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)