Tanzanian Walgreens

Along the village roads you will often run across little "shops" that seem to appear out of nowhere. This shop probably has phone cards, soda, veggies and a few other essentials. Watch out Walgreens, you have some competition.

This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes

As I'm sitting in my house in Nebraska now, listening to the hum of the washing machine, I thought I'd take a minute and post a picture of the Tanzanian washing machine. I definitely prefer mine but am so amazed at how "primitive" it still is there!

Can't wait to blog about my adventures. Right now it is late and I've spent all evening catching up on emails and uploading pictures. Hopefully tomorrow I'll begin blogging my journey. I have some amazing stories!!

Made it to Morogoro!

After a long grueling day on the bus yesterday, I finally arrived in Morongoro where I am staying with Amini. He has a beautiful house and I just love his family. When I got to my room last night I discovered that there were about a million mosquitos....covered myself with deet....hope I don't get malaria. This morning I took an authentic African shower. They brought me two buckets of warm water...and a big cup, which I used to pour the water on me. The second bucket was cold by the time I got to it...but, it was still a great "shower". I just did all of this in the bathroom...the water gets all over the floor and mostly runs down the drain that is near the toilet. Today, Amini is going to take me and show me around town and tomorrow I will go on Safari.

Real Food!

Rained all night...again. Three friends took me out to eat for dinner and I had pizza. After a steady diet of rice or banana stew, pizza never tasted so good. Of course, the three beers didn't hurt either. :)

Tomorrow I will be on a bus, by myself, for eight hours....ick. I will go to the supermarket in the morning to buy snacks so I don't have to get off the bus.

Blood Soup

Brad again. Got a couple of texts from Kristi today, so don't have a whole lot of info to pass along.

Kristi went to a funeral today and got to participate in the ceremonies. She said it was very surreal. I'm not sure who's funeral it was?

OK, so this one Kristi is definitely going to have to expand on later. But yesterday she had a traditional soup. The soup was made from/with blood. Not sure who's blood? My guess... goat blood? But, apparently Kristi ate some. So has anyone seen my wife? You know, the one I married almost twenty years ago that only ate beef, chicken, potatoes and bread and corn?

Today to group traveled to Faraja. This, I believe, is where the school for handicapped children is. Kristi and the mission team were staying in a guest house with no electricity tonight and were playing cards by candlelight. Kristi had to go to the bathroom. She grabbed a flash light and was on her way when a a white frog jumped onto her foot. (Matt, is that you and the bat again? Oh, it's you Kristi. What are you screaming about? :-) I just know that tweety bird in the house story is going to come back to haunt me after Kristi and Matt read this...)

We continue to pray for everyone's safety. May God bless our mission team and all the fine people of Tanzania.

Trapped by bats

Brad again. Doesn't look like Kristi will get to a computer this trip?

Matt is feeling much better now after having been sick a few days ago.

It seems that Americans have a difficult time cohabitating with animals in Africa. First, a run in with a bat by Matt. I won't say anything derogatory, let's just say his scream was of a pitch higher than his normal voice (that's what I've heard anyway). Apparently it attacked his face or hair or head or something? Matt, you've got something on your chin. Looks like some food. (just kidding Matt).

Sara and Heidi had a run in with some angry fire ants. When I've been to Honduras, the number one rule is "don't eat in your room". We'll let Heidi and Sara know that when they get back.

The gang spent this evening cooped up in their room. Apparently there was a bat flying around outside their room and they were all afraid to leave. This must have been the massive rabid vampire bat that attacked Matt?

Don't know if you all know, but when Kristi and Scott were in Tanzania in 2007, they had a baboon steal their tortillas at lunch time. This was after skipping breakfast. The meat that was going to go in the tortillas had pretty much spoiled, so that was their whole lunch. Needless to say they were very hungry come dinner time.

OK, sorry I'm picking on them. I have a phobia of small birds, and Kristi has some stories about that that will probably come out after this blog.

Kristi is off to Faraja tomorrow. She also mentioned going to see Amini later in the week. She said it was going to be an eight hour bus ride to see him, and I think she is going by herself?

We will continue to pray for everyone's safety and well being.

God Bless

Matt's got it now

Brad again.

Looks like Matt had some bad goat, too. Actually I don't know if it's goat or not. I just say that cuz Kristi told me about pulling the goat hairs out of her teeth after her first trip to Tanzania. They just cook the goat with the skin, fur and head still attached. So Matt's sick now. He's started on the Cipro, so hopefully he won't be down for more than a day.

Kristi's teaching has gone extremely well. I read the book she put together before she left and I thought it was amazing. Kristi was teaching a group of teachers some teaching techniques. She is SOOO good at that. She was teaching about ten teachers and the Head Master of the school was very impressed with her. They are really blessed to have her come over there and share her knowledge. I don't know if she has been teaching the kids or not? She can update you on that later.

Sounds like Kristi is ready for a Hamburger or a Pizza or something along those lines.

Run in with the law

This is Brad again. I finally talked to Kristi on the phone today after texting didn't work out so well as my texts didn't make it to her. Kristi didn't have a lot of minutes on the phone she is using, so we didn't talk very long. But, here's what I found out.

Apparently, the owner of the car that was driving Kristi, Scott, and someone from the church, didn't register his car properly (or have insurance or something along those line). So the police wanted to take everyone to jail. Someone in the group was able to talk the police out of it and they ended up letting them go. So luckily I didn't have to bail my wife out of a Tanzanian jail again (no just kidding, I've never had to do that). The thought is kinda scary though, so I'm glad she didn't end up there.

Kristi said she is finally feeling better today after not being able to eat anything for a few days. Hopefully everyone else in the group stays healthy for the remainder of the trip.

Today Kristi went out shopping for school books and school supplies. The big purchase was a copier (I believe it was anyway, it might have been some kind of printer combo thing. Kristi can clarify later.). One things for sure, all the wonderful donations from everyone are sure going a long way to help the kids in Tanzania.

It's rained every night so it sounds like the roads and paths are a little on the muddy side.

Please keep Kristi, Matt, Scott, Heidi, and Sara in your prayers.

What did Kristi eat?

This is Brad. I received a few text messages from Kristi. It appears that she threw up while riding in the van today. I don't know if she actually threw up in the van, or if she made it outside? My guess is she had some bad goat or something? It could have been car sickness as riding in a van on the roads in Tanzania isn't the smoothest ride (especially for someone that gets motion sickness as easy as Kristi does). Kristi ended up spending most of the day in bed and is still a little woozy in the stomach.

The rest of our church group is leaving Lincoln this morning and should be there tomorrow to meet up with Kristi and Matt. I have a confession. I lied to our pastor. I will probably be going to hell for that. Kristi had asked us to tell the group that is leaving today to bring a hymnal as they would need to stand up in front of the church in Tanzania and sing. Kristi asked us not to tell them what the hymnal was for. Pastor Sara asked me if they needed to sing a song in front of the whole church. I said "no". Do I lie to my Pastor, or betray my wife?... I have to live with my wife.

We're all hoping Kristi gets better and we're praying for everyone's safety.

Can't access a computer for the time being

So this is Jessica, her daughter, and I will try my best to relay information and what I know.

Yesterday, as you all know, was Mother's Day. In Tanzania they had a lovely Mother's Day meal of liver. YUM! Kristi told me that her and Matt got the honor to sing in front of the church. They thought they were going to die. I believe they sang "This Little Light of Mine." Next week the rest of the team gets to sing so they'd better bring a hymnal... Kristi's lost bag was returned to her yesterday also.

Today she got to see Happiness. She texted me and told me "That was the reason I came. It was hard leaving her."

I'm SURE she thanks everyone for their support, prayers and love. I'll try to talk to her later tomorrow and find out whats going on, but for now thats all I've got.