peace

Real peace. Peace that passes understanding. Saturday we were scheduled to go on a real safari but because of illness we had to stay home. At about 6 am we heard a quiet "hodi" at our door. The visitor was a korean mother studying swahili with us and she was coming for help for her very sick husband. His fever was high and he was vomiting. Here the first assumptuon is malaria and it is critical to act quickly. I grabbed the malaria kit, did the test and 15 minutes later read a negative result. He was so sick though. False negatives do happen and early treatment can easily be the difference between life and death. She walked over to the clinic to try a second test but the electricity was out and without it the doctor could not work. All that could be done was to wait. A few hours later levi began complaining of severe tummy pain and I went to ask my good friend from korea what I should do. I looked into the open door and she was sitting in a wooden chair witrh a bible and notebook in hand yet crying. I assumed she was worried but within a moment I realized that no, she was praying and drawing near to God in the midst of a hot day of caring for a sick loved one and not knowing what medicine is needed. She was clearly at peace. Full of it in fact! I took her son out to play with my kids and she brought out coke and we all had a nice picnic. Her husband quickly recovered without medicine despite the serious state he had been in. I don't pretend to understand all the sickness and faithfulness of GOD but I wonder if God didn't miraculousy heal him. Peace is so often felt in america...from time with family to vegging in front of the tv...from attending church in a comfy building to enjoying the great outdoors. But peace that passes understanding...that comes in the midst of the shadow of death...while your husband lie moaning on a mat on a concrete floor and you have nothing to offer, that kind has one source alone. I thank god they are here to spread the same peace among such a wonderful people...the peace of Jesus Christ.

Malaria

Wanted to update a post. We're in an internet cafe two days in a row! Lucky us. It even has air conditioning. But...sadly we're here waiting on some more malaria tests and a few other samples from the local clinic. We were prepared to be sick while here (both emotionally and literally...with medicines and medical books). We weren't expecting quite as much sickness though. God has proven faithful though! Say a quick prayer if you get a chance. It is a spiritual battle we're in.

oh the difficulties of Africa:)

Well, I thought with this blog spot we'd get to post more often. Just to give you a taste of African living (which I must admit has a lot of great parts...like coke from glass bottles, and never having to worry about being on time!). To post this short blog, we tried for several days to get online at language school...to no avail. So we loaded up and drove to the Oasis...the nice hotel that offers wireless internet. Upon arrival, we learned, that their internet was not working. We drove to another hotel, where they assured us that we can get online with wireless. They walked us around to the back and showed us the computer. It's hot in the room and there are kids in their late teens playing shoot em up video games. It doesn't smell nice. We decide that we'd try somewhere else. Wireless would allow us to skype with a coworker and we really need to do that. We drove through town. As we're approaching the round about (called Keepe Lefte here) a we have to stop to wait for our turn. When we do that, a car cuts us off and we remember that African road rules are very different. You don't wait your turn, you edge out and take a risk. Luckily, we were able to do that without hiccup and we landed in a nice airconditioned internet cafe buty with no wireless. We take a moment to do facebook and gmail, never quite clearning the inbox. And here I am...sitting in a cubicle! Not too bad. It's a successful day! (I hope it's clear, I'm really not complaining or offereing excuses. These types of things are to be expected in a developing country. Just filling you in.)

an average day

An average day looks something like this:
Up at 6:00
Breakfast at 7:00
Devotional at 7:45 (only we are usually tied up taking the kids to school and miss it)
Class at 8:00 (whole group instruction...vocab and grammar)
Chai at 10:00
Class at 10:30 (more whole group and then small group practice)
Lunch at noon (we get the kids from kindergarten first)
Siesta time (only there is no swahili word for this much needed concept in the tropics) - two days a week we meet in the commons room to study the word of God...with people from TZ, Ghana, Nigeria, Indonesia, India, America, Finland, Canada...I'm probably leaving someone out!
2:30 more small group practice
4:00 afternoon tea time
4:30 break...to do some laundry by hand, study, catch up on internet if it is working, have a quiet time, build relationships,
5:30 kids showers
6:00 dinner
6:30 kids in bed *to avoid bites...we don't make them sleep yet, we read to them (right now it's Magician's Nephew)
Evening is time for more studying and a little r and r time...a lot of reflection to take in all the new experiences of the day
Bed comes early...before 9:00

chameleon

Am I remembering the song right...by Boy George...
cama-cama-cama-cama-chameleon.?

If so, that means like, like, like, like, like, chameleon in Kiswahili.

The other day, we saw a chameleon that was about a foot long! I had a bright idea to pick it up with a tree branch and put it on a red shirt. (The shirt was laying on the ground, not on me!) It never did change colors...stupid environmentalist! (Go green) Sister C, Mrs brave herself, from Nigeria, was scared to death. We all have our weak spots.

nina watoto watatu

That's the closest way to say that I have three children. It actually means "I am with three children." The idea of ownership here is...non-existent...or very very minimal.

I am with a computer...irregardless of rather it's mine or not. I am with a house, thankfully! This is a very communal society and what I have, you have and vice versa. It's not uncommon to be asked for a ride. In America we have the idea that I have a car and you don't, so I drive and you walk...unless I know you well and then, sure hop in! Well, here we can't give rides to total strangers so we have decided to only give rides to those we know. They work very hard and walk far, so a short ride isn't really such a big deal. One day we had a car full of language school friends and a total stranger asked for a ride as we rounded a corner. One of the Tanzanian teachers showed us how to say (with our hands) that we were full. I thought it was funny that it would have to be for that reason that we refuse a person, but it isn't my job to assess this culture...it's my job to learn it. By the way, you hold your hand out, face down and bend your fingers up and down, like you're picking up a bunch of little things off the ground. You never know when knowing that might come in handy:).

agghh! Kumbe!

We've been trying to blog for about a month. The truth is that internet is super slow here and that's when it's working. I have yet to even be able to pull up our yolasite blog/web page. I can get to it from the office, but that's a drive into town and doesn't always work at that! So...we're going to try a new approach...blogspot. My hope is that we can do a better job with this. I'm going to cut and paste from old emails and things so that I can try to record some from the past month. Other than that, say a prayer for me that we'll be able to continue updating this specific blog.