Still here!

Posting a blog is a little like when you need to to respond to a friends email, but then you're unable to for a variety of reasons and it just sits there in the inbox - if not responded to quickly, over time, it becomes the battle of the tyranny of the urgent - respond to new things or tackle this undone issue...glad to say we've conquered it...we are back to posting.

First off, thank you for all the prayers surrounding our health - the kids are doing much better after ridiculously high fevers and weird fungal rashes and other bodily issues. Melissa and I have remained surprisingly healthy and we attribute that soley to God's grace.

We also now have a regular access to the internet which will allow us better communication and hopefully news access. for those that know us, we are somewhat news junkies and newspapers in Dar function a lot like your local high school or small college paper. Needless to say, the BBC, NyTimes, WP, NPR, etc have been receiving some hits from a Dar based server recently!

We resumed our Friday night bible study where we do Swahili/English and each week it seems someone new is always coming. Something we need to consider shortly is a place to meet that can accomodate all the kids and a large room for adults. There is this awesome Bollywood Cinema just south of us and we're going to see if there is any time throughout the week we can meet in their theatres - it's always empty. We're encouraged by those attending, it's just frustrating that our language is still quite limited. By no means could we teach or be taught scripture in Swahili, so we end up singing swahili/english worship and then teaching mostly in English. This obviously limits those that will come first, but we hope by the end of 6 months there could be two groups and by then our swahili should be much improved.

Recently we connected with this organization called Son Int'l. They are manufacturing and distributing the bio-sand water filters in rural areas around Dar. The couple that founded the organization have been in Dar 4 years and they have the whole operation down and have trained installers and employ like 8-10 people. It's very cool. We've been visiting them and "shadowing" the operation since the New Year and they've been completely open to our presence. We've actually arranged for us to visit any afternoon of the week, so we can continue to learn about the operation and practice our swahili with the workers. We're really excited b/c all the logistics and planning for a clean water project has been ironed-out by this organization. It also seems providential b/c they're based in Dar (10 miniutes from our house), but their focus is on rural areas - they don't know of anyone targeting the urban clean water needs through filter distribution. As we continue to learn and assess the needs here in Dar, we are so thankful that we can witness a successful project with clear ministry aims and we have complete access to learn and critique what we experience. There is another source of information, an organization called Wateraid (UK gov't based n-p) and the director of their Dar office has agreed to meet with us and explain all the local projects they're connected to. It will be really helpful to speak with her b/c she is a Tanzanian and WaterAid has been in Dar for almost 25 years. So as we move forward, we really want to have a good understanding of the needs in Dar, which communities are most vulnerable, do those communities line up with our efforts to plant a church and do outreach, what other needs exist in those communities and who is addressing them.

Life marches on and we take it a day at a time - TIA baby.

weekly round-up

Haven’t been on in a while, but the good news is we have internet! It came last weekend and it works, most of the time, and so we hope to post more often. We had a very interesting week. First we met with a longstanding UK non-profit called WaterAid. They’ve been doing work in Tanzania for over 2 decades. We met with one of their lead policy advisors and we learned a lot about what is happening in the area of clean water in Dar. We also scheduled a meeting this coming week with the director of the Dar office and I’m hoping she will be able to fill us in more about what the local projects are, which communities are most vulnerable, what’s being done now, etc. We really feel that research is the first step to doing anything significant in the community.

We received our first package, care of Eben and Sarah Brusco in Ireland! It had candy, and a dress for melissa - it was so nice to get some western canday...though Cadbury makes some kind of Mint Chocolate bar that we can buy for $1.50 that is out of this world! Candy is good despite the somewhat melted state after it sits in a non-airconditioned East African warehouse for a few days.

There is this wonderful family that has lived in Dar for years, she works in education and he's a geologist. They invited us to dinner this week and they live right near the water. Being near the ocean affords certain "luxuries" we didn't have living in central Ohio (though we had the Sciota river). Anyway, they own a sail boat, as "racing" sailboat and I got to go proper sailing for the first time in my life. I've since lost all the exciting new lingo, but i felt quite cool that evening. It was really fun - I made sure to say that a number of times in hopes I would be invited out again soon!

We’ve continued to meet neighbors and practice Swahili in our local community. It’s always challenging, but we’re learning quickly and people are so helpful – even complete strangers are willing to listen patiently and correct you if there is a problem. Language is our priority at the moment, despite starting some other networking, b/c everything we do is communication. We’re actually increasing our tutoring instruction to 4 mornings a week b/c we really want to progress further. Thankfully the language instructors we’re connected with employ many of the latest techniques and exercises – similar to the LAMP methodology for learning language. Our language tutor is named Johari, and she is a Muslim, and she’s taught peace corps and other Americans for almost a decade. She has been hugely helpful when asking difficult cultural questions and her experience allows her to talk openly with us as Americans…there really is a large difference between East African and American cultures. That reminds me, before we left, Rich Mendola found a study comparing measurable cultural values, like timeliness, power distance, male-female relationships, and many other cultural indicators. When plotted on a graph, East Africa was almost completely opposite America on many of the indicators. Other Americans living here have verified, or heard of similar studies, and say that Americans have a really hard time in East Africa. There is more “cultural novelty” for us coming to Tanzania than almost anywhere else in the world. At times its hard to believe, because Melissa and I, so far, really like it here and haven’t found adjustment too difficult. But that’s in part b/c we we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s happening all around us, with community relationships, who’s influencing whom, really understanding how people make and maintain relationships, what obligations to we have as neighbors, how am I (a man) perceived carrying Asher, on and on…We just talked with some friends this week ministering south of Dar in a smaller Muslim town. He said he’s learned the “3 minute” rule. He said he can’t be alone in any home with another women longer than 3 minutes, literally, b/c people will presume their having sex. It would discredit him on the street and undermine the relationships he’s trying to build. That is a pretty extreme example, but in general people’s behaviors are governed by their perceptions of their cultural surroundings (neighborhood, daily activities, relationships, etc). Our perceptions are just at the infant stage. We’re learning quickly, but we perceive and recognize everything through our American eyes. We need to learn to see things through our Tanzanian Glasses. All that to say Johari has not only be extremely helpful in teaching language, but in cultural understanding as well.

Another small but important accomplishment this week, maybe better described as a milestone, is we successfully arranged for some neighbor girls to baby-sit Jude and Asher while we had our Tanzanian Bible study. It went really well, and to make all you parents jealous – we “overpaid” the TWO girls by giving them each $3 for 4 hours of babysitting. So we’re hoping that as our ministry grows, or other late night events occur (Tanzanians stay up late – eating dinner at 6:30 is very early – much more like our college days of eating between 8pm – 9pm). The girls seem really responsible and we hope they’ll continue to want to watch the boys – they literally live right next door to us…our majirani (neighbors, I think).

One last thing – there is car trouble and then there is CAR TROUBLE. We’ve had the latter. Please pray that we’ll stop flushing money into our cars…it’s getting very expensive, even for us missionaries (haha, joke).

Hammered...(warning gross story contained below)

Well, we're back in Dar. We had such a good time in Iringa, studying language for one month and being with our family and meeting new friends. It was invaluable for our foundation in our language learning – we hope we can continue with new tutors here in Dar. In the midst of this, and the next part is where I’m at my worst, we get hammered with all the trials of life in Africa (TIA – watch Blood Diamonds). Our second to last day in Irina Melissa got her wallet stolen, along with $50+ in cash, credit cards, ID. Then as we’re driving home, our cars starts shutting off while I’m driving and the engine goes berserk – the same problem I had just spent $1000 and 2 weeks fixing before leaving for Iringa 1 month earlier. To add injury to insult, the guys “helping” us one of the times we broke down had the gall to reach into my car and grab my cell phone from the dashboard – I didn’t realize it was taken for 100 kilometers…I don’t who I was more frustrated at, them or myself. As we return home and unload the car, a beautiful one-of-a-kind hand carved Last Supper scene we bought in Iringa as our “big splurge” tumbles out of the car and cracks in half. As we enter our kitchen, after being gone for 1 month, we can’t help but notice the strong, slightly overwhelming scent of a zoo…literally our kitchen became a playground for mice while we were gone. Every drawer and cabinet was filled with “friendly reminders” that mice had been cohabitating with our plates, and pots and pans, and silverware. We decided to tackle it the next morning. In the morning we found actual evidence of mice, in the form of a bloated mouse that had died after being stuck in this goo that had spilled when trying to capture the mice a month before. Finally, and I want to sensor this next part for the weak-willed stomach (which was me prior to spending 2 months in Tanzania) – okay – one of the mice, and I believe it’s the one stuck in the goo had made a nest in one of the drawers by dragging dishtowels from beneath the sink. Well, that drawer was particularly disgusting, as one might imagine, and needed to be hosed down. In the back, beneath a pile of torn and shredded dishtowels was a rotting carcass from a baby mouse, presumably the mother had been the mouse caught in the goo earlier and was unable to return to the nest. Yuck! After getting over the initial revulsion of the situation, and feeling glad to finally remove the “zoo-smelling” cause from our kitchen, I did feel a little bad for the mice – they’re just trying to survive…and then I noticed the a swarm of crows outside fighting of the remains of the mice by dive-bombing one-another until one particularly large black and white crow (in Tanzania they’re the size of hawks) gathered his or her “breakfast” and flew off…I quickly took a shower and like Mary, treasured these things up in my heart to share later with you.

Okay, now that’s over…

We are so excited to be home and begin work. We have a 5-year old’s understanding of Swahili but it’s there and we can build on it. Also, while we were away Edmond Lyattu, our team leader, started the first Bible Study. We meet on Friday nights and initially it will be joint Swahili and English. Also, there is a rather serious issue to pray for, and that is one of the churches that was started almost 2 years ago in a very poor area called Ukonga is not doing well. The church has between 8-15 couples (18-30 p) but only two of them have a job. The church used to have an outside source of money from another church, and when combined with the weekly tithes, the pastor tried to care for the needs of the church by supporting members with food and met other needs as well. The church now receives $2-$3 each week in tithes, and the other source of money is gone. We feel that it’s not right to close down the church, and instead would like to consider any job-creation strategies or income strategies we can come up with both for the pastor, who needs to survive, and for members of the congregation. We’re meeting with the leaders early next week and we’re really praying God provides a solution. One of the main challenges is seeing sustainable churches be planted – when 50%- 70% are unemployed and the other cultural factors are combined…it’s just very challenging.

Finally, a bit about us, we have had incredible car problems. More than anyone should in a 2 month period. I think the car is disintegrating beneath us. Just driving it around waiting for 2 weeks while a potential buyer gets money has caused over $1000 more in repairs. The only decent car we can afford at the moment is 15 years old and has rattled over Africa for how many years. Our fundi, mechanic, said the car we’re buying needs a new engine at some point - $3000+ - so we won’t keep that one long but at least have a breather to look for a car that can get us through the whole year. Cars are so expensive it’s out of this world. A friend said, the reason everything is so expensive is because nothing works – and when it breaks people don’t have the technical knowledge to fix it. So, they’re always importing and importing and the demand is so high due that glitch in the system that a 12 year old Toyota Rav4 (from japan) costs $15000+. The same car, our current car, that has been in Africa 4-5 years, is worth maybe $6000. The market is completely warped. Enough complaining, we just need a solution that is going to kill us. We just didn’t come to Tanzania to worry about our transport 24/7, or waste $1000’s on repairs.

One more thing, we might get a puppy! Maybe?! There are these little rat-terriers that are breed to kill mice and rats. Someone has free puppies that we’re seeing today and it would be great to have a rat-killer roaming the premises…but that will mean we have two little ones to be responsible for – new puppy, and Asher. Being home with him more, I’ve really learned a lot about the boys. One thing is Asher doesn’t really like playing with “traditional” toys – cars, dinosaurs, swords – what he likes instead is destroying things. Like his diaper, or his lunch, or my Swahili notebook, or our flower bed outside (it’s more like a plant-bed than flowers though). He will slip into another room and you never know what kind of surprise you’ll find around the corner. So we’re just not sure if we’re ready for a “rat-killer” puppy…but we need one…ah, the dilemmas of life in Tanzania – smile.