Tuesday, February 28, 2012

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.



Saturday, February 18, 2012

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.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

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.