Blogs from Iringa, Centre, Tanzania, Africa - page 2

Another volunteer, Helen and I set up a great “explore the forest” lesson with students from one of the villages in Pawaga region who can’t afford to go to school. I came up with the idea because Helen and I went to a section of the forested area on our own that had not been totally cleared (it’s disappearing fast) to find some tree seeds for the nursery that may be set up here. Our trip, and us discovering this forest, inspired me to take these students/peers (they are between 18-20) out to this forest to have an active environmental education lesson on forest ecology. We wanted to teach and demonstrate the importance of forests and the problems that result from deforestation (locally and globally). This particular forest was really good to demonstrate with because it ... read more

Hello everyone. I a so sorry that I have virtualy neglected facebook and the blog this time around. I am much busier than lat time and not only that, the project is much different than last time as well. Unfortunately, since I have been so busy, I have not sat down and journaled very day like I wanted to. The handy journal I brought along with me has turned into: Swahili/English dictionary, a book of random to do lists/notes and a book of schedules.This makes me sad because I already can not remember the details of everyday. It has been such a blur. Life is such I guess. So to bring everyone up to speed: This project stated out as an elephant study. We were tracking them, taking data on elephant raids, movements, etc. It evolved ... read more

Over the past five years you have been with us all the way. You have supported us, prayed for us, and shared in our labors. You have been with us through tears of joy and of sorrow. We have taken seriously the need to report honestly. We have shared the joys of conversions, restorations, and congregational development. We have balanced that with the realities of power outages, filtered water, malaria, and the vehicle rollover crash. If we have downplayed anything, it would be to not complain about some challenges that are part of real world Tanzania. We dare not focus upon those things when so many people have so much less than we have. We have ... read more

The recent rains have caused bugs to swarm. The Swahili word for bug is "mdudu." And all sorts of interesting wadudu (plural), some poisonous, have been in and around our house lately; flying, jumping, and crawling creatures. We leave a nightlight on at the back door, and in the morning there are piles of wings that have been shed by the ones attracted to the light. Yesterday Joy and I spent some time cleaning around the rear steps, because we had an infestation, yea a breading-ground, of "Nairobi" flies. These tiny little critters have a segmented body of alternating black and red. If one gets on you, be sure to flick it off - don't smash it upon yourself. According to Wikipedia: "The beetles neither sting nor bite, but their haemolymph contai... read more

We made the 8 hour drive to the working capital of Dar Es Salaam and said our goodbyes to Joy and Lindsey at the international airport. Their journey from Iringa until they arrived at Joy’s parents’ home in Stockton, California would take about 50 hours. Wow! You talk about an exhausting ordeal. We are happy they have been enjoying the time with family and Christian friends. Since Carey, Charles and I were in Dar for the airport deposit, we got some errands done; especially since Iringa has much fewer items available. We were able to purchase a new modem which we had hoped would improve our internet connection (no improvement on this yet). Wednesday evening we worshiped with the congregation that used to be Charles’ church home. They asked me to teach the Bible class. My ... read more