Taveta golden weaver

Now that the commotion of the dedication of the Rafiki Institute of Classical Education complex is a week past, I think it might be time to tell you of all the wonderful activities and the amazing building that we have to train teachers here in Tanzania. We are now in the active process of getting the curriculum for the school accredited so we can indeed begin issuing certificates and diplomas to the students. Currently we are mostly training students to teach in our school here at Rafiki and indeed we are putting out a wonderful product.

Library

As I write this on a lovely Sunday morning, the mountain

is framed by clouds in all its majesty. What a wonderful window we have here into God’s creation. We have so many wonders of nature here that are surrounding our lives in this place. I have discovered many new birds this rainy season and the flowering plants and trees are of continued wonder to us. We have quite the crop of orchids nearly in bloom on our porch and many lovely trees and flowers in our yard. Kent has hired some of his RICE students to work in our yard on their Saturdays off and this has indeed helped keep the vegetation under control and looking lovely.

We really began preparations for the dedication of our building in early November. We had the first furniture under construction and some delivered before the new year of 2017. We also hired a wonderful carpenter, Mr. Masuki, to work full time for us. You can understand the process when you learn that we must secure the lumber, have it delivered to our Village and then have the workmen “cure it”, then plane it, then they can begin to make the furniture. The product is amazing under the skilled eye of Mr. Masuki. He is a godly man and I have never seen him without a smile even as he worked the very long days and months up to the dedication. Beginning in January, he began to work from 8 AM to many nights past 9 pm. He had another hour to get to his home in Boma.  He also worked the same hours on Saturday then showed up to work on Sunday after he attended church with his family. All of the work he did is absolutely beautiful and sturdy. He was putting the finishing touches on the cabinets in the RICE kitchen the morning of the dedication.

Art building with Mr. Masuki art tables and cabinet

We indeed had many people working dawn to dusk and even in spite of sudden rain showers. Phil (our Village administrator with many talents) was on the backhoe or tractor from dawn to dusk every day for weeks to get the leveling of the property right for the drainage and sidewalks and future landscaping. Sara and I were on constant watch for just the right fabric for this and that and pictures for the lobby and curtains for all the west facing windows to tame the afternoon sun. We also saw that the curtain rods were hung in the proper places and watched and helped as the decorative sound absorption panels

Making the panels was a process!!!

were constructed and hung in the auditorium/gym complex. We were hanging the final panels late into the evening (night) on Friday before dedication on Saturday. We had not procrastinated on anything, we just had to wait priorities and timing for all the pieces to come together.

When we were nearly ready, we drove to Arusha on Wednesday evening before picking Karen E up at the airport, to collect our 1200 roses and pay our high fee of $34.00 for the entire lot!!! God really did lead us to the right people to help us with the beauty of the event and to keep down the cost of the building. Imagine how fun it is to drive home with 1200 roses in the back of your SUV.  I must say though, that it took a while to dry out the back as we had to haul water from here in our buckets and the dirt road to the farm.. about 15 miles long, was under construction with massive potholes!! But we made it and the loss of roses was quite minimal!! Also consider how in the world does one find vases for 1200 roses to be place in about 50 different places??? They say that necessity is the mother of invention so with the four of us ladies, me, Pat, Liz and Sara putting our heads and our wares together, made it happen. We covered jars with cloth, we used transparent buckets and we used the vases we had and it was all lovely.

On Thursday evening Rosemary Jensen (founder of Rafiki Foundation) and her family arrived on the evening flights. Friday was spent with the last-minute things while Rosemary held a Rafiki Board meeting in our new Art complex of the RICE building. The Art and Music buildings were dedicated in memory of Rosemary’s husband Dr. Bob Jensen. Dr. Bob and Rosemary spent 8 years in Tanzania in the mid 1950’s and their hearts never left Tanzania. The Teacher’s training college will be named the Rosemary Jensen Teachers College as soon as the accreditation is completed. What an honor to be a part of all of this and to honor Bob and Rosemary who have done so much good for the people of Tanzania as well as the people of Africa. They have done it all by God’s grace and in gratefulness of what God has done for them.

Ribbon cutting

Rosemary Jensen gives address

On Saturday morning, we were all up and ready before the sun came up. The dedication was scheduled for 10:30am and still lots of details to attend to. Our Rafiki resident children were all dressed early in their Tanzanian dresses and shirts and the older children were positioned to direct the guests to the RICE building for the ribbon cutting by the Lutheran Bishop of Tanzania. The ceremony started right on time which in itself is a miracle for Tanzania. The Bishop and Rosemary cut the ribbon and Kent and Rosemary entered and were blessed by the bishop for the work ahead. There were speeches by Karen Elliott (director of Rafiki), the Bishop, Rosemary and one of her daughters. The government also brought greetings and congratulations for the new complex. A choir of the RICE students sang and the gala was concluded with “To God be the Glory”. At the last minute Phil asked me to lead the hymn and I got nervous as I left the words to the hymn in my seat, and I left out the middle verse but no one seemed to mind much.  It was indeed a wonderful, God honoring event. After the program was complete, everyone enjoyed a celebration Tanzanian feast. Our kitchen workers did a great job preparing and serving over 200 people. They served bananas with meat, vegetable pilau, cooked cabbage and carrots, fresh fruit, rice with green pea sauce and fried ginger chicken. 😊. 

Everyone truly enjoyed the occasion.  We finished our day around 5pm then served a light dinner to 25 guests at our house. Kent and I dropped into bed around 10pm after arising at 4 am but with smiles on our faces that it went well and it was OVER

Well, what does one do after the climax of many months of work and preparation for such an event? REST now is much needed and as we sent all but 10 children away for visits to their villages for two weeks one would think that might happen. However; we are now busy doing needed maintenance in the cottages and painting them all. When the children return, many will be in a different cottage as we are moving the boys together at one end of the Village and the girls at the other end. I am excited about getting the cottages in good shape for a bit but as all you parents know, kids are hard on things.

Enough of this blog for now. As you pray for us, please pray for endurance and rest. Also pray that we might show the light and the love of Jesus to all of those around us as we continue with the work here. All of you are welcome to come and enjoy the work and blessings with us!!!.

Our sweet team, Elisabeth, Peggy, Kent, Phil, Sara and Pat