Bob and Crystal in Bukoba

Sunday Speak

2007-09-01T14:46:00.001-07:00

In case you hadn't figured it out by our long silence, we have returned to "our home and native land." In this last period of silence, we have visited Johannesburg (for 7 hours - and it's truly a strange story), and Munich and Neuschwanstein (home of Mad King Ludvig - strange little man who died in a shallow lake) in Germany.

The last blog we wrote was a description of travel "inside." The impressions left on us of crossing the Kenyan border northward, however, are not the roads - but the incredible people we met. Men and women of God who are defying the odds, crossing tribal lines, sharing their faith and their dreams with those around them, and inspiring us to do the same. We were privileged beyond words to pray with them, listen to them, urge them on in their work, and be awed and encouraged by their life journeys and their living testimonies.

Now we are over jet-lag and bubbling with stories. Do you want to hear them? We'll be sharing them at Mackenzie Towne Church tomorrow morning at 10:00am (that's Sunday, September 2), with pictures and maybe music and a little dancing (okay, not likely the dancing...).

If you are interested in hearing some stories and can't make it tomorrow, feel free to contact us via email or phone. We are still VERY MUCH enjoying western food and would love to chat over dessert or some such nummy treat.

Indescribable

2007-08-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

I truly have no idea how to summarize the past four weeks. I will try to do it in a number of short blogs at a time, just so you get the most interesting parts in a somehow organized fashion.

It has no rhyme scheme, no pattern for stanzas, and is not edited. Bear with me.

SOUTH SUDAN SLIDING

Gravel road touching the horizon
Either side a vast wasteland
Shrubs and trees
Sand
Termite mounds reaching to the sky

Solitary soldier by the wayside
AK47 slung casually over his shoulder
Gives a nod, not a smile, but a greeting
Silent
Disappearing slowly 'round the bend

Children, wearing only robes
Herd the cattle and the goats o'er the road
Women carry water jugs on their heads
Beaded necklaces from shoulder to chin
Topless
Babies tied to their backs

Tiny towns of round mud huts
Children shouting, waving, chasing as you pass
Mothers nursing babies beneath shady trees
Buildings bombed
Dust whirling beneath your wheels as you go

Roadside scenery changing slowly
From desolate desert to waving green grass
Palm trees alone, standing against the backdrop of the mountains
Birds of all colours of the rainbow flitting to and fro
Roadside turnout...the gravel is left behind.

Now the bumping begins in earnest
Every spin of the tires drops you into a mudhole
Tires kick up thick black mud, sliding and fishtailing
And a river...down you go...water splashing over the windshield
Trucks, heavy and burdened, sunken into the mudholes
Forever to rust

Three hours! Your back is aching
Puddles glisten, thick mud hiding their depths
Men and children bathe in the water through which you pass
Staring
Splashing.

The long grasses part and there stands
An old woman
Bamboo propped on her head,
A smoking pipe in her toothless smiling mouth
The cloth she wears draped loosely over her shoulder and bare feet.

It is a world unknown. Untouched.
Surprising in its simplicity.
No pavement mars the mudholed path.
No electric wires split the blue, blue sky.
The fingers of technology and "civilization" have not come.
And maybe will not come.
And maybe should not come.

***
Okay, I know it's not a real poem. But real sentences would simply take too long and not convey any of it.

Maybe later this weekend we'll give you something of the people we met...

Slum Bishop

2007-07-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

Our days in Nairobi have been full of rest and new sights. Western food is a relief - I didn't realize how much we westerners rely on variety in our meals! Ice cream especially is a treat. We are mingling with missionaries from all over the world - Taiwan, New Zealand, USA, England, Ireland, Canada, etc. Yesterday we took a day trip to the Masaii Market for a little "shopping" - and found that it's sometimes difficult to shake some of these salesmen when they really want to sell you something, even if you don't want it!

Today we went to a church in the slums of Nairobi - in fact, the second largest slum in the continent of Africa. It's called Kibera. A million people live in one small area - check the pictures to see the amount of people milling the streets! Incredible. Bishop Timothy, a dear friend of Gord and Carole's, has started a huge ministry here and his church has already birthed some 50 churches across Kenya. He has a number of schools for orphans and they feed 2000 orphans 3 meals a day every day!!! Without asking for money! This is definitely miraculous. He is also running several Bible schools and sending pastors out into a variety of areas. Timothy has been robbed several times, including one break-and-entry into his home while his children were around. His response? "I have two options: either I die and go to be with the Lord, or I continue to serve the Lord here. Both are good options!"

So very true.

Part Two

2007-07-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

TRAVELING MERCIES!!!

We have said goodbye to Bukoba and now have said goodbye to half of our team. According to Gordon, our team leader, after we leave Nairobi we will be saying goodbye to most comforts as well and saying hello to some mud huts, tents, hiking and rough roads as we prepare to head into South Sudan.

If the last twenty hours on the road are any indication of what we will be traveling on, please pray for my motion sickness. The main highway between Nairobi and Kampala was one of the roughest "paved roads" I have been on in a while. A large portion of it is under construction and is now dirt, though it was hard to tell when you left the pavement anyways. The trip was supposed to take 12 hours but, due to the mix of construction and a bad rain storm, a few big trucks got a little stuck and blocked the highway for about 3 hours. It also took another hour to squeeze past the line of trucks and buses on the other side of the mess. Wow.

To top this off, the border between Uganda and Kenya was closed when we arrived four hours late. So our bus driver took the back way around to the gate, passed across into Kenya, dropped us off and told us to walk back into Uganda to the closed immigration office and wait for the "man with the keys" to stamp us out of Uganda so that the open office on the Kenyan side could stamp us into Kenya.

It brings back memories of sleeping on the side of a mountain in China because of a broken down truck and the lack of space between the truck and a seemingly endless cliff. Last night there were no cliffs but I am pretty sure that if I dropped something the thickness of a quarter between the mirrors or bumpers of these trucks going opposite directions the quarter would get stuck. These drivers truly leave no room for error.

THOUGHTS ON BUKOBA
As I think back to my time in Bukoba, the things that stand out the most are the people and the friendships we made. Then I think about missions and what our role is, as the "Rich North American" (because, in comparison to the Africans we have met, we are all loaded, even in our own North American context). Those involved in ministry and the friends we made do not want us simply to send them a cheque. Yes, they do want our money, but they want more than that. They want to be in relationship with us. This is largely because, in African mindset, friends and finances go hand in hand.

When I compare our individualistic culture with their community mentality I do not understand Africans as much as they do not understand me. How they deal with money and how we handle money are as far apart as our countries are physically. The question remains, what is the best way to close that gap? You cannot spend a lot of time in Africa (though two months is not really a lot of time) and not begin to question what is the best use of money. Are we right in our western, time-oriented "save save save" world ? Are the Africans right in their "respond to what you see is the most pressing need?" I know we as North Americans think we are right! But I am learning it is about what we perceive as needs.

Here are three needs. You can only pick one; what would you pick?

Buying a TV
Having running water
Helping a friend

I know my answer. Having running water! (Though helping my friends are pretty high, I want to pay my bills)

In Africa, it seems having a TV or helping a friend often comes before having running water. Since this seems to be the order they get it. I can't count how many times I went to turn the taps on and nothing came out. Yet they all had cable!

Our perceived needs are different. Who's right?

The two things I am looking forward to most:
One on one with Gordon and Carole and Crystal and I
And visiting a leadership training center that is in its second year of becoming a reality

Stay tuned!

You Can't Do That in Canada

2007-07-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

There is another new post below this one, but it is less happy than this one - so you may want to read it first!

So we arrived in Kampala after an incident at the Tanzanian border! That will be saved for another discussion, since there's so much going on and so little time to write. From Kampala, after defying death walking through the wickedly jammed-up streets, we boarded a bus and headed to Jinja for our group activity - white-water rafting on the Nile! Geoff went ATVing along the shores instead, while the seven of us prepared for a real adventure.

Adventure started in Jinja. Following include the things you can't do in Canada - that we DID do in Jinja!

* Ride a boda-boda (tiny motorcycle) side-saddle without helmets through the streets. 8 of us on 8 motorcycles, like a little gang. Kim's broke down eventually and so she sat on the back of mine with me - three of us on this tiny little thing! Can't do that in Canada!
* Ride in the back of a truck, standing up and holding onto metal bars. 8km of crazy bumps through fields of sugar-cane and banana trees.
* Eat real western food in a real western restaurant over-looking the Nile river and listening to monkeys as they chattered about in the trees.

Nile experience - you can't do THAT in Canada either!
* Boarded a 14 food red vessel with a lifted nose and paddle off into the river
* Spun the boat, flipped the boat, swam around the boat, swam UNDER the boat when it was upside-down, floated on our backs in the Nile looking up at the blue Ugandan sky
* Hit class 5 rapids, the highest level you can take even professionally. They are almost completely safe because of the incredible volume of water, but that doesn't mean they are without thrills! First set of class 4 rapids and I was up and out of the boat, floating rapidly downstream with my paddle in hand. My knight in shining kayak rescued me at the nice safe part.
* Next set of rapids - our whole boat flipped and we crashed helmets, paddles, arms and legs as the churning water tossed us around, plunged us down into the waves and spat us back up, sputtering and coughing. Laughter abounded as we reboarded our righted raft later on.
* Hit Silverback Waterfall, 3 meters high, and watched the other rafts simply disappear over the edge. Our hearts pounded as we paddled toward the edge of what we could see, soared rapidly around a rock, and dove nose first into the boiling, frothing hole below. Right-side up, we paddled into a class 3 rapid and came out staring as another raft dove over the edge. Incredible.
* Second flip was more fun for everone else - less fun for me, since something collided with my face and left a pretty Nile Tatoo on my nose (OUCH!). This particular rapid was like being in a washing machine and we grabbed air where we could before smashing into waves again. As we finally drifted - individually - into a smoother water, I caught someone's paddle and then was hauled back into our raft as we rammed into a tree on Bat Island. Bats galore flying overhead, woken up by the smashing of paddles on the calm waters at its shore.
* I wimped out at "The Bad Place" - the last grade 5 waterfall, a converging of three rivers with enormous volumes of water. I've done it before - four years ago - and besides, my face was still hurting from the last toss. Carole and I ran over to a huge rock and watched as our craft expertly crested the wave, dove into the hole and soared safely over the top. Bob's face registered total disappointment that they hadn't flipped - but not to worry, our trusty raft-guide steered them into "the other place" and the boat tossed them like salad into the water there.
* And we even have a video to prove it!

What a team building exercise! It was fantastic to spend time together doing something that didn't require emotional energy but rather caused a healthy physical strain and brought laughter and joy.

Painful Goodbyes

2007-07-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

Nothing has prepared us for the grief of saying goodbye to our host families. After only two months of staying, we were not expecting to find it so difficult to leave them behind - knowing that we may never see them again. "Mungu akipenda, tutoanana tena" - "if God wishes, we will see you again" - this was the refrain we heard and said often.

The farewells started on Friday night, after a week of preparation - shopping for gifts for our host families and friends, preparing for packing and travel, discussion about who to support in Tanzania and how to deal with the barrage of financial requests hitting us throughout the week. This was not a deterrent to friendship, as we have learned that in Tanzanian friendships, requesting money does not demonstrate a lack of care or a desire to use you but demonstrates respect and trust. Friday evening, Bob and I took Mama Sweya and her relatives and the children staying in her house out to supper at a fancy restaurant overlooking Bukoba. WHAT an experience! In spite of what we thought was food heaven (western food!), our African friends weren't so keen - especially on coleslaw. We waited an our for our food and gave out wrapped gifts. Ema, age 4, was the first - and didn't respond to the gift as a North American child would but rather with shock and confusion - "what do I do with this?" The other children figured it out as they watched him, and they were bouncing with excitement. Wrapped gifts are very unusual here.

Saturday night another party - this time with our whole team, plus two members from each household, plus some of the extra friends we'd made (some of the church elders, the only bibi - elderly lady - in the church, two women with AIDS that we have befriended and who are now attending the church and being cared for by the pastor's wife and other ladies). After supper (coleslaw again - our host family members avoided it) were the speeches and the emotion was thick - tears from many people, both us North Americans and our African friends. The emotion was surprising again, and very difficult, even though it was evidence of deep friendships that had been formed.

On Sunday we had a real treat! Beth, Kim, Bob and I danced with the choir finally - after weeks of practice and being too shy to actually join them during service. Chris preached, we all sang songs together, and then afterwards joined together for biscuits and sodas. Mama Sweya had decorated the church beautifully and we watched the choir sing for us. A number of our friends had written songs for us, which they sang (some in English and some in Swahili) alone - GUTSY. Tears flowed again. The mamas brought up gifts for the ladies, and the babas for the men, and then our host families brought up gifts for our parents! (So yes, Mom and Dad Wiens and Walker, you guys have gifts from our host parents!).

Monday morning at 6:30 am we all met at the bus station and painful goodbyes continued. At this point, many of us were numb from crying and just wanted to get it over with already! Three days of emotion is too much for anyone. When we finally boarded the bus, we had bags and bags of fried chicken, mandazi, and samosas for the trip - well loaded up for the ride home.

So now that part is over and the debrief has begun. So much to think over and consider. Tomorrow four of our team head to Canada and Bob and I, Gord and Carole, head to Nairobi and then to South Sudan. The adventures continue. I hope you are enjoying the journey with us!

Roof is up!

2007-07-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Talk about a busy three days. It only took three days for from 12 to 20 people to raise 14 rafters up onto the walls of the church. It was a great time to spend more time with some of the guys that we have been helping us with language, as well as some of the builders that have been working on the church since before we arrived. The builders are also the elders of the church plant that this church planted about seven kilometers away. Some of these guys walk the 7km every morning and every evening. It is humbling when at times I have complained about the just over 1km that Crystal and I have to walk. God did bless us with a cooler weather though. The day we started raising the rafters we were delayed by a down pour of rain for the morning. In Swahili rafters are called kenches. In the next couple of days they will be putting up the fotos (support beams that space the rafters and that are used to attach the metal roof.

As mentioned earlier, the previous weekend we were at Melaba were we were invovled with an evangelistic campaign that the church we are helping put on. It was a great weekend, though the choir needed to preservere with out any water, for bathing or drinking, which explains why when the last service was over and the buses arrived to return to Bukoba, the Africans moved faster than I've ever seen Africans move.

Continue to pray for us and for them as we finish our last week here in Bukoba and begin our journey to Sudan.

Around Tanzania by BUS!

2007-07-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Some notes about bus travel in Tanzania:

* When a bus seems full, there is always room for more. Four seats across = five bums, regardless of size.
* Monkeys like to sit by the side of the road and watch buses go by.
* Roads are paved by prisoners - Chinese prisoners. This is a little strange.
* Tarmac roads are not as safe as they look. Buses like to drive at rampage speeds downwards - this so they can actually make it to the top of the hill on the other side.
* Wide-mouthed waterbottles will not give you success in drinking while driving on unpaved roads. Bumps create havoc and you will usually look like you've had an accident.
* Every stop includes vendors holding cooked bananas, bags of juice, and sometimes shishkabobs (kind of - meat may be questionable).

We traveled to Karagwe and Muleba, two villages within 200 km (west) from Bukoba. In Karagwe we lived with families - Bob and I stayed in a poor home with no electricity or running water, and a cho (toilet) covered in bugs (including slugs). The family was incredibly warm and hospitable, as are almost all people here. The toilets, however, were not so welcoming. Most toilets in the area were shallow enough to see the maggots swarming over the bottom. No toilet reading here.

We drove to several orphanages to visit children and were amazed by the different way of running orphanages here - it is more like a cooperative where several children live in a home with several widows, most of whom are widowed from AIDS and themselves are HIV positive. They get together - everyone from the cooperative - to sing and dance and encourage one another. We got to spend time singing and praying with them, and sharing testimonies to encourage them. As we prepare to leave, we are exploring areas that we would like to support, and it is awesome to see so many different opportunites and get to know them.

This area of Tanzania is very hilly, full of valleys and lakes and rivers, and lined with banana plantations and coffee trees and small huts. Beautiful.

Last weekend we traveled to Muleba with the church from Bukoba. WHAT an experience! It was an evangelistic outreach driven by the choir of Bukoba, which is an incredible singing and dancing group. We shared our stories, visited homes in the neighbourhood, and just had a fantastic time getting to know the choir members and encouraging the local church. I also had the privilege of seeing a fortress where a king of Africa used to live - including the round hut in which he is buried (only wife of dead king has the key - she is still living and very old. Met her).

And today was an incredibly special day as we have been working with teh Bukoba church to build the roof, and today the trusses went UP! 20-30 church men came up, and we, together with them, "raised the roof" - and are thankful for only minor injuries.

Time is again ticking away, so we shall post. Plan to put some pictures on soon!

PS. Rice and beans sometimes contain bits of gravel and small rocks. Chew with care.

Bits and Pieces

2007-06-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so email and everything is ESPECIALLY slow today and quite frustrating. I will write little and attach pictures. I want to respond to each of you who have written, but can't because email just isn't quick enough.

FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT

Children here actually catch grasshoppers, tie little strings on their legs, and then let them fly away - but of course, they can catch them with these trusty little attachments!

FOOD UPDATE

Fish soup for breakfast! That's a new one. Also, I watched dinner die the other week (chicken - they saw the heads off instead of chopping. Less flopping of the victim after death. Amazingly, I still had an appetite!). Plus, yesterday I cut off the fish heads for dinner. But I still won't kill anything myself...not even a grasshopper.

KWAYA PRACTICE (Choir - that's truly how they spell it here!)

The way they learn here is incredible. Instead of having written words, they listen to each line several times, and then sing it - and find their own harmonies. What results is a beautiful blend of voice!

NEW FRIENDS

Yesterday I walked past a pillowcase making shop, and stopped into meet a girl I'd met last week with Mama Sweya. The girl invited me back, so I brought Beth and we sat and visited today for an hour. Great fun!

CHILDREN

How they love posing for pictures here! Forget candids - unless you have 100 metre zoom.

THIS WEEKEND

We are all traveling to Karagwe by bus for the weekend. During this time, we will visit an orphanage, create a program for church and possibly school, encourage the church (that means leaving money...), and pray with families.

DISCOVERY - FROM THE MOUTHS OF AFRICANS

The people here do not want Westerners to simply "send money." They want us to come, pray with them, meet them, have friendships (deeply) with them, encourage them. Sending money does not result in relationships, which is of prime importance to people here - and, I believe, to God also.

Okay, so let's now try for some photos...

PS. Taubensees, THANK YOU for the tip. We have now set up email and hopefully it will be quicker next time!

MOUTH ADVENTURES

2007-05-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

I've made mention to my family of my struggles with food here. It is improving as I become accustomed to the tastes of Tanzania, but it remains something I will deal with, as I have a small appetite and Africans want to feed us and make us plump (evidently my husband is not taking care of me well because I am small). Their neighbours look at Bob and I and say, “Oh! Sweya's are not feeding their guests! It is shame!” Therefore we are fed enormous portions of food that I struggle to swallow. Some of it is incredible, though! Take a look through the list and guess which ones I like...

1. Bananas and pineapples straight from heaven – sweet like candy

2. Chicken (called “kuku”) - pretty tough, with a rubbery skin that stretches in your teeth

3. Rice – prior to cooking, it's called “mchile” and after, “wayli.” We eat this every day.

4. Ugali. A very stiff white porridge that you use as a spoon to gather up meat, potatoes, spinach, whatever. Rather dry. At least it's not rancid, like in some areas. Gord says it is sometimes so rancid it tastes like barf.

5. Juice – fresh papaya or passionfruit or oranges squeezed into a jar. My fave: avacado-passionfruit. WOW!!!

6. Matoke – plantain (special bananas for cooking) that are boiled with tomatoes and other things and taste kind of like potatoes. Only, I like potatoes and these are...well...different.

7. Mandaz – like Timbits, only better. YUMMY!

8. Ngombe (moo) – chunks of beef (very expensive and usually served only to guests) that are excessively tasty but somewhat over-cooked.

9. Mapote (“mapotay”) - beans and peanuts in a creamy sauce. Actually incredibly tasty.

10. Greens – slimy and leafy

11. Fish. Fish. Fish. Always fish. Fried, boiled, in sauce. Sometimes extremely tasty. The tail can be quite sharp and crunchy, kind of like chips.

12. Bamia – ocra, as we know it in Canada, though you'd rarely see it there. We had it fried, thank goodness. Evidently when boiled, it looks just like a pot of snot.

13. Senene (“saynaynay”) - grasshoppers. Fried. Haven't had this delicacy yet.

14.Daaga. You want the most common food in Tanzania? Good for calcium? Eat daaga. They look like minnows (same size, too) and come from Lake Victoria. Typically, their heads are cut off and they are dried in the sun and smell HORRIFIC. We ate them boiled in tomato sauce over rice – full-bodied. Bob said they were just like fries but even he struggled to eat them, with their beady little eyes glaring up at you and then crunching in your teeth. Unbearable agony for me.

Canadian taste buds are adjusting to Tanzanian cuisine. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to experience this change – and I will be truly thankful for a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and Caesar salad!

Language Study

2007-05-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Habari za kutwa How is your Day?

That is one of the many greetings here in Bukoba. It is hard to believe that Crystal and I have been in Africa for five days (though it may be longer before we can get on the Internet again), since I am sitting in my room at Bwana (Mister) Sweya's House. Today we officially started six days of language acquisition. This is six days where we learn how to learn a language, using Swahili as the second language, so that after the six days, we can continue learning Swahili in a focused, self-directed way. The first day of this training had us becoming familiar with the tools/books we will be using and what is expected. We were also introduced to our language helper. What is different with this method of study compared to 'normal' school is we are not allowed to write out the words we are learning. Its focus is on listening to the people around you and training your ears to pull out different words. It is a slower pace of study to start, but as you get accustomed to the sounds, it is much faster. Also, we were challenged on our purpose of learning another language in this way. If our purpose to learn a language is just to learn a language, then chances are that we will not master it. But if it is about loving people, then communicating with them is the best way to love them. Your chances of learning the language are much better. Language is about relationships, and about how we interact in those relationships. The best way to learn a language is to be in relationships and that is the main focus of this style of language learning.

My language coach's name is Paolro (paul) Pambe (my Swahili spelling is a little off). He is the choir master and has lived in Bukoba for 3 years. Crystal gets to continue to build her relationship with Mama Sweya and is very excited to do so.

On a completely selfish view, I am the only one on the team that has had the chance to go swimming!! On Monday Crystal and I were invited to go swimming, but because Mama Sweya chose not to swim (actually, can't swim), Crystal chose not to either. The rest of the team members have not been so blessed. The best part of this story is not the actual swimming, though it was very refreshing. The Sweyas took us for a tour of Bukoba and the hills surrounding it! WOW! We had a great view of Lake Victoria which is supposedly 400 miles across and free like the sea when you cannot see land on the other side! Too bad we forgot our camera. Since they want us to teach them how to swim, I am sure we will be back there and this time, whenever that time, is we will bring our camera, though we may have to make our own trek!

Continue to pray that our language study goes well and that we are able to build good relationships with some people that we meet as we begin interacting with more people from the church, and within the community!!

Piki-pikis, Bucket Baths, and Squatty Potties

2007-05-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

This is seriously the slowest internet connection ever - but I'm thankful we have internet at all. Since it took five minutes to load, and I think it will take five minutes to load the blog again, I'll write this point form.

* Arrived safely in Entebbe early Saturday morning, took a bus with a CRAZY bus driver for 6 hours to Bukoba. Had to stop at the immigration/customs, get out, show passports, walk to the Tanzania immigration office, wait for the bus. Guys with guns. Long fences. Scary.

* Were met in bus parking lot two hours after arrival by Pastor Cleo. All 8 of us squished into two taxis, including luggage.

* Bob and I are staying with Mama Sweya and Bwana Swaya, a very wealthy Tanzanian couple. Initial greeting difficult, as Mama Sweya speaks mostly Swahili.

* Accomodations:
- Cement floors
- red tile roofs
- Roosters VERY LOUD in the morning
- Frogs and crickets VERY LOUd in the evening. We haven't been fed crickets yet. That's to come.
- Toilets are squatty potties. For those of you who don't know, that means they are holes in the floor, and you stand on either side and crouch over them to relieve yourself. Quite the experience.
- Bathing, in the "cho" (bathroom) is in a cement room (again, with the squatty), with buckets and a small cup. We are lucky to have hot water in our home - but sometimes it's so hot we have to refill it with cold so we can use it. You squat beside the drain hole and pour buckets of water over you. Difficult to wash long hair (Caryn, I understand the braids).
- the man of the house is most respected. We have to hold our elbow with our left hand when shaking his hand.

* Church on Sunday: after church, you walk past a line of people, shaking their hands, and then take your place at the end of the line so everyone else can walk past you and shake your hand.
* At market today someone asked me to be his lover. I was very thankful to have a wedding band and a cute husband nearby!

* Meals: rice (whyli), fish, beef, chicken, and ugali

I gave Mama Sweya a book today called "Prairie Fire" (thank you very much, young Mr. Cook). She loved it! Is practicing her reading with me.

Whole team feeling healthy and fit so far. Language study begins on Thursday.

By the way, picture Bukoba: hills, lush green vegetation (coffee and banana trees), the beautiful Lake Victoria, and lots and lots of RED DIRT.

3 minutes left. Let's see how quickly this loads!

Assante sana, squashed bananas!

2007-05-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

That means "thank you very much, squashed bananas!" in Swahili - something amusing to say and even more amusing to hear.

Well, we have basically completed our training here in Toronto. VERY EXCITED about leaving tomorrow! Today was all about cross-cultural experiences and interactions, which can frequently include significant miscommunications. Have to remember that other cultures are not "weird" - just different! But I got a huge amount of ideas for teaching with. Can't stop lesson plans, even from afar.

We spent the evening in Chinatown, after taking the Toronto underground (very dark, somewhat dismal, but still an interesting trip). This was kind of a "practice trip" - although the cultures are different, we still need to keep our eyes and ears open to understand why and how people communicate in other cultures. We walked passed one market that included a small, very smelly fish that resembles Daaga, something we'll probably eat in Bukoba. This I'm not that thrilled about. All else should be great.

Tomorrow we fly out at 8:00pm and arrive in London at 7:45am (London time). Should be a lovely trip. I've learned from Chris (team member) that the wings are supposed to bounce and turbulence is normal, so I will try not to be anxious unless I see Gord (team leader and former pilot) with a nervous expression.

Again, thank you for your prayers and support! If you feel like emailing, please do so - we'd love to hear from you.

Flowers in Toronto

2007-05-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, our flight was incredibly smooth, which made me excessively relieved and not dread our flight to London (even though it IS over the Atlantic and therefore we should expect more turbulence). We are living in a dormitory at Tyndale College/Seminary and enjoying the fragrance of the apple blossoms and lilacs as we take the odd stroll through the neighbourhood.

Mostly, we are enjoying meeting our fellow teammates. There are three teams leaving on Thursday: one medical team to Kenya and two ministry/development teams to Tanzania. The teams are 4, 9, and 8 respectively (we have 8).

Our training today has included personal safety/risk management and HIV/AIDS, the latter of the two being the more interesting (and distressing). No matter our work in Tanzania, we will be significantly affected by AIDS - we will meet people with AIDS or who have lost family members/friends due to AIDS and be involved in serving/helping them in some ways. Since we have never been significantly impacted by it, this could be challenging - who are we, anyway, to come in with comfort and "advice"?

At any rate, this will prove to be a very eye-opening trip.

Moms Rock!

2007-05-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we discovered the power of mom-ness. Somehow, they have the ability to turn the ordinary into something extraordinary! Having finally finished school, we were using yesterday as our packing/cleaning day, and both of us knew we had a tremendous amount to accomplish. Enter moms. Both of our mothers spent the morning and better part of a sunny Saturday afternoon indoors, sweeping (dustbunnies in corners - evidence of busy-ness), cleaning, washing, wiping, and boxing up our lives. And today (Mother's Day), they are planning and cooking a barbecue. Could we be any luckier?

This afternoon, while at dinner with Bob's family, we were reminded that next Sunday at this time we will be sleeping in Tanzania after a long Sunday (church services there apparently last the day). My stomach did several little turns and one big flop. It's finally here! And since there's snow in Calgary's forecast for tonight, we're EXTRA happy to be heading warm-wards.

So our itinerary for you interested folks:

Monday (7am) - fly to Toronto.
Monday-Thursday - training and orientation in Toronto
Thursday (unknown time) - fly to London for 12 hours
Friday (about 19 hours after aforementioned unknown time) - fly to Entebbe, Uganda
Friday (who knows) - bus from Entebbe, Uganda to Bukoba, Tanzania.

In the meantime, I'm envisioning myself enjoying the flight and being completely healthy and rejuvinated (for those of you who don't know, my biggest fears are flights and vomit). Thanks for your prayers and support as we prepare for take-off! We will write again as soon as we have access to the internet. And perhaps then we'll even have photographs!

Sniffling our way to Monday

2007-05-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sick
Sniffly, hacking, achy
Trying desperately to sleep
Dragging through school and endless chores
Cold

I've recently rediscovered the art of cinquain poetry, since it's the current unit for grade 7s, and these snappy little poems may come up occasionally as there may be no other succinct way of expressing ourselves - or at least, myself. I'm not so sure Bob would stoop to poetry. Then again, he's full of surprises.

Having just returned from a very intense and stupendous trip to Quebec with 38 enthusiastic teenagers, I am currently battling a small sniffle. Er, a big sniffle, which has resulted in one day at home to rest. One would think I could accomplish a lot, since we have so many things to complete before departure to Toronto on Monday, but no. I spent the majority of the day on the couch - as one should when they are in bodily battle. That said, I have the following prayer request:

* That I might heal from this cold before my yellowfever shot (Wednesday at 3:15 - that's tomorrow).
* That these last 3 days with my students will be healthy and fun

In other more positive news, we have completed our financial support! Thanks to those of you who are sharing in our journey in this way. Thanks also to those of you who have committed to pray for us - both extremely important. And a special thanks to a dear friend who has given us 92 encouragement notes - one for every day of this experience in Africa. God has been faithful and blessed us so much through you.

So...

Preparation
Packing, Praying, Persisting
Filling boxes and bags with clothes and photos
Only 5 days left!
Africa!

Shots and other small details

2007-04-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

So I learned something today. Bob, who I've rarely seen fazed by anything, can be fazed by that tiny little pin that injects a vaccination into your skin. I guess we all have our weak spots - he will get even with me later when I find a cockroach in my bed. Fortunately for both of us, we've had most of the shots for previous trips. Now all that's left is Bob's little typhoid pills, yum yum. We learned something else too - it's amazing how many illnesses are carried by mosquitos. So I suppose they're not just pesky and annoying but somewhat threatening, those little buggers. AND I learned that Lake Victoria is infested with bilharzia. This is not a man-eating fish, as many of you might assume, but rather a teeny tiny parasite that we will avoid with as much effort as we would avoid said man-eating fish.

While we were exploring in blogger, I discovered that the "little tools" I mentioned in my earlier email actually only showed up in posting view, so only I can view them. I guess no little buggies for your viewing pleasure, then. Oh well. At any rate, still for your viewing pleasure, friend Bill has been playing with the blog and discovering all kinds of tricks to make it great! (We don't know these tricks - so it probably will not receive any other facelifts).

Meantime, the days are still ticking along, and we are so grateful for the support we've received thus far. In less than two weeks we'll buy our plane tickets and then things will TRULY be on the go.

Happy Easter to you all - Christ is risen!

IN A WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY

2007-03-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

...I am strangely inept. There's a Powerpoint floating around in cyberspace that talks about the speed of change in today's society. I don't think I've kept up.

When I was just viewing this blog, I noticed the tiny little screwdriver and hammer on the left hand side. Sitting a ways back from the computer, they look like little dragonflies. This is ironic, as I've just been reading the blog of friends in Africa and they speak of unspeakably big bugs that will soon be buzzing around my head too. So, for amusement's sake, cross your eyes when you look at the tools and imagine that they are ginormous bugs.

So, anyway, you're joining us on the journey! Well, to start, we've encountered the humanly impossible: to raise over $10,000 in three weeks. Good thing we've got God on our side!

Preparation also seems humanly impossible. Bob's wrapping up his work with the youth and completing his studies, including several major research papers; I'm frantically teaching, marking, preparing plans for my interim teacher, and planning a 7-day Quebec trip for my history students (grade 8s). Then we have to get vaccinations (my personal favourite), passports (yikes!!!), Visas, tenants for our house, a laptop... this list goes on.

I wonder if it's possible to be ready in two months...

At any rate, don't expect piles of blogs just yet from us. Really everything that we have to do at this point is somewhat boring for you readers. And when we get to Tanzania, don't expect piles of blogs then, either, unless somehow we find said laptop with a wireless modem (ignore my ignorance; seriously, is the laptop wireless or the modem?). To get to the point, we'll update whenever we can and hope you get some great glimpses into this adventure in Africa from our collective thoughts and photos (if, that is, we figure out how to download them...).