Long Trip Home

I want to give you an idea of how long it took to fly home. We left for the Kilimanjaro Airport at 11:00 Monday morning Lincoln Time. We flew from Kilimanjaro to Dar es Salam, but that only took an hour. We had to stay on the plane for an hour and then took off for Amsterdam. That was about a 9 hour flight. When we left Amsterdam we flew to Minneapolis... about 9 hours. Then we had an hour flight to Lincoln. I arrived in Lincoln around 7:00 p.m. Tuesday evening. It was a long, tiring trip, but well worth it. Thanks again for going on this journey with me. I hope your hearts have been touched by some of my experiences.

My Happiness

I found out the reason God planned for me to go on this mission trip. It was because I was to develop a personal connection with the AIDS Orphan that my family sponsors. It was the most amazing experience getting to know her and telling her all about my family. I asked Happiness what she needed. She said she needed some shoes because when it is muddy she doesn't have a dry pair to wear after she washes hers. I asked her to trace her foot. She came back with a string. She didn't have any paper so she measured her foot with a string. That string is one of my most valuable possessions. Happiness wants to be a lawyer! When I was there she was in "study hall" studying physics. Yep, she must take after her mother... ha! I told her, wow, I can't help you with your homework. She's so smart. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was leave her. She truly is my daughter. She wrote a letter to my family that brings me to tears every time I read it. She said that she had joy like a king because her mum (Krist) came to see her. She also said it was hard for her because she knew I was leaving. She said, "Who will care for me when mum is gone? Who will ask questions about me? Who will treat me like she did?" Happiness, I did not leave you. I left a piece of my heart with you. I am trying to figure out how I can come back to see you or I will find a way to get you over here to meet the rest of your family. You are an important member of our family Happiness. We love you so much, always remember that.

Here is a video of Happiness playing volleyball!!

Going on Safari

I've already talked a little about this, but wanted to share a few of the pictures and stories. I had the privilege of going on safari with the Students at Uroki Secondary School. My plane landed in Tanzania Tuesday evening around 9:00 p.m. We went to bed around 12:30 that night. I had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to go on the school tour. I woke up to pouring rain. I was so worried about how we were going to get off the mountain. Guess what, I had good reason to be worried. The bus was stuck at least 5 times and a total of 1 1/2 hours. The students and villagers all had to push. It was a horrible mess. We finally got out of the mud by a homemade banana leaf rope and a truck. I was so surprised that no one got run over of smushed in the process.

You may have already heard that there were 46 people on the bus. I counted the seats and there were 24 seats... and that includes the driver. It was so horribly crowded. We had luggage on our laps, students on students laps. Many people had to stand up for hours at a time. It was definitely a new experience for me.

Our safari was three days long. We went to three places. Lake Manyara, Nongorongoro Crater, and Tarengeri. Our driver was a bus driver and not a safari driver. We had to yell at him to stop if we ever saw an animal. We were so packed in the bus that only the people on the side the animal was on could see the animal. I got to where if someone said there's an animal, I would just pass back my camera and ask the students to take a picture of it for me.

I wouldn't change this safari experience for anything. I learned so much about the students and the country by going with natives of the country. Even though I enjoyed the safari, I still enjoyed the people more.

Click here to see a video of two impala fighting... or play fighting.

Teaching

The main reason I go on these mission trips to Tanzania is to teach. Funny how I always feel like I'm the one who comes back having learned more than what I leave there. I teach at a secondary school called Uroki. Secondary schools are not funded by the government... they are private schools. Students have to pass an exam in order to get into the school. Each year they have to pass National Exams, which are in English. If they don't pass, they most likely won't be able to come back because their families would have to pay $400 for another year of education for them and that is quite a sacrifice. Yes, their education costs $400 per school year... and that includes room and board at Uroki. Many children don't go to secondary school because their families can't afford the tuition or maybe even the uniforms.

When I go I work on teaching English with the students. In 2005 we played Scrabble. This time I worked on adjectives and nouns with them by teaching them the game Apples to Apples. I also made my own bingo and board games that had prepositions.

One day I was showing Anande (a teacher at Uroki) some of the things I'd prepared. She said, "So when can you come teach?" I said, "Well, I was hoping to teach tomorrow, but it's a holiday and there's no school." Anande said, "If you want to teach then, they will come." I was like, no way, I don't want to make them come to class on their day off. She said they would like to. I didn't believe her so she said, "Let's go ask them." We went over to the window, stuck our heads in a classroom and she said, "Form two's, this teacher would like to come teach you tomorrow, will you come." They all said yes. Then she asked them if they were excited to come and they cheered. Sure enough, at 9:15 the next day when I walked into the classroom, they were all there ready for me to teach.

When you walk in the room they all rise. I didn't realize that they don't sit down until you give them permission to sit. Imagine me talking away for a few minutes and then finally realizing that they weren't sitting down on their own. I needed to tell them to sit down. One time I walked into the classroom, the students stood up. I immediately told them they could sit down. Then I introduced myself and said Good Morning. When I said this they all stood up again. I realized that they will stand up for Good Morning as well as when the teacher walks in the room. I quickly learned to tell them good morning, ask how they were doing and THEN I could ask them to sit down, otherwise they would like like yo-yo's going up and down, up and down.

Tanzania Photo Album

I hope you can find time to watch the slideshow of my trip to Tanzania. I accidentally deleted the first four days worth of pictures, so the story starts up while I'm on the last day of safari with my students. You can pause to read the captions or if you hold your mouse over the bottom right corner of the slideshow you will see a pretty circle which will take you directly to the photo album and you can slow down the slideshow or look at individual pictures.

Thanks for going on this journey with me. Stay tuned. Two more stories soon to come.