News

Oct. 27, 2003

Jambo, friends and family!

Well, we have been here in Tanzania almost a week. In some ways the days feel very long because we aren’t busy driving around, running to Wal-Mart, going out to eat, surfing the Internet, or talking on the phone. It’s amazing how much time those activities can consume! In other ways it’s hard to believe we are one-fifth of the way through with our time here.

We are doing well here in Africa. A power outage of about 20 hours has prevented us from e-mailing sooner. When the power fails, we can run lights on a generator, but the generator’s power is not enough for computers. We are still waiting for the power and will e-mail this letter as soon as it comes back on.

So far we have had some work in the main office (trying to clean up and update the computer a little, designing and printing graduation certificates). We also helped my African sister, Rogathe, in her office. She is the coordinator for the Compassion International child sponsorship program here. This office is in charge of 237 sponsored children in the area. She and the two other workers make sure the children have school supplies and uniforms, milk and healthy foods, immunizations, and some sort of mattress to sleep on as many just sleep on the dirt floors before they are sponsored. They also have field trips now and then, and every Saturday they have what they refer to as “Sunday School.” They have prayer, a Bible class, a health and HIV awareness class, playtime, and lunch. We went over during playtime after finishing some work in the office. Children love to get attention from “wazungu” (white people). We took some great pictures of them. I doubt we’ll send any photos from here anytime soon. The Internet connections are very slow, probably about like they were 10 years ago in America.

As for village life, the culture is such that everyone would sit around talking all day and night if they didn’t have to work. But the reality of life is that people have to walk miles a day to obtain water and carry in home on their heads or with donkeys. Then, just cooking and washing clothes can take all day. However, even the wells, the markets, the shops, the bus stops—anywhere—can become a social gathering. And anywhere people go, it seems they greet each other as if they were close friends, even if they’ve never seen each other before. We usually don’t leave the Sakila village area except to go to Arusha or the farm. We have been to Arusha twice now. It has its good qualities—that’s where we can exchange our money, find good banks, and buy groceries. But the heart of the people is in the villages.

Now that we are accustomed to the culture a little, have gotten over jetlag, and know some of the people, we will have more work to do than we did in our first week. David will soon be helping with a building project of a public Christian school. (It’s public because it’s free and available to all the children who can’t go to school because the schools are overcrowded but Christian because it’s being built by the Bible school and Bible classes will be available.) On November 6^th, a man from Wyoming arrives. He is the one who digs all the wells in the area and is mainly responsible for providing the people for miles around with enough water and also for providing enough water to irrigate the farm that raises food for the Bible school students. He usually needs a lot of help, so Dave will offer his assistance, and he hopes to learn to dig the wells himself. The water isn’t great for drinking because it has a lot of fluoride, but it’s better than nothing and is clean otherwise.

I am mostly doing work in the offices for now and have been able to help some in the typesetting, graphic design, and printing areas. For now I have enjoyed talking to people who know some English so they can help me learn more Swahili. I am so glad I studied as much as I did before we came but wish I had studied so much more! I only got a little more than halfway through the program we bought for the computer, but that’s better than nothing, and it has been helpful. My heart is really in children’s ministry, and I look forward to doing visitations to the sponsored children’s homes with Rogathe and the other workers in her office when that time comes. I have also been asked to teach at the Saturday morning schools, but it has been cancelled for this coming Saturday due to the wedding of Florence, the social worker in the Compassion International office. We look forward to observing a native wedding.

The weather has been warm and fairly humid, but it cools down in the evening. We have some rain, which is good, but that makes for very muggy (and muddy!) conditions. We can tell summer is coming down here in the southern hemisphere. It’s still cold on top of Mount Kilimanjaro, so our view of the mountain is obstructed by clouds. It will probably be clearer before we leave. We have a good view of Mount Meru most of the time.

Well, that’s certainly a long enough update for one week. We have power again, so I hope to send this e-mail now. I may send another update in a week or so.

Kwaherini sasa. Mungu akibariki na Bwana asifiwe! Baadaye,

(Goodbye now. God bless you, and praise the Lord! Until later,)

Crystal and David