Getting Settled

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Hello Everyone!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Habari Za Leo? (How are you today?) I hope this entry finds everyone happy, healthy and laboring diligently for the Lord. We are all doing very well. We are getting settled in to our home nicely and getting right to work. Sean has been in Indonesia for a couple of weeks now. He is teaching in the school there and traveling to different congregations in different areas doing some preaching. He will be leaving this Friday (tomorrow) for some of the other islands where he will be lecturing on Eldership and preacher relationships. It is going very well so far. He says they have received the information with great interest and have had some great discussions as well. However, we are very much looking forward to having him home😊. With him gone I've had to take a "crash course" in driving- no pun intended. I'm driving a left handed stick shift on the right side of the car on the left side of the road with great ease now (yea right)! The kids haven't screamed too many times. They've been real troopers.
I've been staying very busy getting settled in to our house. I've begun painting on the walls to make it feel like home. I'm also teaching the high school girls on Sunday morning and leading ladies class on Wednesday nights. I say leading because several of them have volunteered to teach class and I'm just there to kind of get it started. Shasta Brown gathered all the material and divided it among those willing to teach- so I've got it pretty easy actually. The ladies all went to one of the members house last Tuesday for bible study and a meal. We had a wonderful time and a really great turn out. It was at Caroline's house (I only know first names at this point) and Jane was the teacher. She did a wonderful job teaching on Steadfastness. We had great discussion on the lesson and various other topics and then shared in a wonderful meal. Caroline served beef and rice with tomatoes and cucumbers. It was very tasty! Afterward we ALL climbed in my vehicle so I could take everyone back to where we had met. There were 14 women and 2 babies in my 8 passenger vehicle. We laughed and said we had our own Dala Dala. Dala Dalas are the public transportation they have available here. They are vans that have these crazy sayings on them and they pack as many people on them as they possibly can. The passengers are like sardines in those things! So, we had our own Dala Dala that day!
So many strange and funny things happen in a day that it is impossible to tell you everything, even though I would like to. There are so many photo opportunities I have missed along the road with Sean being gone because I am the driver, but I will include some of what I have.
The other day, Race and I were headed to town and came upon two little children (about 3 yrs old) playing out by the dirt road. We carry a basket of toys and candy to hand out from time to time, so I asked Race if he wanted to pick out a couple of toys to give them and he said he did. So we stopped and he got out two toys. When he stuck his hand out the window and motioned that they were for them, they took off like a shot, screaming all the way home. Race was bewildered. He didn't know what to do so he just threw the toys out the window. There was a Tanzanian woman on the other side of the road watching the whole thing, laughing her head off. She picked up the toys and took them to the children's house. I guess they'd never seen a "Wazungu" (white person) before. One more funny story, then I'll close. Maddie went to the market with here friend Emily Richardson. While they were there, a man offered Julie 30 cows apiece for Maddie and Emily. He was serious! Maddie and Emily were mortified. Julie and I were very amused and said "If only he'd offered 32 apiece, then we would have had a deal! Like I said, you see funny stuff all the time and we are enjoying Tanzania so much despite the everyday inconveniences. We thank you all for your support and prayers for our family and know we would not be here if it were not for good brethren like you. Thank you.

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