We often tell of all our joys of living in this wonderful
land called Tanzania in this blog, but seldom do we share some of the
hardships. Like all of our lives while we journey on this earth, there are
trials and times of deep troubles. I must say quickly that our troubles are
minimal here, but yes; we do have some troubles.
The weather here now is close to perfect in my estimation
with cool mornings and evening and warm… but not too warm days. The mountain is
mostly hidden from view but does come out for a peek from time to time. The
clouds that usually cover the mountain, now cover most of the sky. When the sky
clears and the mountain becomes visible, the temperature climbs quickly, so you
learn to love the gray days too. Our mornings are often in the high 50’s and
the days rarely climb above 80. The green is quickly turning to brown as the
major rains are past until November or December. Yes Tanzania does have
seasons…. Wet and dry….
What causes stress on our Village?? Well, it is easy to say
that many things cause us to run to the Lord for shelter and these are always
good reminders. Things are fast changing here and you seldom know what will
happen next. Mostly that is great for a person who loves adventure and change;
however some things are a bit hard to deal with. A couple of weeks ago, I got a
call from one of my “former mothers”, “Mrs.
Martin, my little baby is in the hospital at KCMC”. KCMC is the larger referral
hospital in town where Kent and I worked 25 years ago. Well that was stress!!
This mother had left over a year ago and married and had a baby who was now
about 3 months old. I finished up my morning tasks and headed over to the
hospital, not having any idea what was happening. I found the mother in the
pediatric ward with her little one. The baby had been born with spina bifida
and it was a bad case. The baby was very sick with pneumonia but I was able to
hold the little one and talk with the mama for over an hour. The mama has deep
faith and was actually encouraging me at times. There is not a lot
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| ICU at Machame hospital |
we can do for this in the States, but here it is nearly hopeless. We prayed together for God’s grace and I left to hopefully return on Wednesday for another visit. In the meantime…. LIFE HAPPENED at the Village.
ON Tuesday, the day after I visited the mother and baby, one
of our children who had been complaining of a stomach ache for a day or so,
came … now complaining of lower right side pain! I quickly took him to Kent who
said “this child needs to go to Machame for possible appendix”. Well that sure
changes your day. I packed up him and his mama and up we went to 5000 ft where
it is always rainy and COLD and begin our wait to see a doctor. After a few
hours, it was decided that he indeed had appendicitis with possible rupture and
he was “rushed” into surgery. He did have a very infected appendix and he was
taken out of surgery to ICU. Well of course that was a bit of a concern for me,
but as God would provide, the ICU was not full and he mostly got really good
nursing care for 3 days there. It was a bit hard on the mama who had to stay
with him and only had a hard stool to sit on by the bed. I spent the next 5
days with at least 2 trips up the mountain each day which consumes about 2
hours each trip. Good ole “Sherman” (our car), made the trips like a champ! The
total hospital stay was 7 days, but the child is now back and in school and
looking forward to having the stitches out this week.
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| Muddy footprints by the bathroom window |
Obviously with the extra work of a child in the hospital and
3 children on the village with mumps, I was not able to make the trip back to
KCMC but did check in by phone a bit with the mother and the little baby. While
driving down the mountain from Machame on Saturday, my phone got a text and it
was the mother saying her little baby had died. What a shock but yet what a
picture of life in Tanzania. MANY baby die as infants. This of course set off
another chain of events of trying to help this poor mother. The funeral for the
baby was on Wednesday and I took 6 of our current “mamas” with me to the funeral
for the baby held about an hour up the mountain at Sanya Juu. This was of
course the mother’s first baby and an unexpected death. My thoughts kept me
thinking “no mother should have to bury their child”… yet Mary certainly buried
Jesus. There are no guarantees in this life and life is hard. I think that the
mother’s faith is strong enough for her to get through this but I continue to
pray for her and her husband.
During all this confusion of circumstances, someone broke
into our house and stole my computer and my ipad. It was during the day so no
one was harmed but it does cause some stress and a sense of insecurity. The
mwezi (thief in Swahili) climbed in through the bars in our bathroom window
leaving many muddy footprints on the wall and inside the bathroom. The bars
provide an opening of about 10 by 12 INCHES. In a poor country theft is a part of life. We
do what we can to protect the “stuff” we have, but truly we hold what we do
have lightly. The loss of the computer was hard because I used it mostly to
store all the pictures of the children before printing them to their child
books. Unfortunately I had not backed it up in quite some time. Stupid on my
part, but gone none the less! Because of the theft, we did invest in a larger
safe that bolts into the wall and allows us to store our electronics when we
are not in the house.
Now on to the GOOD parts of life here which indeed far
outweighs the stressful times. The school is going well and RICE with the
teacher’s training has it largest class of 30 students. Kent it busy but was
able to hire an assistant to help with grading and one on one with the
students. He hired a man who has been in the program for more than 2 years and
has done very well. Pascal is a wonderful help to Kent as now Elisabeth has
enough work to keep her busy with just the art and music teaching.
The children of Rafiki are continuing to grow well and
except for some cases of mumps are really healthy. They are learning well in
school and can be heard any morning and evening having fun with each other. We
continue to pray for their growth as young Christian men and women.
Pat, Elisabeth and I have decided to finally take some
Swahili lessons. Actually I decided and drug them along for company. We have
hired a tutor who comes to the Village each Saturday afternoon. Last Sunday as
we were ready to leave church I heard a mother say to another mother “anatoka
kuchase pale” a simple sentence but I instantly knew what it meant!!!!! “She
wants to play there”. I was beaming all day from my new knowledge. It is
interesting because as I am studying, I realize that much of the Kiswahili I
learned more than 25 years ago is coming up from the bottom of my brain. I
don’t think I will ever have a really good grasp of the language, but I do
think I will be able to communicate like a two or three year old which is great
for me.
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| Birthday party |
We at the Rafiki Village Tanzania love to have an excuse for
a party. That being said, the parties most likely take place on our lovely
porch and with only 5 of us here right now (Sara is in the states getting Lydia
into college) it is easy to swing a party. My birthday provided the setting for
our most recent party. Sara and I are the only ladies here out of our 4 who
really enjoy cooking. So we decided to “cater” our party by picking up Tandoori
chicken in town. It was a hit and we ate….too much…. Phil actually baked the
cake… and then played triominoes. It was indeed a fun evening.
Then for more cultural entertainment, we were all invited to
the “Send-off” for the Lutheran Bishop of Tanzania’s daughter on Saturday. What
is a send-off…. It is nearly like a wedding but something really special in the
culture of Tanzania. First the ladies, Pat, Liz and I attended the church
send-off at the home of the bishop. I would say there were 200-300 people
gathered on their lawn for the ceremony. There were decorated tables for the
guests and the event was to start at 10:00 AM. We arrived mostly on time and
the event began around 11AM with morning chai… tea. There was then a full
worship service with a band and singing and a sermon on Isaac taking Rachel as
his wife. Of course it was all in Kiswahili but one of the Bishop’s daughter
sat next to me and translated the service. The sendoff is when the family of
the bride “gives her” to the groom and his family. This one was really special
as it was the first of 4 daughters and she is marrying a German man and will
leave to live in Germany. That and also much ceremony because of the being the
daughter of the Bishop of Tanzania. We have become friends of this family as
the Lutherans are our sponsors for Rafiki in Tanzania. Also the Bishop’s wife,
Janet makes beautiful batik fabric and we often go to her shop with visitor to
buy things. The first part of the send-off lasted until around 2 pm, complete
with a nice Chagga lunch; and when you get there on time…. Your car is quickly
buried in the maze of cars and a quick getaway is not possible. You learn to
enjoy the process and not be concerned about time!... this is quite an
adjustment for most of us Americans. The next part of the send-off was another
party at a Lutheran hostel in town beginning at 4 pm. We didn’t RUSH into town
but did arrive around 4:30, still early for the event!  |
| Send-off celebration |
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| Pair of Silver Cheeked Hornbills |
We are including some pictures of the nice new orchids I
received for my birthday and also some nice ones now blooming. We are so
blessed to have an orchid farm nearly at our back door. There are also so new
and returning birds around our house. The pair of silver cheeked hornbills are
somewhat seasonal and have recently returned. They are really big birds so you
don’t usually miss their presence.
I will also say that our Village is now beginning a bit of a
transition in missionary staff. Pat, our Headmistress of the school will be
leaving at the end of the year as will Kent’s help, Elisabeth in the RICE
program. At this time we have no idea who their replacements will be. There are
many Rafiki Villages in need of both of their positions so ask yourself and
your friends if perhaps God is calling you to step for a year or more to serve
in Africa with Rafiki. If you have education training and background you would
make a wonderful headmaster or headmistress for our schools and if you have
talents at all in art and/or music you are needed in RICE. What an opportunity
to serve God through the people of Tanzania or another African country.
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| Random sign from in town! |
