Home

We're home.  I like the sound of that. The way it hits and resonates. Some people have no homes to return to. Or, if you're married you have some ambiguity of which set of homes are "home".  I'm lucky; I get two sets of solid, sink into the couch and get fat and just live kind of homes to visit.  I'm fortunate in that regard.

I haven't written in quite some time, so here's a run-down:

• We finished exams about two weeks ago and had our end of year celebration.  I feel we ended strong this year - much stronger than in years past. We have a lot of returning staff in January so I'm excited about the new year.
• I had an impromptu trip to Nairobi with Thomas to attend a conference with other NGOs doing work with youth in East Africa. I say impromptu because it was decided the day before that we would be the ones attending. It was great!  We learned a lot and networked a lot with like minded practitioners. But, it also meant being gone for two days right before the end of school.  Our staff was great though and they had no problems while we were gone. 
• Lisa was in Liberia for three weeks! She was doing agriculture research asking Liberian farmers about current practices.  She enjoyed the work and had quite the adventure in Liberia. 
• We went to sport's weekend after the last day of school and had a three day sports fest. Our teams took first in girls basketball, second in rugby (yes, rugby!) and second in volleyball.  We had a scare as one student fell and dislocated her elbow...bad way to end the tournament. She is OK now. We immediately took her to one of the best hospitals in the country just a few minutes from where we were playing.
• I was able to re-visit the hospital where I had been sick a year ago, almost to the day. Strangely enough when we were coming back from Nairobi, we boarded our bus right across the road from the doctor's office.  I ran across the street to pay him a visit, but he wasn't around.  It was strange to have the one year anniversary but also great to be in such a different place (mentally and physically) this time around.
• We said hello to new volunteers Ben, Melanie and Sara.
• We said good bye to our friends Allison, Lani, Lisa P. and Scott.
• We flew home! We took a cheap flight (Fast Jet) from Arusha to Dar, stayed the night in Dar, flew to London, stayed the night in London, then flew to Denver.  We did that series to save money...not sure we actually succeeded :)

There's been some talk about what Lisa and I will do when we more "permanently" return to the U.S. As many know, we are returning in January and will be finished at the end of March to return in April.  We'll return to the U.S. after that.  Rest assured, our answer is still a resounding "we don't know what we'll do when we return."  Lisa will work part time for IEFT for sure and beyond that, we are still making some decisions.  My hope is that we use whatever wisdom God affords us as we look ahead. For now, we're just happy to be home.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND I HOPE OUR PATHS CROSS VERY SOON.

Exams, Fish & Frogs

Preform Student Kipara by his Boma. He's in my woodworking club!

Form 2 Student Solomon looking very Maasai.

Students battling it out in intramural football. 

Exams

This entire week we’ve been doing Form 4 national exams and an internal Form 2 mock examination.  To say the least it’s been a lot of work. Every morning I pick up Thomas, the exam proctor and two armed guards at 7 AM to take the actual exams out to the school.  Students are tested all day. The form 4’s still have another week of this fun too! Spirits seemed to be high the whole week.

Fish & Frogs

As a part of the exam, students taking biology, agriculture, chemistry and physics have to do a laboratory practical.  The biology one involved A LOT of prep work to find specimens, etc…  This week alone we’ve had to find (and kill) frogs (thank you to our local motorcycle taxi driver on that one), cockroaches (no comment), fish (bought at local market, almost made Lisa vomit…) and crabs (preserved in some salt…stunk like death…stored in our freezer…didn’t end up using them anyway!).

Clubs

We started clubs this  past Thursday. I’m excited to be doing WOODWORKING club again! One of the volunteers did a fundraiser and was willing to pay for the wood, etc… so we can do that this term.  Lisa is doing BASKETBALL club with the new pre-form students too and apparently they are loving it. 

Andy & Ming Say Goodbye

Computer teachers Andy & Ming fly out today. In their 6 month stay, they’ve set up the computer lab and taught classes. They’re heading back to Cambodia to continue their work there.

Sports

The boys and girls are part of a soccer league. So, every Saturday we load up and take them somewhere to play. Yesterday, Saturday, Lisa took the girls and Mzee took the boys.  They learn a lot.

Drip-line Irrigation

Brady and I went to a short presentation about drip-line irrigation yesterday. IT WAS AWESOME. I can’t wait to figure out how to get a system up and going at the school. There is so much potential I think for this. As per usual though, we need to find where to get the systems, get some funding, etc…! Never a lack of ideas.

No more Laguna Beach House Study Camp

For the past several weeks all of the female volunteers have been staying at the school Monday through Thursday nights with the Form 4 girls. They called it Laguna Beach House Study Camp.  I think it’s really helped the girls have precious time/location with which to study. It’s also nearly exhausted the female staff. So, with the near completion of the Form 4 exams, we all said good-bye to the study camp. I think it will be a bit of a welcome relief.

Lots to celebrate, no energy to do it!

By Friday of this week we had a LOT to celebrate! We had successfully pulled of most of the Form 4 exams (including ¼ of the practicals), offered reviews, finished a several month long project in LBH study camp, held school improvement meetings, taught the rest of the kids and did the normal great things that happen here.  However, it was one of those weeks that no one had the energy required to do the celebrating! The thing which we were celebrating was to much! We’ll have to wait for another day. Or some Red Bull.

What's been happening not so lately...

Students learn how to keep our new rabbits from Meshak.

A small group of students prepare the hang our new bee hives. 

Form 5 & 6 buildings under construction. 

Our new bus!

Lots has been happening!  Here's the run down:

• We have new volunteers!
• We finished the goat house, got rabbits, and hung the bee hives. 
• We got a school bus.
• I turned 31 (so old now...)
• Form 4 students take their exams next week.
• Got 37 new kids learning English; our new pre-form 1 kids

I've had to try and grow as a leader to transition into less teaching and more administration. I've struggled a bit because I really love teaching. But, I also am enjoying learning how to help other teachers grow and also work in ways to improve the overall school.

Lisa has been REALLY busy wearing hats of : office manager, volunteer coordinator, life skills coordinator, and sports and activities coordinator. 

I'll try to keep this thing updated more frequently! Please forgive my tardiness.

Love better be a big house

I can remember when my show steer died. We were training him how to use a halter and he fell wrong and broke his neck. I was heartbroken at the time. I also broke my leg one time in junior high wrestling. It was nothing serious and I guess that ended my dreams of wrestling grandeur at an early age…probably for the best! By in large though, I've not suffered much in my life; very little in fact.

But this past week, I've seen glimpses of pains I've not experienced before. Pain inflicted by a student on himself from making a poor personal choice. Pain inflected on a child from a violent family member because… who really knows why. Pain from just realizing how alone a human can feel. Pain from fear.

Martina McBride sang a song a few years ago about love being the only house big enough for all the pain in the world. The song describes a few pains we humans endure – lack, want, strife, grief. She offers the solution of an active love; getting in there and getting your hands dirty. I agree, in general, with her words.

I'll be honest, this past week left me feeling numb. It seemed several things came at once – enforcing difficult policy, teachers pouring out their souls and still feeling empty, some really sad village issues in which the school was asked to intervene (and was thankfully in a position to help!), students unsure what's going to happen on big exams and pushing themselves so hard that you just think they're going to break. Fear. Hurt. Pride. Exhaustion. Misunderstandings. Pain.

Can we be a balm in the wounds? I sure hope so. I have found I have an unlimited capacity to cause hurt. I can be a cruel, self centered, small and vindictive person. At worst, I can sling pain just because I feel like it. I can also just do nothing about it when I see it happening around me too. Often do. But, I also have the ability, sometimes, and in some ways, to show love. And man, that's what I have to do.

We're going back to school this week (had a random holiday today) and we're only going to there until Friday before we have another week long break. We have new volunteers coming in. We have this high stakes test coming up in about a month for our form four students. We have new students starting in about a month too. Oh yeah, there's also limited food and water in the village and the price for everything is skyrocketing. Lots of people aren't going to be able to eat pretty soon. Timing's ripe for some stress, anxiety and lack of sleep. Put another way, timing is right for pain.

I hope I'm not the source of too much pain. I hope I'm a person who is bringing people into that house Martina sang about. And, I hope it's really freakin' big.

In Rodeos and Seminars...

 Teachers do a team building activity at the retreat.

 Students waiting in line for a chance to be an Orkeeswa student.

Mamas cleaning beans for school lunch.

Teacher Meetings
Monday and Tuesday we held teacher meetings.  My sister likes to say "remember Seth, in rodeos and seminars, the difference between being bored and gored is the quality of the bull."  I've tried to take that to heart when planning these meetings. I like to think things went well both days with some time for work, some time for educational theory and of course some time for volleyball. I really think we have some great teachers right now - both Tanzanian and Western.

Students Returned
Students returned in a peaceful fashion this past Wednesday. They were a bit tired and ready to go home on the first day. But, they were eager to be back in the classroom.

New Student Selection
Once again we held student selection this week. We had over 300 arrive the first day. But, since we only pull from three villages that number is quickly pruned to a more manageable amount.  First we make sure the student is who they say they are and that they belong to one of the viable villages.  Then, they sit for two tests over two days. Lisa and I helped grade the test yesterday but declined today. From the average of those two tests, we take the top 50 or so students and do a home interview with them. From that list the final 35 or so students are selected to be Orkeeswas.  It's exciting to think of the next personalities.



Mimyute
We have a form 2 student who did a good thing this week. Everything was off of the walls in the classrooms because volunteers had repainted.  We are in the process of putting up bulletin boards and other things, but hadn't made much progress in the form 2 classroom. For some reason two of the bulletin boards were left in the classroom.  I got word after school on Thursday that Mimyute, a form 2 student was looking for me. I thought he was likely sick (since that's what so and so is looking for you typically means...). I walked in the form 2 classroom and discovered something. The reason Mimyute was looking for me was because he was putting up the bulletin boards on his own and couldn't quite get the last screw out of the wall to hang the final board.  He wasn't looking for praise or attention. He just saw a need and worked to make his classroom better.  It was pretty simple, but it sure had an impact on me.

You don’t call, you don’t write…

 Fish eagle from Lake Malawi. The guide would throw in fish and this guy swooped in to grab them.

 Pretty sunset from Victoria Falls.

Pretty sunset from Lake Malawi.

To our readers (all 8 of you J )…sorry for being SO LONG between posts! I’ll try to mend my ways in the coming months. Here’s what’s been happening for about the last five weeks.

Lisa went to America

About four weeks ago Lisa flew to America.  She got the flight in exchange for helping a friend with her one year old baby on the long flights. So, as long as she was already home, she visited her sister in Montana and family in Nebraska.  She was only there for about a week, but had a really good trip.

Zambia

Right after Lisa returned (about 3 weeks ago), we went to Zambia. We took an 8 hour bus ride to Dar Es Salaam. Then, we took a train to Zambia. The train was supposed to take 48 hours to arrive in a town called Kapiri Mposhi in south central Zambia. However, due to delays, etc… it took 48 hours to get just past the Zambian border; only about ½ way! We decided to hop out (don’t worry the train was stopped!) and take a bus the rest of the way.  The train itself was a cool experience. It was old and dirty. But, we could just sit in our private cabin and watch the land go by. Since we went through the Selous Game Reserve just at dusk, we saw a giraffe and a few other animals.

We arrived in a town called Lusaka, which is the capital of Zambia, around 7 AM. We were surprised by how modern the town was! For as poor as Zambia is, the infrastructure of Lusaka was quite good.

From Lusaka we took another bus south to Livingstone. We stayed at a place called Jollyboys which was a “backpacker” place. The prices throughout Zambia were quite high. We paid between $40 and $60 / night for the three nights at Jollyboys. The prices varied because we changed rooms every night! But, it seemed worth it because of the laid back atmosphere of the place.

From Livingstone we were able to easily get to Victoria Falls.  This place was obviously spectacular! We took loads of pictures and enjoyed the whole day there. I really enjoyed walking on a bridge where we could get sprayed by the mist of the falls.  We could walk right up to the edge of the cliff and look down! We could also walk right down to water where a large whirlpool was formed. Of course none of this stuff was very safe, so I’m glad we survived unscathed. The closest incident I think was when we were walking back up the path from the whirlpool. There were three large baboons sitting on the path in front of us.  I was alarmed because they had babies with them and I pictured mama baboon protecting her baby by eating me.  We tried ignoring them. Then we tried yelling at them. Then, when they didn’t move, I had the genius idea of blazing our own trail through the bush to get around them. We did that and after Lisa’s sandals were filled with dirt and gravel, she didn’t think it was such a genius plan J.  We stayed another day in Livingstone and just walked around the town, ate good food and relaxed. While we were there, we decided to go to Malawi.

Malawi

So, last week, we went to Lake Malawi. We took one day to go from Livingstone to Lusaka (on a SUPER nice bus… personal LCD TV sets in the back of every seat and a snack that they served us…this just doesn’t happen in Africa!). Then, another day to get from Lusaka to central Malawi. Then ANOTHER day to get from whatever that town was to where we wanted to go in north central Malawi called Nkhata Bay.  This last leg nearly broke Lisa and I because it took 12 hours and should have taken 5. We were crowded on this bus which would go about ½ a mile between stops and then just wait for approximately 20 minutes at each stop. MADDENING!  We were expecting to arrive mid-afternoon. But, as night fell, so did our spirits. To make matters worse, after waiting SO LONG at each stop, the bus would then speed off down the road, taking blind corners really fast. At one point, a mom and her son went shooting off their seat after the driver took a corner exceptionally fast.  The boy landed clear under Lisa’s seat, a little bewildered!  We did not like Malawi much those first couple days. But then we arrived at Njaya Lodge and everything changed.

Njaya Lodge

We stayed three nights in a place called Njaya Lodge. We paid $26/night to stay in a HUGE room which opened up to the enormous and beautiful Lake Malawi. The staff was really service minded and took care of us. The food was good. The atmosphere was really peaceful.  After the final bus ride to get there, we were SO thankful for the pleasant surroundings.  We just relaxed the first day. Then, the second day we took an OLD wooden boat out on the lake.  We fed fish eagles which swooped down out of a tree to get the fish from the surface of the lake.  Then, I went snorkeling with some of the most brightly colored fish I’ve ever seen: blues, yellows, black & white. They were really pretty. The water was so clear you could see to the bottom, even on really deep parts.  The final night we just sat out on the porch and the water was really calm. The sky and water just kind of melted together to where it was virtually impossible to differentiate the two. It was a really peaceful place.  After some rest and fun there we needed to return here!

Mbeya

To get from the lodge to Tanzania took some effort! We took a taxi from the lodge to Nkhata Bay. Then a shared taxi from Nkhata Bay to a larger town called Mzuzu. Then a mini-bus from Mzuzu to about 15 miles before the border. Then another shared taxi to the border. Then we walked across the border. Then took another mini bus to Mbeya (on the Tanzanian side). Then we took a taxi to our hotel. AND IT ALL WORKED! Early that next morning we took a 20 hour bus from Mbeya back to Arusha.  This last ride was a little spooky. The road was quite windy and the driver was more than willing to take the turns on either side of the road.  On more than one occasion we saw trucks which had gone over the side; one was even quite recent.  At one point, Lisa stood up to stretch her legs and was able to see through the front window. She said it was far more terrifying actually seeing what was in front of us so we just kept our heads buried in the sand, so to speak, and were a lot better off!

Overall…

It was a wonderful trip. We didn’t get many long stretches of rest and relaxation. But, it was a good mix of rest with exploration. The bus rides were really long. Zambia was way more expensive than we would have thought. Lake Malawi and Victoria Falls were incredible.  Now it’s time to get back to work!

Now

We’re back in Monduli.  There are LOTS of people around. The visitors from Groton, the private high school in Boston, just left. We are living with Jeff & Jenny (1st ever volunteers who returned for 6 weeks and will leave after two more weeks from now) and Andy & Ming (setting up the computer lab and will stay for another couple of months). Down in the other house there is Juliet (English teacher leaving in 2 days), Allison (English teacher leaving in 6 months), Scott & Lisa (return volunteer teachers staying for 6 months), Alex (office manager staying until October). In another house is Jessica and Ester (MIT students working on getting internet to the school). Then there’s always Peter too! And, in about a month, we’ll get 4 more volunteers for pre-form English immersion, agriculture and English. Unfortunately, almost everyone is leaving in December. So, after all of this “feast” of volunteers then will come the “famine” of nearly everyone going their own separate ways. 

School begins next Wednesday after two days of teacher meetings (which I need to go get together!).

Check out Lisa’s Facebook page for lots of pictures of everything. She is getting REALLY good with her camera skills.  We are really missing everyone at home and are so sad about the dry conditions and the fires.  

What Lisa's Been Busy With

Allison, Lisa and Juliet. Allison and Juliet are volunteers at Orkeeswa and also competed in the triathalon. Juliet did two of the legs! I couldn't figure out how to flip this picture so you'll just have to tilt your screen a little. It's easier on a laptop. 

Lisa's team - Beth and a dude I don't know. Beth is from Montana and has been our friend ever since language school.

These are our kids who competed at the cross country meet.

Lisa's story while I was in the USA
Here's the Reader's Digest condensed version. Basically, Lisa had a rough week...

• She got sick
• She had to do my job
• She competed in a triathlon after being sick (she did the running portion)
• She helped volunteers in the middle of the night
• She took sick kids to the hospital
• She taught one of my classes

Trying to leave a lasting impact
Ever since I returned, I've been thinking about after we're gone from here.  How will I know we've done anything?  Will anything continue like we're doing it after we leave? I know growing new leaders and new systems is really important. But, have we done that?  I don't know, but it's a bit where our minds are now.

Students participate in a cross country meet
Our kids went to a cross country meet last Saturday with Allison and Lisa. They were second out of eight teams. They also only competed in two of the four events. So, I'd say they did pretty well!

Where do I begin...

So much has happened since my last post. I suppose I should start from where I am and then work my way back.

Grandpa Pannell passed away
I'm home in the USA now. I got the call Friday and was able to book my ticket and board my plane on Saturday to return here for a week.  Grandpa had been sick for just a short time. He was 91.  He was a hero of mine.  Lisa and I had seen him in January and celebrated his 91st birthday. He was fine (and by fine I mean he had no physical or mental problems) then. I could say a lot about Grandpa.  Let me suffice it to say that I hope to live a life half as full as him.

Dissapointments
Just before I left I was dissapointed in a few things.  Students had not returned some borrowed books and I was dissapointed in the choices they were making.  Teachers were showing up late to work and I was dissapointed in what I considered to be lack of respect for the school.  Some students had created issue with their attendance because of choosing to get circumcised in the middle of the school year and I was dissapointed in that.  But, more than anything, I was was dissapointed in myself. I was dissapointed in my lack of forsight with the books. I was dissapointed in not being a better leader with our teachers. I was dissapointed with being completely clueless of this cultural issue of circumcision and also my own incompetence in being able to react to the situation.  I've been trying to help build the school a goat house for nearly a year now.  For SO many reasons the house isn't finished. For some reason, it's been a constant reminder to me of my own short comings and failings.   I think a person who does this sort of work has to continue to remind themselves of that serenity prayer... Lord give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

New Volunteers Arrive
A few weeks ago we got three new volunteers. Andy and Ming are from the UK. They're staying for 6 months to set up a computer network in our school. Alex is also from the UK and staying for a year to serve as the office manager.

Audi Got Married
Audi, a teacher with us for the past 2 years, got married a few weeks back! Allison's dad was here at that time and we all went to the wedding. It was quite a lot of fun and was even televised on three Tanzanian television stations!

Juliet turned another year older
We celebrated Juliet's birthday this past Friday night.  We whooped it up Monduli style!  Then I got on a plane and flew to America.

We went on Safari in Teringeri
We had a one day holiday on May 1st and went on Safari with Lisa, Alex, Juliet and myself (Allison was hanging with her dad).  We saw a pride of nine lions walk right next to our car! We also saw many elephants, giraffe, etc... It was Alex's first safari, so he was really having fun!

Thoughts now from home
I return from here on Sunday.  I really miss Lisa.  I am cleaning out Grandpa's stuff from his house and bringing it over to Mom and Dad's.  I moved his saddle today. I like being able to see my family.  I'm excited that some of them are coming for a visit in June.  All of these recent circumstances have made me wonder about how to transfer farms (or any family business or property for that matter) without tearing a family apart.  I enjoyed seeing our friend Joe, a young guy my age who flew out  all the way from Ohio just to say good-bye to Grandpa.

I'm always struggling with geography.  I want to be there but I don't want to leave here.

Final thought... Grandpa was a really good neighbor.  He was kind to pretty much everyone.  He liked to make pies or just give away random things to people (Joe was just telling me Grandpa had given him a car to get back to Ohio one time...).  The Bible says "love your neighbor as yourself."  I like to think Grandpa did that.

We had a tough week this past week. Without going into details, here's the gist...

Village Pressures - If a student gets circumcised, it takes them out of school for a month while they are healing. However, they get beat by the other boys who are circumcised until the deed is done. Plus, there's a big expensive party that the family has to throw when it happens. Some of our families can't afford it. So, from the school's perspective... just wait until June when we have a month long vacation! From the kid and families perspective... yeah right!

Sickness - We have a complicated medical issue concerning one of the students. Thankfully the school is there to give it even this much attention... I doubt it would have gone much beyond the traditional medicine if the student was somewhere else. We sent the student one place and finally felt like we had an accurate diagnosis. Then, we had to send the student to a different place for the medicine. They refused saying the diagnosis was wrong. Cripes! Who are you supposed to believe? And, in the midst of things is the student who just needs help.

Being a girl - It's really difficult to be a girl around here. They are valued less in the eyes of the community in every situation. Sometimes things happen that remind you how tilted that scale really is. I guess that's why we'll continue to do the work we do to fight that fight.

Health care - A friend of ours was in the hospital. But, since it was the Easter weekend there were no doctors around. Went in on a Friday... didn't see a doctor until the next Wednesday! By then, it was necessary to do an emergency surgery. Ah! How can this happen!

Anyway, I had to electronically vent a little today I guess.

Photos from Lushoto and Pangani

Irente Viewpoint near where we were staying in Lushoto

Irente Viewpoint

Hiking in the Usambara Mountains

A village in the Usambara Mountains

Trying to catch a chameleon

Waterfall at the end of our second hike

Learning about cheese production at Irente Farm

Flat tire on the way to Pangani!

View of the Indian Ocean

A cool sailboat

We stayed at the Beach Crab Resort... there were hundreds of these guys on the beach!

Travel to Pangani

Saying Goodbye to Jane and Whitney
The week of March 19th we said goodbye to Jane and Whitney. They both returned to their homes after finishing their volunteer terms at Orkeeswa. We went out for drinks on a Tuesday night with several of the volunteer and Tanzanian staff. Jane had been teaching English to many of the Tanzanian staff. One of her students jumped up in the middle of the evening and said “Hey you guys, it’s not Friday yet. I’m going home.” It was great!

Vacation in Lushoto
This past Saturday Lisa and I headed East for a vacation. We began in Lushoto, a town in the Usambara Mountains. We stayed at a place called the Irente Farm and Biodiversity Area. It was great because they make cheese and fruit preserves there! The showers were icy cold, but the view was great.

We did two day hikes from the farm. The first day hike was through the forest. We saw many areas of reforestation projects. There were also many chameleons! The second day we hiked through many villages to a waterfall. The waterfall wasn’t anything special but the hike was good. We were also greeted at the falls by a group of teenage boys doing their laundry in their underwear!

Travel to Pangani (A.K.A. This is the song that never ends...)
On Tuesday, after a tour of the Irente Farm cheese making facility, we took a bus to Panagani. Our destination was the Tinga Tinga lodge since apparently everything else was booked for the Easter weekend (who knew right?). The bus from Lushoto to Tanga took nearly 5 hours and we arrived sweaty and tired.

From there we found a taxi to drive us the rest of the way. Our taxi driver had a bandage on his left hand and was a big guy. We negotiated the price for him to drive us to Tinga Tinga.

We depart on a rough gravel road. We get a flat tire. We fixed the flat tire with the donut tire and were off. We rode along forever! We passed the signs to the places we wanted to stay which had such nice looking signs and driveways. We finally arrive at the sign for Tinga Tinga – faded, slanted…frightening. We drove in to discover what can only be described as bunkers dotting the landscape with cows grazing between. Needless to say, we didn’t stay there!

Back in the cab. Bandage fisted driver is getting angry. We try calling another place. It seems they have vacancies. We try to drive there and get lost. Part of the difficulty with that one was the name was Beach Crab. Our driver, you know the big one with the bandaged fist, kept pronouncing it as Beach Club. So, people kept directing us to all of the clubs in Pangani! Fun, but not helpful.

Finally, we get good directions and start driving toward the Beach Crab (now with every sign the driver would phonetically say Beach Crrrrab and roll his ‘r’s a bit. Spooky…). We cross a ferry. We drive. We follow the signs. We continue to follow the signs. The signs seem to be leading us into the middle of nowhere! We arrive (finally) at Beach Crrrrab (roll the r’s). Lisa grabs the bags and goes in. Even if this place is awful, we’re staying here! I renegotiate the price with the cab driver. I get it wrong. I’m very afraid now. I re-renegotiate the price. It’s done like this. Seth – How about this much. Driver – Add a little. Seth – OK – How about this much. Driver – Add a little. Seth – How about you just tell me what you want. Driver – This much. Seth – (coughs) – OK.

And, in the process of all that we forgot our trail mix and salted almonds in the back seat!

Beach Crab Resort
It’s hot at the Beach Crab. I’m a gushing river, so to speak. We throw our bags in the room, head to the restaurant and eat. We discover fellow teachers Allison and Juliet are there! They tell us the nights are HOT at this place! Hmm…
We finish eating and go back to our room. Thankfully, Lisa goes to the bathroom and I’m getting things unpacked. I move one of our pillows and what should fall out but two baby mice. Yep, two fairly hairless and still living baby mice. I calmly walk out, find Lisa, find the manager, and explain the situation. They look at us like, baby huh. Then we showed them and sure enough, it was what it was. So, we moved to a new room.

Finally, after a thorough inspection, we were able to settle into our sweat box of a room, some 12 hours after we began the journey!

We woke up hating Pangani, the whole idea of being there, and convinced we were going to leave that same day. We walked along the beach complaining about the heat, the trashy beach, the baby mice in my pillow… Then, for some reason that day things changed. I really don’t know what it was, but we started enjoying the place. Maybe the temperature dropped a bit. Maybe we ate a bit of food and relaxed. Maybe it was simple resignation. I don’t know! But, about mid-afternoon, both of us said, this place is OK. And it was. We enjoyed ourselves until we left yesterday.

The Wheels on the Bus

Sabore receives a certificate from the Tanzanian National Soccer Coach for participating in a soccer program called Future Stars.

Helena, Neema and Flora practice their netball skills.

Teachers at the staff retreat we had a few weeks back.

Saingorie, our recently elected student body president, gives a speech that had students clapping and cheering!

The Wheels on the Bus....

The following is an account of a series of events that happened recently on a dalla dalla ride to a sporting event. This is Lisa's rendition of the tale...

8:30 AM Realize that due to a change in who our dala dala 'guy' is, we had a misunderstanding and no one was there to pick up the kids for their 10:00 game at ISM.

8:40 AM New dala guy is contacted and says a dala is on the way

8:55 AM Peter, Lisa and Whitney arrive at Dr. Danny's and meet Mzee and the students that walked from Bombani. No dala in sight, so Mzee, Peter, Whitney and the boys leave in the Hilux because the boys are playing at 10 am. Lisa and the girls (going to watch the boys and the awards ceremony) start walking to meet the dala.

9:20 AM Still no dala…. Now at Ngarash Primary School

9:35 AM Still no dala…. Now arrived in Monduli Town and are waiting at George's Corner. Find out the dala is late because of a flat tire.

9:42 AM Dala finally arrives, girls and Lisa head to ISM.

9:47 AM Get a call from Alfred, the league coordinator, that we have a girls game as well. Dala waits at Lashaine Corner while Lisa goes to school on a boda to get jerseys, etc.

10:50 AM Leave from Lashaine Corner, hoping to make it for an 11:30 game at ISM.

11:04 AM After getting stopped by the police near Snake Park, dala driver realizes he has another flat tire. While we are still inside the dala, he jacks it up and changes the tire. When he lowers it down, there is no emergency brake, so we start rolling down the hill. Thankfully, Langoi was able to find the brake and stop us.

11:20 AM Leave Snake Park after changing the flat tire. Can't drive over 50 kph because the whole dala shakes and rattles A LOT at that speed.

11:40 AM Arrive at ISM… Boys finish their game, girls play a game, we watch the awards ceremony, it starts downpouring.

2:00 PM Waiting at ISM for the rain to let up because some of the kids have to ride home in the back of the Hilux.

2:17 PM Depart ISM, even though it's still raining a bit.

2:25 PM Torrential downpour! Peter has to stop because boys are soaked, cold and angry.

2:38 PM Dala stops, we think it's another flat tire.

2:42 PM Peter and Hilux catch up to broken dala. Find out it's not a flat tire (which is good because now there's no spare), but instead the axel or something is falling apart. They tighten some things and we head into Meserani at 5kph. The good news is we got to watch a flash flood happen right before our eyes while we are waiting for them to fix the dala.

3:13 PM Dala pulls up to a random welding fundi in Meserani. While we are still in the dala, they jack it up again, and some guy starts welding things underneath us. Thankfully they remembered that there's no emergency brake, so Isaack is in the driver's seat to apply the brakes so we don't roll away.

3:23 PM Welding guy finishes, we leave Meserani. We can travel a whopping 5kph, so we slowly head towards Monduli.

3:37 PM Still trying to get to Monduli. Stopping every 3 k or so to tighten whatever is falling apart under the dala. Oh, and then we got to see a Maasai dude herding camels. Entertaining except the fact that the camels were walking faster than the dala was moving...

3:45 PM Finally make it to the Monduli turn-off.

3:57 PM Decide to start taking kids in the Hilux to town to meet Seth to go to the village. First group of kids leaves with the Hilux, the rest of us keep going at 5kph with stops along the way in the dala.

4:07 PM Peter returns with Hilux to take group number two of students.

4:23 PM Dala finally quits completely. Tanzanian hazards are put out on the road (ie: leaves and branches). The remainging students and teachers start walking to town.

4:42 PM Peter finds us on the road and takes us to Monduli. He drops off the teachers with Seth to go home and takes the last group of students to the village.

5:02 PM We are finally home from the two soccer matches at ISM that were scheduled for 10 am and 11:30 am.

National Soccer Coach Visits Orkeeswa

This past week we had a two visitors from the Tanzanian national soccer team - the head coach and the director of the youth soccer program. They were doing a coaches training in Arusha (which some of our coaches attended) then traveled to our school for a visit. It was HUGE for our students to see him since they had seen him on the television!

Lisa travels to Dar Es Salaam

Two of our students are traveling to the U.S. for two months. They needed travel documents, a visa and passport, to make that happen. That's not easy to make happen in Tanzania. Especially when the passport office stops issuing passports two weeks before the trip! Nevertheless, with the influence of Rapha and the persistence of Lisa, the girls got their documents. Lisa spent Tuesday through Saturday in Dar chaperoning and helping the girls with their interviews. Long week in a hot place! But in the end, amazingly enough it worked out!

Students Elect Leaders

Student government elections were a couple weeks ago. Students gave speeches and elected leaders for school president and vice president, class representation and sports assistants. It was a good election and I think we got some really good students. The president was elected on the platform of "vote for me and I'll change your school lunch food." Now, what student ANYWHERE in the world doesn't want to vote for that guy?

Flora and Anna are headed to the U.S!

As we speak two of our students, Flora and Anna, are heading to the U.S. to spend two months studying at a private school in Boston called Groton. They will also travel extensively with Peter to do fund raising. It's really exciting for them to go but they will be sincerely missed while they are away.

Pastor Justin dies and there are a huge number of people in our yard

Our neighbor, Pastor Justin, passed away on Friday. He was a retired pastor from the Luthern church here in town. We've really never had much interaction with him, but have talked more with his wife, Mary. There have been LOADS of people around here to be with Mary. I think our house must be the overflow because we've had people in our yard pretty much for the last 4 days. Plus, they hired a DJ, so we've had church choir music starting at 6 am to the late night hours. It is cool to see so many people come together like this. There is a rumor some will be camping in our yard tonight.

Whitney and Jane are also leaving this week

Well, the ending of an era! Whitney and Jane both leave this week. They've been working as the office manager and English teacher respectively. They will be missed!

Hip Gyrations and Kinesthetic Teaching Techniques

Students and volunteer teacher Allison at the Kilimanjaro 1/2 Marathon two weeks ago.
Isaya and Tumaini in cooking club. Notice Isaya's hat and apron!
Isaack and a university student paint rocks for the garden during the university student's visit.

Clubs

Every week we do clubs. I'm still doing the woodworking club. Lisa is now doing a leadership club. They are fun! One of the clubs that students really enjoys is cooking club. Go figure! Every week Jane leads students in cooking something they enjoy. Then, they feed the teachers and club members!

University Guests

We had a group of visiting university students this past week. They were all students focused on community development and were doing a month abroad through a university. They visited our school for the day and did a tour. One thing I had them do down in the garden was to paint the names of our students on rocks to help label individual student garden beds. It seemed to be a hit! Lisa organized the tour and I think they all enjoyed themselves.

Form 4 Examinations

We were required to send in pictures and signatures of every student for the national Form 4 Exam. We did this. But, of course, they weren't the right size. So, on Friday, we (and by we I mean Lisa) had to re-take the pictures, re-size them, and then Thomas raced to Monduli to get them to the correct office in time. Thank you bureaucracy at work!

Student Elections

In addition to the race-to-the-deadline picture taking, Lisa was trying to prepare students for the student elections on Thursday. Her efforts paid off because we had a great turnout of students running for student government positions! Our president is a student named Saingorie and vice president is a student named Margaret. Only two votes separated them! They each had to give speeches and were GREAT! Students were cheering and clapping. It was a good way to end the day on Thursday.

Staff Retreat

Yesterday we cancelled classes and had a teaching and support staff retreat at the school. We did workshops on classroom engagement such as group work, celebrations, visual/auditory/kinesthetic input and board work. I thought the day went well. It was especially good to have volunteer and Tanzanian staff interacting in a more casual environment. My favorite part of the day was our school counselor, Paul, practicing kinesthetic movements to teach girl's life skills to a group of us teachers! He would get really animated with his point. It was fun watching him try something new.

Thieves and Honest Folks Too

The chicken coop where Form 2 manage the flock.
Some Form 3 girls plant vegetable seeds in their garden beds.
This is the partially finished goat house.
Each student working in the garden was given a section of the land to make a bed, plant and manage as they wish. The beds in this picture are being managed by the Form 4 (upper part) and Form 3 (lower part). Form 1 and 2 beds are further to the right.

What Once was Lost is Now Found!

When working at any school around the world, one must be concerned with theft. I had things stolen from my room in North Bend. I've had things stolen here. Mostly small things... candy, pencils, etc...

And, in a developing country you have to assume there will be a bit of theft. Lisa and I both lost our rain boots off our front porch (which no doubt took some effort on the part of the thief due to the fact that our porch is barred in much like a prison cell)! It's a constant understanding that you need to watch your stuff.

On our way back from Moshi this weekend Lisa lost her bag. Did we leave it in Arusha? Did we forget it at the pool we stopped at on the way home? Did it fall out of the back of the pickup? Lots of speculation led to Lisa still not having her bag. Sad deal too. She had her running shoes, her I-pod, her school keys, her digital camera, her Bible and her favorite running shirt all inside. Oh, and of course the back-pack she uses every day. BUMMER! We called around, drove around and moped around looking for it. By Monday night, we assumed it was gone.

Then, the unthinkable happened. A man in Monduli came to one of our students and told him he had Lisa's bag! Our student found us, we drove to Monduli and found the man, we drove to his house and boom... there it was! But, would all of the stuff be inside. Lisa looked and sure enough, it was all there! Unthinkable! The only thing out of place was her I-pod was dead and all of the pictures had been deleted off of the camera. Replacing the pictures was a short video of the picture of Jesus the man had on his bedside stand.

I'm probably going to keep watching my belongings pretty closely here; most people should. But, my hope was certainly renewed by this young man.

Kilimanjaro 1/2 Marathon

We took 36 students and 6 teachers to Moshi on Saturday for the Kilimanjaro 1/2 Marathon and 5K fun run. We slept on the floor of a church! Jane cooked a HUGE pot of rice and vegetables. There was one toilet for all of us and it rained that night. Ugh... Then, Sunday morning we awoke, fed and shuttled the students to the race. They did really well! We had two boys who ran around a 1:20 1/2 marathon, one boy ran around a 16:30 5K and one girl around an 18 minute 5K. These guys are fast! Lisa ran the 5K with the students. I had to drink coffee.

Agriculture Work

I've been so proud of our students for the work they are doing on agriculture projects. We selected 16 agriculture leaders at the end of last year to help implement projects around the school. They are responsible for the current chicken house and garden. They are also helping to develop projects related to rabbits, goats and beekeeping. The garden is really taking shape as are some of the other animal related projects. Hopefully, with a little rain, we'll have a good crop.

Zanzibar Rest and Moshi Basketball

Lisa and Lindsey relax at a restaurant in Zanzibar.
Beautiful Zanzibar sunset.
Our students and Peter at the Moshi basketball tournement where the girls placed 1st and 2nd.

Lisa Returns From Zanzibar

After three whole days of work, Lisa needed a vacation! So, she headed out to the tropical island of Zanzibar with our friends Lindsey and Liz Moore. Besides laying on the beautiful beaches, her highlights include:

• Having a bee in her drink and the bartender saying "why don't you just take it out and drink it anyway..."
• Liz getting to be co-pilot on the flight there
• Having a good time with two great friends

Moshi Basketball Weekend

Lisa returned on a Tuesday and on that Friday, we went to a basketball tournament in Moshi which is about 2 1/2 hours away. Our girls won both first and second place (the two teams played each other in the championship game! Our boys didn't fare so well, but they played with everything they had! Lisa and Peter coached and I got to be the referee. No, I didn't have to give either of them a technical foul or eject them from any games!

New Volunteers

We have new volunteers here to teach English - Allison and Juliet. Things I know about them - they like to run, they live in the other house, they are always happy. Hmmm... apparently I havn't rubbed off on them yet!

Goodbye!

This past week we said goodbye to Quinn (works for IEFT), Cindy (board member), Lizzy (shot video) and Brendon (took pictures). Thanks for the good times! Quinn should be able to sleep in now that she's not having to live in our living room!

Garden and other Ag Projects

The students have been busy working in the garden. I gave each student a plot to manage as they want. So far they seem pretty motivated! We're going to have a contest for the best gardener (individual) and grade. We're also working on getting projects going for goats, bees and rabbits. We have the chickens already...just need to start hatching some eggs with our incubator Jeff and Kim sent.

Welcome back to Tanzania!

We are back in Tanzania. I'll also say we've hit the ground running. We were two weeks late arriving because we decided to stay longer with family and friends. So, we were two weeks into school when arrived. Cripes...who thought that was a good idea! In addition to the hum of school there have been a few other things happening:

1. People filming students and teachers for a few different promotional projects.
2. A board member, Cindy Beams, is here taking pictures and visiting.
3. Lindsey and Liz, our friends, are here visiting and going on safari.
4. Lisa left with Lindsey and Liz (wow, say that 10 times fast!) to go to Zanzibar!
5. NEW TEACHERS EVERYWHERE! Yeah! We are really blessed with volunteer and Tanzanian teachers who are filling roles and taking on leadership.

So, it's been a good transition back! I'll fill in with more details as the weeks go on...plus I'm sure Lisa will have some good pictures from Zanzibar. For now... it's enough to say that I MISS EVERYONE AT HOME a great deal and I'm also glad to be back in the swing of things here too.