I'm Super Pumped!
Today was such an eventful day! Breakfast was new-fried eggs, toast, and fresh watermelon, cucumber, and mango! It was sooo good! Everyone went back for seconds (and thirds). This morning we split the team into it’s usual groups, 5 for teaching English to the street children and 5 for teaching stove making. Both went really well for having such early starts. During our debriefing time after dinner, the English team told stories of how lively and enthusiastic the kids were about learning, and how the team really fed off it and had a great time too.
The stove teaching could not have gone better. One of the women who helps run Our Father’s House, the street kid ministry, has been to every one of our stove lessons, and this morning she taught the other women that came. And that is exactly what we wanted. Stove teaching is only sustainable if the community wants to adopt the technology offered, and it really seems like these stoves will be a positive impact here. Which I think is so neat!
After our usual lunch of PB + J’s with fruit, all 10 of us went to what was supposed to be the demonstration farm for Our Father’s House. At the demo farm, the youth learn practical ways to farm and eventually sustain themselves once they are older. However, we didn’t go to this farm. Instead we went to the regular farm for Our Father’s House. Which like any small farm in the States, produces the fruits and vegetables that feed the street kids. So instead of learning and watching practical ways to farm, we just farmed the dirt. With a hoe. In our Chacos. You could say that we were not prepared for that communication mix up. But everyone on both sides took it well, and we still learned a lot of information regarding future projects of Our Father’s House.
The evening was spent writing thank you notes and buying gifts for our “leave-taking ceremony” as well as dinner tomorrow. The ceremony will be a time when both parties exchanges formal goodbyes, presents, hugs, and probably a few tears too. So we wrote letters and created small gifts for the staff, our translators, and drivers, just to let them know how much they mean to us. For Mama Chuare, the kind lady that cooks 2 meals a day for us as well as washing all our clothes, we are going to cook her an American style dinner tomorrow night, that is actually going to be made of breakfast food. We want to show love, hospitality, and grace to the people that have shared that with us from the start.
As we wrap up our time here in Tarime, it is obvious that the team is sad that we are leaving a place where we have made so many memories and friendships. But at the same time, I know they are excited about the week ahead of us, and what is in store in Gabimori. Thistrip has been so fun, uplifting, and extremely rewarding, and I can’t wait to see what comes of the next week.
Love,
Madison Church
Tikiti maji! (Watermelon)
So I must tell you - NEVER EVER EVER EVER tell a child that you are afraid of bugs. At the demo farm, the kids picked up a grasshopper and chased me around the fields with it. After I finally got them under control, we had a language lesson; they taught me the Swahili words for the seeds they were planting, and I shared the English form. I am incredibly proud of these kids. They have seen some harsh things in their life, but God is moving through them.
I super apologize for the late post, we get heavy rain storms every night that inhibit blogging. Keep praying, especially as we learn to say goodbye to the friends that we have made here in Tarime.
2017 Tanzania Team
Mom, what is the cure for heartache? I'm going to miss Africa a lot when I leave