Month 7 – Tanzania

Hi Everyone –

I am back with my team after an 18 hour bus ride to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

We are living in a cement house with a very sweet family in
a small community built on sand. We cook our own food. Oatmeal and pancakes
from scratch with our own homemade syrup aka sugar water for breakfast. Lunch
is always PB and J’s. For dinner it is usually potatoes and eggs or rice and
beans. We are in bed at 9pm at night just because we are woken up beginning at
1am by the 10 roosters that are right outside our room. So, sleep is very
interrupted for the majority of the night. I stop drinking water at 6pm because
at 8pm the guard dog comes out and you can’t use the restroom – which by the
way is a squatty and yes, it is outside. Hand washing my clothes takes over an
hour to do because if you don’t take your time it is almost as if they smell
worse than they did before. Welcome to Tanzania!

 

 

We had the privilege of visiting a school the other day. It
is a brand new school which is run by a man named Lucas and his wife in this
tiny tin shack. They served us cokes and sang us songs in Swahilli as well as
had a few of the kids sing the alphabet for us. We then taught them the chicken
dance as well as played simon says. It was by far one of the best mornings in Africa thus far. There is something about these kids that
just make me smile and bring me so much joy. And, we only made one kid cry. It
was his first day of school and Lucas said, he was scared because he had never
seen white people. Poor kid may be scared for life. : )

 

 

We are also doing a lot of speaking this month. We are all
pretty much over any fear of public speaking. It’s pretty normal now. One day
on the way to church we came across a little boy who was all by himself outside
of his home. Pastor David said that his parents are divorced and that his mom
left his dad and that his dad leaves him alone all day while he drinks. This
little boy, has down syndrome as well as other disabilities that leaves him not
being able to walk or talk. He was just sitting there in the dirt with nothing
but a t-shirt on. It broke my heart but also made me angry that
people were not doing anything to help. David said that his dad gets angry when
people offer to help and that they have tried to help this little boy and his
dad. It is so hard to not do something in this instance. We offered for one of
us to stay with the boy while at church but David said that his dad would not
allow it and would be angry if he came home and saw that we were helping. So,
we walked away from this little boy after praying for him. We see him outside
every day on our way to church just sitting there in the dirt. Please praying
for him and for a change in his dad’s heart.