, we know we are right where God wants us, and there is great comfort in that! Thanks for your continued support and prayers! Keep them coming! We pray you have a blessed Christmas!
Love,Sarah (& Em too)!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Lot's Been Happening
Where does the time go I want to know? We have now been living in Tanzania over five months and it seems like we were just preparing to leave last summer. We have a lot to report in the last couple weeks with the end of our school year, school registrations, our team Thanksgiving, and the death of a dear little one. So I’ll try to update you on them all.
A kiddo who I have been closely following, who I think I have mentioned before, passed away two weeks ago. This was very challenging as she was the daughter of a dear neighbor of ours. She was a twin born in August to a mother who currently has 2 living children, 11 and 6. When the twins were born in August we were so surprised, two precious little girls, born in the village to an older mom. We were told by our teammate who left this summer, that the twin’s mother has lost her last two children at 4 months of age, so to watch the twins carefully. So I took this seriously and visited frequently. The littler twin started having small health issues which I advised them to go to the clinic twice, then things got a bit worse in October, so I took them to the public hospital in Tanga, the larger town 45 minutes from us. She was immediately admitted, given a blood transfusion for severe anemia and after a few days started looking much better and was even smiling a bit. I would go every weekend to visit and then she started deteriorating again having jaundice (indicator of liver problems). I spoke with the doctors and made special trips into town to see what I could do, even taking a blood sample to another lab in town to get more tests run. But it seemed our hospital did not have the capacities to help this child and they planned to send her to Dar es Salaam, but she died the night before she was to leave for Dar es Salaam. I was so saddened that there was nothing I could do but pray. God has taken this precious little one home and I look forward to seeing her again. The funeral was challenging to see all the people in community come and just dismiss her death as, “The work of God.” I was pretty open with my emotions of how sad I was. The community knew we were frequently visiting and helping care for the family, but I had inner frustrations as this community does not often help those in need, until someone is already passed away. Join us in prayer for this family.
Well onto some awesome news, our school had it’s end of the year celebration on Friday. It was a special time to see the kids perform in front of their parents. We were told by one mom, her son woke up really early and got on his uniform to get to school very early. You could see the joy in a lot of them, nervousness in others to perform in front of their parents. Each class did a few songs and the Standard 1 class even did a presentation in English about the importance of education verses money in which Sarah oversaw. I remember the day in August when Sarah was told about how she would oversee this presentation and how nervous she was, remember this was our first week on the job, and it turned out so well. The kids knew their lines to say and it was even up to them to come up with their reasons education is important. Four students from the 6 year old class read a poem to their parents. Many parents are still functionally illiterate, and reading as a 6 year old was once unheard of in this community, but thanks to great teachers and the Lord who has enabled us to build this school, great things are happening. Thanks to you all for supporting us in this. I even had a part in the presentation to talk with parents about the importance of caring for their child’s health. My language helper helped me write my speech and I think it went pretty well. My first speech in another language. After the presentations, there was a huge feast which many of the mom’s had helped prepared. The parents and kids had soda’s and as much as they could eat. I wish you could have experienced the excitement and enthusiasm parents had for this school. Hard to think of the opposition they once had warning parents not to send their children to our school. While there is still opposition out there, many are so proud of the work being done and even call the school, “Our school!”
School registration for the new class of 5 year olds was two weeks ago. Within 90 minutes, we had all 30 spots filled and a waiting list. It was a rainy day and many were not able to make it, so they have been asking us to open up another class, which we cannot at this time. Children interested in entering our Standard 1 and 2 classes had to take tests last week to see if they were ready, but we were saddened by the lack in quality education of the government schools and only a few can enter our upper grades (we wanted to fill the classes all to 30 students each). Education is what will change the future of this country, but it cannot be done without teachers and schools.
Well there is a lot to tell you about our school registration, but I will hit the highlights. God has worked miracles in getting three inspectors out to our school and we have two letters of approval and just need the third, but we may have to pay a fine because our buildings are not “Earthquake safe.” I hope this gives you a picture of the challenges we face here in trying to better our community. God knows the hearts of all people, so we will trust Him to work in people’s heart to get our school registered so we can remain open in January. And be praying as we need two teachers for next year with a special certification. And it is 5 weeks to the start of school.
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. I planned the event and shared the cooking with my team. We had chicken kabobs which I think everybody enjoyed and had a special time of sitting around our table and just talking, like we do at my house for the holidays. And we had a special visitor, a man who teaches at a small Bible college in the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania. He was in for a couple days and we had great time with him.
Well this is getting a bit long, hope this catches you up to speed. We have three weddings to attend in the next week. We both really enjoy these cultural experiences.
Blessings,
Emily (and Sarah)
A kiddo who I have been closely following, who I think I have mentioned before, passed away two weeks ago. This was very challenging as she was the daughter of a dear neighbor of ours. She was a twin born in August to a mother who currently has 2 living children, 11 and 6. When the twins were born in August we were so surprised, two precious little girls, born in the village to an older mom. We were told by our teammate who left this summer, that the twin’s mother has lost her last two children at 4 months of age, so to watch the twins carefully. So I took this seriously and visited frequently. The littler twin started having small health issues which I advised them to go to the clinic twice, then things got a bit worse in October, so I took them to the public hospital in Tanga, the larger town 45 minutes from us. She was immediately admitted, given a blood transfusion for severe anemia and after a few days started looking much better and was even smiling a bit. I would go every weekend to visit and then she started deteriorating again having jaundice (indicator of liver problems). I spoke with the doctors and made special trips into town to see what I could do, even taking a blood sample to another lab in town to get more tests run. But it seemed our hospital did not have the capacities to help this child and they planned to send her to Dar es Salaam, but she died the night before she was to leave for Dar es Salaam. I was so saddened that there was nothing I could do but pray. God has taken this precious little one home and I look forward to seeing her again. The funeral was challenging to see all the people in community come and just dismiss her death as, “The work of God.” I was pretty open with my emotions of how sad I was. The community knew we were frequently visiting and helping care for the family, but I had inner frustrations as this community does not often help those in need, until someone is already passed away. Join us in prayer for this family.
Well onto some awesome news, our school had it’s end of the year celebration on Friday. It was a special time to see the kids perform in front of their parents. We were told by one mom, her son woke up really early and got on his uniform to get to school very early. You could see the joy in a lot of them, nervousness in others to perform in front of their parents. Each class did a few songs and the Standard 1 class even did a presentation in English about the importance of education verses money in which Sarah oversaw. I remember the day in August when Sarah was told about how she would oversee this presentation and how nervous she was, remember this was our first week on the job, and it turned out so well. The kids knew their lines to say and it was even up to them to come up with their reasons education is important. Four students from the 6 year old class read a poem to their parents. Many parents are still functionally illiterate, and reading as a 6 year old was once unheard of in this community, but thanks to great teachers and the Lord who has enabled us to build this school, great things are happening. Thanks to you all for supporting us in this. I even had a part in the presentation to talk with parents about the importance of caring for their child’s health. My language helper helped me write my speech and I think it went pretty well. My first speech in another language. After the presentations, there was a huge feast which many of the mom’s had helped prepared. The parents and kids had soda’s and as much as they could eat. I wish you could have experienced the excitement and enthusiasm parents had for this school. Hard to think of the opposition they once had warning parents not to send their children to our school. While there is still opposition out there, many are so proud of the work being done and even call the school, “Our school!”
School registration for the new class of 5 year olds was two weeks ago. Within 90 minutes, we had all 30 spots filled and a waiting list. It was a rainy day and many were not able to make it, so they have been asking us to open up another class, which we cannot at this time. Children interested in entering our Standard 1 and 2 classes had to take tests last week to see if they were ready, but we were saddened by the lack in quality education of the government schools and only a few can enter our upper grades (we wanted to fill the classes all to 30 students each). Education is what will change the future of this country, but it cannot be done without teachers and schools.
Well there is a lot to tell you about our school registration, but I will hit the highlights. God has worked miracles in getting three inspectors out to our school and we have two letters of approval and just need the third, but we may have to pay a fine because our buildings are not “Earthquake safe.” I hope this gives you a picture of the challenges we face here in trying to better our community. God knows the hearts of all people, so we will trust Him to work in people’s heart to get our school registered so we can remain open in January. And be praying as we need two teachers for next year with a special certification. And it is 5 weeks to the start of school.
We had a great Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. I planned the event and shared the cooking with my team. We had chicken kabobs which I think everybody enjoyed and had a special time of sitting around our table and just talking, like we do at my house for the holidays. And we had a special visitor, a man who teaches at a small Bible college in the Lake Victoria area of Tanzania. He was in for a couple days and we had great time with him.
Well this is getting a bit long, hope this catches you up to speed. We have three weddings to attend in the next week. We both really enjoy these cultural experiences.
Blessings,
Emily (and Sarah)
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