Last Week in Tanzania...for 2014
Hello everyone, it has been a while since I could get internet and power at the same time and therefore it has been three weeks since I wrote a blog. That means this one is going to be long. Thought about breaking it out but every time I do that one blog gets a lot of attention and the other gets very little.
Things that I hope to remember to cover:
Feelings about this last week in Tanzania
Work Done on Site
Living inside the new house
Building Furniture
Eyeglass Program
Graduating Kids from the Pre-school
Barnabas Injury Report/Update
Thanksgiving with Friends
Christmas Party at the Site
Nduguti Crochet Class
Feelings about this last week in Tanzania
Going into this I realized I would have split feelings over my life in Tanzania and my life in the USA but that has not been as much of the case as I thought it would be. While I have made some friends here and couple that are good friendships it does not really compare yet with those I have at home and with the chance to get to see them and my family. I am especially excited about the opportunity to eat some home cooking and just food with variety to it.
Leaving the site was not as hard as leaving Singida. I spent more than half a year living in Singida and developing friendships with folks from other areas that I would meet up with in Singida. From picnics with the group at the rocks by the lake or playing cribbage at night on the "porch" of the Stanley Motel. It definitely felt more like Singida was home so far. I suspect that will change next year as I work more in the valley and spend more time in my house there.
This has been an interesting year with ups and downs as with any new environment. Fortunately for me the ability to adapt is just part of who I am and has been for as long as I can remember. The ability to adapt to my new living arrangements has never been a concern for me. Many times the downs were brought on by individuals who honestly don't get the act of being in international ministry and how treating others should be different than the way it is done in a purely business environment back in the minority world.
I am ready to come home and visit folks but I am also looking forward to the fact I will be back here after a month at home.
Work Done on Site
Not entirely positive where we left off but finished up all but one building to repair the guttering and plumb in new discharge lines to the tanks. We finished almost all of the bath house and latrine off the Ward Building. However I did have to let the contractor doing the work go during the last phase. He did good work early on but the last part was very bad and he wasted a lot of paint because he did not understand the basics of painting. He left several things undone, which we have taken on ourselves. I got the inside of the buildings painted though another coat on at least two areas is needed because it was so slow drying as the rains started. One of the things he obviously never understood that William had requested was a seat in the bathroom because that is something they don't do in the valley. So the hole in the floor was too small for most latrine type seats. This took some creative adaption but I found a ceramic floor unit and put it in with a straight pipe to the small hole and then built a wood frame to hold it up and so people could sit on it.
Building furniture was an adventure. Most wood sold here is not straight and they barely knock the rough off one side when they plane it twice (you pay per time they plane it). So a lot of my time was spent hand planing the wood and then sanding it down. I know understand why most carpenters in the valley don't do that to their wood projects but I wanted it right.
So after cutting all the wood with a hand saw, planing with a hand plane, sanding with a piece of sandpaper by hand, drilling the holes with a hand powered drill and screwing the pieces together with a hand powered screwdriver my hands were tired.
Eyeglass Program
We have had a great new program started up by a local girl scout troop and a church member. They have been collecting eyeglasses and sending them over for us to distribute to the community. My understanding is this is now a Girl Scout Bronze Award Project (think I got that right).
To date we have distributed 45 glasses to the local community and everytime we go somewhere everyone is asking when we will be back with glasses.
The best part of this program is someone felt inspired, decided to do something and did it. I love these kind of projects. If you feel inspired let me know and I will help direct your efforts to other things we could use help with.
Graduating Kids from the Pre-school
I am not a person who gets into doing full blown graduation ceremonies for kids moving from kindergarten to elementary or elementary to middle and so forth. Most of those events are you met the minimum requirements or have gotten a year older type things. But our kids in Pre-school get evaluated before they can advance to the next level and join primary school.
I am pleased to announce all 27 kids of the age to be evaluated (7-8 years old) passed and will be joining Primary school next year. So I printed up certificates for all of them and we took some class photos.
Barnabas Injury Report/Update
Thank you to everyone who has been so concerned with Barnabas and his recent injury on one of the buses. I often wondered why there were constantly new welds on the various metal structure reinforcing inside the bus and now I know.
I had been lucky enough to get a seat on the bus and stowed the back pack at my feet. One of the larger ladies sat in the seat in front of us and one a big bump here seat broke sending one of the structural pieces loose and it stabbed Barnabas right in the head. Fortunately he is part Grizzly and according to Lewis and Clark (kids ask your parents-parents you can ask me if you don't know) those bears would take a musket shot to the head and just keep coming.
Barnabas took 17 stitches and only lost a small amount of stuffing but he has enjoyed recovering with the constant attention from ladies who worry about his big pink spot (the only yarn I had to stitch him up with).
Lynda has sent word he can be made as good as new. He asked if he could be made better as in 6 million dollars better (Steve Austin that was for you man). I said maybe six bucks better.
Thanksgiving with Friends
I had a great Thanksgiving day with the friends I have made through the Peace Corp group and the South Korean equivalent. They also invited some of their Indian friends (country of India not Native American).
We had Tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade bread, Chinese Pancakes made by the South Koreans, Kim chee,hot dogs and lots of of fun and fellowship.
It was a great event with some good food and I think everyone enjoyed themselves even if they were not totally aware why we were doing it. I even finally got to meet Kyle, a peace corp volunteer rotating out who is a civil engineering grad of Clemson University.
Christmas Party at the Site (top picture is the party)
I decided to introduce the staff to another USA tradition, the office staff Christmas Party. We had it one day right after school and I brought a cake, potato chips, almonds, cashews and sodas to the site for everyone to enjoy. None of these things are around the valley except the soda if you want to take a Piki Piki ride.
We basically sat around and ate and I gave out gifts to the staff. Cell phone cases that hang around your neck in Tanzania flag colors that I crocheted and chocolates to the ladies (men here don't eat chocolate and ladies don't have pockets in their clothes). The doctor got a bookmark with pen holder and Isaya got my Kobalt multitool knife.
Nduguti Crochet Class
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| Christmas Staff party |
Things that I hope to remember to cover:
Feelings about this last week in Tanzania
Work Done on Site
Living inside the new house
Building Furniture
Eyeglass Program
Graduating Kids from the Pre-school
Barnabas Injury Report/Update
Thanksgiving with Friends
Christmas Party at the Site
Nduguti Crochet Class
Feelings about this last week in Tanzania
Going into this I realized I would have split feelings over my life in Tanzania and my life in the USA but that has not been as much of the case as I thought it would be. While I have made some friends here and couple that are good friendships it does not really compare yet with those I have at home and with the chance to get to see them and my family. I am especially excited about the opportunity to eat some home cooking and just food with variety to it.
Leaving the site was not as hard as leaving Singida. I spent more than half a year living in Singida and developing friendships with folks from other areas that I would meet up with in Singida. From picnics with the group at the rocks by the lake or playing cribbage at night on the "porch" of the Stanley Motel. It definitely felt more like Singida was home so far. I suspect that will change next year as I work more in the valley and spend more time in my house there.
This has been an interesting year with ups and downs as with any new environment. Fortunately for me the ability to adapt is just part of who I am and has been for as long as I can remember. The ability to adapt to my new living arrangements has never been a concern for me. Many times the downs were brought on by individuals who honestly don't get the act of being in international ministry and how treating others should be different than the way it is done in a purely business environment back in the minority world.
I am ready to come home and visit folks but I am also looking forward to the fact I will be back here after a month at home.
Work Done on Site
Not entirely positive where we left off but finished up all but one building to repair the guttering and plumb in new discharge lines to the tanks. We finished almost all of the bath house and latrine off the Ward Building. However I did have to let the contractor doing the work go during the last phase. He did good work early on but the last part was very bad and he wasted a lot of paint because he did not understand the basics of painting. He left several things undone, which we have taken on ourselves. I got the inside of the buildings painted though another coat on at least two areas is needed because it was so slow drying as the rains started. One of the things he obviously never understood that William had requested was a seat in the bathroom because that is something they don't do in the valley. So the hole in the floor was too small for most latrine type seats. This took some creative adaption but I found a ceramic floor unit and put it in with a straight pipe to the small hole and then built a wood frame to hold it up and so people could sit on it.
Interestingly enough the biggest problem with this project was that the pipe would not adhere to the ceramic base with most PVC glue so I had to pull out some roofing repair tar which comes as a solid unit that you heat up until it melts and then put it on the ceramic base and slide the pipe over that. It seems to be doing the job.
I also added solar power generation and lights to the Nurse's dormitory (house) with a simple battery system and not enough power to run AC items just the DC lights. The nurse's loved it and then asked if I could do something about rain coming in their windows so installed some plastic sheeting on the inside of the window they can raise and lower as needed to keep the rain from blowing into their rooms.
Isaya and I added sand to the base of the Pre-school and started work on some erosion control measures including getting grass to grow over most of the site in an attempt to slow the water down and add a stabilizer to the soil in the form of the grass roots. We will still be planting some crops on site but will work to add a large areas of trees as well that will act as further stabilization.
Living inside the New House
I finally got moved into the new house though I have not moved my gas cook unit into the house yet so the nurse's could use it while I am gone. I have decorated the walls with pictures and various items I have collected over the years as well as some gifts people gave to me. I did not put up a Christmas tree, but they were available in Singida.
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| Methodist Flame and Cross made by MUMC Woodworking Fellowship |
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| Angel made by Debby Atkins |
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| Pictures and Molas from Panama |
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| clothes closet |
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| drying line inside the house |
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| Water gets in under the door |
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| Maybe because it is flooding outside that is about 3 inches deep |
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| Christmas tree in Singida |
One of the bigger problems living in the house is the fact the Bats are still there and they do their business over my bed all night. Not a lot of fun having that hit you in the face while you are sleeping.
Building Furniture
I did get to build one piece of furniture even though the contractor used the majority of the wood I purchased. Unlike living back home getting more wood would require I take a bus to town go to the hardware shop to purchase the wood then walk 20 minutes to the lumber shop pick out my wood and explain how to cut it and plane it and then load into a lori for taking back to the site. All in all the replacement for my 2x2s would cost about 260,000 TSH so it was not worth it to me and I used what was left. I only made the basic bed frame and not the raised storage area that I could hang my mosquito net from. This would have been nice because the bat crap would land there and not on my face.
Building furniture was an adventure. Most wood sold here is not straight and they barely knock the rough off one side when they plane it twice (you pay per time they plane it). So a lot of my time was spent hand planing the wood and then sanding it down. I know understand why most carpenters in the valley don't do that to their wood projects but I wanted it right.
So after cutting all the wood with a hand saw, planing with a hand plane, sanding with a piece of sandpaper by hand, drilling the holes with a hand powered drill and screwing the pieces together with a hand powered screwdriver my hands were tired.
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| rough wood after the lumber yard planed it |
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| cut boards after handplaning |
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| hand plane |
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| bed fills about 2/3 of the room |
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| rats got hold of one of my pillows before I moved |
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| I did manage to create storage under the bed |
Eyeglass Program
We have had a great new program started up by a local girl scout troop and a church member. They have been collecting eyeglasses and sending them over for us to distribute to the community. My understanding is this is now a Girl Scout Bronze Award Project (think I got that right).
To date we have distributed 45 glasses to the local community and everytime we go somewhere everyone is asking when we will be back with glasses.
The best part of this program is someone felt inspired, decided to do something and did it. I love these kind of projects. If you feel inspired let me know and I will help direct your efforts to other things we could use help with.
Graduating Kids from the Pre-school
I am not a person who gets into doing full blown graduation ceremonies for kids moving from kindergarten to elementary or elementary to middle and so forth. Most of those events are you met the minimum requirements or have gotten a year older type things. But our kids in Pre-school get evaluated before they can advance to the next level and join primary school.
I am pleased to announce all 27 kids of the age to be evaluated (7-8 years old) passed and will be joining Primary school next year. So I printed up certificates for all of them and we took some class photos.
Barnabas Injury Report/Update
Thank you to everyone who has been so concerned with Barnabas and his recent injury on one of the buses. I often wondered why there were constantly new welds on the various metal structure reinforcing inside the bus and now I know.
I had been lucky enough to get a seat on the bus and stowed the back pack at my feet. One of the larger ladies sat in the seat in front of us and one a big bump here seat broke sending one of the structural pieces loose and it stabbed Barnabas right in the head. Fortunately he is part Grizzly and according to Lewis and Clark (kids ask your parents-parents you can ask me if you don't know) those bears would take a musket shot to the head and just keep coming.
Barnabas took 17 stitches and only lost a small amount of stuffing but he has enjoyed recovering with the constant attention from ladies who worry about his big pink spot (the only yarn I had to stitch him up with).
Lynda has sent word he can be made as good as new. He asked if he could be made better as in 6 million dollars better (Steve Austin that was for you man). I said maybe six bucks better.
Thanksgiving with Friends
I had a great Thanksgiving day with the friends I have made through the Peace Corp group and the South Korean equivalent. They also invited some of their Indian friends (country of India not Native American).
We had Tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches with homemade bread, Chinese Pancakes made by the South Koreans, Kim chee,hot dogs and lots of of fun and fellowship.
It was a great event with some good food and I think everyone enjoyed themselves even if they were not totally aware why we were doing it. I even finally got to meet Kyle, a peace corp volunteer rotating out who is a civil engineering grad of Clemson University.
Christmas Party at the Site (top picture is the party)
I decided to introduce the staff to another USA tradition, the office staff Christmas Party. We had it one day right after school and I brought a cake, potato chips, almonds, cashews and sodas to the site for everyone to enjoy. None of these things are around the valley except the soda if you want to take a Piki Piki ride.
We basically sat around and ate and I gave out gifts to the staff. Cell phone cases that hang around your neck in Tanzania flag colors that I crocheted and chocolates to the ladies (men here don't eat chocolate and ladies don't have pockets in their clothes). The doctor got a bookmark with pen holder and Isaya got my Kobalt multitool knife.
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| my food-no fun |
Nduguti Crochet Class
The ladies from the Nduguti crochet class I taught brought some items they want me to take back to the states to see if people like them. I thought they had done pretty well for only having learned to crochet a couple of months ago. I had left them with some ideas they had taken off with.
Well the plane leaves on the 16th and everything goes like it is supposed to I will be home around 3:40 PM on the 17th. Fair warning if you missed my facebook post, if you leave your car unlocked I may just go sit in it to enjoy some personal space.
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