Advertisement
Published: February 18th 2008
Busy as Bees
The African bees around the old house... are enjoying the fresh flowers after the afternoon rainfall.This week we have been working hard to keep up our regular routine, with evangelism and teaching as well as trying to clean and paint the new house. It's turned into some long days when quitting time was when the power finally went out. The kids have been playing in the mud all around the new house, with the coming of the first rains of the season, and with the rain in comes the mud along with the paint... so it's almost as if we're making a bigger mess that what was there to begin with. We're going to have to plant some more grass in the yard quickly.
But it is slowly coming along. I personally am gaining a good sized dose of "TANZANIAN PATIENCE" in dealing with the fundis (workers/trades men) on this project. One having said he was a Technician of paint, only to find out he painted just about as good as Gracie does... It literally looked like he took the bucket and just threw it on the wall in places. Tears dripping down all the way to the floor. "I told him my walls were crying!" (he didn't get it!) So with all the basic
Julie & Mama Lima
at the Joy Foundation Orphanage in Boma Ngombe walls painted we are now going back through the house making the needed corrections... sanding down the drips to repaint and touch up a few areas. Then the Tile fundi tried to tell me that what I wanted to do was not possible. I said I wanted white and black tiles for the cabinet top and , he said, "NO ONLY WHITE, will work" so, back and forth we went until I went and grabbed a friend to translate for me to tell him that I wasn't asking his opinion. I was telling him what I was going to be putting on the cabinets. Next came the carpenter, who made the bed frames for us.. we had ordered 3 bunk beds, and they were delivered on this same "LONG" day... What we ended up with was: 1 bunk bed and 2 single twin frames. He could not understand why we were not thrilled! Brent had told him bunk beds, drawn him a picture, printed off a picture on the computer and still... 1 bunk bed and regular 2 twin frames. He said he thought since we only measured four mattresses that we didn't mean to say bunk beds.. (That was
George's Baptism on Monday
a Young man who studied with Emmanuel from Machame literally his reasoning behind the change) Brent turned around looked me straight in the eye and said, "1 out of three ain't bad!" I about lost it... had to turn around and go into the other room to laugh out loud! Lean on the wall, with my face in my hands and laugh it off!
The paint store... aww the fun of finding the color you are hoping to get!! I had priced paint in Arusha to find it around 30-45$ a gallon. Then here in Moshi I found a shop that sold it for 11-23$ a gallon, depending on the type and color. Well I was beside myself excited and Called Shasta and the other girls wanting to paint in Arusha, to tell them the good news... So we went in to place the order, pointed out our color on the chart with a smile, only to hear.... "we don't have that one" ok well I'll choose the closest one to that... "No, sorry we don't have that one" over and over again.. all the way through the chart till I finally asked, "What DO you have?" So they pointed to the floor to a single bucket of
the 1st time Emmanuel ever baptized anyone...
They were both scared of the water. (Emmanuel is one of the first converts from the machame area and has been preaching and teaching there) white and a few buckets of broken white... and said we would have to order the others, Which was what I had thought we would have to do to begin with... So that was fine! So, I chose the broken white to begin on the hall ways (since they had more than one bucket of it) After we put it on the walls, it turned out to be YELLOW (no where near a broken white! and Brent says, "It's broken alright!" (you see the humor in what we're dealing with here, is getting to us)...
But we had ordered the rest, which was supposed to come in the following day! so they say! We always tend to be a little suspicious when it comes to getting something that fast here! Well I went to painting the halls the next day, at the new house, left the fudis to work when I got a call from the shop, just said "come to paint shop please" I was beside myself thrilled with the idea of something getting done so quickly... But I should have known, it was too good to be true. I jumped in the truck and headed down town
Helping them through it...
Brent was there to help them get through the process and when I got there, I find out that the mixer had broken down. So, a little frustrated, I went to the next paint store down the road, to find out their mixer is broken as well. What are the odds, I'm thinking... Then the third paint store, its the same story. As it turns out, all the paint stores in moshi use the same guy to do their mixing. And his machine was broken! When will it get fixed?? He doesn't even know! Why, because, TIA, "This is AFRICA"
So what do you do??? We have to move in by the end of next week.... So, I returned to the second paint shop where I saw that they had some basic colors on the shelf, and began buying colors to mix them myself, to try to get somewhere in the general area of what we were aiming for.... SO, the outcome is, we have some pretty bright walls, but they are freshly painted and clean! So you do what you gotta do, and move on! TIA!
Brent went out each day to continue his evangelism and studies in the local villages, and called me Monday to come
meet him at the building in Moshi to see one of the young ladies from Machame, who we had been studying with, Asher, to be baptized along with another young man named George also from Machame. We were thrilled to have the blessing of being there to see these two young souls added to the kingdom! Then Thursday, another young man from Machame was baptized just after a study with Brent as well. So it has been a tremendous week for the kingdom!
Tuesday I returned to Boma Ngombe to teach Bible at the Nursery school as usual took all of the children's pictures for this year's class photos, and while I was in town I went by the orphanage to visit Mama Lima and the children there at the Joy Foundation. I had promised her I would bring the camera by to take a few pictures of her children for her. While I was there Mama Lima said one of her teachers was sick that day and asked if I would teach the children a Bible Lesson. So we went to their class room across the street and held Bible Class for an hour there with the 30
orphans that were around the building. Emily & Gracie were there to help out, we sang songs, and taught a great class. The children loved it and still remembered the "Hippo Song" from last year's campaign in Moshi, when they all came and attended our children's Bible classes. These would be the children who are not currently enrolled in any other school and stay there around the orphanage all day. So I got the idea to take mama Lima back with me to talk to Timothy at the Nursery school and they sat and visited about school fees, and the standard 1 class and the requirements to join the school. I think she may be considering enrolling a few of the orphans at the school sometime in the future. We'll see how that all works out. For me both places are filled with children who just melt my heart every time I am around them. The joy of just being near them, does my heart good! Mama Lima is also a widow, tending to orphans, as is Mary who takes care of the 3 orphans that attend the nursery school, So I guess Tuesday is my personal visitation day for
orphans and widows whom I dearly love.
Tonight was a little exciting too! We had 3 sweet young ladies as visitors, from England to come to evening services at Moshi. Daniella, Holly, and Antonia (hope I am not spelling those incorrectly) they came across our blog on the internet, as they were planning their travels to Tanzania. They will be living here for a little over a month working with a school and community service group working out of Moshi, so they were looking for a church to worship with, and they found us. So the blog is reaching out to so many more than we realize! We were so glad to see them there tonight, and hope that they will continue to join us each and every opportunity that they can as they are here in Tanzania.
So all in all it's been a great week! We've been as busy as bees... Which are also taking over the front gate of what we're now calling the OLD house, and we'll hopefully be moving in by the end of this next week if all goes as planned! But TIA This is Africa! We'll just have to wait and
Asher, George, & Emmanuel
A great day for the kingdom! see, as we press on one day at a time.
Keep our nephew, Kelly Brannum and sweet friend, Callie Donaldson in your prayers as they are loading up on a plane in the states as we speak and are due to arrive here in Tanzania on Tuesday afternoon.
God Bless You in all that you are doing!
In His Service,
Julie
Advertisement
Tot: 0.23s; Tpl: 0.026s; cc: 15; qc: 131; dbt: 0.139s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
