Videos, Visitors and Care Packages Oh My!
It has been some happening weeks here in Tanzania since my return or more importantly the return of my laptop from Nairobi. After getting a week behind in my work with the repair of my laptop and then the trials and tribulations in getting it back in my hands, I had to spend a large amount of time working to prepare for visitors from the States and several issues we had to deal with on the site. So I am a little late again getting to the blog and when this happens I normally sit at my computer with conflicting ideas and topics to cover and never really sure what should be talked about first. So I am doing a little bit of a combo here.
Let's start with the video I prepared for the FDM USA banquet which can be seen on youtube:
To answer the number one question I am hearing about this video-yes I have lost some weight while I have been here. Walking everywhere tends to help with that and I have been very good about my sugar as I cannot get medicine here so I want to keep it low without the medicine.
Last week I had two visitors from the states, Jerry one of the FDM USA officers and Bill a board member. These two are old friends and carry on as one might describe an old married couple most of the time. They constantly pick at each other and give each other a hard time. The best time was watching them split up costs for things and trying to remember whose day it was to pay for the taxi.
One of the difficult things is the Muzungu pricing. Basically we get a white person's price for things. For example when William negotiated the price for their hotel in Arusha it was 40,000 TSH or about $25 US. However when the hotel realized they were white the price went to $40 US a night as "non-residents" This is something that happens more in the larger cities where tourist are common. It is less likely in Singida, but occasionally you can find it happens here as well. Such as finding the correct fittings for the gutters to show the contractor that they are actually available and available in Singida, I had to pay a slightly elevated cost because of the color of my skin. The good news is I got a good rate on my hotel that was not influenced by my skin color, but most apartments I looked at were affected by my skin color.
This week as I worked with Jerry and Bill, I had a whole collection of friends. As their taxi driver noted every day I had a new rafiki present and he would count them. By the end of their travel I had rafiki nne (4 friends) who had to follow me wherever I went and normally had to hold my hand as we walked fences or went to see something agriculture related for Bill.
Two of the great things that happened during the week they were here is they brought in a care package from Joyce Peterson and Barbara Carpenter and at the same time my first mailed care package from my parents arrived in my post office box. I am now fully stocked with sugar free jelly, sugar free hard candies (which were great while I have been battling a nasty cold/flu), crochet needles, some more US yarn, yarn sewing needles, sweet-n-low, some diabetic socks for a friend's uncle, my favorite notebooks with the receipt pocket and fit inside my shirt pocket, and some great Tupperware items (shameless plug for Barbara Carpenter's Tupperware dealership) like the bread box to keep my bread from getting moldy and some very nice small containers that I can carry jelly and peanut butter with me as I travel. Barnabas and I were both excited like it was Christmas morning for children to get these two packages.
That same week I heard that more of Barnabas' postcards to children of supporters were received. If you have children that would like to get a postcard from Barnabas, send me their names and address and we will get on it. If you would like to communicate with Barnabas (or me) you can do so at steveintanzania@gmail.com or via snail mail at Steven Hendrix, Full Dimension Ministries of Christ, PO Box 635, Singida, Tanzania.
Things I would like to request prayer for:
That this nasty cold/flu finish it's business in my chest and go away
That the contractor fix the problems they created on site last year
Let's start with the video I prepared for the FDM USA banquet which can be seen on youtube:
To answer the number one question I am hearing about this video-yes I have lost some weight while I have been here. Walking everywhere tends to help with that and I have been very good about my sugar as I cannot get medicine here so I want to keep it low without the medicine.
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| Finger repairs |
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| Bill "outstanding" in somebody's field |
One of the difficult things is the Muzungu pricing. Basically we get a white person's price for things. For example when William negotiated the price for their hotel in Arusha it was 40,000 TSH or about $25 US. However when the hotel realized they were white the price went to $40 US a night as "non-residents" This is something that happens more in the larger cities where tourist are common. It is less likely in Singida, but occasionally you can find it happens here as well. Such as finding the correct fittings for the gutters to show the contractor that they are actually available and available in Singida, I had to pay a slightly elevated cost because of the color of my skin. The good news is I got a good rate on my hotel that was not influenced by my skin color, but most apartments I looked at were affected by my skin color.
That same week I heard that more of Barnabas' postcards to children of supporters were received. If you have children that would like to get a postcard from Barnabas, send me their names and address and we will get on it. If you would like to communicate with Barnabas (or me) you can do so at steveintanzania@gmail.com or via snail mail at Steven Hendrix, Full Dimension Ministries of Christ, PO Box 635, Singida, Tanzania.
Things I would like to request prayer for:
That this nasty cold/flu finish it's business in my chest and go away
That the contractor fix the problems they created on site last year
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